ASP Advantage 1993

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PCBView V1.00 PCBoard BBS @Code Screen File Viewer featuring: User-Definable @Variable Replacement Text Program & this document Copyright 1992, Jeff Sloan PCBoard is a registered trademark of Clark Development Corp. Last Updated: 29 JAN 1993 Yardbird Software P.O. Box 4646 West Hills, CA 91308 (818)704-6402 CompuServe: 73650,104 _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Acknowledgments The author wishes to thank all the beta testers for their contribution towards making this program as bug-free as possible. Special thanks goes to Dave Jackson for originally suggesting the idea for this program, and his many helpful ideas and encouragement during it's development. WHAT IS PCBView? PCBView is a DESQview-aware screen viewer for PCBoard BBS @code screen files. In addition to displaying screens using the specified colors, any user or system @variables embedded in the screens will be replaced with text, simulating exactly how your screens will look to your BBS callers on-line. The default @variable replacement text is kept in a separate text file: PCBVIEW.VAR which may be customized to your specifications using a text editor. Single screens can be displayed, or you may enter multiple screen filenames on the command line, or even use DOS wild cards to display a series of screens one after another. PCBView is a great companion program to the Laughing Dog Screen Maker, Yardbird Software's premiere BBS screen designer. Of course, PCBView will work with any PCBoard 3.xx. screen files, but if you aren't using the Laughing Dog to create your screens, you are definitely working too hard! INSTALLING PCBVIEW: To install PCBView, simply copy the PCBVIEW.EXE file and it's @variable file: PCBVIEW.VAR into the same subdirectory on your hard disk, or a floppy disk. The PCBVIEW.VAR file MUST reside in the same directory as PCBVIEW.EXE in order to replace any @variables with the default, or your own custom replacement text. You may install these two files in a directory that is in your AUTOEXEC.BAT PATH in order to allow you to easily view files from any location on your disk. NOTE: If PCBView cannot find the PCBVIEW.VAR file, you will be notified of this and given the choice of either quitting the program immediately, or continuing to view the file(s) without the replacement text (in which case, the literal @variable strings, @USER@, @MINLEFT@, etc., will be displayed as is). RUNNING PCBVIEW.EXE Command-Line USAGE: PCBVIEW [? | /?] [/Mbf] [/Dn] [filename.ext] [filename.ext ...] (DOS wild cards OK) >> ? or /? Either of these by themselves after PCBVIEW will display a help screen. >> /Mbf This allows you to override the default attribute (Lightgray on Black) used for monochrome when toggling the displayed screens between full color and monochrome (see Commands Available During File Display, below) b = the uppercase hex value for the background color f = the upper case hex value for the foreground color Possible values are: --------------------------------------------- Background Foreground --------------------------------------------- 0 = Black 0 = Black 1 = Blue 1 = Blue 2 = Green 2 = Green 3 = Cyan 3 = Cyan 4 = Red 4 = Red 5 = Magenta 5 = Magenta 6 = Brown 6 = Brown 7 = Lightgray 7 = Lightgray 8 = Black, blinking 8 = Darkgray 9 = Blue, blinking 9 = Light Blue A = Green, blinking A = Light Green B = Cyan, blinking B = Light Cyan C = Red, blinking C = Light Red D = Magenta, blinking D = Light Magenta E = Brown, blinking E = Yellow F = Lightgray, blinking F = White example: /M1E = Yellow on Blue You also may change the monochrome attribute in the middle of a series of files that were listed on the command line to display as a group. For instance: PCBVIEW /M1E title.bbs menu1.bbs /M0E goodbye.bbs >> /Dn This allows you to change the speed at which the files are displayed on your screen. The default delay is 0. Replace the n above with any value from 1-9 to change the initial delay. 0 = No delay 9 = Maximum delay >> filename.ext One filename with it's extension will display that one file, wait for a keystroke, then exit. >> file1.ext file2.ext file3.ext ... More than one filename.ext (each separated by a space) will display each file in order, one after the other. This allows you to do things like simulate a users progression through a series of menus and screens by placing those screen file names, in the correct order, on the command line. >> filenames using the DOS wild card chars: '*' and '?' Using DOS wild card character expressions like: *.*, *.BBS, file??.BBS, A*.*, etc. will cause all files in the current directory (or a specified directory, example: C:\PCBV\SCREENS\*.BBS) to be displayed in the order in which DOS finds them, one after another. NOTE: If PCBView cannot find a file, or has a problem opening the file, it will display an error message, then attempt to continue, if possible. ALSO NOTE: PCBView will attempt to display any file you hand it on the command line, even if that file is not an actual @code file, it doesn't care! COMMANDS AVAILABLE DURING FILE DISPLAY Whenever a file is longer than the current number of lines available on your monitor minus one (for the status line), for instance screens longer than 24 lines when in 25 line mode, the familiar: MORE? will be displayed at the bottom of the screen, there is also some additional information displayed, however, which does not normally appear in PCBoard so your status line will actually look something like this: MORE Delay[0-9] [M]ono Screen1: my.pcb The name of the screen (my.pcb) and an indication of the screen's position in a list of multiple screen files (Screen1:) is displayed at the far right end of the line. This is useful mostly if you ran the program with several screen files or wild cards specified on the command line, to remind you exactly which file you are currently viewing. There is also another option: "Delay[0-9]" available. This controls the speed at which the file is displayed on your screen. The default is Delay=0, or full speed. You may choose to display the screen at a reduced speed by pressing one of the number keys on your keyboard between 1 and 9 for varying delays between lines. Pressing "0" will return the display to the minimum delay (maximum speed) setting. These number keys may be pressed at any time during display, not just in response to the -Pause- prompt. --Pressing the "N" key will have the usual effect aborting the display of the current screen file. --Pressing "Y" will continue displaying the current screen file. --Pressing <cntl>-K or <cntl>-X will immediately abort the display of the current screen. --Pressing <ESC> will immediately exit the program & clear screen. --Pressing the Spacebar at any time will cause an immediate Pause to occur. --Pressing "M" will toggle the display between Mono and Color. NOTE: You can change the default monochrome colors using the /M command line switch described above. --Pressing any other key will is the same as pressing "Y". If the screen being displayed contains any of the display control codes (@PAUSE@, @POFF@, @QOFF@, @WAIT@, @CLS@, etc.) embedded in it, those controls will override anything typed in response to an on-screen prompt, as they would on-line. THE PCBVIEW.VAR @VARIABLE FILE The PCBVIEW.VAR file is a plain ASCII text file which contains the replacement text which will be inserted into screens in place of the user and system @variables (@TIME@, @BBS@, @USER@, etc.). The original PCBVIEW.VAR file supplied with the program contains some arbitrary replacement text. You may very easily customize the file to your heart's desire. You must use a plain ASCII text editor (or save the file as straight ASCII text if you are using a word processor), to avoid adding unwanted control codes to the file. In addition, there are a few very rigid formatting rules that you must follow. The format for data in this file is as follows: 1. Each line in the file must begin with an at symbol(@), which is the first character in the @variable name. 2. The 2nd character on the line must be the first character of the variable name, which is generally in upper case. 3. The remainder of the upper case variable name follows, immediately terminated with another at symbol(@). 4. This terminating at symbol is immediately followed by an equals sign (=). 5. The equals sign is immediately followed by the replacement text. 6. The replacement text is immediately followed by the usual Carriage Return(CR)/Line Feed(LF) sequence (which is what happens when you press the ENTER key to end a line and move on to the next line). 7. There should be no blank lines between the @variable definitions. The files should just be one solid block of @xxxx@=yyyyyy lines (see below). NOTE: any "white space" (spaces) between the equals sign and the end of the line (CR/LF) will be included in the replacement text, so be sure you press the ENTER key when the cursor is right next to the last character you wish to end the text with, without pressing the spacebar, tab, or arrow keys first(some text editors take the liberty of assuming you meant to enter spaces at the end of a line if you use the right arrow key to arrow over a few spaces before pressing enter). This probably sounds a lot more complicated that it actually is. When you look at the default PCBVIEW.VAR file, it should be immediately obvious what your file should look like. In fact, if you just edit this file (or better, a back-up copy of the original file), you should be in good shape. Just delete or type over the text you wish to change, and don't add any unwanted spaces at the end of the line. Here is a brief excerpt from the default PCBVIEW.VAR file to show you what it should look like: @BOARDNAME@=The Coolest BBS @BPS@=9600 @BYTELIMIT@=100,000 @BYTERATIO@=2:4 @BYTESLEFT@=2,000 @CITY@=West Hills @CONFNUM@=23 @CURMSGNUM@=234 The actual variable names and text is up to you. You can even add phony variable names that PCBoard would not understand if you want to, and PCBView will dutifully believe you and insert your replacement text into the displays if it comes upon the bogus @variable name in a screen file. This is pointless, of course, but this ability is offered just in case Clark Development Co. adds additional @variables in future releases of PCBoard In that event, just add them to your PCBVIEW.VAR file and you are on you way! Along these same lines, the format of the replacement text is not checked. It is up to you to provide valid replacement text. For example, dates are displayed in PCBoard in the MM/DD/YY format, if you choose to define the @EXPDATE@ @variable like this: @EXPDATE@=March 23rd, Nineteen Ninety Two you will get what you deserve! (a display which does not match what PCBoard displays). But seriously folks, stick to the correct format, and then what you see (with PCBView) is what you will get (with PCBoard). GETTING THE LATEST VERSION OF PCBView OR THE LAUGHING DOG SCREEN MAKER: The latest version of these programs can always be found on one of the following ASP Hub Network BBS's: North-East Coast USA Mid-East Coast USA: The Consultant BBS The Break RBBS <East> (718)837-3236 (703)680-9269 North-Mid USA: South Mid-USA: The Twilight Zone The DataExchange BBS (715)652-2758 (318)239-2122 South-West Coast USA: North-West Coast USA: Attention to Details BBS Space BBS (714)681-6221 (415)323-4398 CANADA: Knightec BBS (519)940-0007 These BBS's are committed to allowing even first-time callers to download AT LEAST one file on their first call, so you can be assured of getting the latest version of this program anytime. ASP Ombudsman statement Yardbird Software is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.