═══ 1. General Info ═══ This is the documentation for ANSWER.EXE the 1st answering machine for OS/2 and rockwell based voice modems. version 0.04 This version is ShareWare. You can register this program by sending $10, in cash or check (payable to me). My (e) mail address is listed under AUTHOR INFO Please send me your bug reports and include as much information on your system setup as possible. And don't hesitate, even if you find a typo or misspelled word in one of the dialogs, let me know. I developed and tested ANSWER.EXE on the following system: o OS/2 2.11 (2.1 with CSD applied) o 12 MBytes of RAM o Ray Gwinn's SIO/VSIO ver 1.35. o Complete Communicator Gold voice modem that responds as follows: - AT#CLS=? : 0,1,2,8 (indicating a voice modem) - ATZ : OK - ATI0 : 14400 - ATI1 : 007 - ATI2 : OK - ATI3 : V1.500A-KP39F - ATI4 : FDV14I - ATI5 : 022 - ATI6 : RCV144DPiBA Rev CB - When I type AT&V after ATZ I get the folowing active profile: ACTIVE PROFILE: B1 E1 L1 M1 N1 Q0 T V1 W0 X4 Y0 &C1 &D2 &G0 &J0 &K3 &Q5 &R1 &S0 &T4 &X0 &Y0 S00:000 S01:000 S02:043 S03:013 S04:010 S05:008 S06:002 S07:050 S08:002 S09:006 S10:014 S11:095 S12:050 S18:000 S25:005 S26:001 S36:007 S37:000 S38:020 S44:020 S46:138 S48:007 S95:000 A (small) list of modems that have been reported to work with my program: o The Complete Communicator Gold from Boca (formerly from The Complete PC) o Zoltrix 144 Internal Voice/Fax modem o Problems were reported with Zoom modems. The program works fine, but the sound quality is very bad. Please send me feedback on this if you encounter succes or failure. ═══ 2. Author Info ═══ Send your bug reports, fan mail and other stuff to: o Sacha Prins o Avondroodstraat 10 o 5641 HB Eindhoven o Netherlands You can call me if you whish at: o tel: +31 40 811629 You can send me e-mail at the following address: o compuserve: 100417,1437 o e-mail: 100417.1437@compuserve.com Let me know what you think of this program. I'm very interested in your opinion. ═══ 3. Installation ═══ Unzip the zipfile that contains: o INSTALL.CMD o ANSWER.EXE o README.1ST o ANSWER.INF o FILE_ID.DIZ o GREETING.MSG into the directory where you wish "ANSWER.EXE" and his/her friends to reside. Type: "INSTALL" and you are done. The install program will create the needed subdirectories and create a program Object on the desktop for you. For your information, INSTALL.CMD does the following: Create 3 directories named: "IN", "OUT" and "SAVED", and moves "GREETING.MSG" into the "OUT" directory. Create a program object on the desktop. Note: It is advisable to install the program on a HPFS drive, because is then will use long file names to denote incoming messages, instead of cryptic names. ═══ 4. Program Info ═══ Here you can find information about the operation of this program. Help is divided into three parts: o Menu help o Dialogs help o Keys help ═══ 4.1. Menu's ═══ All features of the program can be accessed through one of the menu's. There are two of them: 1. The Menu Bar: This menu has the following items: o Actions: With the following items: - Play Message: Brings up the familiar File Open dialog so that you can choose a random file to play. This function is enabled when the Power is OFF. - Record Greeting: Brings the File Save dialog so you can give your new greeting a name. If you want your greeting to serve as a greeting for the program, do not change the default directory. More on selecting greetings later. This item is enabled when the Power is OFF. - Kill Program: This is a kind of an 'Emergency Brake function' so you can kick the program out of your computers memory if it screws up beyond recovery. o Options: With these items: - Settings | Program: Shows the Program Setup dialog box. - Settings | Modem: Shows the Modem Setup dialog box. This item is enabled when the Power is OFF. - power: Toggles Power ON and OFF. An instance of this menu item is also on the system menu, for minimized use. o Help: With these items. - Help: This brings up a standard message box that tells you that this feature is not yet implemented. - Product Info: Shows the inevitable About Box. It contains a nice little story about the program and me. - Register this program: What you all should do. Please read this for more info. 2. The Popup Menu that is shown by pressing mouse button 2 on the client window of the program (the listbox). o Delete All: Deletes all the messages in the listbox. o Delete Message: Deletes the selected message in the listbox. o Save Message: Saves the selected message to the Saved directory. o Play Message: Plays the selected message. This item is enabled when the Power is OFF. ═══ 4.2. Dialogs ═══ There are three dialogs at this point that are worth mentioning. Namely the following: With this dialog you control the programs behavior. There are three groups of parameters: 1. The 'Program Starts' group. Specifies if the program should start minimized and/or powered ON. This is for when you put the program in your start-up folder. If the computer boots and the program is configured start powered ON, the program is immediately ready to answer calls. 2. The 'Greeting' group. Lets you choose a greeting for incoming calls. You could have greetings of the form: 'I'm in the shower right now...' or 'I'm not at home right now...'. You can record a greeting via the Actions | Record Greeting submenu in the MenuBar of the program. 3. The 'General' group. Here you can configure the number of rings the program answers on. You can also toggle confirmation. This means either an 'Are you sure?' dialog when deleting files, or no 'Are you sure?' dialog when deleting files. With the Modem Setup dialog you can change the Hardware specific options. o This includes selecting the com port to which your modem is connected. You can also test if your voice modem is supported by the program. o The 'hangup threshold' is the time the modem takes to report silence. It defaults to six seconds. You can put it to three if you wish. This implies however that when the caller doesn't talk for three seconds the modem hangs up! o You can set the behavior of the modem control signals. - Zoltrix Compatibility: Toggle this checkbox if you encounter problems when playing back messages (defaults to on). - Ignore CTS: The program checks the CTS line to see if the modem is ready. If your modem does not use the CTS line turn this option off (defaults to off). - Use RTS: Same story as CTS (defaults to on). - Drop DTR to disconnect: Turn this setting on if the modem will not disconnect after recording a greeting, or after answering a call (defaults to off). With this dialog you can change the state of the program from Unregistered to registered. The benefit is a working program instead of a program that turns itself OFF after 10 minutes. ═══ 4.3. Keys ═══ All the intuitive keys work in the messages listbox. o The arrow keys move the cursor up and down in the list box. o The key plays the selected message. o The key deletes the selected message. o The key saves the selected message. ═══ 5. DISCLAIMER ═══ I wrote this program with the idea of helping myself, and other people with a voice-modem that use OS/2. I made it for fun, and will therefore NOT take any responsibility for anything this program will do. That includes any physical or mental damage to you or your computer. ═══ 6. LEGAL stuff ═══ This program is (c) by me, and me is the person listed under AUTHOR INFO. Portions of the code are (c) by IBM. All trademarks are owned by their respective owners. This program may be copied as shareware, as long as all the files of the original archive are being included. In fact, distribution is encouraged. ═══ 7. Known Bugs ═══ None at this point (I bet you will find some for me). ═══ 8. History ═══ o Version 0.00: First version to be released to the public. Still very beta. I was very delighted to hear that my computer was the only one in the world that it would run on. I forgot to include some essential libraries. o Version 0.01: Same as 0.00, except that the program would start-up on everybody else's computer as well. o Version 0.02: The program is now ShareWare instead of beta code. Some major and minor fixes: - Major fixes: Program now detects hang-ups in USA. SYSXXXX error when pressing escape in the main window is corrected. - Minor fixes: Some kind of file management added to the main window. Added some new features to the dialogs of the program. o Version 0.03: Bug fix to version 0.02. The test button wouldn't report a successful test. Stabilized the modem I/O a bit (at least I thought I did). o Version 0.04: People reported unstable/unreliable behavior of the program, especially in the form of the modem not disconnecting, either when recording or playing. Added Hardware Flow Control and Hardware Reset to the program. Also added some minor improvements to the user interface. More to come! ═══ 9. Registration ═══ If you are satisfied with the program and want to use it, register the program by sending me $10 in cash, or $10 by check, made payable to me. The dress to which you have to send the money to is listed under Author info If you do so you will get a registration KEY as soon as possible through e-mail or regular mail. If you are a member of compuserve, you can also register the program by typing "GO SWREG" on the CIS prompt and search for 'Answering machine'. If you find yourself registering an earlier version than the one you are using, don't worry. The Key that's sent to you will work anyway. When unregistered, the program is fully functional. So you can test it as long as you whish. There is one restriction however. If you turn the Answering Machine ON and the program is not registered, it will turn itself OFF after 10 minutes. That means that you can test the program but not really use it, since 10 minutes after you leave the house, the program goes OFF. ═══ 10. Credits ═══ I made this program with the help of these people. By mentioning them I would like to show my gratitude. Thanks to: o Rob Hamerling for explaining some com port basics. o Clifford Bradbury for the default GREETING.MSG included in the package, and some sensible bug-reports. o James Roper for the heavy duty beta testing.