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DISPLAY.DOC
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1991-10-10
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9KB
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240 lines
DISPLAY.EXE version 1.3 <c> 1991 by Carl Sagerquist Data (805) 723-6908
DESCRIPTION
-----------
DISPLAY.EXE is a BBS news letter display program. DISPLAY will
begin by reading the file created by the BBS (DOOR.SYS,
DORINFO1.DEF, etc.). This file will contain the caller's name,
color switch, the BBS com port, etc. as needed by DISPLAY. Not
all BBS's are supported yet, others will be added as data becomes
available. DISPLAY will ask the caller if he/she would like to
view the newsletter. If so, the news file is sent, 23 lines at
a time. Each pause, the caller has the option to continue or
stop.
SYNTAX
------
DISPLAY [-bbstype] [ASCII filename] [ANSI filename]
EXAMPLE
-------
DISPLAY -MAXIHOST NEWSLETR.ASC NEWSLETR.ANS
SUPPORTED BBS'S
---------------
Generic: -DOORSYS (DOOR.SYS)
Local Mode: -LOCAL ( )
Maxihost: -MAXIHOST (DOOR.SYS)
Megahost: -MEGAHOST (DOOR.SYS)
PCBoard: -PCBOARD (DOOR.SYS)
QuickBBS: -QBBS (DORINFO1.DEF)
RBBS: -RBBS (DORINFO1.DEF)
Wildcat: -WILDCAT (CALLINFO.BBS)
FILES IN THIS ZIP PAXKAGE
-------------------------
DISPLAY EXE -- Executable Program.
TEST BAT -- Batch file for testing.
DISPLAY DOC -- Document file: This file.
DISPLAYQ ASC -- Custom ASCII start question file.
DISPLAYQ ANS -- Custom ANSI start question file.
NEWS ASC -- Sample ASCII news file.
NEWS ANS -- Sample ANSI news file.
CALLINFO BBS -- Sample BBS file.
DORINFO1 DEF -- Sample BBS file.
DOOR SYS -- Sample BBS file.
REGISTRATION
------------
This program is not free, but Shareware. You may evaluate this
program for a period of 30 days. If you decide to continue its use,
a registration fee of $5.00 is required. Please send a check or
money order to:
Carl Sagerquist
1414 W. Kerrick St.
Lancaster, Ca. 93534
USA
Your support is greatly appreciated!
OPERATION
---------
First, the caller is asked if he wants to view the newsletter:
Display the News Letter? (Y/n)
The caller has the choice to view the news letter or skip it. Y is
default. 23 lines are displayed, then it will pause with the message:
Continue? (Y/n)
The caller has the choice to continue or quit every 23 lines. Y is
default. Communication programs such as Procomm use one line as its
own status line. This leaves 24 lines for viewing the BBS. The 23
lines from the news file and the line stating "Continue? (Y/n) "
amount to 24 lines. DISPLAY.EXE is designed to send only 24 lines at
a time, filling the remote screen.
If the file(s) DISPLAYQ.ASC or DISPLAYQ.ANS exist in the same
subdirectory where DISPLAY.EXE is placed, AND this is the default
directory, the contents of these files will be used for a custom
start question. The default question...
Display the News Letter? (Y/n)
...will be replaced with what ever you place in these files.
DISPLAYQ.ASC is the ASCII file, and DISPLAYQ.ANS is the ANSI
color file. This file may be as large as you like, but unlike
the newsletter file, it will not pause.
OUTPUT NEWS LETTER FILE
-----------------------
This file is your choice. You must have both ASCII (straight text)
and ANSI (color) files available, and on the command line (see the
Syntax above). DISPLAY.EXE will choose the correct file depending
on the status of the color switch in the BBS file (DOOR.SYS,
DORINFO1.DEF, etc). This filename may contain a path:
DISPLAY -MAXIHOST C:\BBS\DATA\NEWSLETR.ASC C:\BBS\DATA\NEWSLETR.ANS
You must supply the news letter files! DISPLAY.EXE does not create
them. DISPLAY.EXE is only a program for the display of them.
If placed within the news letter file, the '' character (from the
<CTRL> E), will be replaced with the caller's first name. The ''
character (from the <CTRL> F), will be replaced with the caller's
last name in the same way. This allows you to personalize your
message file to each individual caller. Be sure to leave room on
the line for these characters to expand to names, or the line might
get cut in half.
LIMITATIONS
-----------
1 - Each line of the news letter file must NOT exceed 256 characters,
including the carriage return.
2 - ASCII text must not exceed 80 characters per line INCLUDING the
CR/LF (the <ENTER>). In other words, each line must not exceed 79
visable characters or they will spill to the next line. This will
cause DISPLAY.EXE to send more than 23 lines at a time.
3 - COM1 through COM4 are supported only.
4 - If either name exceeds 15 characters, the name will be cut to 15
characters. This should be adequate for 99.9% of all callers.
5 - The (drive:\path\filenames) from the command line may be 65
characters long.
6 - ASCII or ANSI files only. The extended characters may be used,
but use caution:
- Some of them are not accepted at the remote properly.
- Files created with a word processor in Document mode will not
display correctly.
- The characters and (<CTRL> E and <CTRL> F) are interpreted as
placement of the caller's first and last names.
7 - There is no automatic word wrap. Words may be cut in half at
the right edge of the remote (and your) screen if the lines exceed
80 characters. The lines may be 256 characters long to accommodate
the ANSI escape characters. Be sure that each line does not exceed
the 256 character limit.
8 - On the lines where the caller's name will be inserted, use caution
not to allow the name to offset the remainder of the text on that
line to beyond 80 characters. Example:
Hello, . How are you today? I trust the family is doing fine, .
Will be transmitted looking like this:
Hello, Carl Sagerquist. How are you today? I trust the Sagerquist family is do
ing fine, Carl.
Obviously, not desirable appearance. Remember to leave room for the
names to be inserted to the line.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
---------------------
DISPLAY handles its own Com Port I/O. No redirection programs are
required. Com Ports 1 through 4 are supported.
Carrier loss is no problem. DISPLAY will reset all interrupts to
their prior status before execution, and exit clean.
The keyboard timer is set to 2 minutes. If a caller waits a full
120 seconds without any keyboard entry, DISPLAY will exit clean.
ERRORLEVELs
-----------
On exit of DISPLAY.EXE, an errorlevel is returned to the calling batch
file. Each errorlevel has a different meaning:
ERRORLEVEL 35 - Unsupported COM port.
ERRORLEVEL 30 - A necessary file could not be opened.
ERRORLEVEL 20 - Carrier loss.
ERRORLEVEL 15 - Keyboard time out.
ERRORLEVEL 10 - Caller declined to read the newsletter.
ERRORLEVEL 5 - Caller partially read the newsletter.
ERRORLEVEL 0 - Caller read the newsletter completely.
It has become my convention to return these values on exit. This
allows the sysop some degree of control, should there be a need to
do something on exit: If the caller does not read the newsletter,
you can enter a statement to your BBS log file by checking the
appropriate errorlevel:
IF ERRORLEVEL 10 ECHO Declined to view Newsletter >> C:\BBS\BBS.LOG
DISCLAIMER
----------
This program is distributed as is. No warranty, either expressed or
implied is offered and the programmer is not responsible for any
damages or expenses that may occur through the use of this program.
The user shall determine its suitability. Please communicate any
difficulties with the programmer through the BBS at (805) 723-6908.
If you like this program, drop me a message at (805) 723-6908 and
let me know. If you have any ideas for improvement, or new ideas
you'd like to see, call and let me know. I welcome your response.
Thank you for using DISPLAY.EXE!
Carl Sagerquist
The Antelope Valley Aviator
300/1200/2400 BAUD
(805) 723-6908
A MAXIHOST BBS
HISTORY
-------
Version 1.3 - 10/10/91 - Cleaned up code a bit, errorlevels and abnormal exit
cleaned up.
- PCBoard added to supported BBS's.
- Removed "-LOCAL" switch. Each BBS file (like
DOOR.SYS) can be set to local to allow for testing.
Version 1.2 - 10/07/91 - Added MEGAHOST as a supported BBS.
Version 1.1 - 10/05/91 - Added pause at completion of news file.
- Translation of the TAB character corrected.
Version 1.0 - 10/01/91 - Created program.