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PCBoard to Files.BBS Directory Conversion Utility (P2F) Version 1.00
(c)1992 7th Illusion, J.S. Morisset aka Storm Widow
All Rights Reserved
Released August 2nd, 1992
1. License Agreement
P2F is released under the Shareware concept. As such, you may
distribute P2F freely, provided you do not charge copying, or any
distribution fees; an exception is granted to non-profit user's
groups, which are permitted to charge a small fee (not to exceed
$5.00 U.S.) for materials, handling, postage, and general overhead.
No other organization is permitted to charge any amount for
distribution of copies of the software or documentation, or to
include copies of the software or documentation with sales of their
own products. You may not alter, modify, or adapt the software or
documentation, including, but not limited to translating,
decompiling, reverse assembling, or creating derivative works.
You may use P2F free of charge for a thirty day evaluation period,
after which you are expected to register or discontinue using the
program. Registration permits continued use on a regular basis on
a single computer. A registered user may use the program on a
different computer, but may not use the program on more than one
computer at the same time. Registration includes licensed use of
all upgrades.
To register, send $10.00 (CDN funds) in check or money order
payable to 7th Illusion (no cash please) at the mailing address
listed bellow.
2. Disclaimer of Warranty
THIS SOFTWARE AND MANUAL ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF
ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS OF
PURPOSE. THE USER OF THIS SOFTWARE AND MANUAL ASSUMES ALL RISKS.
SHOULD P2F OR ITS ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTATION PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU
ASSUME THE COSTS OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.
3. Contacting the Author
Netmail and/or E-Mail
Fidonet 1:167/281
Internet storm.widow@f281.n167.z1.fidonet.org
Compuserve >INTERNET:storm.widow@f281.n167.z1.fidonet.org
BBS (514) 338-1193, 14400 HST
(514) 338-1680, 2400 Generic
Surface Mail
7th Illusion
Post Office Box 1334, Station H
Montreal QC, Canada
H3G 2N6
Introduction
P2F is designed to convert your PCBoard file directories to
FILES.BBS format (QBBS/RA/Opus/etc). This enables SysOps to make
use of several Fidonet utilities including FREQ doors, Netmail
command processors, FILES.BBS filelist and bulletin compilers, etc.
I've purposefully made P2F very simple to use, needing little or no
maintenance as your file directories change. Personally, I hate
re-configuring a dozen utilities just because I changed or added
something in PCBoard.
Limitations
If you ever need P2F to do more than it does, send me a message and
I'll be happy to add some new features. The following limits could
be exceeded, the only result is that P2F will exit with an error.
■ P2F will handle any conference between 0 and 39 inclusively. I
don't expect anyone would have file directories in conferences
higher than 39. If you do, send a message and I'll spend a few
more hours to work in support for the CNAMES.@@@ file.
■ Maximum of 500 directory entries in DIR.LST. This limit was set
to conserve memory and speed-up P2B's execution speed.
Usage
Like I said, I like to keep my programs simple; all that's involved
here is giving the path/filename to your PCBOARD.DAT file and the
conference number to process.
ie: P2F.EXE /p<pcboard.dat> /c<cnfn#>
P2F.EXE /pD:\PCB0\PCBOARD.DAT /c4
These same examples are displayed if you call P2F.EXE without any
parameters. In case of errors (missing files, etc) P2F will exit
with one of these errorlevels.
(0) Normal Termination
(1) Error Opening File
(2) Unexpected EOF or Out-Of-Sync
(3) Array Bounds Exceeded
Run-Time
P2F will read your PCBOARD.DAT to locate the CNAMES file. It will
then scan CNAMES for the path/filename of the conference's DIR.LST.
Following is a sample DIR.LST I used during development:
DIR Text File Name & Path Hard Disk Subdirectory
═════════════════════════ ══════════════════════
E:\MTLN\CYBERNT\DIRS\FIDOINFO F:\CYBERNT\FIDOINFO\
E:\MTLN\CYBERNT\DIRS\FIDOFEND F:\CYBERNT\FIDOFEND\
E:\MTLN\CYBERNT\DIRS\FIDOMSGS F:\CYBERNT\FIDOMSGS\
E:\MTLN\CYBERNT\DIRS\FIDONODE F:\CYBERNT\FIDONODE\
E:\MTLN\CYBERNT\DIRS\FIDO_FDN F:\CYBERNT\FIDO_FDN\
etc.
As you'll notice, each DIR file has an individual directory on the
hard-drive. This is the suggested configuration for PCBoard's
maximum efficiency (file search speed). This is also the =ONLY=
way P2F will function properly. If two DIR entries share the same
physical directory, the last FILES.BBS will over-write the previous
one.
Continuing the example above, you'll find a FILES.BBS in each
physical directory after P2F's execution.
F:\CYBERNT\FIDOINFO\FILES.BBS
F:\CYBERNT\FIDOFEND\FILES.BBS
F:\CYBERNT\FIDOMSGS\FILES.BBS
F:\CYBERNT\FIDONODE\FILES.BBS
F:\CYBERNT\FIDO_FDN\FILES.BBS
etc.