Ham Radio/Ham Radio CD-ROM (Emerald Software) (1995).ISO/bbs/msys113/whatsnew.113

Text File | 1992-02-06 | 10KB | 243 lines

        What's New in MSYS 1.13      February, 1992

        IMPORTANT:  You must use the new version of MUTIL with this  ver-
        sion  of  MSYS (ie, run setup, function 9). Its probably  also  a
        good idea to delete MSYS.HRD when going to a different version of
        MSYS or changing the port statements in MSYS.OPT!


        A  new stripped down version of MSYS that supports only  the  BBS
        functions is now available. There is no network node, no dx node,
        no amtor, no tcp/ip in this version. You can still forward  using
        external network nodes and the K node is still there. All of  the
        bbs  functions remain, along with modem support. Expanded  memory
        is  also  still supported. This version is called  MSYSB  and  is
        available  on a separate disk or on Cleveland Hamnet. If want  to
        get this disk from me, it is the same
        price  as  the others: $5 to US addresses, $7.50  to  Canada  and
        Mexico,  and $10 to other countries.

        USER  PASSWORDS: If a user has their flag bits set with the  $400
        bit on, when they connect they will get the Usage stats msg  line
        and  must give the proper 4 characters just like a  sysop  would.
        The password file for a user must be in the new PASSWORD directo-
        ry and has a filename of the user's call (no ssid, no file exten-
        sion).

        The Sysop command WHo has been changed to WHO.

        New Sysop command: WHY msg# wordfile
        This  command will search for the words in wordfile (same  format
        as  in the hold file) in the given msg#. Useful when you do a  LH
        and want to see which words might have been caught.

        New BBS command for the sysop: R+
        This  command goes through all the held msgs using the hold  file
        trying to identify why each was held and allowing you to continue
        to hold, kill, or release as private or bulletin each msg.

        New BBS command for the sysop: K*
        This  command  goes through ALL messages, allowing you  to  kill,
        keep or hold any of them. You can also read a given msg (it  must
        be  in the mail.bak directory). When reading a msg this way,  use
        the space bar to pause the display.

        The  DX Node can now be accessed from the Network node using  the
        Dx command.

        MODEM SUPPORT - Bugs have been corrected in the modem software
        related to lines that were too long. You can also create a file
        called MSYSMOD.MSG that contains ascii text to be displayed to
        anyone connecting to the modem port before they get the call and
        password prompts.


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        Several tcp/ip bugs have also been corrected.

        New Sysop command: DXE call-list
        Enables  the  given callsigns (with ssids) to connect to  the  dx
        node as dx nodes. This allows MSYS systems to link their dx nodes
        together. Example:
        DXEnable K8EIW-7 NO8M-2

        The  Sysop  command DXST has been modified so that if  the  first
        parameter  is  a letter, most of the dx functions  are  disabled,
        causing it to act like a the conference function found in the  dx
        node. Example:
        DXST Conferenceonly

        The BBS command L? for the sysop now also reports msgs sent to
        your bbs for calls that are not registered as users of your bbs.
        For example, suppose someone sends a msg to W1AW@mybbs. The msg
        would show up in a regular L as going to W1AW and @BBS of ---
        (what you normally see for messages to local users). If W1AW is
        not a registered user of my system, then such a message would
        show up when L? is used.

        The maximum number of bids in the bid file is now settable  using
        MUTIL function 21.

        Note:  If you run into problems with newer versions of  QEMM  and
        MSYS, try turning off the stealth option in QEMM.

        The callbook server has split out of MSYS. There are two  servers
        available,  one for the Buckmaster CD ROM and one for  the  j-com
        disk files. Note that the CAllfile command has been removed  from
        MSYS. In its place you specify the name of the file (or directory
        in case of j-com files) to be used when you start the appropriate
        call server TSR.


        To  use  either the Buckmaster CD ROM callsign  files,  or  those
        available from
        j-com, you must load the appropriate TSR program before  starting
        MSYS. Once this is done accessing the call server is the same  as
        it  has been in the past (using either the PC command in the  BBS
        or sending a msg to REQQTH @ the bbs call).

        The TSR for the CD ROM files is CALLSRV1. It optionally takes one
        pararmeter, the name of the callsign file. If none is given,  the
        default is  S:\HAM0\HAMCALL.129.

        The TSR for the j-com files is CALLSRV2. It optionally takes  one
        parameter,  the name of the directory in which you installed  the
        several j-com files. If none is given, the default is F:HAMBASE.


        FORWARDING NOTE: Make sure you don't have any blank lines in your
        various  forward  files  (msysfwd.def and the files  in  the  fwd


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        directory).


        Here  is some useful information about running MSYS  under  Desq-
        view, provided by my local DV guru, K8EIW (Thanks, Don!):
        To  run MSYS under DesqView on a 386 or a 486 machine, try  these
        values  in  the  "Add Program" (AP) setup: O (for Other)  F1  (to
        specify Program Information)
        PROGRAM NAME = MSYS
        Keys To Use = MS (or your choice!)
        Memory Size = (as big as you can make it - try 585K)
        Program  = C:\MSYS\MSYS.EXE (be sure to specify proper drive  and
        sub-directory)
        Directory = C:\MSYS  (you DO use subdirectories, don't you?)
        Writes text directly to screen.......: [Y]
        Displays graphics information........: [N]
        Virtualize text/graphics (Y,N,T).....: [Y]
        Uses serial ports (Y,N,1,2)..........: [Y]
        Requires floppy diskette.............: [N]
        F1 for advanced options
        Starting Height:  25
        Starting Row...:   0
        Starting Width.:  80
        Starting Column:   0
        Close   on   exit   (Y,N,blank)......:  [   ]
        Uses its own colors..............: [Y]
        Allow   Close  Window  command.....:  [Y]
        Runs in background (Y,N,blank)...: [ ]
        Uses  math  coprocessor..........:  [Y]
        Keyboard conflict (0-F)..........: [0]
        Share   CPU   when   foreground......:  [Y]
        Share EGA when foreground/zoomed.: [Y]
        Can  be  swapped  out (Y,N,blank).: [  ]
        Protection level (0-3)...........: [0]

        In the performance section:
        Foreground 9
        Background 6
        Allow swapping Y

        If  you choose to use QEMM as your memory manager, the  following
        line in your  CONFIG.SYS file should give satisfactory results:

        DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QEMM386.SYS RAM ROM

        A WORD OF CAUTION:
        When  using QEMM-386, the /ST:M option in the DEVICE=  line  will
        cause  MSYS  to  not load properly. There may  be  other  options
        which will also cause grief.

        These  suggestions are not necessarily the optimum  settings  for
        your system, but they have been known to work.


        A useful utility called PAK is found on the primary MSYS  distri-


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        bution disk. This clever program will take any file (binary, text
        or otherwise) and both compress and convert the result into lines
        of printable ASCII characters suitable for downloading. I suppose
        they  could  also  be sent in msgs but  use  careful  forethought
        before doing it! The same program is used to extract the original
        file  from the encoded version. This program is somewhat  similar
        to R95 but includes quite effective data compression.

        I am still looking into using data compression during forwarding.

        Notes on sending me messages with questions/suggestions/etc: I do
        try  to respond to your messages. Keep in mind I do get  quite  a
        few at times. Messages that contain demands (add this feature  or
        correct this bug immediately and put out a new release or I won't
        use your program) generally are saved in the bit bucket. If I was
        getting $500 dollars a copy from everyone using MSYS it might  be
        a  different story but for a free program be considerate! Try  to
        put just one thought/question in each message. If you bundle up a
        whole bunch, I don't respond until I can address all your issues.
        If  you  send follow-up messages, please give a sentence  or  two
        summary  of  the problem so that I may understand  what  you  are
        talking  about.  Just saying "I tried what you suggested  and  it
        still  doesn't work, anything else to try?" doesn't give me  much
        of  a  clue about the situation. Although you may have  only  one
        problem  you are dealing with and can easily remember its  entire
        history,  I  don't have that luxury here! If you  find  what  you
        think  is a bug, please try to tell me how to reproduce it,  what
        you  are  seeing,  and what you think should  be  happening.  The
        harder  the  problem, the longer it takes me to work  on  it  and
        respond.  When you run into any sort of problem, simplify  every-
        thing as much as possible. Remove all statements from config.sys,
        autoexec.bat,  msys.opt  and msys.do that are  not  essential  to
        reproduce  the bug. Believe me, this will probably help you  find
        at least half of the problems and their solutions yourself.























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