EnigmA Amiga Run 1995 October

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Text File | 1995-04-30 | 39KB | 949 lines

-------------------- OzMetro Changes File -------------------- Changes made after the V2.0 release are listed here in REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER (ie most recent changes first). ----------------------------------------------- Version 2.22 (30 Apr 95) & Muddles Version 4.5 ----------------------------------------------- * Added the SCREEN0-SCREEN7 keywords for setting the screen colours. The Plutonic docs will suffice, they work exactly the same. Also included in this archive is a re-vamped Muddles program, reading in and using the SCREEN0-SCREEN7 keywords. ----------------- SCREEN0 - SCREEN7 ----------------- These 8 keywords are similar to the COLOURS command in TrapDoor, with a few extensions. Also, since COLO(U)R was already being used as a Plutonic keyword I had to choose a different name. The important distinction between SCREENx and COLOURx is that COLOURx actually changes the display that the REMOTE caller sees, by altering the ANSI code that is sent to the modem (and local screen). SCREENx only affects the display at YOUR end. If ANSI colour 2 is sent to the remote, then the remote caller will see green (unless he's remapped HIS colour registers in the comms program, of course). However you can remap your local display so that this screen colour on the local console is anything at all. Plutonic uses an 8 colour console window for its display. By default it is mapped almost to ANSI standards, with a very dark brown background and the seven colours nearly matching the ANSI settings. The ANSI standard colour maps are: 0 - black 1 - red 2 - green 3 - yellow 4 - blue 5 - magenta (purple) 6 - cyan (aqua) 7 - white Using the SCREENx commands, you can select exactly what colours the screen uses if you get sick of the ANSI mapping. For each SCREENx keyword you need to specify a three-digit hexadecimal value indicating how much Red, Green and Blue that register should get. Take as an example the SCREEN0 command. This is black. To get a jet black colour from the keyword you'll need to specify no red, no green and no blue. In the config this would appear as SCREEN0 000. The first digit of the argument is the amount of red, the second digit, blue, the third the amount of green. The values have 16 posible settings, from 0 to F. Let's take a look at a few more examples: To get a bright white (say for SCREEN7) then you need to use as much red green and blue as possible. And in Hex, the highest value you can use is "F" (decimal 15). So you'd need to use SCREEN7 FFF. If you want a really bright red colour, you simply have to use a high value for red, no blue and no green. So you might use SCREEN1 B00. To get purple, you need a lot of red, a lot of blue, and not much green at all. So you might use SCREEN5 C2B. If you experiment with these settings and come up with a colour combination that looks really good, please let me know what it was. I haven't had enough time to experiment much myself, and I'm looking for a change after using an ANSI mapping for three years. Default: Screen0 000 Screen1 F11 Screen2 1F1 Screen3 FF1 Screen4 55F Screen5 F1F Screen6 1FF Screen7 FEF Example: (these are the pure ANSI standards settings) SCREEN0 141 SCREEN1 D62 SCREEN2 2D2 SCREEN3 CB2 SCREEN4 56C SCREEN5 B6B SCREEN6 5DC SCREEN7 FEF ------------------------- Version 2.21 (08 Apr 95) ------------------------- * Bugfix in crash recovery code. Will actually work now (had no hope of working in 2.20) ------------------------- Version 2.20 (26 Mar 95) ------------------------- * Changed opening position of snoop window back to top right-hand corner rather than top left. You're right, Pete, it does cover up less important stuff if it's up at the top right. NB: you can drag this window around if it's in the way. * Leading and trailing spaces (if any) around user names entered when logging in stripped. * New keyword (NO)ONENAMEOKAY If you want your users to give you both first and last names, and don't allow aliases you can turn off this option. With NOONENAMEOKAY, if a user enters a name that does not contain at least one space (eg "CYBERDUDE") the name will be rejected and they're asked to enter both their first and last names. It defaults to ONENAMEOKAY (to be consistent with the current actions). NB: if you use the NOONENAMEOKAY option, then you should edit your BBS:BBSFILES/Prompts file. The SEVENTH line of this file is sent should a user login giving only one name. My seventh line of the prompts file reads: Couldn't you afford two names? Please enter your FULL name, first & last! Default: ON (ie ONENAMEOKAY) Example: NOONENAMEOKAY * A little more code restructuring, but since this will be a full release I didn't want to go overboard and introduce too many bugs! ------------ Version 2.19 ------------ * Version number skipped. ------------------------- Version 2.18 (25 Mar 95) ------------------------- * Endless loop (of re-running itself) bug fixed where a user dropped carrier before completing login sequence. This was caused by accessing the utime file before actually knowing who the online user was! A user would have to drop carrier before completing the login to trigger this bug off, BTW. * New keyword (NO)RERUNONERROR Enables or disables the "re-run program on error" function. Re-running on error can be a two-edged sword (as we saw in V2.17) whereby if the error IS fatal, re-running the program still causes the error again, and the BBS keeps launching itself ad infinitum! I envisage this would mainly be due to config errors (although in the case of 2.17 was caused by a bug in the code). So you can now turn the function off if you prefer the system to have an error and lockup instead of re-running itself. Because it's easier to debug the program this way (ie you see what the error is rather than just know there was an error) I have this turned off at Inquestor. However, for most purposes I think it would be wiser turning this on, and so the default is for it to be turned on. Default: On Example NORERUNONERROR * Found two undefined GOTOs in the code, fixed. If the BBS couldn't find a textfile you had configured (eg Command number 510 was setup, but Text_510 didn't exist), the program would have guru'd. Never saw this happen here, but once I'd discovered the missing label it was easy to reproduce by renaming the odd textfile :-) * More internal code re-structuring. Nothing for you to worry about because functionality hasn't been changed. However less lines of code may be used to perform certain functions now. Severe GOTO reduction strategy now in place :-) ------------------------- Version 2.17 (24 Mar 95) ------------------------- * LZX support added (what the hell!). .LZX archives have an archive signature of "LZX" as the first three characters of the file. This was relatively easy to add given the re-working of this code in V 2.14. You get a new pair of keywords: LISTLZX - the command to use for listing .LZX archives, and EXTRACTLZX to get the File_ID.diz out of LZX archive uploads. Defaults: List: lzx v Extract: lzx -m -X0 x Examples: LISTLZX lzx l EXTRACTLZX lzx x NB: IMHO, Lzx in its current version (1.0 EC) is extremely buggy. The "e" command does not work at all, and neither does the "-m" command. That's about as far as I've looked. I would NOT go for a wholesale archive conversion to this method until several more revisions of the program have been made, and some of these somewhat serious bugs have been removed. * Now logs that the re-login function was been used. * serial device and unit when calling XPRdoor was using the hard-coded "serial.device", unit 0. These are now taken from the config settings. BEWARE: virtually all doors have a hardcoded serial.device unit 0 in place for remote operation. If you change these from the defaults, be aware that virtually all doors in existence (that don't have these keywords in THEIR configs) will fall over in remote mode. * Bugfix: The Time Off: line wasn't being logged unless the user dropped carrier. These lines have now been placed on the correct side of the ENDIF :-) * Bugfix: With the snoop window open on the screen, if a user loaded a door or did some other action that closed the screen, the window flag was not being toggled. Now the snoop window is closed automatically and the flag set correctly each time the main BBS screen is closed. ------------------------- Version 2.16 (23 Mar 95) ------------------------- * New Keyword PROGNAME Because the BBS now runs itself in two situations, it needs to know the name of itself. Add here the name and path of the Metro executable. If you call the program "Metro" and store it in a directory which is included in the search path, you don't need to specify this. Default: Metro Example: PROGNAME Mail:Bin/OzMetro * New Command - Number 16 Re-login This allows the user to login again. The daily time used file is written out, the DoorData.crash file is deleted, and the program is run again (at the requisite modem speed). This is quite a useful function, but you may not wish to give it to un-verified users. * If a program error that would have lead to a GFABasic Error Alert occurs, the program refreshes the DoorData.crash file, and runs itself again. This should ensure even greater stability! * Extra time given to/taken from the user by the sysop, by pressing F4 and F5 now isn't included in their DAILY time used file. Users whose time you've extended will now appreciate being able to call back if they have extra time per DAY remaining. * Brand new "Snoop On User" function. Pressing F2 brings up a window (top left hand corner) with the user information. Password, phone number, time left and a host of other parameters are displayed. This can be used to check their time remaining, as a result of pressing the F4 and F5 keys. In fact, it's now possible to change the user's time, and KNOW HOW MUCH HE'S GOT LEFT without the user knowing you're doing it. Pressing F2 brings up the window, pressing F2 again closes it. Since it's a snapshot of the things that happened WHEN F2 was pressed, if you alter a user's time limit, you'll need to close and re-open the window before the time remaining figures are re-displayed. The window can also be dragged around the screen. I think we'll find this VERY handy. The user DOES NOT KNOW the window exists, and can keep using the BBS uninterrupted. Use the F-keys with absolute confidence now! * Bugfix: 2.15 wasn't adding users who dropped carrier to the dropped carriers file. ------------------------- Version 2.15 (21 Mar 95) ------------------------- * Internal GFA serial routines no longer used. New custom routines installed. Many thanks to a patient Peter Nicolas who sat by at the other end of the modem while I got all the little quirks out of this changeover (more than I had thought). Accordingly, there seems to be no limit to the baudrate the program will run at (the serial routines now in the BBS have been succesfully tested at 115,200 - mind you on a stock 68000 Amiga, greater than 38,400 is simply not practical, my poor old A500 errored out substantially downloading when locked at 57,600). But anyone with a V34/VFC modem will be pleased to know you can specify a higher locked rate than 19,200 at last! The new serial routines also open the serial port in shared rather than exclusive mode. * NB: Approximately two dozen existing Metro doors WILL NOT RUN at greater than 19,200. Any door run through P2M (Paragon type) or PlutCLI (Shell type) is 100%, in addition, the Yowzie, BBBase, PlutDoor, SayHi, Galaxy Miner, Wall and Super Chat doors all run fine at higher than 19,200 locked rate. All other AC-BASIC or HiSoft BASIC doors are really bad news (Guru) and the GFA doors using the old serial routines (Prize Door, Time Bank, Stats Door, Polling Door and Luck of the Draw), will have to be modified to work at greater than 19,200. * As you can see, using a locked baud rate of 38,400 or higher is a two-edged sword, and two dozen existing doors won't run at that speed. However, it's your choice what you DO set the baud rate to, and I've chosen to leave mine at 19,200 for the moment, but if fast transfers is your desire, losing a few old doors won't be much of a catastrophe. The GFA doors will get upgraded at some time in the future, but the AC-Basic and HiSoft doors are fairly unlikely to be upgraded. * Altered a couple of file search prompts to be more clear to the novice user. EG "Check in MAIN file areas (Y/n)?" now becomes "Check in ONE file area (y/N)?". * F4 and F5 now add/subtract TEN minutes from user's time limit for that call. (Was previously 15). The lower multiple gives you a little more resolution in altering their time limits. * F4, F5 (see above) F6, F7 (increase/decrease security level) and F9 (toggle remote output) can now all be used not only from within chat, but at ANY time the user is online. You can thus change a user's time limit, or alter their security without having to break into chat. * Final logoff message ("If you were calling Discovery this call would have cost XXX") removed. (There WAS a valid reason for this due to the reworked serial code). * New configuration keyword DEVICE Allows you to specify the name of the serial device to use for remote callers. NB: this is case sensitive. DEFAULT: serial.device EXAMPLE: DEVICE modem0.device * New configuration keyword UNIT To define the unit number when the serial device is opened. DEFAULT: 0 EXAMPLE: UNIT 1 * Due to all the additions to the config in recent revisions, I'll put a copy of my Metro.cfg in the archive. ------------------------- Version 2.14 (15 Feb 95) ------------------------- * Entirely re-wrote about 500 lines of upload code, virtually none of Percy's upload code remains. The BBS now supports batch uploads, has File_ID.diz support, will RENAME files if receiving an upload already in the directory, and (naturally) now uses Oli Wagner's XPRDoor to receive the files. It also adds the file description to the filenote fields of new uploads as they are received. Archiving list and extract commands are now also configurable from the Metro.cfg file, rather than being hard-coded, plus several new keywords have been added as a consequence of re-writing the upload code. * Nothing to do with the upload code (but springing from a new subroutine for the File_ID.diz support) is the ability to automatically determine an archive type not from the filename extension (eg .LZH, .ZIP, etc) but actually from an inspection of the first half-dozen or so bytes for an archive signature. Accordingly, the BBS can now list (say) an ARJ file, even if the final three characters are not .ARJ. The BBS can internally recognise these major archive types: ARC, ZOO, LHA/LZH (treated the same way), ZIP and ARJ * Removed use of Free program to determine uploading. Now - if you want a directory to be uploadable-to - you must CREATE a directory in that Upload directory called "Uploads". EG As listed in the File.areas file, a file area has a directory named "Dh5:IBM/". In order to permit uploads to that file area, you must create a subdirectory called "Dh5:IBM/Uploads". * Batch uploads now all work as expected - file descriptions are obtained AFTER the user performs the upload, and will be done for every file received. * Added UPLOADFREE keyword (defaults to 200,000 bytes ie current behaviour). Use this keyword to specify just how much free space has to be on an upload drive before the system will allow users to put files there. To turn uploads off completely, use a HUGE value for this keyword. Usage is UPLOADFREE <bytes> where <bytes> is the amount of free space remaining on a partition. (Limit of value you can give this keyword is 2,100,000,000 (IE two and a bit Gigabytes) Default: 200000 bytes Examples: UPLOADFREE 400000 UPLOADFREE 1000000 * Added UPLOADTIME keyword. When a user performed an upload under prior OzMetro versions, the upload time was reimbursed to the user's time limit (for that call). Now you can give back any percentage of the time they spend uploading defined by YOUR OWN keyword. To not give any reward for uploading at all (!) set this to zero. Using 100% will give the current behaviour. Setting it to 200% rewards an uploader with double upload time. (But half of that reward time will have elapsed, don't forget). You can specify any percentage from 0% to 2,100,000,000% for this value, but I'd envisage that rewarding a user with ten times the upload time (ie 1000%) would be more than sufficient for most purposes. Don't forget you can also use (say) 33%, 75% 150%, etc... Default: 100% of upload time is added to time limit Examples: UPLOADTIME 200 UPLOADTIME 50 UPLOADTIME 700 * BugFix: upload time now not charged against user's DAILY time limit when they log off. (Note: If a user spends the majority of their call uploading, and you have a high value for the UPLOADTIME percentage, it's quite conceivable that NEGATIVE connect times will arise :-) It shouldn't be a problem, except cosmetically) * If a file area directory specified in the BBS:Udfiles/File.areas config file doesn't exist, the BBS will now automatically create it. * File_ID.diz support. A File_ID.DIZ file is a short textfile included in an archive describing the program included. Its increasing popularity is due to entire CDs being constructed with the descriptions in all archive files, and it's caught on as the standard filename for short description files. OzMetro now has the ability to retrieve these files from the archive, and use them as the default description for uploads. This saves the user a lot of time uploading - they can make a short File_ID.diz textfile up, include it in the archive, and then upload it to a heap of BBSs without having to type the same description to half a dozen BBSs. FILE_ID.DIZ files can be extracted from ARC, ZOO, LHA, LZH, ZIP and ARJ files currently NB: Only characters of the ASCII range 32-127 will be input from the File_ID.diz files, and only 76 characters are allowed in OzMetro file descriptions, so that's the limit that can be snapped from the File_ID.diz. Avoiding use of hi-ascii characters means files with IBM graphics character borders/frames won't use up valuable space in this 76 character allocation. * Keywords for list archive commands (View an Archive from the Files List Sub-menu). Previously they were hard-coded - now they're in Metro.cfg, so you can define your own, if you like. The keywords, with their defaults, are: LISTARC pkax -v LISTZOO booz l LISTLHA lha vv LISTZIP unzip -v LISTARJ unarj l An example config (mine) might read: LISTARC pkax -v LISTZOO booz l LISTLHA lha vv LISTZIP unzip -v LISTARJ unarj l Hmm, these ARE the defaults :-) * New EXTRACTxxx keywords added, defining the command to be run in order to find the FILE_ID.DIZ files. This keyword WILL be used for other archive extractions in future versions of the BBS, BTW. (EG to extract docs from archives). The keywords, with their defaults are: EXTRACTARC pkax -r-x EXTRACTZOO booz x EXTRACTLHA Lha -m -x0 e EXTRACTZIP unzip -j -o -x EXTRACTARJ unarj e And currently, I'm using this (a little different): EXTRACTARC pkxarc -r-x EXTRACTZOO zoo xO EXTRACTLHA Lha -m -x0 e EXTRACTZIP unzip -j -o -x EXTRACTARJ unarj e * Added a few more IntroX.ans/IntroX.asc files Intro7.ans/Intro7.asc is abortable Intro8.ans/Intro8.asc is NOT abortable Intro9.ans/Intro9.asc is abortable In summary Intro4, Intro6 and Intro8 cannot be aborted while being sent. ------------------------- Version 2.13 (04 Feb 95) ------------------------- * Displays [M]ark and [S]tart Batch Send options in Browse mode for all appropriate batch protocols (ie all but the Xmodem and Jmodem proto's) * Prevented marking of files in Browse mode for Batch download with Xmodem and Jmodem :-) ------------------------- Version 2.12 (03 Feb 95) ------------------------- * NB: This version is experimental on several counts. Don't delete your 2.10 executable for a while yet - just in case. * Fixed bug in Dropped Carriers File appends if the file contained more than the number of entries specified in the config file (by changing a > sign into a >= ) Grrrrr! Bug was harmless, the last line of the file kept getting replaced by the last carrier dropper - the top line wasn't rolling off to make way for it. * 0 byte FileList_X files (that Muddles sometimes leaves behind) no longer cause the BBS to crash (it's simply reported that there are no files in the area). * Added extra Menu commands - numbers 19 and 20. Use these commands if you want to run the logoff doors from main BBS menus as well as just the logoff menu itself. Cmd #19 runs BBS:Doorfiles1/Door999 and Cmd #20 runs BBS:Doorfiles1/Door1000. * File transfer protocol ALWAYS written to userlog now upon change (rather than doing it when the user logged off). This will ensure if a user changes protocols and drops carrier, the change will be saved to the userlog. * Replaced XPRGate as the file SENDER program in favour of Oli Wagner's XprDoor. XPRGate is still used to RECEIVE files at the moment, but will be changed shortly (some serious re-writing to be done on receive, and when I do change it I'll add batch uploads in the process). Copy the file called XPRD to somewhere in the BBS search path (eg c:). XPRDoor seems to be quite faster on file transfers * Added new xpr file transfer protocol: SZmodem. SZModem is great and allows for up to 8k blocks under the Zmodem algorithm. This is the fastest protocol the BBS has. DO NOT USE NORMAL ZMODEM to receive files if sent SZmodem. It will work, but as soon as the block size increases above 1k, the receiver will NAK the block causing the sender to reduce the block size back down to 1k. Quite an inefficient way of doing it, although it will work eventually. You might like to put the SZmodem xpr library in a prominent place on your BBS so your users can take advantage of this if they're using a terminal program which supports xpr protocols. An IBM SZmodem protocol exists, too (I think I've got it online mysef, not that I know much about it). * Added new xpr file transfer protocol: Kermit. Currently untested and there might be problems with the library options. Use at your own risk, although the only problem will be failed transfers... * Hard coded SYS:c/ path for the XprGate program removed. XPRD can be in any directory which has a path, BTW. ------------------------- Version 2.11 (17 Jan 95) ------------------------- * removed some (like about 40) redundant lines of code in the serial receive routine. This didn't actually change anything, so was never released. ------------------------- Version 2.10 (08 Jan 95) ------------------------- * The carrier droppers file is now printed in plain white text. * Didn't want to add anything much more, as this one goes on to AmiNet, so a nice stable bug-free version is required. The docs have had a few revisions, though! ------------------------- Version 2.09 (Never) ------------------------- * Skipped this version number completely :-) ------------------------- Version 2.08 (15 Dec 94) ------------------------- * New commands added - ie the 6th door directory: Cmd numbers 451-500 Run door numbers 451-500 in BBS:Doorfiles6/ ------------------------- Version 2.07 (15 Dec 94) ------------------------- * Screen title now doesn't disappear when the user returns from a Door. * The AmiNet release will be 2.10 to be released in a few DAYS time.... * Percy's code is terrible. You change one line of code, and it affects something else a couple a thousand lines away! It's really going to have to go, which will involve a fairly hefty effort for a week or so on my part getting a userlog and file areas setup designed. But I think the time is ripe.... ------------------------- Version 2.06 (14 Dec 94) ------------------------- * Gee, just caught it in time before the file got out too far. Fixed a bug in the midnight event code where the program was trying to take the modem offhook AFTER the modem had been closed, resulting in a program requester... * Changed the execution of the BBS:BBSFiles/Script file. The file is now NOT read in a line at a time and "run", the AmigaDOS Execute command is called to execute the whole thing. As a result you CAN have IF/ENDIF constructions in the SCRIPT file now. ------------------------- Version 2.05 (14 Dec 94) ------------------------- * Warning to EXISTING OzMetro users: Before you set this version up you must create a directory under the BBS: assignment called MenuCmds. Go into your BBS:BBSFiles/ directory and move every file commencing with the letters "MenuCmds" (IE MenuCmds#?) into this new BBS:MenuCmds/ directory. From now on, all MENUS live in this new directory, not the BBSFiles directory. If you're setting up 2.05 for the first time, the Setup program (V1.2) will make the correct directory and create the sample menus for you there. * New function - ANSI texts for users with ANSI turned on. This is an extension to the Textfiles functions (and is backwards compatible, you don't HAVE to use it). Previously I've had a couple of textfiles on called ANSI <something> and ASCII <something>. Now OzMetro itself can choose which text to display to users with ansi turned on or not. When a user with ansi turned on selects to view a text file, a file called Text_XXX.ans is first looked for (where XXX is the text/command number). If found, then that's the file the user will be shown. If it's not found (or the user has ansi turned off) a file called Text_XXX is looked for and displayed instead. So to add ANSI versions of your textfiles, just have a corresponding Text_XXX.ans file in the textfile directory along with the usual Text_XXX file. Non-ANSI users will always get vanilla Text_XXX files, and vanilla Text_XXX files will be used if the system can't find a corresponding file Text_XXX.ans (like the current action). This has meant I can now take off the ANSI versions of several of my textfiles, incidentally. It certainly makes it more flexible for ANSI users. Also, we could argue that OzMetro supports up to 1,000 online textfiles now (500 ASCII ones, and 500 ANSI ones). * BugFix: Stats file now always up to date on screen (status window) as well as on disk. * Stats file now saved to disk EVERY time one of the stats change. * New OzMetro_Setup program done with the changes all in place to this version. ------------------------- NEWS UPDATE (05 Dec 94) ------------------------- I'm pretty sure ALL the bugs have been ironed out in PlutCLI, (and an extra command has been added to boot). It's now non-beta and is shareware ($10 donation). If you want the file (you WILL) the filename to Freq is PLTCLI09.lha ------------------------- Version 2.04 (03 Dec 94) ------------------------- * New command - #15 This command prints the Last XX Dropped Carriers file. This is a file (BBS:BBSFILES/Dropped) that will be created as users drop carrier. To test this out, Press F1 to log yourself off. Pressing F1 sets the dropped carrier flag, incidentally, and makes it easy to kick a user off the BBS for other reasons the sysop deems to be equivalent to dropping carrier :-) The size of this file is controlled by a new keyword: NUMDROPPERS It defaults to 20 - ie a record of the last 20 carrier droppers on your BBS. You can easily change it to whatever you like by adding a NUMDROPPERS 50 or maybe something like NUMDROPPERS 10 NUMDROPPERS 100 NUMDROPPERS 1000 or some other value to your Metro.cfg file. If you change the size value the file will be automatically adjusted to suit the new size. You can change the size at any time. Make sure to put the new command on a menu somewhere so everyone can see this information :-) A sample carrier-droppers text looks like so These users have recently dropped carrier: 01:14:05 PM 03-Dec-94 ID: 6 PETER BECKWITH Lev: 6 Baud: 9600 03:12:06 PM 03-Dec-94 ID: 267 MICHAEL CADDIES Lev: 1 Baud: 14400 03:47:20 PM 03-Dec-94 ID: 76 RICK EYRE Lev: 1 Baud: 14400 09:25:10 PM 03-Dec-94 ID: 268 PETER GLAUSER Lev: 1 Baud: 14400 01:13:13 AM 04-Dec-94 ID: 11 GARRY SIMMONDS Lev: 5 Baud: 9600 * Only asks you if you want to delete the safety file, if the safety file exists, now. (Previously it didn't matter, if it wasn't there it didn't delete it anyway). This applies while the user is in the logging-on section - the crash file doesn't exist then, so if you quit before the user completes login there's no point asking you if you want to delete the crash file - it doesn't exist! * Added version details in the IntroStatus routine - cleaned it up a little, too * Password change tidied up again. * BugFix: no more NULL strings in the log! * BugFix: Now prints last line of chat to chat capture. * BugFix: Now prints correct date/time at end of chat capture. * Logging uses same text as chat capture file when exiting chat. ------------------------- NEWS UPDATE (29 Nov 94) ------------------------- CLI DOOR INTERPRETER -------------------- I have been working on a remote CLI door interpreter for OzMetro all week, and have enjoyed success! This not only gives you a full remote DOS shell for OzMetro, it means we'll also be able to run all generic CLI doors (as you'll hear all the DLG/E!/TransAmiga/etc sysops talk about). This will mean OzMetro can run Metro, Paragon/Starnet AND CLI doors, probably making it the most flexible BBS when it comes to running doors. Any CLI program that runs fully in the shell can be setup this way, provided it doesn't access BBS-specific structures, such as the Excelsior! file lists, or the DLG userlog, etc. Fortunately most writers of such doors DO keep them generic, and we'll be able to use them all. This also includes Arexx doors, because you can call them with a simple Rx filename.rexx and run them in the shell. The implementation I have worked out is VERY flexible, and makes it pretty easy for you to set the doors up. The implementation uses Matt Dillon's fifo.library and fifo-handler and I must confess to having looked at a lot of the TRShell.c source from the TransAmiga program to get this running (Thanks to Timothy J Aston for releasing this). Mind you, me no speaky C (well not much), so translation to GFABasic was a bit of a hard slog, taking most of this week. It WILL be a very nice Christmas present for OzMetro sysops. ------------------------- Version 2.03 (30 Nov 94) ------------------------- * The SYSTEMPATH keyword is no longer valid - "BBS:" will be used ALL THE TIME, regardless of whether you have this line in Metro.cfg or not. (as promised in the docs). * New config keyword: TAGLINEFILE OzMetro can now use the same tagline file as Plutonic if you like. It works exactly the same way as in Plutonic, and you should see the Pluto docs for full details on the format of the file. It defaults to the original BBS:Textfiles1/Fortunes file (so if you have setup the Fortunes file as per the original release, that will still keep working). One thing you can do is delete the top line of the old Fortunes file - OzMetro no longer needs to know the number of lines in the file, it will find out for itself. (However, there's not much chance of it selecting the top line anyway, and that's harmless the fortune would just read "1256" or something, which is as meaningful as 42, and probably some of the other fortunes already there. If OzMetro cannot locate the file, this option is disabled. It is a menu command option, and is also generated before the users are shown the "Goodbye" menu. Default: BBS:TextFiles1/Fortunes Example: TAGLINEFILE MAIL:Plutonic.tags * Tagline generation implementation from Plutonic stolen and included in OzMetro. This will now generate the fortunes file, at least 5 times more quickly. However, since three tags are chosen, there is a very small chance you'll get duplicates. (This couldn't happen with the old code). If you ever strike the jackpot and get THREE fortunes the same, congratulations!! (Or you might just have a very small tagline/fortunes file). * When using a double-mouse-button to quit the BBS (and you answer yes), a further requester will come up and ask you if you want to delete the safety crash file as well. This will help prevent false recovers when you quit the BBS in this manner and forget to delete this file. Mind you, if you are quitting to play a modem game with the user and he may want to login again, it might be a good idea NOT to delete the crash file, unless he was short of time (in which case you should delete it and let him login again). ------------------------- Version 2.02 (29 Nov 94) ------------------------- * Recovery after crash substantially sped up due to the program no longer running itself again in such a situation. The code has been reworked to do it from a single invocation. Users will also get the text that they have been recovered (previously was only on the local console). * As a result of the above, the program no longer REQUIRES to be called Metro, it can be renamed to anything you like. (If you DO rename it, please remember to change the BBSCOMMAND line in TrapDoor.cfg, okay?) * If a user attempts to logon as "NEW", "NEW USER", "VISITOR", "SYSOP" or "GUEST", they will be told to tell us WHO they are, not WHAT they are and we ask for another username. * Adam Mooney discovered a quirk not covered in the documentation: you could not have a straight assignment or volume name as the default directory of an upload area. It had to include a full DIRECTORY specification (see the two pages in the OzMetro docs under "Adding Upload Areas"). Well that's fixed now, you CAN use an assignment or volume name there. (Previously the program was only looking for a slash in the full path/filename to determine the uploaded filenames - now it looks for a colon if there's no slash there, so will find uploaded files all the time now). (Grrr Percy!!) Please see the docs if this is not clear - when we check for the free space on upload drives, the DEVICE name is checked against the free list, not the FULL path specifications (this is given on the fifth lines of your File.areas file). EG: if you use "BBS:Uploads/" in file.areas, only the string "BBS:" is checked for in the FREE list. Please note! * Total screen format has been revamped to use the same screen arrangement as Plutonic. As a result, you get either 1 or 2 more lines displayed on the local console. This looks MUCH nicer, and you can set your Screen Height (from the alter parameters function) to 28 lines for local logins. (It may be 29, I forget now...) * OPENDELAY keyword added to Metro.cfg. This is to prevent something that has NEVER happened here, but on accelerated Amigas, OzMetro loads so fast that it's sometimes ready even before TrapDoor has closed the serial port. As a result, OzMetro would die with an "Object in Use" error because TrapDoor still had the serial.device open after spawning it! This is a result of cleaning up the initialisation code, I imagine, and on my A500, it just doesn't load fast enough to be up before TrapDoor has quit. OPENDELAY takes an argument in seconds - OzMetro opens up, parses its config file, and before doing anything else, it will pause for the number of seconds you specify in OPENDELAY. Only after this delay will it proceed to open the serial port (and do other work). The default for OPENDELAY is (naturally) zero - the current action, so if you're not having this problem, do nothing. If you are, you might like to add a line like: OPENDELAY 6 into Metro.cfg. You may need to experiment a little with this, perhaps you can get away with shorter than 6, but that should give TrapDoor ample time to quit and close the serial device when OzMetro is being spawned. * New Menu command added to the MenuCmds_xx files. (NO)SHORTPROMPT Since the prompt OzMetro prints generally extends all the way across the bottom of the screen, using thin menus only down the left hand half of the screen look weird. The default operation is NOSHORTPROMPT (same as it was before), but if you want to only use the left-hand side of your screen for menus, then you should add the word SHORTPROMPT into your menu file ANYWHERE (on its own line, of course, like the others). NOSHORTPROMPT looks like this: 11:58:39 PM 29-Nov-94 Time Left: 95 Your choice? SHORTPROMPT looks like: 11:58:39 PM 29-Nov-94 (95mins) Your choice? Don't forget the text in "Your Choice? " can be altered by you - it's the tenth line of the BBS:BBSFiles/Prompts file. You should add a space at the end of it in your prompts file, incidentally for display purposes (and also spaces in FRONT of it if need be...). Each MENU can have either NOSHORTPROMPT or SHORTPROMPT in it - eg your Files and a Doors menu might use SHORTPROMPT, whereas you can have NOSHORTPROMPT on the Main and Texts menu. It only applies for each MENU, not globally. * When receiving 0-byte file uploads, an [Any_Key] is used - screen was clearing straight away, and you couldn't read the error message except via the scrollback buffer. ------------------------- Version 2.01 (29 Nov 94) ------------------------- * Full chat capture implemented. At the moment this is on for ALL chat sessions. I intend to add an F-key later for opening and closing the capture buffer, but for now, if you don't want to keep chat records you'll have to edit or delete the chat capture file. You may like to add a delete command in your midnight script to clear it off, if you need the drivespace (wouldn't be much saving, really). When you enter chat, a file called "BBS:BBSFiles/Chat.txt" is opened (or created), and the chat lines are added in automatically. The deletes from wordwrap and typo's are automatically removed, and you get a very nice clean capture file. The time and date you started chat along with the username is added at the head, and the time you finish added to the end. Jump into chat with yourself, and take a look at the file! * Change Password option display tidied up.