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1990-01-22
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MSGT by Mark Shasby, 050/007
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
****** New functions / bug fixes are listed at the end of this document ******
The first information in here is how to set it up as a door, to find the
current list of options just type MSGT. There are three ways to run the program,
either as a standalone utility at the DOS prompt, under DOORWAY (by Marshall
Dudley - I registered my copy, remote DOS shell is practically useless without
it) or as a "normal" GT door with %1 COM%2 etc. If you use either of the first
two methods, no special parameters are required - the "door" parameter is only
of use if you use %1 COM%2 in your gtdoorn/gtlogon. The "door" parameter simply
instructs MSGT to direct an extra copy to the local PC screen as well as the
remote user - obviously DOORWAY does this itself.
Command line parameters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
gtlog * Report host sessions from GT.LOG
nosysop Don't include sysop in logon list
nolocal Don't include local sessions in logon list
nolocsy Don't include sysop in list when on local
nocrash Don't include incoming crashes in logon list
notime Don't display date & time in logon list
sysoploc Use board name & loc. instead of user loc. for GT sysops
sysopnum Use phone number instead of board loc. in above option
duration Show call duration on gtlog report
lastn Show last 'n' entries on gtlog report (see LastN below)
extra Add a line of extra detail, like numbers of messages entered,
files up/downloaded.
reverse List output in reverse order, i.e. most recent caller first.
names Add filenames to "extra" line(s).
logtots Print short summary report after log report,
See LogTotalsTitle below.
logonOK? Exit with ERRORLEVEL 4 if last logon didn't get past password.
lastbit Only reads last bit of GT.LOG when reporting - this is much faster
than a complete read but still usually includes a few days. this
is ideal for GTLOGON reporting when you don't want to hassle the
callers' phone bills. You obviously leave this option off when
you want a complete report.
sincelast Report activity since last call by current logged-on user.
netlog * Report netmail session from GTNET.LOG
nettots Produce a summary report of the complete GTNET.LOG contents.
nodetail Don't list the normal report, for use with nettots.
outbound * Report on bags waiting for delivery/collection
personal Restrict outbound report to current logged-on user
messages * Various reports from all message areas
sysop Check message areas for sysop instead of current user
totals Display message counts and totals on message scan
unread Check for unread mail on message scan
unread? Same as above but sets ERRORLEVEL 2 if unread mail exists
entered For GTLOGOFF.BAT only! Scans message areas and logs any
messages entered by the last user.
since For .BAT files only! Similar to above but can scan for messages
entered by any offline program, see "Offline Messages" chapter
below.
msgcount Used with "entered" or "since" if only message counts are to be
logged rather than the message area and recipient.
activity Displays numbers of members of an area and some stats about
numbers of messages read - an extension to the "totals" function.
acticols Columnular combination of "totals" and "activity".
excsysop Exclude sysop from "activity" or "acticols" report.
members List names and last read of all members of all message areas.
msgexit Exits with errorlevel 8 if messages were entered in this
session (GTLOGOFF). (needs "entered" to work)
stamp * Signals beginning of an offline message writer .BAT file, see
"Offline Messages" chapter below.
LF * Output a blank line
pause * Force a pause
verify * Verify caller's phone number - see VerifyOdds below
change * Change password for current user
door.sys * Create a DOOR.SYS file in current directory
time * Display the country name and time
chat * Split-screen chat mode - will work as normal chat mode for
non-ANSI callers but is really intended for ANSI. THIS WILL ONLY
WORK AS A "%1 COM%2" TYPE DOOR - IT WILL DEFINATELY *NOT* WORK
UNDER DOORWAY, GATEWAY ETC! As this is only available as a
%1 COM%2 door the "door" keyword is necessary.
created * Outputs a "report created at xxx on xxx" message for timestamping
bulletins etc. Use with "LF" function for pretty spacing - you
could have the timestamp at the beginning or end or wherever.
* These are positional commands, for example 'MSGT gtlog pause netlog pause',
the rest can be anywhere on the line and will affect the entire line.
Parameters that apply to more than one command
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANSI? Exit with errorlevel 1 if user can support ANSI graphics
more Pause every 24 lines
today Only include today's sessions
24hr Only include sessions within last 24 hours
door MSGT running as a basic "%1 COM%2" type door (recommended)
noANSI Force output to non-ANSI, for piping to bulletins etc.
nopause Disable ALL pauses - useful for piping to bulletins etc.
why? Instead of timer during working, display the reason for the
working. Intended for debugging only as the average caller
won't want to know what file is being read etc.
noIBM Don't use IBM PC only character set.
nowork Don't display timer thingy, even while working - useful for
piping reports to files.
"Permanent" options within MSGT.CNF in your GTPATH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BoardName = 'Shasby's Lair'
Name of your BBS for MSGT reports.
Country = 'Bulgaria'
Name of country you're in for the "time" command line option.
WorkingStates = '|/-\'
String of characters to spin as timer thingy while working or waiting for
a pause.
WorkingColour = 'rgby'
String of colours for above characters, the letters for various colours can
be found by typing "msgt".
Postman = 'Postman Pat'
String to show on GTLOG report for incoming crash call.
USdate = True | False
Use US-format date & time in reports.
Pause = 'Enter' | 'Space' | 'Random'
Use random letters, ENTER or SPACE to terminate pauses.
PauseWait = 0
If this number is non-zero a limit (number of seconds) is put on a pause
wait. The pause message states the wait time.
PauseTimer = True | False
Display timer thingy while paused.
MailDrive = 'D'
Set to drive letter of disk with \MAILOUT etc., leave as '' and will use
current logged drive.
EchoString = 'echo'
Exclude visiting sysops from scan of areas whose descriptions include this
string, default "echo".
LastN = 10
Number of entries for 'n' in 'lastn' option.
MinPasswordLen = 5
Minimum length of password entered in 'change' command.
VerifyOdds = 10
One in something chance of caller being verified, i.e. in the example the
callers will be asked to verify their phone number on average every tenth
call.
VerifyTries = 3
Maximum number of attempts at verification, if your callers are pretty
thick you may want to let them have more tries. If you are exceptionally
security conscious and want to ensure that people use their real phone
numbers, 2 tries would be plenty - providing the line noise isn't too bad.
DegradeLevel = 'V'
Class to degrade callers to who can't verify - if this is '' they will be
warned but not degraded. The sysop will still get the message and can
investigate if required.
NonSysop = 'Mark Shasby'
Name of caller to exclude from sysoploc scan, this was added because in the
area where the MSGT beta testers live there are a few people with the same
names as US sysops in the nodelist. These callers from Accrington,
Lancashire, UK didn't want to be shown as sysop of XXXX from Washington DC
so this facility was added. It should not cause any problems because there
can only be one person registered on your system with such a name anyway,
and they will either be the sysop or not.
Define GTLOGON = 'gtlog today sysoploc sysopnum duration'
This defines "groups" of command line parameters so that your .BAT files
aren't ridiculously large, the "GTLOGON" or whatever can be any word
including the parameters I have defined so you can change the meaning of
those of you want. There can be any number of "Define"s, but remember that
the words you define are case-sensitive! Defines can be nested to any depth
you may fancy but the resultant "command line" is limited to 255 chars.
Stamp MMR = 'Sysop, using MMR entered'
This defines a "stamp" and relates a description to appear on the "gtlog"
report. There must be a description even if you choose not to display it
in the "gtlog" report as this line is necessary to define a stamp to MSGT.
If you are not using an offline message writer you don't need any "Stamp"
entries.
TimeStamp = 12345678
LastScan = 12345678
These are internal variables only of interest to MSGT. If you want further
info you are welcome to it but it is beyond the scope of this document.
LogTotalsTitle = 'Summary of activity this month'
Used as the title for the "gtlog logtots" report. Your GT.LOG may be kept
for one week, one month, whatever you feel like - this gives you the option
to title the report accordingly.
LogBodge = '***'
This allows you to define a word that signifies a non-standard entry in
GT.LOG. Some programs from OZ stamp things in the log with the above
prefix. They should really be using the GT comment syntax like MSGT does
though to avoid problems with other log-reading utilities.
MinPhoneLen = 9
You can set the minimum length of the phone numbers accepted by the
"verify" function. This could be 1 if you don't want any hassle on that
front?
PhoneText = 'you must enter your full national phone number'
This text is typed before every request for a phone number by "verify".
It allows a sysop to enter country-specific information about what you
accept but please remember that a lot of people call from other countries!
Offline Messages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you are using the "gtlog extra" facility to display message counts or
some other utility using the "MSGT Msg" or "MSGT MsgCount" entries, you may
want to include messages entered "offline" with MMR (by Harry Green), BMM (by
Stephen De Plater) or other utilities (Sorry for not mentioning the others, I
haven't heard of them yet!). The "stamp" option in conjunction with the
"messages since XXXX" (where XXXX is defined in MSGT with a "Stamp" line) can
be used for this purpose. You will first need to define a "Stamp" in MSGT.CNF,
the example above is for MMR but will work for any offline message writer.
Note the strange wording of the description, that is not important now but will
become clear as reports are written to use the data. You then need to create a
.BAT file to run your message creating utility. I will use MMR in the example
but the name of the utility is unimportant. Here is an example CALLMMR.BAT to
demonstrate the system...
@echo off
msgt stamp
MMR /* or whatever */
msgt messages since MMR
...Notice that the MMR mentioned in line 3 is the utility being called to enter
messages but the MMR mentioned in the bottom line is the "Stamp" defined in
MSGT.CNF.
Note you can have as many different "Stamp"s as you want, you may have one,
for example, to log messages entered by a utility that automatically upgraded
good uploaders or something?
Memory requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All the data structures in this program are variable sized so that memory
usage is as efficient as possible. The one complaint received to date about
memory was from a sysop with a 512K machine running GT 15.01 and just over 500
users - he had to use /V:L on the GT command line to cause the GTLOGON.BAT to
run in overlay mode. The same would probably apply to MSGT in a door on a
similar sized machine & user file in which case /V:D would be required (if both
are required then /V:DL is the format).
The wobblegob at the end
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suggestions, complaints to 050/007 via netmail or feel free to call and page
between 0700-1530 GMT weekdays for help or a chat about the weather.
Any GT utility writers in the world who like/use any of my programs can show
their appreciation by donating a registered copy of your utilities! :-)
Anyone else who has too much money can of course send some to me and I won't
argue whatsoever - the address is...
Mark Shasby,
c/o Immoral Earnings Dept.,
33 Park Road,
Waterfoot,
Rossendale,
Lancashire.
BB4 9BW
United Kingdom
New functions / bug fixes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This section was started on the 8th November with release 79.
November 8th 1989 - 09:54 - MSGT79: Help removed from .EXE, bug with *X and =X
in GTMDIR fixed, "Define" function in
MSGT.CNF completed.
November 9th 1989 - 09:21 - MSGT84: "extra" option added to "gtlog" report,
"messages entered" option added, "Carrier
Loss" flag added to "gtlog" report.
"gtlog" report is getting extremely messy,
any suggestions as to a suitable layout
would really be appreciated!
November 9th 1989 - 10:42 - MSGT86: "why?" option added to aid debugging.
November 9th 1989 - 13:52 - MSGT88: Fixed bug in "gtlog extra" option, was
including files after DISCONNECT for
previous user.
November 10th 1989 - 08:18 - MSGT89: Added message number to "messages unread"
report.
November 10th 1989 - 11:18 - MSGT93: Replaced "RandomPause" option (MSGT.CNF)
with "Pause" option, adding SPACE to list
of choices. "PauseWait" also added to
MSGT.CNF allowing maximum wait time on a
pause if required.
November 10th 1989 - 12:33 - MSGT94: "time" command line option added together
with corresponding "Country" variable in
MSGT.CNF.
November 10th 1989 - 15:15 - MSGT95: "Memory requirements" section added to
documentation. First compilation under
TP 5.5 Professional, please report weird
happenings.
November 13th 1989 - 07:38 - MSGT96: Fixed bug where "gtlog extra" didn't spot
BiModem transfers. "Opened N doors" now
added to "gtlog extra" report. Added
"nolocsy" option to "gtlog" report to
exclude sysop only when local.
November 13th 1989 - 09:55 - MSGT97: Added pending .FRs to "outbound" report.
November 13th 1989 - 13:44 - MSGT98: Time for "messages entered" processing
decreased vastly.
November 14th 1989 - 07:54 - MSGT99: Bugs fixed in "messages entered" related
to GT.LOG format and messages with future
dates - entered on system with sysop who
can't set dates properly!
November 14th 1989 - 08:22 - MSGT100: Coloured in the "gtlog extra" lines and
added "reverse" option to "gtlog".
November 14th 1989 - 14:31 - MSGT101: Added "names" option to "gtlog extra".
November 15th 1989 - 07:11 - MSGT102: Fixed bug relating to "gtlog extra
names" and BiModem (isn't it always?).
Fixed bug in reading NODELIST.BBS, now
aware of point notation.
November 16th 1989 - 12:51 - MSGT103: "messages entered" was reading more
files than necessary - not any more!
November 17th 1989 - 11:42 - MSGT104: "stamp", "messages since" feature added,
mainly of use to MMR/BMM users to keep
logs of messages entered offline.
"msgcount" option added to "messages
entered" and "messages since".
November 17th 1989 - 12:44 - MSGT105: "outbound" now reports any pending .DX
November 20th 1989 - 09:37 - MSGT106: "Scan cancelled" message not appearing
at random any more. "24hr" option added
(affects "gtlog" and "netlog").
November 21st 1989 - 11:13 - MSGT107: Incoming crashes disappeared from all
reports in 106 - back now.
November 21st 1989 - 13:01 - MSGT108: "gtlog logtots" option added and
corresponding MSGT.CNF entry.
November 22nd 1989 - 09:34 - MSGT109: "unread?" option added to "messages"
function.
November 22nd 1989 - 14:38 - MSGT110: Fixed "logtots" problem with counting
days in GT.LOG. Fixed "gtlog today"
problem - was showing last call of
previous day. Fixed "nocrash" option,
crashes were showing regardless. First
attempt at shared access is in this
release. "logonOK?" option added to
"gtlog".
November 23rd 1989 - 15:30 - MSGT111: Fixed problem with remote input not
echoing to local screen properly. Fixed
problem with "gtlog extra" not reporting
everything.
November 24th 1989 - 08:07 - MSGT112: Runtime error 5 on "verify" fixed.
November 28th 1989 - 09:14 - MSGT113: A few extra lines added to "gtlog
logtots".
November 28th 1989 - 14:41 - MSGT114: "lastbit" function added to "gtlog",
speeds up report vastly for GTLOGON use.
November 29th 1989 - 08:07 - MSGT115: "lastbit" speeded up a little bit more.
November 30th 1989 - 14:13 - MSGT116: "nettots" and "nodetail" options added
to "netlog". "noIBM" and "nowork" added
to all options.
November 30th 1989 - 15:00 - MSGT117: "verify" option fixed - it appeared to
be ignoring " " and "-" (wasn't really).
December 1st 1989 - 14:01 - MSGT118: "nettots" output prettied up a bit and
baud rate columns added. "verify" now
reports failed numbers to sysop.
December 4th 1989 - 12:46 - MSGT119: Breakdown of connect speeds added to
"logtots" report.
December 5th 1989 - 11:34 - MSGT120: "activity" and "excsysop" added to
"messages" report.
December 7th 1989 - 09:31 - MSGT121: "acticols" and "members" options added
to "messages" report.
December 10th 1989 - 16:12 - MSGT122: "gtlog" now reports "stamp"ed entries.
December 11th 1989 - 15:19 - MSGT123: "LogBodge" option added to MSGT.CNF,
"sincelast" option added to "gtlog".
December 13th 1989 - 09:30 - MSGT124: Initial code for "chat" function added,
read the description above before use,
ideas for pretty bits very welcome!
December 14th 1989 - 09:09 - MSGT126: OK, so I forgot to add this on the 125
release - it was just a change to the
"chat" screen anyway. This release is
to "netlog nettots" to make sub-1Kbyte
transfers show as 1K.
December 19th 1989 - 15:15 - MSGT127: "MinPhoneLen" and "PhoneText" lines
added to MSGT.CNF - used with "verify"
function - HEAVY DEMAND FOR THIS!
December 27th 1989 - 09:52 - MSGT128: "msgexit" added.
January 4th 1990 - 14:04 - MSGT129: "created" function added. While I'm
here I'd like to mention that if a
caller selects no ANSI and the GTLOGON
/ GTDOOR is using the %1 COM%2 method,
only monochrome is sent to their screen,
although colour still displays on the
local console - there is no need to call
MSGT with the "ANSI?" parameter etc.
January 8th 1990 - 16:05 - MSGT130: Added support for a few more control
characters in GT message/file area
descriptions (&, % etc.).
January 9th 1990 - 18:04 - MSGT131: Fixed bug causing incorrect durations
in "gtlog duration" and fixed "24hr"
not selecting proper times in "gtlog"
and "netlog".
January 11st 1990 - 09:24 - MSGT132: OK, OK, so I'm a plonker - I guess you
all saw the "January 11st" date from the
"time" function then?
January 19th 1990 - 10:52 - MSGT133: More statistics reported from "gtlog
logtots" function.
January 19th 1990 - 17:53 - MSGT134: Some features still in development were
taking too much storage in 133 and
causing runtime error 3, I have removed
them and will have to re-design the
algorithms!
January 22nd 1990 - 11:36 - MSGT135: "netlog" was hanging system if it found
an entry in GTNET.LOG from a node that
wasn't in the NODELIST. Fixed bug and
now displays a message about it - very
sorry to any systems I hung in netmail,
especially intercontinental hubs!