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[*] RAAE [*]
Version 1.2
(C) Copyright 1990, 1991 By Randall Edwards
DISCLAIMER
----------
The program RAAE.EXE and this documentation are the
copyrighted property of Randall Edwards. All rights, except
those outlined in this document, are reserved.
By using this software you acknowledge that this
software may not suit your particular needs or be completely
trouble free. Use this program at your own risk.
In no event will Randall Edwards be liable for any
damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other
incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of
or inability to use these programs, even if Randall Edwards
has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
In short, there's absolutely no guarantees with this
program. Use it at your own risk. If you break it, you can
have both pieces.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
---------------------------
Thanks to Adam Hudson, who wrote the orignal QuickBBS
program which led to RemoteAccess. Thanks also to the
RemoteAccess authors for their innovative work in BBS's.
Thanks to P.J. Muller who wrote a library for QuickBBS
which I arrogantly hacked apart and modified in order to come
up with routines to use in this program.
I give credit to the Taiwanese, who for near-slave wages
produced this computer that this program was written on. By
allowing companies based in the United States to steal their
labor and the profits from their hard work, I have the wealth
and time to 'play' around with this machine and to write
programs like this. They have only their near-slave wages,
terrible working conditions, and my appreciation and hope
that they can overcome obstacles in their way and achieve
full social justice.
PURPOSE AND USAGE
-----------------
RAAE is a program to enter a message into RemoteAccess'
message base. RAAE will convert a text file into a message
from the Sysop or from any other name and to whoever the
Sysop specifies or optionally to "All" users.
RAAE stands for "RemoteAccess Auto-Enter." It is
pronounced like "ray" or "rae" as in "Norma Rae" that famous
union working woman played by Sally Field in the movie of
the same name. Smart, cute AND a determined union member?!
That's my kind of lady!
RAAE is dedicated to all the exploited workers of the
world and to all workers struggling to form unions to get a
fair share of the profits they themselves create.
RAAE uses the following command line parameters:
RAAE <BoardNumber> <FileSpec> [FirstName] [LastName]
"BoardNumber" is a number 1-200 which tells RAAE to
put the message in a specific message area or "board" in
RemoteAccess' message base.
"FileSpec" is the name of a text file that will be
converted into the message that RAAE generates. This
parameter can contain an option drive/path specification.
For instance, FILE.TXT and C:\TEMP\FILE.TXT are equally
valid. This text file should be plain ASCII text with no
lines longer than 79 characters. This text file may or
may not contain RAAE metacommands (see below).
"FirstName" and "LastName" are two optional parameters.
If one or both are given then the message is address to that
person. If neither the "FirstName" or "LastName" parameters
are given, then the message will default as To: All.
All messages generated by RAAE are listed by default
as By: or From: <Sysop Name> where the "Sysop Name" is the
name listed in RemoteAccess' CONFIG.RA file. The Sysop's
name is specified in the RACONFIG program. In my case this
would read:
By: Randy Edwards
You can change the default By: name by using a text file
metacommand (explained below).
All messages have the default subject set to "Auto-Enter
Message From <Sysop Name>". Where Sysop Name is the name
specified in RACONFIG's CONFIG.RA file. Again, in my case
this would look like:
Subj: Auto-Enter Message From Randy Edwards
You can change the default subject line by using a text
file metacommand (explained below).
To run the program just specify the proper parameters.
For example:
RAAE 1 C:\RA\TEST.MSG John Doe
would create a message in board number 1 with the text from
C:\RA\TEST.MSG and address it to John Doe.
RAAE 50 ECHO.RUL
would create a message in board number 50 with the text from
the file ECHO.RUL in the default directory, and address it to
All.
RAAE will add a tear line to all messages it generates.
If the board that it is posting a message into is an echomail
board, as defined in the MESSAGES.RA file, then RAAE will
also add the correct * Origin: line and node address that is
specified for use with that message board.
There are many ways to use RAAE. For instance, I
moderate the ANEWS echo, an echo of alternative news, and I
post the rules to ANEWS in the echo once a month on the first
day of the month. I use RAAE like this:
ErrorLvl DOM <-- This determines the day of the month
IF ErrorLevel 2 GOTO START <-- restarts the batch file
RAAE 10 C:\MISC\ANEWS.RUL <-- run RAAE
IF ErrorLevel 1 MsgPack -I <-- check for a RAAE error
This sequence would create a message in ANEWS with the
rules to the echo on the 1st of every month. The message
would be to "All" containing the text from C:\MISC\ANEWS.RUL.
Another ingenious use of RAAE is to greet new users to
your system. For instance, the top lines of the file
NEWUSER2.ASC of my system contains the following 2 lines:
Please Wait ...
^XC:\UTILS\RAAE.EXE 1 C:\MISC\NEWUSER.MSG *F *L|
This sequence runs a shell from a text file (the
Control-X, ^X) which runs RAAE to generate a welcome
message in board 1 (my local message area). RemoteAccess
supplies the user's first and last names with the *F and *L
macros. Then during RemoteAccess' sign-on mail check the
user will be told that s/he already has a message waiting
(even though it's her/his first call!). This has surprised
quite a few users on my system. See your RemoteAccess manual
for more information about doing shells from text files.
I'm sure you'll be able to think up many more uses for
RAAE.
TEXT FILE METACOMMANDS
----------------------
RAAE uses either a normal plan ASCII test file or a text
file which contains RAAE metacommands. The RAAE metacommands
are commands which you can put inside of a text file to make
the program produce different types of messages.
Metacommands take the format of "$x" where x is a
particular letter of a metacommand. The dollar sign ($) of a
metacommand MUST be in column 1 of the text file, on the
left-most side of the text file.
Some metacommands require a parameter besides the
metacommand. For those metacommands a space should separate
the metacommand from the parameter. Metacommands can be in
upper or lower case. Metacommands are not displayed in the
text of a message.
The following are the metacommands that RAAE
understands:
$S <String>
Use a different subject, where <String> is the subject
line to use. Only the first 72 characters of the subject
line (after the 2 metacommand characters and one space) will
be used.
$A <Address>
Send a netmail message to <Address>. The address must
be a FULL four dimensional address of the format:
Zone:Net/Node.Point. You must include all four addresses.
RAAE cannot send to a point, due to restrictions of the
RemoteAccess/QuickBBS message database, but you must include
a point number in your address. RAAE always defaults the
address to point 0. If for any reason RAAE cannot decipher
the address of the message, it will default to addressing the
message to your own node so it won't cost you any money to
send a mistaken message.
$F
This is a file-attach message. The subject line of the
message points to a file that is attached to the message.
$R
This is a return-receipt message. An appropriate mailer
will send back a receipt telling you that their system
received the message.
$C
Mark this message as a crash-mail message.
$K
Mark this message as "kill/sent" so that a netmail-
export program will delete the message after it is exported.
$P
Mark this message as private or privileged so that only
the sender and receiver (and Sysop) can read the message.
Note: RAAE will not pay attention to RA's flag of whether a
particular message base is private only or not. Use $P.
$B <name string>
Make this message by or from <name string>. This will
enable you to send messages by other people besides the
Sysop. If the name string parameter is longer than 35
characters then it is shortened to 35 characters.
Of course only the $P (Private), $S (Subject line) and
$B (By/From) metacommands will effect an echomail or local
message board type of message. All of the other metacommands
are reserved for matrix netmail messages. If you try to
specify one of the netmail metacommands for an echomail or
local message board it won't have any effect.
Enclosed in the RAAE archive are a few of example text
files to show you how to use metacommands named MSG?XMPL.TXT.
NOTES AND WARNINGS
------------------
RAAE was coded for use on a single-line RemoteAccess
system. It contains no code for file-sharing or record-
locking and because of this reason it requires sole access
to RemoteAccess' message base files.
RAAE has been tested extensively, but of course no
guarantees are given. If the program encounters an error it
will return an errorlevel of 1. If the program runs
successfully it returns an errorlevel of 0.
I've never had the program corrupt a message base in
testing. The most common errors are that the text input file
cannot be found, the board number is out of range (not 1 to
200) and minor things like that.
Because of the potential of a severe error corrupting
RemoteAccess' message base, the program, if run from a batch
file, should be trapped to determine the errorlevel it ends
with. If the program ends with an errorlevel of 1 (an error
occured) then you should run a message base packing program
to re-create the index files to your message base. While
this is normally not necessary, it is cheap insurance!
For instance, in my batch file I run RAAE like this:
RAAE 10 C:\MISC\ANEWS.RUL
IF ErrorLevel 1 HudBase Index
or using QuickBBS' message pack program it'd look like:
RAAE 10 C:\MISC\ANEWS.RUL
IF ErrorLevel 1 MsgPack -I
This batch file chunk would detect an error and then run the
appropriate program to create new index files.
RAAE can be run from any directory. It checks the
default directory and the RemoteAccess environment variable
RA= to find the CONFIG.RA and MESSAGES.RA files. Once it
finds CONFIG.RA it then reads info such as the directory to
where the message base is located, the Sysop's name, node
numbers, and things like that. From MESSAGES.RA it reads the
type of board that it is to work on -- Local, Netmail or
Echomail -- and which node number and origin line to use.
Failure to find any of these files -- the message base files,
CONFIG.RA and MESSAGES.RA -- will cause an error.
VERSION HISTORY
---------------
1.2 - Simple upgrade to run with RA version 1.00's files.
1.11 - Added the $B (By/From) metacommand and did some
cleanup of the code. A couple of cosmetic changes too.
1.10 - The major changes in this release are the addition of
the metacommands in the text file that is read. This
allows you to customize messages you send and it turns
RAAE into a simple mail-robot type of program.
1.0 - Initial public release.
LICENSE
-------
It's free. If you like it use it. If you don't like it
then erase it from your disk(s) and forget all about it.
The only persons and/or organizations that are
specifically forbidden to use this program are anyone
employed by the Department of Defense and/or the National
Security Agency of the United States Government.
Please don't modify and then redistribute the program
and/or documentation.
Suggestions and bug reports may be sent to Randy Edwards
at the Socialism OnLine! BBS at 1-203-274-4639, 300-14400 bps
HST, FidoNet 1:141/552.0 or Good Egg Net 99:9300/552.0.
Trademarks mentioned in this document are probably
registered to their respective owners.