home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Grand Slam 3
/
Grand Slam 3.iso
/
004
/
news58.arj
/
WHAT'S.NEW
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1995-05-06
|
15KB
|
423 lines
-=( New News )=-
Version 5.8
* Added a JAM version of NewsDoor Use JamNEWS.EXE instead of NEWS.EXE
the only difference in the commandline is the -AREA: parameter.
For NEWS.EXE use -AREA:<Hudson areanumber>
For example: -AREA:3
for JamNEWS.EXE use -AREA:<Basename of Jam AREA>
for example -AREA:Z:\RA\JAM\FLASHES
* Removed a few minor bugs.
* Removed the SBBS and QBBS support. SBBS is dead and it has been ages
since I actualy saw a QBBS board. If someone actualy misses this
support, please let me know. We arrange something..
* Added dateformat support.
* Rewrote the code for formating the msg into something showable on the
screen. Things are improved as far as I can see..
Version 5.7
* On request: You can now also use the -L: parameter with RA. This is
most usefull if you don't use RA's language system and all the users
have the language no. 0. News would default to English in that case.
* If there is no TASK environment setting or -N:<Node> parameter, News
searches the USERON.BBS file for the current node.
Version 5.6
* Added one more Filemode setting.
* A small textual change in the DEF files.
Version 5.5
* Sometimes users reported to get empty lines between the normal lines
due to translation of a linefeed into an empty line. Should be solved.
* Implemented support for some more multitaskers. DesqView has been tested,
OS/2, windows en PC-Mos should work too.
* Solved an obscure bug due to which flashes were sometimes not shown.
* Rewrote the documentation
Version 5.4
* Due to the way things are and the fact that I have to explain my time
more often. Due to the fact that I hardly get registrations and still
see my doors used.. News how implements a key system too. See the
order form for details. Registration removes the *Unregistered* remarks
and shows your name and serialnumber while exiting the program.
The unregistered version implements ALL the features, nothing is locked
out. If something doesn't work as expected, first check the docu, then
report a bug.
* After many releases I finaly solved a bug which, sometimes, once in a while
usualy during the first implementation in a BBS, made certain that no
flash was even shown. For the first time I could reproduce the bug and it's
fixed now! Peww..
* Implemented a FILTER.DAT file. This file can have 255 entries, one per
line which define a substring. When a line starts with a found substring,
the line will not be shown. The perfect tool for filtering out origins,
seen-by lines, PID's etc.
Version 5.3
* Improved (i hope) the wrapping routines.
* Updated for RA 2.00
Version 5.2
* Removed a bug which showed ASCII when a user used AVATAR but no ANSI.
Version 5.1 Bug-Release
* Removed an exception #13 which popped up when the news area was completely
empty.
* Removed some other little bugs.
Version 5.0 (RELEASE)
* Last SBBS bugs smashed
* Added the language support for RA 1.10. If the user has the language-
file HOLLAND.RAL selected NEWS looks for the NEWS.HOL file. The extention
should be the first 3 characters (or less) of the language file.
Default is "ENG"
Version 5.0BC
* Found out that SBBS (for some strange reason) stores the LASTREAD.BBS in
the system directory instead of the MsgBase directory...
Version 5.0BB
* Solved the SBBS language bug at least... woopy.. The program should be
ready for release now..
Version 5.0BA
* Solved a/the SBBS lastread pointer bug.
* Solved some other SBBS bugs regarding the languagesupport.
* Added QBBS 2.75 support.
Version 5.0B9
* Hopefully solved some bugs in the SBBS support.
Version 5.0B8
* Oh well.. had it wrong in the way RA handles IEMSI in it's exitinfo file.
It's correct now..
Version 5.0B5/6/7
* Fiddeled around with an exception #13. Found the little bastered (with a
lot of help from Jos Bergman..)
* Forgot to expand the userdoes string under RA..
Version 5.0B4
* Hopefully defeated the dreathfull Exception #0 error...
With special thanks to JB..;-)
Version 5.0B3
* Removed a bug which did eat the ] (and the following 3 characters) in
language-text
* Added a logdump for the available memory (For the #13 error?!)
* Added Opus logging support.. (For all the RAdoor doors..)
Version 5.0B2
* Added IEMSI support. When a user logs in using IEMSI, the IEMSI settings
are used instead of the normal BBS settings.. So if he logs in with 50
line VGA mode, he gets 50 lines on his screen.
* Also tried to support the IEMSI NEWS flag. If the user selected NEWS
in his IEMSI setup, ForceNew is made true. I don't know yet if this
works as I intend it to work, so please turn on IEMSI and test it..;)
Version 5.0!!
* Something I was working on, and NEWS is the first real door to feature it:
Multilanguage support!
- Edit one of the *.DEF files
- Compile it with LangComp
And you can run News in any language you like.
For SBBS systems the language file should be named like:
NEWS.<LANguage> where the extention is the first 3 characters
of the languagefile. So if you have a language file called
RASTAENG.LGN the news datafile should be NEWS.RAS.
If not found, the program defaults to NEWS.ENG (English)
You can overrule this behavior by using the -L: parameter.
RA sysops are a little out of luck, if you already run a
multilanguage system (NOT 1.10Beta however!) by switching
Menu's or something, you can add the -L: parameter per language.
* Added the -L: parameter. It takes a 3 character argument which makes
the extention for the language file.
f.e. -L:RAS makes NEWS look for the file NEWS.RAS as language definition.
If not found, the default is ENGLISH. (NEWS.ENG)
The language files should be placed in the NEWS home directory. (This is the
directory where the EXE file is OR where the NEWS environment variable is
pointing to..)
Version 4.4
* Some last bugs.. Toped also works correct now.
Toped has some strange behavior (Beta 1.0-D) that it inserts SoftReturns
before the space instead of overwriting it.. Oh well...
Version 4.3
* Changed the wrapping code somewhat.
Version 4.2
* Added wordwrap for message editor which don't include softreturns in the
message.. (FRODO!)
* Added SBBS support. See the SBBS.DOC file for info.
==============================================================================
Version 4.1 (Last public release)
* Well, since I was working on a new RADoor version (the toolbox used
for all my doors, I decided to update News before releasing.. Makes
a lot of version unknown to humanity, but alas...)
Due to a request I also added a new parameter -SkipOld. If you use
it and there are no new bulletins, the door drops to the BBS
without asking or showing anything (other than a msg..;)
I also noted that the -Force:<MaxMsg> wasn't implemented.. (Strange..)
Anyhow, it is now..;)
* For the other new features, play with the F9 keys.. the sysop has some
more controle in this version...
Remark: Note that the -FORCE parameter overrules the -ASK if there are
new bulletins. NEWS only askes if there are old bulletins and
you use the ASK and FORCE together..
Version 4.0
* Ok, at least.. My primary beta tester for this door (and the one who asked
me for the new features... Thanks Hans!) said it worked.. At least...
So this is going to be the release version!
Version 3.6
* I found the bug mentioned under Version 3.4/3.5 and solved it
* The msgbase handling is completely rewritten and is more solid now.
It also uses the RA 1.01 locking scheme (altough News doesn't write
a thing to the msgs files, only the Lastread is rewritten..)
Version 3.4 & 3.5
* These were both internal debugging versions.. Due to a major bug
I couldn't find...
Version 3.3
* Forgot about those poor new users.. Concider the following story...
I'm a use who call's first time to a BBS. The sysop over there is
using NEWS (great guy!) to show his bulletins to the users..but
hardly cleans up his news area.. so there are some 50 bulletins posted.
Also, as he knows his users, he uses the FORCE parameter so they never
have the 'sorry, didn't know that...' excuse.. BUT this poor user
has to work through ALL the 50 bulletins since his lastread pointer
is 0..... poor guy probably hangs up after 3/4 bulletins..
So I added a parameter to the FORCE option. If you use this option
as:
-FORCE
Well. They new user realy has to read ALL the new bulletins.. But if
you use:
-FORCE:3
Only the first 3 bulletins shown are forced, after that he get's the
[S]top option to bail out.. EVEN if there are more new bulletins.
The max-value may range from 1 to 1000 (0 is illegal since it means that
the parameter isn't found.. , 1000 is the maximal number of available
bulletins possible in a single area, it's the MAX of the internal Index...
* Also spotted a little error which caused the errormsg for an out of
range areanr not to be shown to the user..
Version 3.2
* Version 3.1 ALMOST worked.. BUT due to a "Feature" of RAMsg it only found
bulletins which had been maintained by RAMsg.. The stupid thing converts
the contents of the MsgToIdx filerecord to ALL lowercase, while RA
puts it there in the normal RA way, first character of each word
uppercase..... Realy a difficult one to find..;(
Version 3.1
Made some stuppid mistakes. Lucily version 3.0 only went out to two people,
(Sorry folks..)
* The Toggles -ASK and -FORCE work as the should now.. (No :ON requiered
anymore)
* the lastread.bbs isn't rewritten anymore. I accidently used rewrite instead
of reset and WriteOnly+ShareDenyNone instead of ReadWrite+ShareDenyNone,
So the lastread resulted in a 0bytes file which was rebuild by RA.
* This also lead me to an other error in my msgbase handling routines..
(also solved..;-)
* The number of new bulletins is counted and shown to the user.
Version 3.0
* This is a major rewrite. Some users asked me for a way to tell the users
if there are NEW bulletins. Something like the NewMail scan. Well, I
implemented that feature in this version. In a way...
The scanning is done different now. In former version the MsgIdx.bbs
was read reverce. This was the simplest way, but VERY slow.. (I measured
up to 4 times as slow as a forward scan!)
What news does now is:
- Look in the msginfo.bbs IF there are messages in the area.
- Read the lastread record of the user.
- Build an internal Index using a big buffer for speed.
- Checks if the highest bulletin has a higher number than the
LastRead pointer for the used area.
This way of working has a lot of advantages. Speed, it's much faster..
(+/- 4 times faster...) And after the scan (which HAS to be done, it's the
only way to get information about NEW bulletins) all the bulletin message
numbers are available. So it's a one-time scan.
If you use the -ASK parameter, news tells the user if there are new
bulletins and asks if (s)he wants to read them. The default answer is
Yes when there are new bulletins and No if there are only oldies.
If you don't use the -ASK the user just gets the first (newest) bulletin
and can bail-out then.
After reading the bulletins the lastread pointer is updated.
The new -FORCE parameter forces the user to read ALL the new bulletins.
No way to bail out (except for hanging the phone..;) Not that if you use
the -ASK and the -FORCE parameter, the user is asked if he wants to read
the new bulletins (and if he doesn't he gets the same choice until he does!)
but if he answers Yes, he has to read ALL the new bulletins.
* Added UserOn support. (Useron is an other door utility which enables users
to see what ppl on other nodes are doing. It also features a message to the
other line option with up to 20 lines. No real chatdoor, but a good
alternative to the usual MsgToOtherLine option....You can find it in
SDS as UserOn??.ZIP (current version 2.2)
* Updated the documentation and removed some mistakes..
* Changed the defaultname from NEWS to ALL as it seems the last one is
used most.
* Solved a bug in the -U: parameter which cleared the field when this
parameter wasn't used.
* Added a *NEW* indicator in the header part to show if the user already
read the bulletin..
Version 2.0
* Added an HighAscii filter for ASCII users. 'ê' is translated into 'e' and
such..
* Added AVATAR support
* Added an optional -P:*P commandport override toggle at the commandline.
* ALL the commandline toggle now have an indentifier:
-T:<remaining time> (*T)
-P:<Use commport> (*P)
-N:<Node> (*N)
-U:<UserName> (Use underscore for spaces!)
-AREA:<UseAreaNr> (1..200)
-F:<Flags> (NY,YY,N?,Y?)
* This news also contains my new improved internal screen-driver which
support ANSI/AVATAR and even ANSI-music.. (Put a tune in the message of
the day..;-)
* All the files are now opened READ-ONLY/SHARE DENY NONE, which means that
not only things will work ok under Share control on a multiline setup now
(Which it didn't.. sorry..) But also that network users should have to
load Share if the network software controls these things itself.
* Added an use share override environment variable USESHARE. If you add
USESHARE=OFF to your environment, none of my doors will complain about
share missing anymore. They will no longer apply recordlocking, but will
depend completely on the filemode bits..
- USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!! -
==============================================================================
Version 1.3 (1.2 was also kept internal, due to lack of time.. ;)
* Blush.. Ashamed to say it, but a bug of enormous stupidity has been
solved.... I (Blush) used the Multiline toggle in the CONFIG.RA file
to see from where I had to read the.. (low voice) config.ra...
As the record structure was cleared before, this couldn't work
ok in a multiline setup under f.e. Desqview.. (On lan's the config.ra
is always (I guess) in the directory where the RA env. var is pointing..)
Sorry to all the ppl who had strange problems with my doors under DV.
(Altough only 1 persone complained and went through enourmous efforts to
help me to find out what was wrong.. Thanks Jos!)
==============================================================================
Version 1.2 (1.1 was an internal beta copy)
* Added a flag to make it possible for News to mimic the look of the
newmail scan.
* Added an other flag to hide the LiveSystems header line while searching
for the first bulletin.
* Tag and originlines are filtered out. This makes it possible to create a
News echomail area..;-) (and it looks better too)