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Jason Aller Floppy Collection
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PCB145U.ZIP
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UPGRADE.DOC
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1990-05-08
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PCBoard v14.5 Upgrade Information
=================================
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* IMPORTANT: Please remember to make a backup of your system. This is BETA *
* software and is *not* warranted to be "bug free" at this point in time. *
* Backups can be crucial to keeping a system up and running while beta *
* testing software! *
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Please familiarize yourself with the new features of PCBoard by reading the
file called FEATURES.NEW.
Upgrading to PCBoard v14.5 from any of the v14.x series of software is a
two-step process. Please read the instructions below before attempting the
upgrade.
STEP ONE - the bare necessities
-------------------------------
Most of the files used by the v14.x series of software are completely
compatible with PCBoard v14.5. There a few exceptions and they must be dealt
with before you will be able to run v14.5. The follow steps will cover them:
1) If you have any "SET PCB=" statements in your board.bat then start out by
running board.bat to put the PCB switches into your environment. Then exit
PCBoard immediately after getting to the callwaiting screen.
2) Now run PCBSetup. It will recognize that you have a pre-v14.5 pcboard.dat
file and ask if you want to convert it. Answer Yes. When you get to the
PCBSetup Main Menu simply press ESC and save your file back out. At this
point your pcboard.dat file is now in v14.5 format (which, btw, is still
readable by PCBoard v14.0 thru v14.2).
3) Make a copy of your existing PCBTEXT file and save it on your hard disk
in case you need to go back to a previous PCBoard release.
4) Now you need to create a new PCBTEXT file or upgrade your existing PCBTEXT
file(s). Please read the MKTXT145.DOC for instructions on how to do this.
5) Copy the new HELP files into your \PCB\HELP subdirectory
6) The name of the executable under v14.5 is called PCB145.EXE which is *not*
the same as the PCBOARD.EXE file used for past releases. We have purposely
changed the name so that you can keep both programs on your hard disk at the
same time and freely switch between them if needed. You may want to edit
your board.bat file and replace the line that says "pcboard" with the word
"pcb145" instead - or you may want to create an entirely different batch
file for bringing up v14.5. The choice is yours.
7) Now run PCBSM and select option D (User Info Maintenance) and then option D
(Create User Info File) to create the USERS.INF file which holds extended
user information.
That's all there is to it. You should now be able to bring up v14.5.
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* PLEASE STOP AT THIS POINT WHILE YOU BEGIN YOUR TESTING OF PCBOARD V14.5. *
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NOTE: By making only the above mentioned changes you may freely move back and
forth between PCBoard versions with minimal effort. The following steps will
be needed to go back to a previous release:
1) Copy your old PCBTEXT file back over top of the new one created above.
2) Edit your board.bat file to execute "pcboard" instead of "pcb145".
Those two steps are all that should be needed to switch back to versions 14.0
thru 14.2 if you stopped after step #6 in the upgrade procedure above. It is
recommended that you DO NOT proceed beyond this point until you are committed
to using PCBoard v14.5 on your system (i.e. after testing has proven that v14.5
is compatible with your existing hardware and software).
NOTE: To return back to v14.5 after dropping back to v14.2 you may need to
re-run step #7 in the above list to recreate your USERS.INF file.
STEP TWO - customizing to take advantage of v14.5 features
----------------------------------------------------------
To reiterate from above: please do NOT continue on to this step until you have
determined that PCBoard v14.5 is compatible with your system.
The following changes are not completely compatible with previous versions of
PCBoard (for instance, the first change is to allow your callers to see new
commands which are not in v14.2, the second changes is to make protocols
available that are not in v14.2 - see where we're going?). Performing these
changes will make it more difficult to go back to v14.2!
- copy the new BRDM and BRDMG files into \PCB\GEN to reflect the new commands
that are now available
- edit your PCBPROT.DAT file to indicate the following new additions:
Y,I,1024,Ymodem (internal batch)
G,I,1024,Ymodem/G (internal batch)
- edit your PCBRZ.BAT file since batch uploads via DSZ are now permitted
example (be sure your DSZLOG= statement is in effect):
echo off
if exist pcberr.fil del pcberr.fil
if exist pcbdsz.log del pcbdsz.log
dsz.com handshake both pB4096 z pr1 rz -p %3
- v14.5 now supports more "security specific" files than did v14.2. For
example, you can create security specific versions of your NEWS, CNFN, DOORS,
CLOSED, EXPIRED and WARNING files. Reminder: a security specifc file is
a file with the security level on the end of it (e.g. CNFN10 could be the
conference menu for level 10 users).
- v14.5 now supports the use of @X## variables inside of files to add color to
a file without using ANSI codes. The advantages to use @X## codes over ANSI
codes are: 1) the file is smaller, and 2) you only need ONE file. You no
longer need to have a graphics version of your files because PCBoard will
automatically determine when it should send ansi codes as replacements for
@X## codes and when not to (based on the caller's "graphics" mode). See the
file CONVERT.DOC for more information.
- function key definitions under v14.5 can include "^M" to signify a carriage
return so that you can stack more than one line into a function key. For
example you could logon with: y q^Mfirst last^Mpassword^M
- a function key can actually bring in an entire file instead of being limited
to one line of text - to do so, simply type a percent sign followed by the
name of the file (example: @c:\pcb\msg\welcome).
- new capabilities are available in the PCBTEXT file - see a description of
these new capabilities in the DEVELOP file.
- Setting the "Download K-Bytes" in your PWRD file to 32767 will now display
the word "Unlimited" to the caller instead of 32767*1024 bytes. This is
also true of the @bytesleft@ and @bytelimit@ variables.
- You can define NON-standard comm ports for your system by selecting a comm
port number in the range from 3 to 8 and then specifying the IRQ and PORT
ADDRESS in the Modem Information Screen.
- External Protocols can now be specified as requiring an Error Corrected
session in the PCBPROT.DAT file and you can also specify if the comm port
is to be left open during the shelled protocol and whether or not the
status lines should be frozen at the top.
- Since all of the old PCBoard switches (such as /BLIM:xx, /MAX:xx, /DELAY:x)
have all been moved into PCBSetup you may now remove them from your batch
file. NOTE: if you have needed the /NMT switch in the past then you should
continue to use it now.
- You can set the "Max 'K' Download Bytes" to automatically adjust according
to baud rate by setting the "base baud rate" in the PWRD file. For example,
if your MAX K-BYTES is 100K and you have a "Base Baud Rate" of 1200 then a
2400 baud caller would receive a maximum of 200K. Leaving the value "0"
forces the limit to be an "absolute limit" - meaning it does not change
according to baud rate. The base baud rate can be set for each individual
security level so that you can provide absolute limits on some security
levels and auto-adjusting limits on others.
- You can set the batch limit (maximum files per batch) according to security
level in the PWRD file.
- The LOGOFF file can now dispense with the leading semicolons if it is used
solely as a display file and not a questionnaire. You must make sure that
the name of the ANSWER file is blank in PCBSetup in order to do this.
- The DOORS.LST file has some new parameters that allow you to create a
USERS.SYS or DOORS.SYS file and optionally tell PCBoard where to find the
door batch file.
PLEASE NOTE! Some programs may not properly read the DOORS.LST file if you
take advantage of this feature.
Other New Features which can be used without affecting previous releases
========================================================================
- Of course, all of the new "commands" are immediately available to the
caller (such as WHO or USER or the new text searching capabilities) without
modification to your system.
- You can have v14.5 automatically colorize DIR files "on-the-fly". There is
NO modification made to your DIR files - it simply reads your non-graphics
files and inserts color codes into the stream of data being sent to the
modem and screen. To enable this enter the name and location of your
PCBFILER.DEF file at the bottom of the File Locations 2 screen in PCBSetup.
- You can have v14.5 answer the phone after X number of rings instead of
always answering on the first ring. (Modem Information screen)
- You can set the security level for callers who can enter @-variables into the
message base in the "Sysop Information" screen in PCBSetup.
- You can set the security levels for the TEST, USERS and WHO commands in the
"User Levels" screen in PCBSetup and also set the security level required for
a user to perform BATCH file transfers.
- You can tell PCBoard to include an "Uploaded By" line in each upload file
description (Options 1 screen)
- You can disable local drops to DOS via F5 (Options 1 screen)
- You can pre-load your CNAMES file or PCBTEXT file to help speed up your
system (especially helps on networks or machines with slow disk drives).
(Options 1 screen)
- The system defaults to a faster disk writing method which is incompatible
with Slave Cards running NTNX v1.68. You can enable Slave Card updating.
(Options 1 screen)
- You can set the default number of days in a NEW USER's subscription period
(Subscription Screen) or the number of days prior to expiration that the user
should begin getting a warning message.
- You can set the maximum number of messages that can be captured for download
and also place a limit per conference. (Options 3 screen)
- You can set the number of minutes prior to an event to stop allowing new
uploads. (Event screen)
- Multi-letter commands (such as OPEN, NODE, USERS, COPY, MOVE, REPLY, NEWS)
can now be abbreviated using the first 2 letters of the command.