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Text File | 1987-02-28 | 14.0 KB | 251 lines

What's New in RBBS Version 15.1A? --------------------------------- RBBS-PC CPC15-1A will be the 28th release of RBBS-PC CPCxx since it was first published in July of 1983. RBBS-PC's policy of freely distributing the source code and continually expanding it's range of capabilities throughout these last four years represents not only the very best that is embodied in the concept of "users helping users" but an expectation of excellence that NO product in the PC industry has ever even approached. Here is a brief summary of the major enhancements in RBBS-PC CPC15-1A: o SPEED! RBBS-PC runs significantly faster. o STRUCTURE! Code has been made easier for users to modify. There is more room in the main code segment and RBBS-PC more efficiently uses string space. o MINIMUM SYSOP MAINTENANCE REQUIRED! There is a new, but optional, FILE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (FMS) that can be set up so that the SYSOP no longer need maintain his file system "directories." User's can be allowed to automatically categorize the files they upload. The new entry will be written to the file management system and, optionally, strewn to a second file that a SYSOP might wish to edit and insert an evaluation or comments about the uploaded files. The speed of file searches has been increased from 10 to 100-fold. A caller can download in the midst of listing files, and the listing will resume where it left off after downloading is completed. o ADDITIONAL FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS! More error checking protocols for file exchange. Now support exists for YMODEM, WINDOWED XMODEM, YMODEMG, and IMODEM in addition to KERMIT, XMODEM (checksum) and XMODEM (CRC). o LAN ELECTRONIC MAIL! RBBS-PC can be run as a "workstation" appearing on the local PC's screen exactly as it would to a user who had dialed in as remote user. In "workstation" mode, RBBS-PC can be run on a PC without either a modem or a RS-232 interface. It can serve as an electronic mail system on a local area network in "workstation" mode (up to 36 stations) or as a teaching tool in a classroom environment to demonstrate RBBS-PC's full range of features. o ALL COMMANDS CONFIGURABLE! The symbols used for the RBBS-PC commands are configurable. Any command can be disabled. Users see only what commands they have sufficient security to execute. A SYSOP can even configure RBBS-PC so that any command can be executed from any sub-section. All of this is, as always, optional. RBBS-PC tries to strive to let each SYSOP have total autonomy (rather attempt to restrict). o MULTIPLE QUESTIONAIRES! The new command A)nswer command allows multiple optional questionaires to be set up that users can selectively answer. A SYSOP can put up a questionaire at anytime that all users (both new and old) must answer. A new command has been added to the questionair script language that allows the SYSOP to elect to have nothing written to the script's data file. o USERS CAN VIEW ARC FILES! User's can obtain a verbose listings of the the contents of an ARCed file prior to downloading it. o TOTAL USER CONTROL OF PREFERENCES! A user can now T)oggle on or off any of his preferences. o UNIQUE USER ID'S! With RBBS-PC CPC15-1A, any field (not just the user's name) can be used to uniquely identify users. More than one user can have the same ID (everyone in a the same SIG) and still have unique names. A new field for whatever the SYSOP wants to use to identify users now exists within the USER's record. Users can be added with no pre- assigned password (i.e the first caller who uses the name is allowed to set the password). RBBS-PC can be set up so that valid accounts are pre- loaded and users can be given INSTANTANEOUS access at the discretion of the SYSOP, e.g. when the users becomes a member of a user group or SIG. o MULTIPLE UPLOADS! Just as earlier versions of RBBS-PC allowed for multiple downloads, CPC15-1A now allows multiple file names to be specified on a single command line when uploading. o BUILT-IN SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES! RBBS-PC CPC15-1A has built in support for limiting callers based on a subscription date. A subscription period can be specified for every security level, and the security a caller gets when his subscription expires is specifiable. This allows automatic support for SYSOP's who request users to purchase subscription to their boards or for time-limited privileges. Stored in each caller's record is the date the subscription began. o COMMAND-LEVEL HELP! Help files can now be specified not just by section, but by individual command, as well as a menu of SYSOP-specified special topics, such as ARC files. o MUSIC! The SYSOP can elect to have the PC running RBBS-PC to play a musical refrain each time a user selects specific functions (i.e. "Walk right in" when a new user logs on; "Dragnet" when a security violation occurs; "Goodbye Charlie" when a user logs off; "Taps" when a user is denied access; "OOM PAH PAH" when a user downloads; "Thanks for the Memories" when a user uploads). The auditory feedback enables SYSOPS to focus on other activities without having to watch the local screen. More importantly, this type of auditory feed-back is intended to aid SYSOP's who are visually impaired. o CONSTRAINTS OF EARLIER VERSIONS LIFTED! Many of the constraints that existed in versions of RBBS-PC prior to 15-1A have been lifted. some of them are: The upload directory need not be present on the same drive/subdirectory that uploaded files are written to. When the users file is full, new users need no longer be kicked off the system. Instead, they can be let on but not remembered, i.e. not be written to the user's file. On subsequent calls, they will remain new users and must re-register. RBBS-PC can be logged on to from the keyboard of the PC on which it is running (without calling through a modem) and will respond to the PC's screen in the same manner as a remote user would see it. First and last names can have interior blanks. Initial blanks are still not allowed, and trailing blanks are still ignored. The file description for uploads can be up to 46 characters long. The speed with which text files, such as menus, are displayed, can be increased by enlarging the buffer size used within 15-1A for displaying ASCII files via a parameter in CONFIG. Viewing the upload directory (or the uploads with the default category code) is controlled by the user's security level. Before, if you made the upload drive not available for downloading, only the SYSOP could view the upload directory. o BETTER ERROR TRAPPING! RBBS-PC CPC15-1A now detects and reports any problem when writing during an upload.; recovers from any problem when trying to kill a file already present before an upload; and traps all bad paths in a file name. o BETTER PROMPTS/MESSAGES! Much effort has been expended to insure that where possible prompts were clarified, messages made more meaningful, and defaults consistently shown. Some examples of this are: The "G>raphics" command was clarified. The prompt makes it clear that ASCII and color options are for IBM computers and the "help" file for the command is automatically displayed when the user is in "novice" mode. "Chat" mode now has a beginning opening and closing message. The prompt for a "P>assword" now clearly states that pressing enter quits. The "N>ulls" command now explains that it is for printing terminals. "Press [ENTER] to quit" is used more uniformly. Defaults with prompts are more uniformly indicated by putting [] around the default. The List command no longer requires that a directory be specified in advance. The list command used alone will prompt for a directory and default to the directory of directories. The editing command in messages is much easier to use. It no longer requires the user to specify new and old string together but breaks up the edit into a search for what and replace by what. The syntax from earlier versions of RBBS-PC is still supported in keeping with RBBS-PC's long-standing policy of being upward compatable. The prompt when changing page length has been clarified to indicate that the number of lines can have any value between 0 and 255. U>pload and D>ownload commands immediately respond with message "Searching for file...". In some configurations with large (and/or) slow disks a user might see a signficant delay with no indication what was going on with this new response. If 1000 or more files are searched in a directory without filling the screen with "hits", the caller is asked whether he wants to continue the search. Requests for Non-stop in file searches in the L)ist and S)ubstring commands require confirmation if at least a 1000 more files remain to be searched. File searching supports true paging. No longer will the menu or multiple searches scroll away previous results. The pause properly pauses at the bottom. Callers are now informed explicitly whenever an upload or download was successful. Some novices mistakenly thought that errors during tranmission mean they had to re-do the transmission. o ENHANCED SECURITY! Paths are now supported in the file security system. Kermit up/down loads no longer list drive/path where then file is located. More secure limitation of DOORS and QUESTIONNAIRES exist since RBBS-PC will no longer accept proper substrings of legitimate items. o NEW DEBUG MODE! Special debug mode has been added to allow all errors, including those that are handled within RBBS-PC, to be seen as they occur. o AUTO-NOTIFICATION! The SYSOP can elect to notify users immediately upon loging on of the number of new bulletins and new files available for downloading since the user last logged on. o TURBO-DOWNLOADING! A SYSOP can allow users to review the files that are new since the user last logged on and download them immediately (without requiring the user to see any messages). o INVALID DIRECTORIES ELIMINATED! All directories to be searched are put in one specific drive/subdirectory in order to speed up directory searches and simplify maintenance. This eliminates the possibility that data files with the same extension of true directories being considered RBBS-PC directories. o PROMPTS WIPED OFF SCREEN! "MORE" prompts are wiped away after a response, except when files to download are specified. Very useful when more interupts continuous text, as in menu or message. o RING-NO-ANSWER MINIMIZED! As soon as carrier is lost or the SYSOP takes RBBS-PC off line via function key F1 to use the PC for other things, the phone is taken off the hook so callers will receive a busy signal (and not be charged for the call by the phone company). o AUTODOWNLOAD ENHANCED! The SYSOP can select to turn off the automatic test of every user for autodownloading. The escape sequence test for autodownloading caused problems with some communications packages and terminals. User's now can toggle autodownloading on and off during a session and their preference will be permanently remembered. o MISCELLANEOUS BUGS FIXED! While numerous bugs in 141D have been corrected, the ones that come to mind are: A TAB in messages is not allowed. A caller will not be kicked off with a sleep disconnect after chatting with the SYSOP for more than the maximum time a caller can be idle. Very long messages no longer cause RBBS-PC to hang in the middle of entering them. Uploaded files do not have a control-Z appended to them (which formerly resulted in spurious CRC errors on ARC files). The SYSOP can configure RBBS-PC for more bulletins than exist. File sizes are now properly recorded for all uploads. Failed uploads with 0 bytes are now recognized as bad uploads. KERMIT file transfers can now occur with file names (drive, path, filename) up to the full maximum of 63 charaters. ====================END OF WHAT'S NEW IN RBBSPC CPC151A================