Stars of Shareware: DFÜ und Kommunikation

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Text File | 1991-10-26 | 12.7 KB | 281 lines

AUTOSIG Version 6.80 _______ August 3, 1991 AUTOSIG - ATO - has undergone many changes since Version 6.3a was released in March of 1990. Many of the changes are transparent to the user and reflect corrections to reported problems and improvements to overall function and performance. AUTOSIG consists of the following files: o AUTOSIG.EXE - main program o AUTOSIG.DOC - user's manual formatted for 60 lines per page o AUTOSIG.HLP - program help file o WHATSNEW.68A - this file identifying changes since version 6.3a o ATO.ICO and ATO.PIF - for operation under MS Windows AUTOSIG requires about 350K to run, and 90K more than that if the PPN processor (Alt-M command) is used. This file summarizes the more important changes since Version 6.3a. You should check AUTOSIG.DOC for more information. You should also carefully review the new help screens for any new interesting functions. The most notable enhancements to AUTOSIG are: ____________________________________________ o AUTOJOIN - ATO now detects that you have entered a new forum, and it will sign you up as a new member. To do this, a couple of things are required. First, ATO now asks you for the name that you would like to use. This name is stored in the AUTOSIG.DFN definitions file. You can change the name by editing the DFN file and modifying the last record. (To do this, you must use an editor which can handle very long (512-byte) records or lines.) Second, your CIS profile must specify that you are in Menu (not Command) mode for new forums. In addition to AUTOJOIN, there is a new Alt-J command available in terminal mode. When invoked, it sets all of the forum OPtions that ATO likes. You can have this function performed as part of an AUTO pass by inserting the + (plus) command code in your AUTO list. Thus you can use the AUTO + command to update your lists of forum section and library section names. o 10xxxx USERIDS - Wherever ATO uses PPNs (user IDs), the 10xxxx series of PPNs may now be used. This includes the PPN (address list) processor, automatic pickup of return address when replying to message and use in the Send box in the message editor. o SCRIPT processor - Script handling has been overhauled. The capacity has been increased to 500 statements of 126 bytes each. Several more verbs have been improved to expand symbolic variables. The %PCDATE and %PCTIME global variables have been added to return the current date and time. o MESSAGE EDITOR - There are many, many improvements to the message editor. Some of these are: - Alt-R restores the current line - Alt-E shells to DOS Other enhancements include: __________________________ o File sharing and locking has been implemented to improve data integrity when running ATO on a network, or in a multitasking environment. o The QS/Mark function now works entirely in memory. There is a limit of 500 quick scan headers. o A "deadman switch" has been added to try to prevent remaining online doing nothing. If CIS is idle for more than 60 seconds, ATO tries to wake CIS up by sending a command (an XON). After another minute, ATO sends the XON followed by a carriage return (enter). One minute later, ATO logs you off. o A communications scroll-back buffer can be used to review your online session. While in terminal mode, pressing the up arrow presents the communications buffer. You can use the up and down arrow keys, PgUp/PgDn, and Home/End keys to position the display. You may also save the buffer contents to a file for later analysis. (Note that strange-looking characters will be in the buffer after a binary file transfer. This is normal.) o Ctrl-PgUp can be used in terminal mode in Email to upload binary files. You are prompted for the file name and the addressee ID. o Alt-Q command in terminal mode saves the current screen display to a file called SCREEN.ATO. It appends data to the file if it already exists. o More text search commands are available in the Read and View functions: / for case sensitive, \ for case insensitive (same as L), F9 to search backwards, and F3 to search forwards. o In the Read function, the "Sav" caption at the bottom of the screen will be shown in inverse when you have Saved the current message. The indicator will stay that way until you leave the current message. ATO will also refuse to do a second save and issue a short error message if you hit S again while still viewing the same message. If the message is a multiple-screen message and the bottom prompt line is not visible, "Saved" will be shown in inverse at the bottom left of the current screen. Note that all of this only applies until you move to a different message. o Sysop commands FMA, FMB, CHA and DELETE can be set offline during message Reading with ATO automatically executing them online later. Details on these commands are available in a separate document. o Handling of downloads (via PgDn at a disposition prompt) where the new file has the same name as an existing file has been improved. If the requested file already exists in your download path, ATO will ask you whether you want to over-write it. If you are running from a script, ATO will skip the file with the name conflict. o Thread marking and thread skipping are now available when Marking H and J full headers. o Alt-L on the forum function menu invokes Vern Buerg's shareware LIST program to view the bulletin file as an alternative to the L command. o COM9 is another alternative "COMmunications port" name in the host menu to allow for a different configuration used for COM3 with some hardware. o The /5 command line switch puts ATO into 43/50 line EGA/VGA mode. o When doing an autopass, Version 6.3a forced use of the "quick" CompuServe logon. Since that logon causes problems in some situations, autopass no longer forces the quick logon. You can select the quick logon by using the /Y switch when loading ATO (unless you are using Telenet or Tymnet, when quick logon will not work anyway). o Alt-G in terminal mode will now pick up library names as well as section names. Alt-N in terminal mode will then alternately display section and library names. o R>eply has been removed from the Kill menu. It was there, but non-functional in Version 6.3a. It is non-functional because that feature made it too easy to lose a lot of work composing replies if you hit the wrong key. The same function can be achieved by selecting Preview and selecting Cancel (F2) for each message. If you are sure you want to dump all messages, you can Preview and hit Alt-F2 repeatedly which will abort each outgoing message without asking for confirmation. Message Editor - Changes in existing program functions: ______________________________________________________ o In Version 6.3a, the J command from the Read function sent a message to the addressee of the message being Read, but that message started a new thread rather than joining the existing thread. The J command has been changed so that it checks the Sb: in the header to find the message # to which the message being Read was a reply. This is called the "parent" message. If it finds a parent message, the new message you create will be sent as a reply to the parent message, meaning the new message will be in the same place in the thread as the message being read. This sounds more complicated than it is so an example may help. Assume that you are Reading a message with the following header: #: 61635 S1/Autosig (ATO) [C] 05-May-91 22:03:21 Sb: #61571-Multipart messages Fm: SysOp Jim McKeown 76702,1102 To: Vern Buerg 70007,1212 If you hit J, you will be composing a message which will reply to #61571 (which is the parent message to message #61635) and be addressed to Vern Buerg 70007,1212. If no backward reference message # is found in the header (say the above header was just "Multipart messages", then ATO just creates a new message addressed to Vern Buerg 70007,1212. o In Version 6.3a a W (Write new message) operation where a public new message was Broken into multiple parts (by using Alt-B in the editor) was sent as a thread of messages with the second and later parts each being posted as a reply to the previous part. With the new version, multipart new messages from W which are addressed to a specific non-sysop ID will be sent as separate messages each addressed to that ID. This change was made to ensure that all parts of such messages will be more accessible to the addressee. Messages which do not contain an ID or where the ID is a sysop ID will still be sent as a single thread. o When you are editing a message whose send mode (accessible in the send box using F7) is set for private posting on the forum (P or X), the second to last line on your screen will be set to the inverse of your hilite color selection. This will make it easier to know whether you are sending a message privately and avoid sending messages public when you wanted them private. o If you attempt to send a private message in a forum which does not allow them, ATO will now send it to the intended recipient using CompuServe Mail. o When using Remind (F3) in the message editor, you can press A to go to the top of the "remind" message. This is similar to the same function in Read. (Home also works the same way in each case.) Fixes to problems with Version 6.3a ___________________________________ o Start time now works properly with /1 and /2. o The Skip RM setting will now skip the read of waiting messages on entering a forum if Skip RM is set to Y o Certain machines' problems with losing characters from CompuServe are now fixed. o Messages can now be uploaded successfully with LINEDIT selected as your forum editor, though we still recommend you keep EDIT selected as your forum editor since it is faster. o Subjects are now picked up correctly from CompuServe Mail messages. o If you run out of space in the editor, ATO should stop you and tell you that you can't add any more lines. o The F forum function will now continue properly even if an attempt is made to use F in a forum which has no new messages to read. Fixes to problems with Version 6.8a ___________________________________ Please note that you probably haven't seen many of these problems, however they are all documented for completeness. 6.8b - October 25, 1991 o Correct deadman routine not disconnecting after third timeout. o Fix script prompts to work with prompt character in library. o Display warning if part of incoming message too long for display in R or V. o Combine RT commands to improve speed downloading messages with D. Thanks to Walter Dnes for inspiring this change. (Warning: this will cause the RT commands sent to CIS to look different.) o Correct auto-join to work properly anytime user enters forum in menu mode. (Note: users should set DEFAULT profile for menu mode so auto-join is activated when entering new forums.) o Correct COM not echoing after alt-E (DOS shell) while in terminal mode. o Correct error 13 during alt-G. o Show warning if part of message not displayed. o Correct synchronization problem with Q and ATO HMN beyond CIS HMN. o Combine read thread lines to improve D function speed. o Allow commas in forum name entry o Change PgDn check for "Disposition !" prompt to account for ^H as the prompt character. o Correct using PPN from earlier messages for replies. o Correct E (shell) waiting for COM data after disconnect. o Add command line /W switch to disable deadman timeout routines. o Add more checking for /type: and /prot: in script UPL command. o Correct appending data to files after EOF (x'1A') control character. o Correct script, including Email, uploads causing problems. o Change PPN processor to treat <enter> like Paste, <spacebar> like old enter. o Correct truncated DFN file after alt-K/alt-O. o Correct out of memory problem at disconnect (writing DFN file) o Add ability to specify COM port address and IRQ instead of COMn name: the syntax is &Hxxxx/i where xxxx is the hex base port address, e.g. 03F8 for COM1, and i is the IRQ numbers, e.g. 4 for COM1; DO NOT USE this unless your modem uses an IRQ other than 3 or 4!