OS/2 Shareware BBS: 2 BBS/02-BBS.zip/MSQ2-204.ZIP/HISTORY.DOC

Text File | 1992-02-05 | 27KB | 615 lines

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Msgedsq v2.0.4 'history' File. Copyright (c) 1991-92, John Dennis.
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Versions are now availiable as MSQ2xx.* with the xx being the current beta
(whatever).  You can always get it from:

Lincoln Dale   3:690/626@fidonet  (Aus)
Edward Branley 1:369/10@fidonet   (US)
Alex Wyss      2:302/801@fidonet  (Europe)
Clay Tinsley   1:124/5125@fidonet (US)

All nodes are 23hrs (taking into account the ZMH).

The OS/2 verison will run on version 1.2 and up, and is available from Lincoln
Dale as MSQ2-2xx.* with xx being the current beta, Alex Wyss will probably have
a copy of it too (But ask him first).

There is also a version that uses a screen library: it has greater support for
the many different display cards, and also supports desqview properly (you
can give it the same config as binkley or telix).  It is available from Lincoln
Dale as MSQD-2xx.* with xx begin the current beta/version.  This will not be
distributed as it's exe size is about 20k bigger, and people with ega/vga
cars do not need it (I think they are in the majority).

You can also request with a magic filename of MSQVER a small file describing
the latest verson up for f'req (And the name to use).

The current versions:

MSQ204.*    ms-dos
MSQD-204.*  Special ms-dos version with extra display code.
MSQ2-204.*  OS/2

Note that a trailing "b" on a tearline produced by this program indicates a
*beta* version, which is to say that it's not in general release yet. Therefore
don't 'freq for it; you will be wasting your time ;)

______________________________________________________________________________

A note: some msgid/reply linkers have been released.  These linkers make full
use of the capabilities of the squish format -- multiple uplinks for messages.
Grab one and try it out; they don't work on all echoes, but the ones they DO
work on are really easy to follow..:-)

There are two that I know of:

SQLINK 1.1 by David Nugent @ 3:632/348;   This has been released on the SDS.

SQLINK     by Bert Hubert  @ 2:281/506.4; This was in beta last time I heard
           from the author but, from what I could gather, will be released
           on the SDS anytime soon.

(Msgedsq, MaltEd and Maximus CBCS utilise this feature for reading msgs)

______________________________________________________________________________


Ver     Date
_____   ___________

2.0.4   91-02-07

! Added warning when changing msgs already sent/scanned. This warning
  cannot be switched off.  Fixed bug in change msg code; could do some
  weird things if you'd entered a msg previously and then changed a msg
  and escaped out of it.


! Name changed again: is now "Msgedsq" again :-)


! Fixed "feature" in code where quotes had imported text, but the imported
  text was not saved as nothing was typed after it.  NOTE: that with quotes
  the last line saved is the lowest line where something was *typed*: this
  does not include newlines or pasting of text, but does include the import-
  -ing of text.


! You can now change quotes to/from normal lines by adding/deleting the ">"
  from the begining of a quote line.  The ">" has to be in the first 11
  chars for it to be considered a quote.


! CC:'s now operate differently; you must type them out like this:

  cc: mike,david nugent!3:632/345,rich
  cc: joe,paul marwick!3:711/234

  The '!' character delimits an address for the preceding name, if this is
  specified the name will NOT be looked up.  If an address is not present,
  first the aliases will be checked, then the usual fidouser.lst. Note that
  with aliases, the alias is replaced with the name, as in the following:
  (using the above, assuming message was addressed to Linclon Dale)

   * Carbon Copies sent to:
         Lincoln Dale, Michael Studte, david nugent, Rchard Dale, Joe Bloggs
         paul marwick

  The text should begin straight after the last "cc:" line as ONE '\n' is
  inserted after the " * Carbon..." bit.  If the names will not fit on the
  first line (going by the right margin) then it will continue on the next
  line.

  When changing messages, you are now able to re-produce CC:'s and XC:'s when
  saving such a message.  Be careful, you have been warned :-)


! Fixed bug that occured when parsing ^aDOMAIN lines, as well as a domain
  parsing error in netmail areas.


! Added "compat" config verb; this will make the <end> and <enter> keys act
  like older versions of msged.


! Added Crossposting!  Only works for echomail areas, you do this:

  xc: tub,maxdev,muffin

  At the beginning of a msg, if you have to go to the next line, do the
  same on the next line.  The names are the TAGs for the echomail areas;
  so you MUST have the tags specified in the config file.  The names and
  "xc:" are case insensitive.  The lines beginning with "xc:" will be
  removed, and this will be put in it's place:

   * Crossposted in area "TUB"
   * Crossposted in area "MAXDEV"
   * Crossposted in area "MUFFIN"

  NOTE: The order of the above lines will be reversed (A quirk :-)


! Added support for the squish config file.  You can have it use squish.cfg
  OR areas.bbs. (as both are different syntax). You can still define any other
  areas in msged.cfg, however.  To activate one or the other, you must have
  the "areafile" keyword, followed by "s[quish]" or "a[rea]".


! Ported this version to OS/2 -- seems to work great; no crashes, so it
  must mean the code is at least relativley stable.  As the screen updates
  are slower under OS/2, I also managed to improve some areas of screen
  display.


! Changed the area display bit to show #msgs - current for the amount of
  messages "unread" this is 'cause there is no highest-read pointer in
  squish msgs.  In squish areas, "last" will now take you to the last msg
  in the msgbase. PLEASE NOTE: the "enter" key takes you to the first message
  read upon entering the current area.  NOTE (Again): fido areas will behave
  like normal.


! Domains are not put in the origin line anymore. They are still used with
  doain gating and ^aMSGIDs, however. (looks better that way).


! Added the %i (first name) and %e (echo/netmail area) tokens to the
  attribution line code.


! Added new function: choose_attribline() -- you can have up to 10 different
  attribution lines. The defualt key is <Ctrl><A> and it can be reassigned
  by the name "attrib". This is mainly for those people in different countries
  who often would like to use their own language for local echoes and (perhaps
  :-) ) english for international echoes..


! Fixed the menu code to handle default items correctly. (most of the time).
  Also made it keep the last item you were on, like after a scan, but before
  you have done a scan.


! Fixed bug in editor; You could page up/dn and the cursor would remain in the
  same place, regardless of line length.  You could then type over un-owned
  memory (if you were unlucky).


! Added help screens to editor and msg reader; <Alt><H> will display it, the
  screens are NOT re-assignable (you can assign over them, tho).

  The files are external to the editor, you can enable them by adding the
  following lines to the cfg file:

  rhelp    rhelp.hlp  ; These are the file names
  ehelp    ehelp.hlp  ; ditto

  If you do put these lines in, help will not work.  The help files are
  external so multi-language versions can be used.


! Added Ralf Brown's spawno40 to enable swapping to ems/xms/int 15/disk.
  With ems it leaves about 208 bytes in lower memory. Phew!


! Changed the granulinity of MSGIDs generated down to 1/10 of a second.
  This stops things like cc:'s generating msgs with the same MSGID.


! Fixed the ESC problem: when trying to ESC out of a move/copy you couldn't
  do so.  Also changed it to generate a new time/MSGID on copy and forward -
  this is 'cause they are new messages. Move will not change the time/MSGID,
  nor will change_msg() - this avoids possible dupes.


! Added alias support to cc:'s.  Also added subject support to the alias
  line. The subject *should* be terminated with a ',', although if one is
  not present it will duplicate till the end of the line. (incl '\n'). The
  aliases are now case insensitive.


! Fixed the editor/wrap code some more. The dissappearing lines trick is
  now hopefully dead.  Quotes of quotes will not be wrapped unless their
  length exceeds the right margin.  Quotes of text will be wrapped at the
  quote margin.  You can type away merrily in quoted lines - it will be
  wrapped correctly with (wrapped) new lines becoming quotes also.  Policy
  has been decided on wrapping - you can type up to ~4 spaces after the
  right margin, these will be not be wrapped as long as the number of
  consectutive spaces does not exceed ~4 -- any letters after the right margin
  will be immediately wrapped. The reason for this is because sometimes you
  will type a word which ends on the right margin, and it is disconcerting
  for the following space to appear on the next line. Some msgs that have a
  \r and \n appended to every line will not quote well (notably the opus
  editor, and older versions of fm [front door]), You can wrap them yourself,
  however.


! The remap verb has been removed.  Also, the editor will not remap addresses
  automatically at all.  Therefore you must chose the correct address when
  entering msgs.


! The treatments of ^aINTLs has been modified; one will be inserted if the
  origin address is differen't to your primary address (applies to *.msg),
  plus the normal method - if the destination address is differen't to your
  origin address.  (thanks to Grant Wilson for sorting this out). This should
  fix any troubles people were having with *.msg areas.


! Fixed a small problem with ths squish code reply linking; it was reading in
  the reply links and using the previous UMSGID if the one looked for wasn't
  there.  This has been changed to get an *exact* match, or show no link.


! Fixed bug in search routine - wasn't de-allocating the headers it
  retrieved. This would cause an "I'm out of memory!" message on bases
  at >~1000 msgs.


! Changed it so that SEEN-BY:'s are never show unless set that way in the
  config file. Ie, they won't be displayed unless "no seenbys" is removed
  from the cfg file. They can now be displayed in any echo, however.


! We now have wysiwyg in regard to empty lines shown on the screen.
  Previously lines of zero length (ie nothing, not even a \r) we not saved,
  but *were* displayed on the screen.  They will now be saved as a \r.
  Pressing newline on a quote will no longer change the color of the quote.


! Added an undelete line feature to the editor code.  You can assign it as
  "undelete" in the editor section of the cfg file;  it defaults to <ctrl>-u.
  Also made <ctrl>-y delete a line - this is common to most editors.


! Added new function "followup" (<alt>-u), create a new message still
  addressed to the original message.  The message it is addressed to is
  linked up to the new message, using the benifits of multiple-uplinks.


+ Numerous other (much smaller) fixes.

_____________________________________________________________________________

G3 31/12/91

■ Modified quoted lines now remain quoted.

■ Fixed bug in the quote string code; the initials were reversed.

■ Fixed bug in multiple uplink code, it was wiping one of the older replies,
  if it existed.

■ Added an alias feature to the cfg file.  You can specify any number of names
  and addresses; these will be checked against after entering the To: field
  in the message header.  The format is:
              "alias jb,joe bloggs,3:23/234.2"
  Embedded spaces are allowed ONLY inside the name; whatever is between the
  commas will be duplicated.

■ Fixed a bug in the squish (my code) logic that would crash it when reading
  0 length messages in squish message bases. Also fixed  another bug that would
  stop it from writing 0 length msgs.

■ Fixed the weird behaviour of the lastread/current pointers, they should work
  properly at all times now.

■ Changed go_root function ("home") to go to the first message read in this
  session.  Be sure to redefine it in the config file; it defualts to the
  <home> key in most existing config files --  this will stop the first()
  function from working (ie. redefine it's key).

■ Added "qquotes" keyword, if specified in cfg file, will quote qotes, else
  it will copy them straight across.

■ Changed menu code to not wrap over. Now acts like a standard menu. Added
  the use of the <end> key to it's functionality.

■ Changed lastread reading code to default to the last message in the message
  base if it can't match the record with an existing messae.

■ Fixed small bug in "forward" function; now asks you for the area first, then
  the header of the msg. (any ^aREPLYs are also now discarded).

■ Added new function, "first" this defaults to the <home> key, and will take
  you to the first message in the msgbase.

■ Found bug in msg-reader code (still exists in msged 2.07) where if you have
  a msg just over 1 page, you can press page down, then down arrow, and you
  lose a lot of the msg when you try to scroll back up. It's still there;
  a few pgup's and dn's will re-show it. (not fixed yet; just noted).

■ Added a feature from msged 2.07, when *quoting* it will erase all text after
  last line entered. (you can scroll round with no effect on this).

■ Changed the sqlcurrent to default, the verb to turn it off is now sqllast.

■ Cut down screen re-draws drastically, should look better on slower computers
  (or ones with slow cards, like mine :-). Also changed fucntions using the
  string code to recognise ESCs, so it is now possible to escape from many
  functions.

■ Changed the uplink (go-uplink or whatever) to give you the names of the
  people replying to the message. (the first names are abreviated).

■ Fixed bug that caused a crash when replying to msgs which had a ^aREPLY but
  not a ^aMSGID.

■ Reduced code size by killing some code in the MsgAPI that linked in the
  whole API. This reduced basic memory usage by another 10k or so.

■ Fixed a bug that occured sometimes when reading in msgs in squish msgbases.
  (seemed to happen only in netmail areas). Caused random crashes.

■ Fixed bug where updates of screen didn't occur when they should. Also fixed
  the cursor (size) code; sometimes it would lose the old size.

■ Added new config variable, "no remap" will stop the writemsg() code from
  remapping a from: address to one of your aka's if the zones don't match.
  Effectively this will force a ^aINTL in the right conditions. (this is for
  those that run multi-network netmail areas using the *.msg format).

■ Did a lot of work on wrap() code -- now supports wrapping of quoted lines
  properly. Readmail() modified to reflect this and produce a message wrapped
  to the right margin properly.  Also fixed the insert/delete char problems
  along the way (well, most of them).

■ Fixed the quoting code to work correctly when quoting. Also made quotes
  look a little neater, also now appends a '\r' to quotes when writing.
  Made quotes of ^a's replace the ^a char with a '@', also, quoted tearlines
  and origin lines will have a '!' in the middle of them.


______________________________________________________________________________

G2 20/12/91 (This combines both G1 and G2)


■ Made it so that ^aMSGIDs & ^aREPLYs are *always* inserted in echomail
  areas. This is for the new linkers that will be coming out squish msgbases
  that use these to privide proper msg linking.

■ Added a linking feature specially for squish areas that lets you use the
  multiple up-links that the squish msgbases can handle.   You won't notice
  it unless you use a linker that liks this way (it will just act like normal),
  but if there is more than one uplink a small menu will appear.   You can
  choose which msg to go to.  This is a real cool way to read msgs.

■ Tried to fix the bugs in the editor code.  Most of the fatal ones should
  be gone now.    Sometimes when deleting a paragraph (and it's wraping), it
  will move a word back a line, but not the space after it; it'll remain on
  the previous line.  This isn't a bug, really, just a quirk: press delete
  once more to fix it or go down and delete it.

■ Killed the ^aPID: line from being inserted into msgs.  It now puts the
  product name on the tagline.

■ Added an option to save the current pointer instead of the lastred
  pointer in squish msgbases. the keyword is:
                 'sqlcurrent'
  which turns on the use of current pointer.  The default is lastread pointer.

■ Added a new function; reply in other area (netmail or whatever). The default
  key assignment is <alt>-n, the name in the cfg file is 'repoth'.

■ Made it so that the cursor is only on when doing entry (msg or string).

■ Killed all the qbbs routines. They didn't work very well.

■ Added file locking to *.sql files, hopefully this should work.
  (This is "proper" file locking; is now opened in SH_DENYNO).

■ Added sharing modes to the read functions for fido msgbases; when reading/
  writing they are opened in SH_DENYNO which should stop any sharing violations.
  The lastread files also use this. Locking is not used, however.

■ Added the -p<node> switch for areas.bbs code. This allows you to specify
  your primary node in the areas.bbs file.

■ Stopped it from writing a ^aREPLY when msgid's are off.

■ ^aMSGIDs and timestamps are now not modified when changing messages.

■ Finally fixed the max surplus ^a from being displayed :-)

■ Fixed a small bug in the menu code that would let you overwrite the first
  menu item (you could press home, then proceed to type over the menu item).

■ Fixed a few bugs in the MsgApi, changing msgs should work all the time.

■ Reduced basic memory usage by about 50k, now any size can be read/written
  to a squish msgbase (limited by available memory). Generally it should
  sit on about 170-80k.



b6 10/12/91

 changed name to 'Msged/sq' and stopped the beta version from being put
 in the ^aPID line (looks less messy)...

 fixed a plethora of niggly bugs in the netmail ^a arena; it should properly
 support multi-network addresses now (using proper address for MSGIDs etc).

 made it try to get the to: address as much as possible;  so the correct
 adresses are used in a^REPLY: and forwarding msgs & other functions; it only
 does this in echomail, however.  in netmail you should use the correct zone
 when reading/replying to msgs (ie: the aka with the correct net address).

 when entering msgs in echomail, they are entered with the to: address set
 to the default address for that area..

 fossil mode has been disabled (cause there are *no* fossil routines in the
 src except for initialisation, so using it causes a mess on the screen).
 if fossil mode is specified it defaults to bios.

 added support for the *.sqo origin file; create the file with the base name
 of the squish area (this only applies to squish areas..) and the .sqo
 extension, and the first line in there will be used as the origin line for
 that area (only echomail...).

 fixed it to add a ^aREPLY when replying to a message (not quoting).

 added a new keyword 'showaddr' which is on by default;  the address for
 the current area will be displayed at the top right hand corner (minus
 any domains - not enough space).  for those that don't want it, it can be
 turned off by 'no showaddr' in the cfg file.

 added a new function 'chngaddr' <ctrl-w> which will let you change the
 default address for the current area (any of them) to any of your aka's.
 (the default address can be specified for echomail areas in msged.cfg).

 when using aka's other than the default in *netmail* areas, it tries to
 match the address with your own aka'a, if the mail is addressed
 to you (so it can get the right zone in the to: field).  if it can't match,
 then it uses the zone from the default zone for the current area.
 (which can be changed with the chngaddr function <ctrl-w>).

 fixed bug in the alt-m function, improved it to let you forward to other
 areas.

 added multi-net support for all echomail areas defined in msged.cfg;
 if you don't define anything it reverts to your default address.  if you
 add a node number (5d) to the end of your area, then it makes it the
 default node for that area; any msgs entered will use that for MSID's
 and origin lines etc.



06/12/91 b5

 NOTE: haven't said this before; if an area cannot be opened, it will be
       created (ie: if the *.sqd & *.sqi fiels are not there).

 fixed areas.bbs code to recognise '$' directive (squish) & areas, it will
 also ignore duplicates between msged.cfg & areas.bbs.

 fixed writemsg() code to correctly insert the ^aPID: line at right times.

 fixed (hopefully) squish_readtext() code so that it ignores trailing ^a's
 which maximus creates for some unknown reason.

 fixed some code (not mine! :-) where it was losing allocated memory,
 (should be insignificant i think)...

 fixed it so it always exits in standard text colors.

 made damn *sure* that the api functions are never called with NULL pointer..

 fixed up the *.sql code to not set the lastread if it cannot open the file
 'cause a sharing violation occured, or there are not enough file handles.
 (might have caused a wipeout of the file otherwise).

 ported it to turbo C, didn't take much, changed the sql usage from ansi to low
 open() read() etc..

 fixed other ^a kludge bugs.

 fixed the attribution line bug, also fixed it to not put a quote string before
 empty lines when quoting (but still keep them).  the editor feels safer
 now...:-)

 fixed small bug where i forgot to create sql file with O_CREAT flag :-)



02/11/91 b4

 this beta will will be released, hopefully i will find any remaining
 bugs that way.

 added sharing support for the lastread files (*.sql), so hopefully
 they won't get messed up by other processes.  the files are opened
 in SH_DENYRW for a short duration (< 1 second), then closed.

 also found mistake in corrections to some of the api code that i made.
 (of all things i mixed it round; i unlocked instead of locked etc..).
 this is now fixed, and should work as advertised. (sorry 'bout that).

 removed the tagline and changed name back to msged, 'cause thats what
 it really is (gotta give some thanks to the guy that wrote it, i guess :).
 added a ^APID line instead; hopefully this is a less obtrusive way
 of identifuying the proggy (*i* like to know who's using it: humour me :^).

 didn't like the way it always created an echotoss file, so changed it
 to do so only when echomail has been entered.

 fixed bug where it would add the scanned bit whether they had been
 scanned or not (if they weren't new msgs).  this will slow it down a
 fraction.

 also changed the expot & import funtions; they should work a little better.

 added a lot of #ifdef's so it can be compiled without squish support.
 (dunno why..).


01/12/91 b3

 big feature:  now uses the squish msgapi released by the author.  hopefully
 it should work in file sharing environments, but this has not been tested
 and may not work (due to the fact that i had to modify it for use with MSC;
 argh! i can't believe he let that through!).

 good news, now supports the $mxxx directive, and msg reply/quoting still
 works when using this, in fact, it should work with the correct numbers
 all the time.  caught some bugs that may have crashed it (when scanning
 an empty fido area before a squish area), also fixed (i think) and problems
 with the "useroffset" config verb; just remember, it's 0 based!

 so, the only file not opened in sharing is the lastread file, i don't know
 if this is needed, as hopefully two people can't use the same record at
 the same time :-) (this can be fixed).

 unfortunately, due to all the extra squish features (which resulted in
 a lot less of MY code), the code size has increased dramatically, and also
 slowed down noticeably. (but thats the price for saftey :-).


27/11/91 b2

 new "useroffset" keyword; this is the 0 based offset into the lastread file,
 if the position dosen't exit, it will be created, note: this is a *record*
 offset, NOT a byte offset. Colin Wheat's new user editor will tell you
 what offset you are (if you aren't 0, that is).

 had problems with large msg areas & lots of msg areas;  was running out of
 contiguous memory space, this is fixed.  Note that number of msgs is limited
 to 5200 msgs in any one area (same as suish), again, this is a segmentation
 limit.  there is also a max msg size of 40k. (squish will only import 16k),
 this could be increased to 64k, but i decided this was overkill.

 fixed reply linking problem, except when the $mxxx is used, which it ignores.
 also is possible to have automatic renumbering, BUT not put in 'cause it
 kills the reply linking..


25/11/91 b1

   use the msged.cfg that comes with it; some things have been added; the fido
& qbbs support is still the same as before.

   the setup (alt-s) has been removed; it was very buggy & always crashed, so
you will have to port your old cfg file yourself.  the only change is
the 'squish' keyword, which defines a squish type msgbase.

   the lastread file '*.sql' keeps with maximus in that it holds
ony one record per user.  in max, it holds the last msg read, in msged
it holds that highest msg number read (the umsgid, which always increases).
this is so that when scanning for new msgs, it scans from the right place.

   when replying/quoting msgs, the msg replied to is not updated.  this is
due to a problem in squish, which is that the umsgid is used for links.
to change this would require a change in the actual msged src, something
i've tried to avoid where possible. (it may have adverse effects on the
the other msgbase code).



John Dennis. Dec '91
at 3:690/[e-mail]
   [e-mail]