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EnigmA Amiga Run 1995 October
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EnigmA AMIGA RUN 01 (1995)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1995-10][Aminet 7].iso
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Changes.OzMet
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1995-03-06
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608 lines
--------------------
OzMetro Changes File
--------------------
Changes made after the V2.0 release are listed here in REVERSE
CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER (ie most recent changes first).
This file will be archived INTO the full OzMetro archive. If you want
the LATEST version: executable and changes file only, freq the magic
name OZMETEXE from Inquestor. This way you'll always get the LATEST
version without having to know the actual file name.
-------------------------
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.