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OSKTag Documentation
** Introduction **
Millions of years ago, while humor was first being developed, a
caveman came upon the lowest form of humor, the pun:
"Gtwrp thwark! Fjkm wrg sug xcvr! Thwrg? Fjkm!"
The pun caught on and eventually developed into the one-liner.
One-liners became very popular. So popular in fact, that the cavemen
began adding them to every document they chiseled:
"Xortwap + Gtwrp thwark! Fjkm wrg sug xcvr!"
Luckily this form of humor died out for several thousand years until
a very bored message writer re-discovered it in the early 80's, and
added it to the end of a message. The one liner had been reborn:
"SLMR + Silly rabbit! Tricks are for hookers!"
The tagline, as it became known as, caught on very quickly, as
people needed humor after the Carter administration.
Soon taglines began popping up at the ends of messages everywhere,
and programmers began to write tagline management programs to make them
more prevalent. It was inevitable that someone would write one such
program for the world's greatest operating system, OS-9.
Enter OSKTag, the OS-9/68k Tagline Manager, written by Nick Johnson
with contributions by Allen Huffman and Joel Mathew Hegberg XVIII. Now
you see why we call it OSKTag for short. OSKTag was originally written
under OS-9 on the Color Computer 3 by the illustrious Nick Johnson and
has now been ported to OSK by crack-programmer Joel Mathew Hegberg.
** Setting up OSKTag **
First, you need to move taglines.txt and osktag.cfg to their final
resting place, whereever that might be... it is entirely up to you as
to where you want to put it. Just be sure that when you execute OSKTag,
your data directory contains these files, and of course, you'll want
your execution directory to contain OSKTag.
I've found that the best place to put taglines.txt and osktag.cfg is
in a ramdrive. I don't have a hard drive yet, but I would guess that a
hard drive would be another ideal place. Floppies are acceptable, but
kinda slow.
You may need to change the xmode of your device descriptor so that no
linefeeds are added. For example:
xmode /t0 -lf
If you get ERROR 214 when you try to execute OSKTag, it is because
you don't have the attributes set correctly. Type "attr osktag e pe".
** Changing Configuration **
Chances are you will want to change the configuration of OSKTag.
Well, it is EASY to do this! Use the edit command to edit osktag.cfg.
Change whatever you need to after each "=". Don't use leading or
trailing characters.
Most of the options are self explanatory, with the possible
exceptions of line delay, prefix, and suffix. Line delay is the amount
of time OSKTag sleeps between the lines it sends out. It is counted in
ticks, which vary in length from system to system. The prefix is sent
out before the tagline, and the suffix is sent out after the tagline.
Prefix and suffix are always separate lines from the tagline. The
prefix comes set as " --- " which looks pretty nice, and the suffix is
set to "*S" which is the save message command on GEnie.
** Using OSKTag **
OSKTag is very, very easy to use. Why is it easy to use? Because
Allen Huffman wouldn't get off my back until it was! The Main Menu
allows you to select a tagline, transmit the selected tagline, display
information about the program, select a random tagline with immediate
send, and quit.
There are 3 methods of selecting a tagline. Random select will
randomly pick a tagline from the file. Manual will display the taglines
20 at a time. Selective will search the tagline file for matches to a
key combination.
Both Random and Selective display available taglines 20 at a time.
If you wish to select one of them, type the number and hit enter. To
select and immediately transmit, include a period before the number
(i.e. .12 to send tagline #12). To get more taglines, hit <ENTER> and
to exit to the main menu, type an x and hit <ENTER>.
Pressing <T> from the main menu will send the currently selected
tagline (which is displayed below the menu upon selection).
Pressing <I> will tell you how to send me money for this program,
and how to send me questions and/or comments.
Pressing <@> will randomly select and immediately send a random
tagline, at the suggestion of Allen Huffman. Why is it an @ instead of
a *, you ask? Well, look at your keyboard! Which is closer to the
<CLEAR> key??
Pressing <Q> activates the exciting quit option.
Pressing any other key does nothing.
** Adding, deleting, and changing taglines **
Taglines can be added, deleted or changed easily with any word
processor, as they are just lines of text. I would, however, suggest
that you not add a tagline that says, "EVERYBODY'S GOING POO-POO!!!",
since this got me in considerable trouble with a sysop on GEnie.
** Thanks! **
Thanks to:
Allen Huffman for convincing me that the first version of this
program really sucked and needed to be improved. Also, many thanks for
your testing and comments. Special thanks for the locase routine
(everybody thank Allen for this one, or your tagline searches would take
days instead of minutes!). Also thanks for forcing me to fix the minor
details that make this program what it is.
Joel Mathew Hegberg for contributing the sleep code, and for being a
democrat (what's life without something to laugh at!).
My local phone company for making sure there was enough line noise
to fill my SACIA buffer at least once a day.
Zoom Telephonics Tech support for assuring me that my phone company
sucks, and it is very possible for line noise to keep producing the same
2 characters. ( _{ )
Whoever compiled that tagline list that I downloaded.
Coca-Cola and Pizza Hut for providing refreshments.
The Family Roundtable staff for not kicking me out after the
"EVERYBODY'S GOING POO-POO" bit.
The Tandy Roundtable staff for putting up with my sense of humor in
Real Time conferences (hi Brian!).
Everybody, for going poo-poo.
MTV, for producing "You wrote it, you watch it" which included
"EVERYBODY'S GOING POO-POO" (spoken by Fred from the B-52's <ick>)
Jimm Hillyerd for the output format.
My principal for letting me graduate (ha! Like there was any doubt!)
My former academic team coach for making me realize that if you
don't have a sense of humor, you just turn into a crappy old grouch.
Maxwell, my cat, for not sleeping on my disks.
Steve Bjork for inspiring me in 1990 to program harder.
All my relatives who came down for graduation, who were nice enough
to leave me alone while I spent day after day programming this stuff.
My Calculus teacher, for making me glad to get back home at 9:00.
My primary computer network (until my membership on Delphi goes
through), for being just slow enough that I can fix a bug or two between
menus.
Information Society and Kurt Harland for providing great music and
keeping me sane, and for the phrase, "hunnamunnagunda".
Jeri Beck for all her help in contacting Kurt Harland.
Dale Puckett for writing "The Official Basic09 Tour Guide"
Dale Puckett and Peter Dibble for writing "The Complete Rainbow
Guide to OS9 Level II"
Kevin Darling for "Inside OS9 Level II"
YOU for taking the time to download this software! Enjoy!
---
Nick Johnson
N.JOHNSON1 on GEnie
NICKJOHNSON on Delphi
NICKJOHNSON@DELPHI.COM on internet.