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1991-03-25
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AGLREP - Advanced GBag List Reporter Version 1.50
-------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IT IS
----------
AGLREP is designed for those who sponsor GT Echomail conferences or
carry GT Echomail conferences for others to pick up. This program replaces
the conference list created by the MDIST program when a user sends a .GL to
to the system.
Why? Because. The current GL list, while handy, could tell more than
it does. In this program I have attempted to add what I've always thought
was missing from the current report. I'll explain the details in a minute.
HOW TO USE IT
-------------
Simply place AGLREP directly after your nightly run of MDIST. If you
support Crash!Mail, you should probably put it in after the MDIST in there
as well. (Presuming you have one.) Or, you could run it directly before
you bag the mail for the evening. It just doesn't matter; so long as it is
run once after the mail in distributed and before it is bagged up again.
Normally, AGLREP should be run without any command line parameters.
However, if you call your routing file anything other than ROUTING.BBS,
then you should include the name of your routing file as the command line
parameter. That is, if your routing file is named ROUTING.BBS, to run
AGLREP you simply enter AGLREP and that is it. If, however, your routing
file is named something like PANIC.NOT, you would then enter
AGLREP PANIC.NOT to use the program. The rest it figures out on it's
own.
The program will hunt down all .GL lists that are outgoing from the
local system. If you run the program for the first time and have several
old .GL reports floating around in the netmail area still, this may take
some time. Don't Panic - it only does each message once, so the next time
it runs it will only do what is new.
DETAILS
-------
When it does find an outgoing .GL report, the first thing it does is
change the subject of the message from ECHOMAIL REPORT to [Advanced]
ECHOMAIL REPORT. Next, it changes the To: field of the message from
"Sysop" to the full name of the Sysop of the receiving node. That is,
"Sysop" is changed to a real name.
Next, the report itself is rewritten.
The report is divided into five columns. Namely "Echo", "G-Bag",
"Date", "Days", "Rating", and "Description". The first column ("Echo") is
of course the familar echo number. (eg: E99/042.) The second column
("G-Bag") simply contains a "Yes" if that particular echo is being sent to
the message receiver. If not, this is left blank. The third column
("Date") is the echomail date that the echo was last sent out. Again, this
is only if the echo is in a G-Bag, otherwise the field will be blank. So
far, this is essentially the same information that is supplied with the
current .GL MDIST report. The next column, "Days", refers to the number of
days old that echo is. For example, if the last date the echo was sent was
1395, and the current echomail date is 1400, then there would be a "5" in
the "Days" column. (1400-1395=5) Once more, this is only if the echo is
being bagged in a G-Bag for the user. Next is the "Rating" or "Status"
column, which gives an English adjective describing the echo based on the
value in "Days". The rating ranges from "PERFECT" for echoes with no
difference between the last echo date received and the current echo mail
date, ("Days" = 0, or same-day-service!) and "*STALE*" for echoes not
received in three weeks. The last column, "Description", is the full echo
description as listed in your ROUTING file - not cut off at 20 characters.
(It will, however, be cut off at the end of the screen, around 49
characters.) Case will also remain the same as in the ROUTING file.
Please note a couple of differences between the way this program
creates the list and the way MDIST does.
MDIST will only list echoes up through the E10 series. This program
will - normally - list up all the way to (but *NOT* including) the E99
series. This will make the report a little more accurate of what is
carried on the system that might be available but above E10. Notice that I
say _NORMALLY_ it will only list up to E98. *IF* a caller is set up to
receive an E99 series echo, THEN that echo will be listed in the report.
That is, the report will admit to having E99 echoes only if the caller is
already receiving it - in which case the E99 will be treated as would any
other echo series.
Like MDIST, the AGL report will not list echoes whose descriptions
begin with a semi-colon to users who do not have an "F" flag by their node
in the BAG CONSOLIDATION section of the ROUTING file. Again, the exception
to this is if the caller is already getting the echo in a G-Bag. That is,
if the user is receiving an echo whose description is preceeded by a
semi-colon, yet does not have the "F" flag set in BAG CONSOLIDATION, the
echo will still appear in the report. If the user does NOT subscribe to
such an echo, then it will not appear. Of course, if the "F" flag *IS*
set, then all echoes will be reported.
AGL, however, does treat these 'private' echoes, as well as scrambled
echoes differently than MDIST does. If an echo is private (that is, has
the semi-colon before the description,) AGL will place the word "{Pvt}"
before the description instead of the semi-colon. Only in the report,
mind you, it does not change the ROUTING file itself.
If an echo is scrambled, that is, it has a password in (...) behind
the description, then the word "{Scr}" will preceed the description. This
saves subscribers from .GMing an echo that they won't be able to read.
If an echo is both private and scrambled, the description will be
preceeded by "{Pvt/Scr}".
At the end of the main echo list, the program tallies up the number of
echoes listed (which may or may not be the number of echoes actually on the
host system, depending on the number of private and E99 series echoes
carried,) along with the current echomail date, and the age in days of the
average echomail bag. The latter will only be displayed if any bags are
actually being RECEIVED - not much point in calculating the average age of
nothing.
Next in the report comes the list of echo conferences being received.
This section is pretty well the same as MDIST's, except that the name of
the host system is displayed along with the NET/NODE number, and there is a
space between the comma following the echo number and the echomail date.
For example, "E99/042, 1400" in contrast to "E99/042,1400". Just more
astheticly pleasing I thought. Once again, this section will only be
displayed if the sender of the .GL is actually receiving any echoes.
And finally, at the end of the report, is once sentence that let's the
caller know if his NET/NODE is set up for BAG CONSOLIDATION or not. The
caller then knows if there is any point in sending out that list of .GMs or
not.
The message is then time/date stamped and that's the end of it.
SAMPLE OUTPUT
-------------
*****************************************************************************
Fm: NetMail System
To: Joe User at 042/042
Sb: 047/000 - AGL ECHOMAIL REPORT
An Echomail status report for Joe User, the Sysop of 042/042:
Conferences available on 047/000 - Nanchinchee:
===============================================
Echo G-Bag Day Old Rating Description
------- ----- ---- ---- ------- ----------------------------------------
E00/024 Ham Radio
E00/025 Yes 1346 3 OK Sports - All Sporting Events
E00/032 Amateur Astronomy
E00/067 CB Radio Conference
E00/071 Yes 1345 4 OK Motorcycle Forum
E01/007 The Echolist
E01/008 The Nodelist
E02/354 HitchHikers Guide To The Galaxy
E10/003 Yes 1348 1 GOOD Multitasking
E10/009 Shareware Only!
E10/016 Trading Post-Buy/Sell/Trade
E10/024 Yes 1342 7 SLOW UFOs Are they Real or Hoax
E10/033 Music
E10/038 Books And Movies
E10/057 Psychology, Psychotherapy
E10/073 Yes 0 UnRec'd Doctor Who & British SciFi
E10/074 Internation Guppies Scoreboard
E10/079 UK-USA International Chat
E10/080 Yes 1347 2 OK Compiled Basic Programming
E42/241 {Pvt} Bill's Private Echo
E42/242 {Scr} Bob's Scrambled Echo
E42/243 {Pvt/Scr} A Really Private Scramble One
E99/002 Yes 1349 0 PEFECT Local MH Music Echo
------- ----- ---- -------------------------------------------------------
23 7 1349 17 (Average is 2 days.)
Conferences coming to you in a G-Bag from 047/000 - Nanchinchee:
================================================================
E00/025, 1346 E00/071, 1345 E10/003, 1348 E10/024, 1342 E10/073, 0000
E10/080, 1347 E99/002, 1349
-You *ARE* set up for Bag Consolidation.
[Report created on 09-11-1990 at 19:10:31 by AGLREP V1.00.]
*****************************************************************************
A BIT ON THE TECHNICAL SIDE
---------------------------
-The AGL report will work with up to 300 echoes in the MESSAGE
DISTRIBUTION file. This should be more than enough for quite some
time to come.
-The echoes ARE sorted before being processed, although I must admit
that I did not use the most efficient or fastest sorting routing that
has been written. The time it takes to sort the echoes will depend
on your machine, the number of echoes you carry, and how out of order
they were in. On my 386SX, 300 randomly placed echoes took about 12
seconds to be sorted. If they were already in order, this was cut
down to a tad over two seconds. (And if you have 300 echoes and
store them in a random order, you are better at finding things than I
am. And nuts too.) A 100 entry pre-sorted file took less than one
second on my machine.
-The AGL report changes it's subject field to reflect the style in the
new version of the Netmail software. As well, the program will work
with both the old and the new versions of the Netmail software.
-Any one node can receive up to 300 echoes (the maximum providec by
MDIST anyway,) and there can be up to 600 entries in the GCONSOL.CTL
file. Hopefully this will be enough!
-The program does use a lot of memory in order to improve it's speed
performance. It will probably need at least 128K to operate.
OPERATING WITH DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF GT
---------------------------------------
Currently, the program makes use of existing information to figure out
what version of the GT software is running. This is done by checking out
your MMR configuration file to see what it says. For those that don't use
MMR (I've heard nasty rumours to that effect, but tend not to believe
them,) this will cause you some trouble. For you, and command line entry
is in the works. Keep watching.
A point about MMR: Register it. Harry Green put an awful lot of work into
a fine program and deserves your support.
REGISTRATION
------------
I ask for no money for this program. Once again, however, I do
request that, if you use it and like it, drop me a postcard in the mail. I
like postcards. They're fun. They're exciting. They're better than phone
bills.
Of course, should you WANT to include a few bucks, I wouldn't refuse
it either!
Lloyd Ford
c/o 262 Mitchell Cres. NW
MEDICINE HAT, Alberta
CANADA T1A 6V4
EOF