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1991-03-15
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Power Converter Version 3.0
Copywright 1991 by PFG Software
Copywright 1991 by John Schreiber
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
PFG Software, 756 White Oak Rd., Falmouth, Va. 22405 (703)373-4915
--- Warranty
The Power Converter comes with no warranty expressed or implied. The user
and the user alone is responsible for the use of this software. Neither John
Schreiber nor PFG Software will be held responsible for any damage caused by
this product.
--- Upgrading from an earlier version.
If you are upgrading for a earlier version of the converter, there are
some changes you'll need to make. FIrst rename your .KEY file to PC.KEY.
Secondly you'll have to redo your .DAT file and call it PC.DAT, additions
and changes have been made to this file. Lastly, set the enviroment variable
PFGERR equal to the path you would like your errors.pfg error log written.
I believe that should do you. Enjoy!
--- What is The Power Converter?
The Power Converter is a door conversion utility that will convert your
BBSs system files into the proper file(s) to run several different types of
doors. The pride and joy of the Power Converter is it's accuracy. I went
through great pains to ensure that I used as little 'dummy' data as possible.
If the information was given to me, I used it. If I could deduce it from some
other pieces of data, I did so. All this means that you will notice far less
made up data on the status lines of your doors, thusly making your system more
informative for you the SysOp and making your doors run more smoothly for your
users. From this point on The Power Converter will be refered to as either
PC.EXE in it's executable form or The Power Converter. Now then let's get
on with telling you how to use the converter.
--- Standard Features
The Power Converter will convert your BBSs System files into the proper
files to run the following door types:
AUNTIE BBS denoted by AUNTIE
DOORWAY denoted by DOORWAY
EIS denoted by EIS
FORCE denoted by FORCE
GAP denoted by GAP
GENESIS denoted by GENESIS
Milton GameWorks denoted by MGW
OLECOM denoted by OLECOM
PCBoard 12.1 denoted by PCB12
PCBoard 14.1 denoted by PCB14
PHOENIX denoted by PHEONIX
PROKIT 3.0 denoted by PCB14
PROKIT 3.1 denoted by PCB14
QuickBBS denoted by QuickBBS
RBBS - PC 15.1 denoted by RBBS15
RBBS - PC 16+ denoted by RBBS16
RyBBS denoted by RYBBS
SpitFire denoted by SPITFIRE
T.A.G BBS denoted by TAG
TP-Board denoted by TP-Board
Wildcat! 1.13 denoted by WC
Wildcat! 2.0 denoted by WC2
World War IV denoted by WWIV
In addition The Power Converter will create the following door-specific
(By door specific I mean files that only a certain door or group of
doors use. They are not creted or used by any Bulletin Board system.)
files:
Bit Bucket Software denoted by OPENDOOR
Operation Overkill II denoted by OO
Solar Realms Elite denoted by SRE
This is a list of what files each door conversion creates:
AUNTIE Auntie.sys
DOORWAY Door.sys
EIS Dorinfox.def
FORCE Door.sys
GAP Door.sys
GENESIS Callinfo.bbs
Milton GameWorks Userinfo.txt
OLECOM Dorinfox.def
OPENDOOR Opendoor.sys
OPERATION OVERKILL II Bbsinfo.oo
PCBoard 12.1 PCBoard.sys, PCBoard.dat, Users
PCBoard 14.1 PCBoard.sys, PCBoard.dat, Users
PHOENIX Info.bbs
PROKIT 3.0 PCBoard.sys, PCBoard.dat, Users
PROKIT 3.1 PCBoard.sys, PCBoard.dat, Users
QuickBBS Dorinfox.def
RBBS - PC 15.1 Rbbs-pc.def, Messages, Dorinfox.def
RBBS - PC 16+ Rbbs-pc.def, Messages, Dorinfox.def
RyBBS Curruser.bbs
SpitFire Sfdoors.dat
SRE Doorfile.sr
TAG Door.sys
TP-Board Dorinfox.def
Wildcat! 1.13 Callinfo.bbs
Wildcat! 2.0 Callinfo.bbs
WWIV Chain.txt
In order for The Power Converter to run properly, you will need to
have your BBS's system files and PC.DAT files all located in the same
directory. The format of the PC.DAT file is as follows:
Dr. Debug's Domain
Robert
York
COM1
19200
H
C:\BBS
DOOR.SYS
Line 1 -- The name of your BBS
Line 2 -- Your first name
Line 3 -- Your last name
Line 4 -- The comm port your BBS is using
Line 5 -- The locked baud rate of that port ( if none just leave blank)
Note: If you are running a Locked Comm Port, you MUST set this
line equal to that baud rate. If you do not your doors will
not operate properly.)
Line 6 -- Hayes 9600, or Fastcomm 9600 ( H or F or blank if neither )
Line 7 -- Where you want your DOORWAY file written.
Line 8 -- The file type you want to use for DOORWAY. You have the
choice of the following:
DOOR.SYS - Gap style DOOR.SYS
PCBOARD.SYS(12) - PCBoard v12 PCBOARD.SYS
PCBOARD.SYS(14) - PCBoard v14 PCBOARD.SYS
Both lines 7 & 8 are used by the converter when you call
for a DOORWAY conversion either normally or with an
advanced option to automatically detect both the path and
the file type you wish to use.
The next thing you wil have to do is set an environment variable
called PFGERR equal to the path you want The Power Converter to write
it's error log. You do so by editing your autoexec.bat file and adding
a line like this:
SET PFGERR=C:\GEN
Where C:\GEN is the path you want to write the errors log file to. The
log is called ERRORS.PFG, and it was added so that you didn't have to try
to read the screen as an error scrolled by during batch file execution.
It also allows you to keep an eye on your doors when you're not sitting there
watching them. The environment variable was used because it was the only way
I could be assured of having the path whenever I needed it during the execution
of the code.
The Power Converter works from command line parameters as follows:
The Power Converter <doortype> <path to data files> <path to write new files>
i.e.
C:> PC.EXE GAP C:\GENESIS\ C:\GENESIS\DOORS\
Where the doortype is any of the above listed door types. The
path to data files is the location of your system files and the PC.DAT.
The second path is where you want the files associated with the doortype to
go. You may enter the command line in upper or lower case. The trailing
backslash on the paths is optional.
You may omit both path statements provided the following conditions
are met:
1) ALL the data files are in the directory you are calling The Power Converter
from.
2) You want all the files created by The Power Converter to go in the path you
call it from.
3) You are not converting to either of the PCBoard or PROKIT formats.
The reason for this is that PROKIT and PCBoard doors are very touchy
about the data they are given in the PCBOARD files ( PCBOARD.SYS,
PCBOARD.DAT, and USERS) and require that the paths be given to them.
NOTE: As of version 3.0, the second path is no longer optional if you wish
an output path specified. You may however skip the second path if you
want the files written to the directory you called the converter from.
There is one command line delimeter that can be used with the
Unregistered version of the converter it is as follows:
-Nxx This delimiter will allow you to specify the node the
system wrote the file for. The xx can specify any number.
This delimiter is primarily used with systems that write
DORINFOx.DEF files.
--- Registered Options
With the release of version 3.0 of the Power Converter, I have changed
the way I handle unregistered copies of the converter. Now instead of
lowering the users time in the door to 10 minutes ( which was on the
whole unfair to the users who weren't to pay for the converter anyway ),
I have created and isolated a few extras for use with the converter.
They do not diminish from the converters day to day use but when you
register the converter they can enhance it's use.
The first of the registered options handles the paths you use on the
command line of the converter. For those sysops who always read their
files from the same directory and/or always write them to the same
directory, I have added support for environment variables to specify both
the path to data files and the output path. For the path to data files,
you should set the variable PFGIN to the path you used to specify on your
command line. For the output path you should set PFGOUT to the path you
used to write your files to. You can use either both of the variables or
either one individually. The choice is yours.
Now is a good time to discuss the order the converter looks for variables
in, and what it does when it finds conflicting commands. The converter
first looks for the environment variables as a guide to where it should
look for files and write it's conversions. If it finds them it will use
them, if not it will look to the command line. You may however override
the environment variables by specifying the paths on the command line.
Any paths you issue the converter on the command line will automatically
override the old paths set in the enviroment.
So if you have the commands
SET PFGIN=C:\BBS
SET PFGOUT=C:\BBS\DOORS
in your autoexec.bat file, the converter will use them, however if you
enter a command line like this
PC.EXE GAP C:\BBS C:\DOOR1
the converter will use the paths on the command line instead of the ones
you issued in the environment.
This is also a good time to discuss how the converter handles the
command line parameters. The first undelimited( the delimited commands
are shown below ) parameter the converter reads from the command
line will always be thought of as the door type you want. The second
will always be the path to your data files, and the third will always be
the path you want the converter to write its files to. There are no
exceptions to these rules.
-Txx This delimiter allows you to lock the users time in the
door to xx minutes. Again the xx can represent any number.
NOTE: Be selective when using this option on PROKIT doors.
Prokit doors are designed to disconnect the user when
his time runs out, so if you lock the users time to
10 minutes when he has 30 minutes left on the system,
a Prokit door will throw him offline when his 10
minutes are up.
-D This delimiter is really a switch which tells the
converter to write it's DOORWAY files in addition to it's
already specified conversion.
-A<door name> This delimiter is also really a switch. It tells the
converter to log the door name you specify with the
user's name, the time and date he entered the door, and
hisr baud rate to a file. That file is readable by
the included program called ACTIVITY, and will tell you
who entered your doors when and will allow you to track
how often your doors are used ( See the activity docs
for more details ). The door name specified
must be separated by a '_' if it's 2 words as shown
below:
PC.EXE OO -AOPERATION_OVERKILL
When using a delimiter DO NOT separate the delimiter and its data by a
space. That will cause a blank to be added to the beginning of the data
and could cause problems for the converter.
You may enter delimited parameters in any order you like because the
converter uses the delimiters as a filter so it knows where to place
each piece of data you give it. You may also use them with the
undelimited parameters AS LONG AS you remember that the undelimited
parameters must be entered in the order previously specified.
One other option that has been added in this version of the converter
is the ability for it to create any file it can create through a type
conversion, individually. In other words if you have a door that only
uses a PCBoard.sys file, the converter will now create just that file
for you as opposed to your having to create all the files that a PCB12
or PCB14 conversion will create. This should prove to be of great
benefit to those of you running on a slower system ( like an XT ) and
who want to optimize ( or minimize ) the drop time to a door. The
following is a list of individual files The Power Converter will create
for you:
Auntie.sys Auntie.bbs
Bbsinfo.oo For Operatin Overkill
Callinfo.bbs Genesis format Callinfo.bbs
Callinfo.bbs(WC113) Wildcat! 1.13 format Callinfo.bbs
Callinfo.bbs(WC2) Wildcat! 2.0 format Callinfo.bbs
Chain.txt WWIV
Curruser.bbs RyBBS
Door.sys GAP format Door.sys
Dorinfox.def RBBS-PC format dorinfox.def
Info.bbs Phoenix BBS
Messages(15) RBBS-PC v15 format Messages
Messages(16) RBBS-PC v16 format Messages
PCBoard.sys(12) PCBoard v12 PCBoard.sys
PCBoard.dat(12) PCBoard v12 PCBoard.dat
PCBOard.sys(14) PCBoard v14 PCBoard.sys
PCBoard.dat(14) PCBoard v14 PCBoard.dat
RBBS-PC.def(15) RBBS-PC v15 format RBBS-PC.def
RBBS-PC.def(16) RBBS-PC v16 format RBBS-PC.def
Sfdoors.dat Spitfire
Users(12) PCBoard v12 format Users
Users(14) PCBoard v14 format Users
--- Registration
In order to register The Power Converter you must fill out the registration
form that is enclosed, and mail it to any of the appropriate support
sites. They will , depending on the instructions you have given on the
registration for either call you with or mail you, your registration
code. Then all you need to do is type this at the command line:
PC.EXE REGISTER
and the Power Converter will prompt you for the same information that
you entered on your order form and for your registration code. IF you
have entered all the info correctly, the program will alter your key and
you will be a registered user.
--- In Closing
Enclosed you will now find a list of doors that have been brought to
my attention as having bugs, and the solutions, if any, to the problems
they have. The file is called DOORHELP.TXT. If you find any other doors
that cause you problems please let me know and I can work with the
authors to get the bugs ironed out of the doors.
If you have any suggestions that you think will help make the
converter better or easier to use let me know and I will be more than
happy to implement them if at all possible.
Thanks for your support!