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1991-01-31
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Multi-Utility, (C) Copyright 1990 - 1991, Workshops by Tom!
GT Austin #2, GTnet 003/900
Tom Scallorn, (512)263-2767, Voice
MU102 .ZIP First Public release 01-31-91
Disclaimer:
-----------
MU is the result of many hours of program coding and testing. It is
currently being used on the author's GT host system under GT/GR 1600
code. Use of this program is at your own risk. Neither the author,
copyright holder, nor P & M Software Co. can or will be held
responsible for any damages, real or imaginary, to your hardware,
software, or data resulting from use of this program.
Credits:
--------
GT Power, (C) Copyright 1985-1990, P & M Software Co.
GTDRWY, Bob Quinlan
DOORWAY, (C) Copyright 1989, Marshall Dudley
LIST.COM, (C) Copyright, Vern Buerg
NE.COM, Norton's Editor, (C) Copyright Peter Norton Computing, Inc.
STATUS
------
MU102 is publicly released.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
-------------------
CGA Video card/monitor, Hard Disk, DOS version 3.0 or higher, GT1600
host system running GR/GT beta or released GT1600 software. Norton's
Editor, file editor software, or other editor/wordprocessor software that
may be named NE.COM and will accept a command line parameter for the file
to be editted. In order to view the nodelist when entering or replying to
Netmail messages, LIST.COM. LIST.COM is written by Vern Buerg and I cannot
imagine operating any computer without this program.
General Info:
-------------
This program is written in Quick Basic, version 4.5, (C)
Copyright Microsoft Corporation. It is distributed as
MUnnn .ZIP, the nnn being the current version number. The
following files are contained in the consolidated file:
MUnnn.EXE Stand alone complete "executable" program.
MUnnn.DOC This file
What the program expects:
-------------------------
It is assumed that you are throughly familiar with your GT
host/terminal software and documents. If you are not please re-STUDY the
areas with which you are unfamiliar.
MU is a "multi-purpose" utility. It is designed for SYSOP use.
Operated in its default mode it is an off-line message system. It will
allow routine reading, entering, replying, and printing all messages from
any message base on your GT host system. In its "maintenance" mode it will
allow access to many of GT's control files. If you are NOT familiar with
the purpose and importance of these control files, I do NOT recommend that
you run MU in the maintenance mode.
MU accepts two command line parameters:
mu /m /n:your name
The /m turns on maintenance mode. The /n: followed by your name
installs Your Name as the program user, otherwise it defaults to "No Name".
Most likely you do not have a valid user with that name. MU will then quit
with an error message to that effect. The /m parameter is optional, but if
used it must be followed by the /n: parameter. This parameter MUST be the
last thing on the command line.
To read/respond in the message areas select option 1 from the Main Menu
screen, then select the area from the Message Area Menu, then option 1 from
the Message File Menu. From this point on, (hopefully), you will be able
to navigate the process with little or no instructions.
What the program does:
----------------------
Typical Screen Displays
Tom Scallorn 6038
╔═══════════════════════[Main Menu]════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ 1. Message Files ║
║ 2. User Files ║
║ 3. File Library ║
║ 4. Quit ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ Please select: ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Tom Scallorn 6038
╔═══════════════════════[Main Menu]════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ ╔═════════════════════[Message Files]══════════════════════╗
║ ║ ║
║ ║ Number of directories: 7 ║
║ ║ 1. G Main GT message base. ║
║ ║ 2. F GT Net Mail Area ║
║ ║ 3. F Local Net 003 Echo ║
║ ║ 4. F GT Support Conference ║
║ ║ 5. 1 GT Beta Testers ║
║ ║ MORE (#'s) ║
║ ║ ║
║ ║ ESC - prior menu ║
╚══║ Q - Qyit program ║
║ Please Select: ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Tom Scallorn 6038
╔═══════════════════════[Main Menu]════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ ╔═════════════════════[Message Files]══════════════════════╗
║ ║ ║
║ ║ ╔═════════════════════[MsgFile Menu]══════════════════════╗
║ ║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║ GT Beta Testers ║
║ ║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║ 1. Read messages ║
║ ║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║ ESC - Prior Menu ║
║ ║ ║ Q - Quit Program ║
╚══║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║
╚═══║ ║
║ Please Select: ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Notice the "user name" displayed at the upper left hand side of the
screen, followed by a number code. The number code is the "internal" hash
code which GT assigns to each user. It will always vary, and is really of
little or no importance to you unless you are a Developer.
READER MENU LINE
----------------
T)ack S)can E)nt R)ply K)ill P)rt Cursor keys Home End +/- ESC msg#:
T)ack is the command supporting the sticky message flag toggle.
MU supports this command, as do several other off-line message
systems/programs. Press T to toggle the flag from "un-stuck" to "sticky"
or from "sticky" to "un-stuck".
S)can means you wish to just view the headers of the messages. There
are plans to expand capabilities in this area in future versions.
E)nt means you desire to enter a message in the current message area.
This will be a NEW message. The message will be added to the message area
at the end of the area, just as GT and others do.
R)ply means that you wish to reply to the current message being
displayed, in the current message area. The reply message will be added to
the end of the message area and the "Also see: " line will be updated
appropriately.
K)ill allows deletion of the current message in a manner similar to the
same command in GT.
P)rt will direct the current message header and text to your
printer. My print routine is very crude and it is up to you to ensure that
your printer is set up appropriately. My printer is LPT1: which is the DOS
default PRN. I also have my printer set for 56 lines and to skip the
perforation on the page. My printer is a Brother M-1509 and is set for IBM
mode emulation. This should give you the necessary info to adapt your
printer to work with MU.
The cursor up/dn arrow keys will allow you to increment to the next
message or decrement to the previous message. The cursor Home key will put
you to the first message in the area and the End key to the last message.
The +/- keys will allow you to increment/decrement from the current message
area. The Esc key will leave the reader returning to the Mesage File Menu.
Entering a number will jump to that message number. If the message
does not exist, (deleted), you will get the next highest number that does
exist. If the number is negative or less than the first message number in
the area, you will get the first message. If the number is greater than
the last message in the area you will get the last message in the area.
typical display
---------------
Messages: 1 to 1025 LastRead: 1025
Area: GT Beta Testers
stack= 1208
Number: 2
From: Gene Newcomb 10-17-90 22:24 Wednesday
To: Jack Hazel
Subj: Beep (None) [ 0 ] { 32 }
Also see: { 0 } { 0 } { 0 } { 0 }
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
┌─
│ beep at the end of the ANSI file. Has anyone else reported this? I am
└─[JH=>PM]
No beeps here jack Just screens!, Reminds me of wendys <g> 'wheres the
beeps'
##Mmr 2.25ß. !link JH 10-15-90 23:20
.ORIGIN: 044/004 - GENO'S PLACE TEST SYSTEM * BELMONT CA - S.F. BAY AREA *
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
T)ack S)can E)nt R)ply K)ill P)rt Cursor keys Home End +/- ESC msg#:
The only program quirk that I know of is that you MUST save your
message with the editor. If you quit the editor the program will fail.
You will have the chance to SAVE or ABORT the message prior to the time it
is placed into the GT/GR system.
This version hooks into Norton's Editor in order to create a
message. The way it does this is via the QuickBasic "SHELL" command. I
pass the string "ne {filename.mu}". Norton's Editor will be invoked AND
the "header" that you just created will be displayed. Your actual message
MUST start at or below line 7.
The reason for this is that MU is going to edit this file after you
save it with Norton's Editor. MU will strip the top 6 lines of the file
and will also replace any ^Z (end of file) markers from the file.
If you do not have an executable NE.COM or NE.BAT or NE.EXE file a
record entry will still be made in the test.ctl file and aaannnnn.mu will
be created, but it will be a 0 byte file.
MU will mark messages addressed to YOU as {Rcvd}. That is if you
have started MU with the /n:Your Name, parameter. MU marks the message
after the header is displayed. So even if you do not read the whole
message it will be marked as rcvd, and displayed as such on subsequent
readings.
It should be noted that GT itself does NOT recognize "sticky" messages.
It has some processing in the Sysop.exe program and I believe there are
some provisions in the DELREN program for handling this type of message,
BUT the messages are not displayed as "sticky". And I believe that the
GT1600.exe and GR1600.exe will most likely delete these messages with
impunity.
Message Area Select menu allows double or triple digit area
numbers.
This version of MU introduces a display, similiar to SYSOP.EXE, that
will allow scrolling through both the USER.CTL and the USER_MSG.CTL files.
Using this you can check each user's status in each of the message areas.
I am definitely interested in suggestions for this option.
There is an option for FilesDB, but I am not yet sure what Paul is
going to put in there. So for the time being nothing has been implemented.
There have been some suggestions that a download counter be part of this
database and if Paul does not implement this perhaps I will. Suggestions
are being considered here also.
Using the program REMOTELY:
---------------------------
Multi-Utility is NOT designed to be run remotely! However, with the
recent advances made to DOORWAY it may be possible to run it that way. I
am not presently equipted to test it in this capacity.
Remote usage of the program, i.e. "drop to DOS", Door, may be
supported by running the program via DOORWAY. This fine program
is written and copyrighted by Marshall Dudley, of Data World BBS
(615) 966-3574. My sincere thanks to him for making a difficult
task easy, with his program. DOORWAY is distributed as a
"demo-version", current version is DRWY212.ZIP. Registration in
accordance with his docs, is strongly urged. It is certainly
worth his $30.00 registration fee.
Registration:
-------------
MU102.ZIP is distributed as "user-supported" software.
You are urged to encourage the author by sending a $15.00-$20.00
registration fee if you find this program to be of use to you.
"User-supported" and ShareWare can only work if YOU support
the authors.
Problems:
---------
For registered users the author may also be reached voice at
(512)263-2767. Registration gets my attention. <GRIN>
Tom (TomS.) Scallorn
01-31-91
This is the first public release of MultiUtility. I have decided to
release the program at this stage hoping to get some user feedback as to
what is liked or desired. I must again stress:
*****
This is a SYSOP program! It was not
and is not designed for general use by
other users.
*****