BBS Toolkit

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ BBS Toolkit / BBS Toolkit.iso / programs / s10502dx.zip / SIMPLEX.DOC next >

Wrap

Text File | 1992-03-25 | 194KB | 4,574 lines

┌───────┐ ┌─┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌─┐ ┌──────┐ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ ┌───────┐ ┌─┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌─┐ ┌──────┐ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ │ ┌─────┘ │ │ │ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ │ │ ┌──┐ │ │ │ │ ┌────┘ └┐└┐ ┌┘┌┘ │ ┌─────┘ │ │ │ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ │ │ ┌──┐ │ │ │ │ ┌────┘ └┐└┐ ┌┘┌┘ │ └─────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──┘ │ │ │ │ └──┐ └┐└─┘┌┘ │ └─────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──┘ │ │ │ │ └──┐ └┐└─┘┌┘ └─────┐ │ │ │ │ │ └─┘ │ │ │ ┌────┘ │ │ │ ┌──┘ ┌┘┌─┐└┐ └─────┐ │ │ │ │ │ └─┘ │ │ │ ┌────┘ │ │ │ ┌──┘ ┌┘┌─┐└┐ ┌─────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────┐ │ └────┐ ┌┘┌┘ └┐└┐ ┌─────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────┐ │ └────┐ ┌┘┌┘ └┐└┐ └───────┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ └─┘ └─┘ └───────┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └─┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ └─┘ └─┘ Simplex BBS - (c) 1989-92 Chris Laforet Software/Christopher Laforet All Rights Reserved. Chris Laforet can be contacted at: The Programmer's Oasis BBS - Graham, NC - 919/226-6984 The Programmer's Oasis 2 BBS - Graham, NC - 919/226-7136 FidoNet Mail 1:3644/1 or 1:3644/2 as Chris Laforet CompuServe Email - User ID: 76120,110 BIX Email - User ID: laforet Programming by Chris Laforet Unauthorized Selling/Renting Prohibited Documentation Title Page/Help Files/Etc by Robbie Foust _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Legalistic Mumbo-Jumbo (i.e. Better Read This Stuff) Legalistic Mumbo-Jumbo (i.e. Better Read This Stuff) _________________________________________________________________ Simplex is copyright (c) 1989-92, Chris Laforet Software and/or Christopher Laforet. This copyright is waived for the distribution of the executable files for Simplex. This means that you are free to distribute the Simplex executables as you wish as long as they are contained in the original form in which you received them. Simplex executables as released by Chris Laforet Software are absolutely free of charge to individuals and corporations. Sale of any of these executables is in violation of this agreement and is subject to court action. The only exception to this is shareware and freeware software distribution houses are allowed to charge for distribution materials (e.g. diskettes). Even though it is free for use, if you want to send a contribution to Chris Laforet Software, be assured that it will be cheerfully accepted! The source code for Simplex is available for purchase from Chris Laforet Software. When you purchase this code, you are granted an exclusive license to modify it for your own use. The executables that you produce must never be distributed in place of the original executables as compiled and distributed from Chris Laforet Software unless you arrange a royalty system with Chris Laforet Software. During the course of your modifications, should you develop a feature which you believe should be a part of the distributed Simplex executables, you may submit the code to Chris Laforet Software for review and for possible incorporation into Simplex, as long as such incorporation does not place Chris Laforet Software and/or Christopher Laforet under any monetary obligations. Your submitted code must include a cover letter indicating that you are freely granting permission to Chris Laforet Software for the incorporation of your code into Simplex. Should you wish to purchase Simplex for use as a platform for another product, or wish to convert Simplex to another language (French, Japanese, Swahili) or to another operating system (Atari ST, VAX, AX-400), and wish to market the resultant product, contact Chris Laforet Software and a royalty agreement can be developed. Royalties generally range somewhere between 10% and 15% of the sales price of the product, but each case is different and merits discussion. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 2 Page 2 There are no warranties of any kind, explicit or implied, on the Simplex software. Simplex's executables are provided on an "AS IS" basis. What this means is that if you decide to use Simplex, it is at your own risk. In plain English, this means that if you use Simplex and your machine blows up, the developers and distributors of Simplex are not responsible in any fashion. If you use Simplex and it loses all of the files on your disk, once again the developers and distributors of Simplex are not to be held accountable. While these scenarios are rather extreme in nature, they serve to indicate that Chris Laforet Software and/or Christopher Laforet does not warrant, guarantee, or make any other representations regarding the use, or results of use, of Simplex or its documentation in terms of accuracy, reliability, correctness, currentness, or otherwise. Simplex has been developed and alpha tested on a 386-20 running OS/2 1.xx. Two copies of Simplex using US Robotics Courier HST/v32bis 14.4 Kbaud Dual-Standard baud modems run simultaneously 24 hours/day on this setup. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 3 Page 3 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Introduction to Simplex Introduction to Simplex _________________________________________________________________ Simplex is a package created for the running of a Bulletin Board System (BBS). The development of Simplex arose out of Chris' personal gripes insofar as his inability to either fix bugs or add features to other BBS packages. From the outset, Simplex was designed to be an easy-to-use BBS system, with source code available (at a price!) to anyone who might be interested. On the other hand, Simplex's executables are meant to be distributed as public-domain material. There are many good BBSes out there, ones which have cost their SYSOPs (System Operators) lots of money to purchase the necessary hardware. There is no reason on earth why they also have to ante up lots of money for their BBS software. Simplex is somewhat based on the user interface of QuickBBS. It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of praise, and it is in praise of QuickBBS' logical user interface (like P for Pause!) that Simplex emulates certain of its characteristics. Simplex is currently available for DOS or OS/2. It is currently being ported to UNIX also. Simplex is going to be produced in a multiuser version for OS/2 in the future. There are no plans to make the DOS version multiuser, but once it has been ported to UNIX, Simplex should be multiuser there. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 4 Page 4 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Installing Simplex Installing Simplex _________________________________________________________________ DOS users of Simplex will require a FOSSIL driver such as Ray Gwinn's excellent X00 package. FOSSILs are available on most BBSes and services. A FOSSIL driver is a special program which provides an interface to communications ports. OS/2 users do not have to use a fossil since OS/2 supports communications ports with interrupt-driven drivers. Please take careful note: Simplex users must have a modem which Please take careful note: is capable of CTS-RTS handshaking (many 2400 baud modems control this with &R1). Also, Simplex requires that DTR controls the on-line state of the modem (most 2400 baud modems control this with &D2) and CD (carrier detect) must correctly follow the remote's carrier (controlled with &C1 om many 2400 baud modems). Without these criteria being met, Simplex probably will not work on your system. DOS users of Simplex must set up to have a sufficient number of file handles available for Simplex to run. This is done by editing/creating a file called CONFIG.SYS which is found in the root directory of the boot drive (A: or C:) and ensuring that there is an entry that sets files greater than or equal to 30. If it is there, but less than 30, change it to 30. If it is not there, add a line that says: files=30 and then save your changes. The machine must then be rebooted to install the changes. OS/2 users of Simplex do not have to do anything special to raise their file handles. OS/2 users might want to play with their timeslice statement in their config.sys to achieve a smoother flow of the BBS. On the 386-20 at Chris Laforet Software, a timeslice of 32,96 appears to achieve acceptable results. The priority statement should be set to dynamic and the maxwait should be 1 or 2. The memman statement should include swap and move, especially if your system suffers from RAM cram. If you are planning to run your machine as a dedicated BBS, then autofail should be set to yes so that your system will handle fatal system errors and not hang waiting for keyboard input. Here is a sample from the 386-20 that runs the Programmer's Oases BBSes: -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 5 Page 5 autofail=yes pauseonerror=no threads=96 maxwait=1 priority=dynamic timeslice=32,96 memman=swap.move 3.1-Simplex and Answering the Phone 3.1-Simplex and Answering the Phone _________________________________________________________________ Simplex will answer the phone by itself as long as your modem returns string results (like Hayes). In CONFIG you can configure your modem's strings for Simplex to monitor. If you are running a FidoNet or other network node, then you will probably have a front-end mailer answer the phone for you. See below for more details of using a mailer. If you are running Simplex as a simple host program, you might want to use the ringback feature. This feature permits you to use your voice line for your host and not have to worry too much about your modem answering the phone and surprising one of your friends! How this works is that a person wishing to call your host rings the number and allows it to ring less than 5 times. This will then arm the answer feature. They can then call back in less than 40 to 50 seconds and the modem will answer them. After they hang up, the system will be back in an unarmed state. 3.2-Setting Up Simplex BBS Paths 3.2-Setting Up Simplex BBS Paths _________________________________________________________________ Simplex should have a special directory for its configuration, message, and userlist files. This directory can be shared with other programs if so desired (for example, with the front-end mailer's configuration files). It also requires a directory for its menu files, a directory which should be used exclusively for these files. Simplex also requires a directory for its screen files. It is advisable to create 3 subdirectories, say \SIMPLEX (for the configuration, message, and userlist files), \SIMPLEX\MENUS (for the menu files), and \SIMPLEX\SCREENS (for the screen files). -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 6 Page 6 Simplex and its utility programs respond to the SIMPLEX environment variable (SET SIMPLEX=path of Simplex configuration file). It is advisable to place this set statement in your autoexec.bat file (in DOS) or in your config.sys (in OS/2) so that Simplex and its utilities can always find their home directory. If you are planning to run a Net node with Simplex, you also need an inbound directory where your front-end mailer places files bound for your node. There also needs to be an outbound directory in which your Simplex system will place files for your front-end mailer to send to other nodes. These could be called \SIMPLEX\INBOUND and \SIMPLEX\OUTBOUND and must be set up in both Simplex's configuration as well as your front-end mailer's configuration. Simplex requires two other directories to handle its normal Net mail duties. These are a matrix directory where it tosses mail as standard FSC-0001 message files during exportation/forwarding, and a packet directory which it uses as a scratch area while unpacking inbound mail. These could be called \SIMPLEX\MATRIX and \SIMPLEX\PACKET. Please notice that Simplex maintains its packet directory and thus it should only be used by Simplex itself. 3.3-Presumptions Underlying Simplex's Net Mail 3.3-Presumptions Underlying Simplex's Net Mail _________________________________________________________________ Net mail has been implemented in Simplex 1.04 with a number of underlying presumptions. The first and foremost of these is that all users should have access to Net mail. The second of these is that file attaching should be controllable by the Sysop and access to this feature should be granted exclusively by him/her. The third of these is that when Echomail discussions get off- topic, they should be taken to netmail. The first presumption is demonstrated when a user without mail credit decides to enter a Net message. They are permitted to send the message, but can only choose to send it as Routed mail or as Held mail. If the user has sufficient credit, they can send it as Direct mail or either of the previous two types. Simplex looks at mail as a three-layered system. These three layers are as follows (compared with oMMM's mail extensions): Direct Mail oMMM's CM -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 7 Page 7 Routed Mail oMMM's Normal Held Mail oMMM's Held Direct mail is mail that is intended to be sent DIRECTLY from your node to the destination (whether this is indeed how it is sent depends upon the Sysop!). Routed mail is that which is supposed to follow a routing path through the network. Held mail is that which is supposed to be held for pickup by another node which polls yours at specific intervals. Notice that the three-layered system is all theoretical. For example, none of my nodes sends Netmail bound for international locations directly to them, regardless of if the message was specified as being Direct. It is much cheaper to send direct mail to the specified Zone gates and let them be routed from there. On the other hand, if someone enters a message to a local node and specifies that it is to be Held, it is transformed to Direct mail and sent immediately (since the node is local, it doesn't cost anything, right?). The way that you implement the three-layered system is controlled by your use of SMP (or SMP/2) to handles your specific routing needs. SMP's routing verbs are discussed later on in this file. The second presumption in Simplex is that the option to Netmail file-attaching is under control of the Sysop. How this control is exerted is by means of a flag in the user's record. The Sysop must be careful with who is granted the privilege of file- attaching since a hacker can easily file-attach critical files (like userlist.bbs?) to themselves at another node if they have any idea how your system is laid out!! Please notice that the local file-attaching feature works differently. Only files from a specific sysop-specified directory can be attached to another user on the same system. The third presumption in Simplex is that Echomail discussions should go over to Netmail when they start drifting off-topic. This is implemented by a special option that appears while reading Echomail messages which permits users to reply directly to the message using Netmail. Notice that the user can only enter Routed or Held Netmail if they don't have enough/any credit! -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 8 Page 8 3.4-Installing a Network Node 3.4-Installing a Network Node _________________________________________________________________ If you want to use Simplex as a Net node, you will need to use some sort of a front-end mailer software such as BinkleyTerm or FrontDoor. This software is needed in order to handle mail transactions between your node and other Net nodes. Whatever mailer you use must comply with oMMM message bundle formatting (unless you choose to write a message handling interface between your mailer and Simplex). Simplex needs a special directory which it uses as an interface to the front-end mailer. Traditionally, this directory has been named the MATRIX directory. This directory is used during the exportation/forwarding of messages from Simplex to other nodes. The format of these messages is the standard FidoNet message format as outlined in their FSC-0001 standard (1.MSG, 2.MSG, etc.). These messages are then taken by mail bundlers such as oMMM or SMP and bundled for the front-end mailer. It is essential that this directory not be used for anything else. Simplex also needs a special directory where inbound bundles and message packets are placed. Traditionally, this directory has been called INBOUND. The front-end mailer will place the inbound bundles in message packets here once they have been successfully received. Simplex's mail utilities will scan this directory for any unpacked bundles or packets which it would proceed to unpack. It is not essential that this area be used exclusively for inbound mail since Simplex searches for bundles and packets based on their file extensions. Simplex requires a special directory which can be used as a "scratch" area. This directory is essential and must be used exclusively by Simplex. It is suggested that you call this directory PACKET since it is used to hold unarchived inbound mail bundles. This directory is essential because once the mail is unarchived, the archives are deleted. If the packets are not unpacked for any reason, they will remain intact until Simplex's mail utilities are run once again. This directory along with the inbound directory is searched for message packets every time Simplex's mail utilities are run. All members of a FidoNet compatible network are listed in a file called a nodelist. In order to be able to communicate with other nodes, BBS and mailer software must have access to this nodelist. Simplex is no exception to this rule. It requires that the nodelist be compiled using any Version 6 nodelist compiler (Version 6 nodelists are used by BinkleyTerm, Opus, and many -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 9 Page 9 other FidoNet utilities) such as ParseList. Simplex must know exactly where to find the compiled nodelist. Simplex requires a Net node's address. This address uniquely identifies the node during communications with other Net nodes. A FidoNet-compatible address consists of a Zone (read continent or network), a Net, and a Node number such as 1:151/401 which identifies Simplex's "home" node as being in Zone 1 (Fidonet, North America), Net 151 (Eastern North Carolina), and Node 401 in that net. While use of the Zone number is not absolutely essential at this time and it is perfectly acceptable to list your Zone number as 0, such use should be frowned upon in a network which is worldwide in nature! Hence Simplex does somewhat attempt to enforce the use of the Zone number. Finally, Simplex needs a nodelist. The nodelist must be compiled with any nodelist compiler that produces a "Version 6" nodelist. This is the same type of nodelist used by Opus<Tm> and BinkleyTerm. Nodelist compilers such as Parselst produce the correct formatted nodelist files. 3.5-Setting up a non-Net BBS 3.5-Setting up a non-Net BBS _________________________________________________________________ In order to run Simplex without Net support, a Sysop needs to make sure that none of the following conditions are true: 1. There is no path set pointing to the nodelist in section 4 of CONFIG. 2. There is no node address in section 1 of CONFIG. 3. There are no message areas marked as being Net mail. Once these conditions are checked, Simplex will not attempt to start up with a nodelist. 3.6-Configuring Simplex with CONFIG 3.6-Configuring Simplex with CONFIG _________________________________________________________________ Configuration of Simplex is rather simple using CONFIG.EXE (in OS/2 it is CONFIG2.EXE). In DOS using some old CGA systems, direct screen writes cause "snow" on the screen. If you run -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 10 Page 10 CONFIG and get snow, exit and then run it with CONFIG -S to enable retrace ("snow") checking. If you are running with a monochrome VGA setup or something similar, you might want to use the -M flag to select "Monochromatic" colors. Essentially Simplex is a menu-driven program which is straightforward to use with the following exceptions: 1. When you make changes on a text field you MUST hit Enter on the field to keep them. 2. When you change a screen of options, you may hit hit Alt-X, Alt-Q or ESC to exit back to the menu and keep the changes. 3. When editing menus, pressing PgUp, PgDn, or Alt-X will keep the changes. Pressing ESC aborts the changes on the current menu page only. 4. To go forwards to a specific field without affecting the contents of any other fields, press Tab. To go backwards use Shift-Tab. 5. On multiple choice options, you may select the letter/number corresponding to the choice that you wish, hit Enter or Tab to skip past it without making a change, or hit Shift-Tab to skip back to the previous option. 6. On scrolling, light-bar menus, use your Arrow keys to select the option that you wish. You may also hit the first letter of an option to get to the first option matching that letter. Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDn move a "page" of options at a time. 7. Always remember that your ESC key backs you out without saving changes! Option 1: This screen allows you to configure your BBS info. - You must enter your BBS Name and Sysop Name. - If you provide your Sysop name in the same form as your login, messages addressed to Sysop will be directed to you. - If you run a Net node, then you must also provide your address and an origin line to use in Echomail messages. The origin line will be appended to the bottom of Echomail messages along with your node number unless you have configured a special origin line along with the message area (see option 6). Option 2: This screen allows you to configure your modem parameters. - You must set up your modem's maximum baud rate. - If your modem can support locked DTE-DCE rates, you may select "Yes" for locked baudrate. If the baudrate is -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 11 Page 11 locked, then any time Simplex sets a baud rate, it will always be set to the maximum baud rate. - You also can indicate if your modem is slow to respond to commands, and set the minimum baud rate a user has to have to log on to Simplex and the minimum baud a user has to have in order to see ANSI color screens. - Notice that in modem configuration strings the | character indicates Carriage Return and the ~ character indicates a 0.5 second pause. Option 3: This screen allows you to configure Simplex's usage options. - Private BBS operation means that if someone is not in the userlist, they are not allowed to log in. - Disable local keyboard means that by default the keyboard is disabled from being active while someone is logged in (this can be toggled on and off with Alt-K while Simplex is running. - You can select if the user must provide a full address when they log in, or just their city/state as well as if they have to provide their phone numbers. - You may choose some of the colors used by Simplex. - You may specify a program to run after mail check and before the bulletin is shown. This program is called the "Welcome" program. It may be used for handling a callback verifier or any other program that you wish to run automaically. The $ flags used in menu type 240 are accepted here also. - You may specify a virus checker program to run. More information on this later. Option 4: This screen allows you to configure Simplex's paths. Some of these paths are only for Net mail and can be ignored if you are not going to run a Net node. Nodelist path is one of these. Option 5: This screen allows you to configure the archiver command lines for archivers available on your system. - This option is needed for Net nodes and for systems that allow downloadable mail. - NOTICE: All archivers must exit with a 0 errorlevel if the archiving was a success. Any other return value is taken by Simplex to mean that the archiving process failed. Option 6: This section permits you to edit/add/delete message boards for your Simplex system. Use PgUp and PgDn keys to scroll through each message board. The number of the message board is used in menu options. Message boards may be numbered any value from 1 through 9999, depending on your preferences. The message board name -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 12 Page 12 is shown to the user while reading messages. Message board types may be Local, Net Mail (can be multiple areas for Net mail linked to different Net and AKA-Net addresses), Echomail (can also be linked to different Net and AKA-Net addresses), or Local Fileattach. Message boards may allow messages which are private only, public only, or both public and private. The read and write privilege levels are the minimum user levels to be able to read and post messages on the board. The sysop privilege level is the minimum user level required to have access to sysop's message options like Export and Move messages. If the area is an Echomail area, you can also specify a special origin line to be used in lieu of the default origin line for that area only. Option 7: This section permits you to edit/add/delete file boards for your Simplex system. As in option 6, use PgUp and PgDn to scroll through each file board. The number of the file board is used in menu options. File boards may be numbered from 1 to 9999. The file board name is shown to the user during searches across areas. The search privilege level is the minimum user level needed in order to get access to the file area in searches across areas. The file path is the path to the file area. This area should contain files for the area along with a FILES.BBS file (see description below). In most cases the alternate path to FILES.BBS should be left blank (it defaults to the file area path), it is only included for special systems such as CD-ROM units which must have a FILES.BBS in a directory on the hard drive separate from the regular file path. Option 8: This section allows you to edit/add/delete events for your Simplex system. The event title will be shown to the user if their on-line time is going to be cut short by a pending forced system event. You may select the weekdays and time that the event is supposed to occur and the errorlevel that Simplex exits with if the event occurs. You may set an event to be forced or not. In Simplex, an event is "forced" if it will exit even if a user is on-line. If an event is not "forced", it will only exit if Simplex is sitting idle when the event occurs. Should you wish to temporarily suspend an event without deleting, you may mark it as not enabled. PLEASE NOTICE THAT WHILE EVENTS DO NOT EXIT WITH THIS RELEASE OF SIMPLEX, THEY WILL ACT TO LIMIT A USERS TIME ONLINE AT SPECIAL TIMES OF THE DAY. Option 9: This section allows you to edit/add/copy/delete menu files. Use of this section rather straightforward. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 13 Page 13 Follow the prompts and help information. While the menu editor is convenient for small fixes, the Simplex Menu Compiler (SMC) is more convenient for laying out complete menu systems. Bear in mind that some menu options require data to be provided in the optional data field while others do not. See below for more details on menu types. Two points that must be clarified here are the use of the expert and autoexecute flags in menu lines. A user can toggle expert mode, a mode which should disable the showing of menu options, only showing a list of hotkeys. However, some lines of the menu should still show so that the user knows where they are. One of these should be the menu title line. Hence you can indicate with a "Yes" to the expert mode question when you would like to show menu lines to the expert mode user. Autoexecuting menus options are done when the menu is being shown. Any menu type can be autoexecuting, however some menu types do not make sense if they are automatic. One use of this feature is outlined in the description of the type 49 option below. Option 0: This section allows you to do primitive editing/additions to users. This is not the best way to handle users; using the internal Simplex user editor is the preferred way of editing the userlist. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 14 Page 14 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Simplex Menu Types Simplex Menu Types _________________________________________________________________ This chapter gives a brief rundown of the types of menu options available for menu development. Some of these require information in the additional data fields, while others do not and merely ignore the contents of said field. Options in square brackets ([]) are optional. Type 0: Show menu line. This option will merely show the contents of the menu line and will not respond to any hotkeys. Hence there is no need for a key value for this kind of menu. It is mostly used to give menu titles and/or blank formatting lines. Additional Data: None Type 1: Call new menu - Add to return stack. This option will show the contents of the menu line and if its corresponding hotkey is triggered, it will attempt to call the menu name specified in the data line. The current menu is pushed on a stack so that a subsequent call to menu type 3 will return to the current menu. If a password is provided, then the user will be prompted for the password prior to being given access to the new menu. Additional Data: Menuname [Password] [/ Menu Template Macros] Type 2: Goto new menu - Clear return stack. This option will show the contents of the menu line and if its corresponding hotkey is triggered, it will attempt to call the menu name specified in the data line. The return stack is cleared and the new menu becomes the new base of the stack. If a password is provided, then the user will be prompted for the password prior to being given access to the new menu. Additional Data: Menuname [Password] [/ Menu Template Macros] Type 3: Return to previous menu. This option pops the current menu off of the stack and returns to the previous menu. Additional Data: None Type 4: Replace current menu on return stack. This option will show the contents of the menu line and if its corresponding hotkey is triggered, it will attempt to call the menu name specified in the data line. The new menu is put on the stack and replaces the current menu so that a subsequent call to menu type 3 will return to the current menu's -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 15 Page 15 previous menu! If a password is provided, then the user will be prompted for the password prior to being given access to the new menu. Additional Data: Menuname [Password] [/ Menu Template Macros] Type 16: Enter a message on board. This option permits the user to enter a message on the specified message board. Optionally the user may be logged off automatically after exiting the message editor by specifying a /L on the data line. THe logoff is exactly as if a type 255 menu option was executed. The message may be forced to a specific user by using the optional /T=user_name option. Please note the "_" (underscore) between the user's firat and last names. This will be changed into a space when the message is actually entered. Additional Data: board# [/L] [/T=user_name] Type 17: Read messages on board. This option permits the user to read public messages or private messages to him/her on a message board. If the user's privilege level is greater or equal to the message board's sysop privilege, then he/she will be able to read all messages in the area. Additional Data: board# Type 18: Scan messages on board. This option permits the user to see the headers for public messages or private message to him/her on a message board. If the user's privilege is greater or equal to the message board's sysop privilege, then he/she will be able to see all the headers in the area. Additional Data: board# Type 19: Quickscan messages on board. This option permits the user to see the basic headers for public messages or private message to him/her on a message board. If the user's privilege is greater or equal to the message board's sysop privilege, then he/she will be able to see all the basic headers in the area. Additional Data: board# Type 20: Search userlist. This option permits the user to search the userlist for a user's name and/or list all users on the BBS. Additional Data: None Type 21: Search for Net address. This option permits a user to search for a specific Net node in the nodelist. Additional Data: None Type 22: Generate FREQ to Net address. This option permits the user to generate network file-requests (in *.REQ files) to a specific Net node. Additional Data: None -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 16 Page 16 Type 32: List files on file board. This option opens the file board's FILES.BBS and lists the files available in the area. Additional Data: board# Type 33: Upload file to file board. This option permits the user to upload files to the specific file board. In local mode, this option permits files to be copied from another drive/directory into the file area. Additional Data: board# Type 34: Download file from file board. This option permits the user to download files from the specified file board. In local mode, this option permits files from the file area to be copied to another drive/directory. Additional Data: board# Type 35: Raw directory list of file board. This options permits the user to get a raw directory of the files in the specified file board. Additional Data: board# Type 36: Contents of archive on file board. This option permits the user to see the contents of .ARC, .PAK, .ZIP, .LZH, and .ZOO files in the specified file board. Additional Data: board# Type 37: Show new files across file boards. This option searches across file boards for files with dates later then the user's last login or with dates later than a user-defined date. Additional Data: board# Type 38: Search for filename across file boards. This option searches across file boards for a specified file name. Additional Data: board# Type 39: Search for keyword across file boards. This option searches across file boards for a specified keyword in the descriptions. Additional Data: board# Type 40: Delete file on file board. This option permits the user to delete files and description entries in the specified file area. Additional Data: board# Type 41: Read a text file on file board. This option permits a user to read the contents of a file contained in the specified file area. Additional Data: board# Type 42: Download ONE special file from board. This option permits a user to download a sysop-specified file from a specified area. Additional Data: board# filename.ext -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 17 Page 17 Type 43: Move file(s) from one file board to another. This option permits the user to move files and descriptions to a different board. Additional Data: source_board# Type 48: Show ascii/ansi file. This option shows the user the specified ansi or ascii file. Do not include the extension, only the base filename. The file will not pause at the end. Additional Data: filename Type 49: Show ascii/ansi file with hotkeys. If this option is used as an automatic executing menu option, the file indicated in the data line will be shown to the user when its menu line is being shown however the menu's hotkeys will still be active! This permits you to design free-form menus using an ANSI screen editor. As with a type 48 data line, do not include the extension, just the base filename. The file will not pause at the end, but will continue showing any additional menu lines until the menu is finished. If someone actually provides a hotkey for this menu type, it will behave exactly like a type 48 (i.e. hotkeys are only active when it is an automatic executing option with no hotkey). Notice, this option will show screens regardless of if the user has Expert mode on or off. Type 53 works exactly like this option but only shows the files if expert mode is off. Additional Data: filename Type 50: Show ascii/ansi file with pause at end. This option shows the user the specified ansi or ascii file. Do not include the extension, only the base filename. The file will pause at the end and prompt the user for Enter. Additional Data: filename Type 51: Answer questionnaire file. This option leads the user through a questionnaire file if it is in the screens directory. See below for more info on Simplex's questionaire language. Additional Data: filename Type 52: Show quote of the moment. This option will look in the screens directory for a compiled quote file. If it exists, it will "randomly" select a quote from it, show it to the user and pause for the user to press Enter. See the SQUOTE section for more details on quote files. Additional Data: filename Type 53: Show non-expert ascii/ansi menu with hotkeys. This option is identical to the type 49 menu option. The only difference is that this is not shown if a user has Expert mode on. Additional Data: filename Type 64: Change user's city/state. This option permits the user to change his/her city/state. Additional Data: None -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 18 Page 18 Type 65: Change user's password. This option permits the user to change his/her password. Prior to changing the password, PASSWORD.A?? is shown (see below). Additional Data: None Type 66: Change user's clearscreen status. This option allows the user to toggle on or off his/her sending of clear-screen codes. These are only sent is ANSI status is on. Additional Data: None Type 67: Change user's MORE status. This option allows the user to toggle on or off his/her screen pausing status. These are only sent is ANSI status is on. Additional Data: None Type 68: Change user's screen length. This option allows the user to toggle on or off his/her sending of clear-screen codes. These are only sent is ANSI status is on. Additional Data: None Type 69: Change user's ANSI status. This option allows the user to toggle on or off his/her sending of ANSI codes. Additional Data: None Type 70: Change user's default editor status. This option allows the user to toggle between using the line editor and the full-screen ANSI editor. The full-screen editor is only entered if ANSI status is on. Additional Data: None Type 71: Change user's novice/expert mode. This option allows the user to toggle between normal menu mode and expert mode (where only option letters are shown). Additional Data: None Type 72: Change user's home phone number. This option allows the user to change his/her home number. Additional Data: None Type 73: Change user's data/work phone number. This option allows the user to change his/her data or work number. Additional Data: None Type 74: Change user's full address line 1. This option allows the user to change his/her address line #1. Additional Data: None Type 75: Change user's full address line 2. This option allows the user to change his/her address line #2. Additional Data: None Type 76: Change user's city. This option allows the user to change his/her city (only for full addresses). Additional Data: None -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 19 Page 19 Type 77: Change user's state. This option allows the user to change his/her state (only for full addresses). Additional Data: None Type 78: Change user's zipcode. This option allows the user to change his/her zipcode (only for full addresses). Additional Data: None Type 80: Enter an advertisement in ad area. This option permits a user to enter an advertisement or user-posted bulletin in an "ad" area. Ads are placed in a special file which is indicated in the data line. The days argument indicates the maximum amount of time that the "ad" can remain on the system. The optional /R argument indicates the message board number where replies to "ads" will be posted. If not provided, the user is not prompted to permit replies. Additional Data: filename /D=days [/R=board#] Type 81: Read advertisements in ad area. This option permits a user to read advertisements or user-posted bulletins in an "ad" area. The optional /R argument indicates the message board number where replies to "ads" will be posted. Additional Data: filename [/R=board#] Type 82: Scan advertisements in ad area. This option permits a user to scan the headers of advertisements or user-posted bulletins in an "ad" area. Additional Data: filename Type 96: Set a user's privilege level. This option sets the user's privilege level to the value in the data line (1 through 255). This privilege level is written to the user's record and is permanent. The user's time online is adjusted to suit their new level. It is the equivalent of up or downgrading a user from the keyboard. Additional Data: priv_level Type 97: Raise a user's time. This option adds the number of minutes specified in the data line to the user's online time. Additional Data: minutes_to_raise Type 98: Drop a user's time. This option removes the number of minutes specified in the data line from the user's online time. Additional Data: minutes_to_delete Type 99: Set flags in user's configuration. This option sets the flags specified in the data line in the user's flags configuration. The flags are presented as a string of letters corresponding to the flags to set. There are 16 flags ranging from A to P. e.g. a data string of "AMjp" will set the A. M, J, and P flags if they are not already set. Additional Data: flags_to_set -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 20 Page 20 Type 100: Delete flags from user's configuration. This option unsets the flags specified in the data line in the user's flags configuration. The flags are presented as a string of letters corresponding to the flags to set. There are 16 flags ranging from A to P. e.g. a data string of "AMjp" will delete the A. M, J, and P flags if they are set. Additional Data: flags_to_delete Type 101: Set the time of a user to an absolute time. This option sets the user's time online to the number of minutes specified in the data line. Additional Data: minutes_to_set Type 102: Sysop Defined Log Entry. This option will cause the data in the data line to be logged as a log entry in SIMPLEX.LOG. Additional Data: message to log Type 112: Set up combined message boards. This option allows a user to select the message boards that he/she wants to use for combined message reading and downloading. These settings are saved until they are changed. The user can only select boards for which they have read permission. Additional Data: none Type 113: Read messages on combined message boards. This option permits the user to read messages on the selected combined message boards. Additional Data: none Type 114: Scan messages on combined message boards. This option permits the user to scan message headers that are on the selected combined message boards. Additional Data: none Type 115: Quickscan messages on combined message boards. This option permits the user to quickscan message headers that are on the selected combined message boards. Additional Data: none Type 116: Download messages from combined message boards. This option permits the user to download all or only new messages in the selected combined message boards. If archivers are specified in option 5 of CONFIG, the user can then optionally elect to archive the mail before downloading it with a protocol. This option also requires that the file- attach path be set in CONFIG. This path is used for the preparation of downloadable mail. Additional Data: none Type 117: Configure combined boards. This option permits a user of combined boards to configure their options. These options include selecting QWK mail or ASCII download, and which files to include in the QWK packets. Additional Data: none -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 21 Page 21 Type 118: Upload messages in QWK reply format. This option permits a user to send a QWK mail reply (REP) packet back to Simplex. The mail is then split out of the packet and imported into the areas where the user has permission. Additional Data: none Type 128: Send files using Xmodem. This option permits users to create their own download menu. The option will call the Xmodem sending routines to request the files the user wants and then to send them. Additional Data: board # Type 128: Send files using Xmodem. This option permits users to create their own download menu. The option will call the Xmodem sending routines to request the files the user wants and then to send them. Additional Data: board # Type 129: Send files using Xmodem-1K. This option permits users to create their own download menu. The option will call the Xmodem-1K sending routines to request the files the user wants and then to send them. Additional Data: board # Type 130: Send files using Ymodem. This option permits users to create their own download menu. The option will call the Ymodem sending routines to request the files the user wants and then to send them. Additional Data: board # Type 131: Send files using Ymodem-G. This option permits users to create their own download menu. The option will call the Ymodem-G sending routines to request the files the user wants and then to send them. Additional Data: board # Type 132: Send files using Zmodem. This option permits users to create their own download menu. The option will call the Zmodem sending routines to request the files the user wants and then to send them. Additional Data: board # Type 144: Receive files using Xmodem. This option permits users to create their own upload menu. The option will call the Xmodem receiving routines to request the files the user wants to send and then to receive them. Additional Data: board # Type 145: Receive files using Xmodem-1K. This option permits users to create their own upload menu. The option will call the Xmodem-1K receiving routines to request the files the user wants to send and then to receive them. Additional Data: board # Type 146: Receive files using Ymodem. This option permits users to create their own upload menu. The option will call the -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 22 Page 22 Ymodem receiving routines to receive the files. Additional Data: board # Type 146: Receive files using Ymodem-G. This option permits users to create their own upload menu. The option will call the Ymodem-G receiving routines to receive the files. Additional Data: board # Type 147: Receive files using Zmodem. This option permits users to create their own upload menu. The option will call the Zmodem receiving routines to receive the files. Additional Data: board # Type 240: Run a program from within SIMPLEX. This option permits a user to run an external program. The data line contains the command line to be passed to the command spawn function. This function searches the path for the program to run. There are certain $-escaped meta-commands which can be used to pass data. These meta-commands MUST BE IN LOWERCASE. The following meta-commands can be used as arguments to the program: $r = user's time left in minutes $d = current date as mm/dd/yy $t = current time as hh:mm $f = user's first name $l = user's last name $a = user's ansi flag (ascii 1 if on or ascii 0 if off) $p = In DOS: comm port number (ascii 1 for com1). In OS/2: comm file handle as a decimal ascii string $u = user's number in userlist as ascii decimal string (0 is first) $b = connect baud rate as ascii decimal string (0 is local keyboard) $k = Keep the user's time unaltered upon return from the external program (except for recalculating time due to a pending forced event). This behaves like suspending the user's time while in chat mode. $* = DOS only: leave fossil hot (do not deinitialize) before calling program (not considered an argument to the program) $e = stop and wait for Enter after running program (not considered an argument to the program) $## = Passes the pathname for the file board specified by ##. For example, if file board 100 has its path as d:\files\editors, then using $100 would substitute d:\files\editors. Notice that the path name is NEVER backslash-terminated. If the -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 23 Page 23 file board specified by ## does not exist, then a blank argument is passed (i.e. a nul-string). When the external program returns to Simplex, the user's record is reread and any changes to fields such as privilege, or flags (anything other than date/time info) is incorporated into the data held by Simplex. This allows external programs to modify a user's access. If the user has less than two minutes left online upon return, their time is reset to two minutes so they can exit in an orderly fashion. Additional Data: program.exe [options] Type 241: Exit to DOS with an errorlevel. This option is not currently implemented. Type 242: Show version/copyright information. This option shows the user information about Simplex BBS. Additional Data: None Type 243: Show user's usage statistics. This option shows the user some information about his/her first connect date, the last connect date and time, upload and download statistics, and time information for this call. Additional Data: None Type 244: Yell (limited) for chat with Sysop. This option permits the user to summon the sysop for a chat if the current time is within the configured yell time specified under option 3 in CONFIG. Additional Data: None Type 245: Show current time of day. This option shows the current date and time until the user presses Enter. This is provided for systems with access to exact time. Additional Data: None Type 246: Check for mail. This option checks for unreceived mail addressed to the user. It marks mail for later reading and gives them the option of reading mail immediately. Additional Data: None Type 247: Sysop's user-upgrade option. This option permits the user to access/modify userlist records. It is not meant for anyone other than Sysops. The user must have ANSI enabled to access this option. Additional Data: None Type 248: Yell (unlimited) for chat with Sysop. This option permits the user to summon the sysop for a chat regardless of the time of day versus the configured yell time specified under option 3 in CONFIG. Additional Data: None Type 255: Logoff/hangup connection. This option logs the user off of the system. Additional Data: None -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 24 Page 24 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Menu Templates Menu Templates _________________________________________________________________ In order to support multiple menus which are similar, Simplex supports a menu template structure. This feature is activated by using the / after the name of the menu (and password if one is present) in type 1 (Call new menu) and type 2 (Goto new menu) menu types, and then following this slash with macros assignments. 5.1-Assigning Menu Template Macros 5.1-Assigning Menu Template Macros _________________________________________________________________ Macros can be assigned to any letter from uppercase A to uppercase Z. The assignments look like this: A=1 B=Messages_to_the_Sysop Where A is assigned the string "1" and B is assigned the string "Messages to the Sysop". There can be NO SPACES between the macro letter, the equals, and the beginning of the assignment. Since a space signifies the end of the macro assignment, you must use an underscore to represent a space (as in macro B above). Sorry, there is no way to represent an underscore character in an assignment string! A complete data line for a menu which calls a template menu would look similar to the following: msgs password / A=1 B=Messages_to_the_Sysop C=24 if there is a password for the area or like: msgs / A=1 B=Messages_to_the_Sysop C=24 if there is not a password. MSGS is the name of the template menu to which to apply the macros. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 25 Page 25 Macros assigned in this fashion will only be applied to the menu in question, thus the same letters can be reused within a template menu to call another template menu. 5.2-Using Template Macro Assignments 5.2-Using Template Macro Assignments _________________________________________________________________ A template menu is not very different from a regular menu. The difference mainly is in the use of $-escaped UPPERCASE letters to represent macro substitutions in the prompt and data lines. For example, $A will substitute the value of macro A for that specific template menu. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I suspect that an example is worth ten thousand, so here is an example! In the previous section we called a menu "MSGS" with three macro assignments, A, B and C. Here is how MSGS can use the macros. Assume that the first prompt line is the name of the message area: --- Message Area $A: ^$B^ This will print the following when called using the syntax of the previous section: --- Message Area 1: Messages to the Sysop Messages to the Sysop when $A and $B are assigned the values assigned to A and B. Ok, the prompt line works fine, but how does this affect data lines? The same way. Here are sample menu prompt and data lines from the same menu: prompt: "<^$$^> Scan messages" data: "$C" This will actually become the following when the menu is actually called: prompt: <$> Scan messages $ data: 24 which will pass the number 24 to the Scan function (we assume this was a type 18 menu and that message board 24 is where sysop messages are!). The $$ is interpreted as representing a single dollar sign ($). -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 26 Page 26 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Running Simplex Running Simplex _________________________________________________________________ Simplex may be started by merely typing Simplex on the command line (OS/2 users use Simplex2) and pressing Enter in the assigned Simplex directory. However, it is doubtful that such simple use would suffice for most applications of Simplex! Hence Simplex accepts a series of command line arguments that permit you to call it under specified conditions, and it returns with specific errorlevels to indicate that certain events have occurred. The Simplex command line may include any of the following options. A list of these options might be obtained by typing Simplex -? on the command line. Most of these options are meant to be used when spawning Simplex from a front-end Net mailer, but some are even handy for use in simple host applications: -Bxxxx Startup at the specified baud (User is online) -D Drop in to Simplex with user's info in simplex.usr -H Do not hangup before exiting -L Startup in local mode (same as -B0) -Mxxxx Locked baud rate. Set port to baud and ignore connect strings -O DOS: Swap out to EMS or Disk when spawning external processes -OD DOS: Swap out to Disk when spawning external processes -OE DOS: Swap out to EMS when spawning external processes -Pxxx DOS: Use the specified comm port *or* -Pxxx OS/2: Use the specified comm handle -R Do ringback model of call answering -S DOS: Do not close stdout and reopen it to NUL -Txxx Set maximum time user is allowed on system -X Exit after carrier is lost or after logoff The DOS version has the -S option because of the propensity of some fossil drivers to "sign-on" with a message each time they are initialized by Simplex (e.g. Ray Gwinn's x00.sys). This behavior has the tendency to kill Simplex's screen which is undesirable. So, by default, Simplex closes the standard output file handle (handle 1) and reopens it pointing to NUL. This is the equivalent of typing "simplex > nul" at the command line! If your fossil does not do this, or it causes problems on your system, you may specify the -S flag to stop Simplex from closing the handle. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 27 Page 27 The -M option enables a mailer program to actually pass a locked baud rate as a separate entity from the actual baud rate. Passing the correct connect baud is important for correctly calculating transfer times for downloads. Simplex NEVER sets the baud rate when it is passed an open port with -P and -B. Passing the locked rate at this time doesn't achieve any real purpose if there is a -X, but this might change in the future. The -D option permits Simplex to be called as a door to another program. The other program must somehow create the login file "simplex.usr" according to the following byte-packed C structure. All strings are terminated with nul characters (0). struct uf { char uf_name[41]; /* nul-terminated user name, first last */ char uf_password[16]; /* nul-terminated password */ char uf_city[31]; /* nul-terminated city, state */ char uf_home[15]; /* nul-terminated user's home number */ char uf_data[15]; /* nul-terminated user's data/business number */ char uf_screenlen; /* length of users screen in lines */ int uf_flags; /* bit mapped flags for options, see URGENT.DOC */ }; The user is logged in and if they have never entered Simplex before, their user record is created automatically. The -D option automatically sets the -X flag so that Simplex will exit if the user drops carrier or logs off. The -O option is for DOS users who run external programs. The Simplex program has been dynamically overlay linked, which will allow it to fit into a smaller chunk of memory than a straight linked version would. The -O flag will swap as much of Simplex to EMS or to disk as possible before spawning an external program so that the external program will get a larger memory block. The -O will look first for EMS and swap to it if there is enough, otherwise it will swap to disk. If you have EMS and wish to reserve it for an external program, use the -OD flag which will force it to use the disk even if there is enough EMS. The -OE will force it to use EMS first (same as the -O flag). Swapping to disk will look for an environment variable TEMP. If it is not found, it will look for an environment variable TMP. If this is not found, it uses the current directory. The TEMP/TMP variable can contain one or a series of paths that are acceptable swapping locations like this: set TEMP=h:\;g:\temp set TMP=d:\temp -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 28 Page 28 It is wise to use your fastest drive (e.g. RAM drive) for swapping, but you will need at least 600K free for swapping to be successful. A front-end mailer program might spawn Simplex with the following command line in a batch file: simplex2 -B%1 -P%2 -X or for a local session, it might use the following: simplex2 -L -X In order to let batch files know what is causing Simplex to exit, it returns different errorlevels. The following errorlevels are currently supported in Simplex. 0 Normal Simplex exit prompted by Alt-X keystroke. 1 Simplex had an internal error. 2 Normal Simplex exit after user was on and -X or (-D) was on command line. 3 Netmail was entered and Alt-X pressed or -X (-D) was on command line. 4 Echomail was entered and Alt-X pressed or -X (-D) was on command line. 5 Netmail and Echomail were entered and Alt-X pressed or -X (-D) was on command line. 6+ Errorlevel generated by an event exit. Errorlevel 2 is especially created for simple Simplex host applications which need to know if to run external utilities such as SRECENT or SUSAGE (see below). Obviously, if you have exited from a waiting-state with Alt-X, there is no need to check to see if the last user has been added to the database. Hence you could have a batch file similar to this: set simplex=d:\host :runhost d: cd \host simplex2 -x if errorlevel 3 goto runhost if errorlevel 1 goto recent if errorlevel 0 goto end :recent srecent 20 susage -G -I goto runhost :end -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 29 Page 29 while a Net compatible BBS might have something like: :runbbs simplex -b%1 -x if errorlevel 6 goto recent if errorlevel 5 goto echomatrix if errorlevel 4 goto echo if errorlevel 3 goto matrix goto recent :echomatrix smail -nx -ex goto recent :echo smail -ex goto recent :matrix smail -nx :recent srecent 20 susage -G -I goto runbbs -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 30 Page 30 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Setting up Downloadable and QWK Mail Setting up Downloadable and QWK Mail _________________________________________________________________ As of version 1.04, Simplex handles downloadable mail. This permits users who keep track of large message bases to be able to download their mail (optionally in compressed form) using a protocol, and then using an ASCII file reader/browser (such as LIST in DOS or LSTPM in OS/2) to read their mail offline. In order to implement the downloadable feature, you must define a fileattach directory in option 4 of CONFIG. You must ensure that there are a few megabytes of space free on the drive you specify at any time depending upon the total amount of mail most users would download). If you are not running Net mail and wish users of the downloadable mail to have access to the different archivers, you must set up archivers in option 5 of CONFIG. Whatever archivers that you provide command line templates for will be presented to the user as options. To set up an archiver, find the respective line corresponding to the archiver (ARC, ZIP, LZH, or ZOO) under option 5 and enter a template line as follows: [path]archiver [options] %A %F where %A is the name of the archive-file that will be generated by Simplex and %F is the name of the file that will be inserted into the archive. Simplex will look along the path for the archiver before running. Here are some examples of some command lines: ARC Command: arc a5 %A %F ZIP Command: pkzip -a %A %F LZH Command: lh2 A %A %F /i /c /o While Simplex is diligent about deleting the files it creates, it might not be a bad idea to add a cleanup routine to the batch file that runs your BBS like this: del d:\files\fattach\mail*.dl > NUL del d:\files\fattach\mail*.arc > NUL del d:\files\fattach\mail*.zip > NUL del d:\files\fattach\mail*.lzh > NUL del d:\files\fattach\mail*.zoo > NUL -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 31 Page 31 which would ensure that the area is kept clean. QWK mail support was added in version 1.05.02. This type of mail permits users to download their messages, read them offline with an offline mail reader, reply to them, and then upload the replies. QWK mail replies are only accepted for areas for which the user has write permission. QWK netmail is handled by having the first line in the reply equal to FROM: [zone:]net/node followed by a newline. The [zone:] is optional. If the user has enough credit, it is sent direct. If not, it is sent routed. If the address doesn't exist, then it is marked hold. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 32 Page 32 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Virus Checker Interface Virus Checker Interface _________________________________________________________________ Version 1.05.02 of Simplex was the first version to support virus checking after uploads. The miscellaneous section of CONFIG (option 3) allows you to specify a virus checking program to be called after uploads. The program is called after the upload but before the user is asked for descriptions. NOTICE that regardless of the program information, Simplex will add on two other arguments. These are (a) the full pathname to the upload list (UPLOAD#?.BBS where ? is the node number) and (b) the node number which will be used for the (DORINFO?.DEF). If there is the name of a program in CONFIG, then when the program gets called, it will have 2 arguments. The virus checker is expected to open the upload list file, read it and then check all files listed as OK. If it finds a virus file, it must replace the OK with BAD and delete the file. When Simplex regains control, it will get descriptions for the files marked OK and will attempt to delete the ones marked BAD. Each line in the upload list file is organized as follows: OK filename filesize BAD filename 0 Notice that "OK " is replaced by "BAD" if an uploaded file is bad, and no description is needed. Notice that the virus checking interface program can call any virus scanner and is responsible for determining the archive type. Notice that duplicate files are renamed to filename.### where ### is a three digit number. Hence, the archive type must be determined from looking for signatures in the file. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 33 Page 33 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Simplex Ancillary Files Simplex Ancillary Files _________________________________________________________________ Simplex BBS requires a number of files to be provided by the user in order to do its normal work and to present a helpful and friendly interface to the user. The following sections outline the files that Simplex looks for under various conditions. These files are named with extensions for users who are using ANSI and those who are not. If the user is running ANSI, then the user is presented with the contents of filename.ANS. If this file cannot be found, or if the user has ANSI off, the contents of filename.ASC are shown. This means that you can include as many ANSI sequences as you wish in the .ANS file but leave them out of the .ASC. If you use the SANSI compiler, it will automatically prepare the two distinct files for you. 9.1-Files for Help 9.1-Files for Help _________________________________________________________________ The files that present help screens should attempt to be very helpful yet concise at the same time. No user appreciates being swamped with information when they ask for help! These files must be in the configured screen path. DLHELP.A?? This file presents help on the download protocols available on your Simplex system. It is accessed by pressing H at the Download Menu. ULHELP.A?? This file presents help on the upload protocols available on your Simplex system. It is accessed by pressing H at the Upload Menu. NODEHELP.A?? This file presents help on the choices in the Search Nodelist Menu. READHELP.A?? This file presents help on the choices available in the Read Messages Menu. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 34 Page 34 TOPICHLP.A?? This file is shown when a user presses H in the Read Topics Menu. EDITHELP.A?? This file is invoked by requesting help from the Line Editor Menu. It should describe the options available to the user of the Line Editor. ANSIHELP.A?? This file presents help when the user of the Full Screen Editor presses ^K ?. It should present a list of the options available in that editor. QSHELP.A?? This file presents the user with help for using the QuickScan option in a message area. SCANHELP.A?? This file is shown when a user requests help in the Scan Menu of a message area. ADHELP.A?? This file is shown when in read mode while in an Ad/User Bulletin area. DOWNMAIL.A?? This file is shown when in the Combined Boards Download mail menu. COMBCFG.A?? This file is shown when in the Combined Boards Configuration menu. 9.2-General Files 9.2-General Files _________________________________________________________________ These files are called upon in certain specific situations during the running of Simplex. They are almost essential for providing a friendly interface between your BBS and the user. These files must be in the configured screen path. TOOSLOW.ASC This file does not have an ANSI flavor since the user's ANSI preference is not known at the time it is shown. It is shown when a user has logged on with a modem slower than your minimum baud rate configured in CONFIG. LOGO.ASC This file is shown before the user is asked for his/her name. Since the user's ANSI preference is not yet known, there is no ANSI flavor of this file. It is not wise to embed ANSI codes in it since it might cause undesirable side-effects on the user's terminal. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 35 Page 35 NOTFOUND.ASC This file is shown after a user enters a name that is not in the userlist, and before the user is prompted if they entered the correct name. PRIVATE.ASC This file is shown only if the user's name is not in the userlist and the BBS is configured for preregistered operation. NONGRATA.ASC This file is shown after a user has confirmed that their name is correct, and their name is found in the NONGRATA.BBS file. ANSI.ASC This file is shown after a user has indicated that their name was spelled correctly and it was not in the userlist. It is wise to indicate to the user that they will be asked a few questions which will help to configure the system to their liking, and maybe to explain the meaning of ANSI to them. PASSWORD.A?? This file is sent before the new user enters his/her password into the system, or when a user opts to change his/her password. It should indicate that they must choose a password of at least 4 characters and that it should be easy to remember yet difficult for close friends to guess. NEWUSER.A?? This file is shown to a user after they have finished filling out the new-user questionnaire and before they are provided with the welcome screen. It is a good idea to welcome them to your system and maybe to explain some of the rules of conduct. NEWUSER.QF This is a questionaire file that is shown to the user one time. It is shown between NEWUSER.A?? and NEWUSER2.A?? if the user has never answered the questionaire. Upon completion of the file, USER_ANSWERED flag is set in the user's flags. NEWUSER2.A?? This file is shown to users who have called less than 5 times. It is a good idea to use it to give a few pointers on the use of your system. WELCOME.A?? This file is shown to a user after logging in, or to a new user after NEWUSER2.A??. It precedes the automatic mail check. This is the place to put a splashy logo screen since Simplex knows at this point if the user runs ANSI or not! DAYQUOTE.CQ This is a compiled quote file (see SQUOTE below) which is searched for a "random" quote for the -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 36 Page 36 day. A quote from this file will be shown after WELCOME.A?? and before checking for mail. BULLETIN.A?? This file shows the latest news on the system to a user logging in. It is shown after the WELCOME.A?? and the mail check. DAYQUOT2.CQ This is a second compiled quote file (see SQUOTE below) which is searched for a "random" quote for the day. A quote from this file will be shown after BULLETIN.A??. INFO.A?? This file is shown after the bulletin file. It can be used for anything the Sysop desires. INFO2.A?? This file is shown after the bulletin and info files. It can be used for anything that the Sysop desires. NOANSWER.A?? This file is shown after a user has yelled and the Sysop did not answer immediately. It should explain to the user that the Sysop is unavailable and that he/she might break in and chat while they continue using the board normally. TOOMANY.A?? This file is shown after a user has attempted to yell but does not have any remaining yells (as set in CONFIG). NOYELL.A?? This file is shown when the user attempts to yell but it is outside of the yell hours configured in CONFIG. It should indicate to the user that they should leave the Sysop a message instead. GOODBYE.A?? This is the last file that the user sees after logging off of your BBS. It is shown before the modem is told to hang-up. 9.3-Files Created by CONFIG 9.3-Files Created by CONFIG _________________________________________________________________ The following files are normal in the Simplex home directory and are created by CONFIG. They are not meant to be deleted or edited by any means other than with CONFIG. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 37 Page 37 CONFIG.BBS This file contains the configuration information needed by Simplex and its utilities. This information includes the BBS name, the Sysop name, the paths to different directories, and Net addresses. EVENTS.BBS This file contains the event information used by Simplex. FILEAREA.BBS This file contains the path and file area name information referenced by menus. MSGAREA.BBS This file contains the message area information which is referenced by menus. 9.4-Files Needed by Simplex 9.4-Files Needed by Simplex _________________________________________________________________ The following files are absolutely essential for Simplex's operations and must be in the Simplex home directory. Notice, Ctrl-Z cannot appear as the End-of-file marker. This rules out using editors like EDLIN. If your editor uses Ctrl-Z for EOF, you must use a program that strips Ctrl-Z's to remove them. Most good editors allow you to write files without Ctrl-Z at the end. TIMES.BBS This file contains in ascending priority order, the maximum amount of time in minutes per day that allowed for each privilege level. The maximum amount is 1440 minutes (24 hours). The file is plain ASCII text organized like this: <level> <time> as in the following: 1 30 100 60 200 120 255 180 This means that any user with level 1 through 99 has 30 minutes on the system. Any user with level 100 through 199 has 60 minutes on the system. Any user with level 200 through 254 has 120 minutes on the system, and any user with level 255 has 180 minutes on the system. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 38 Page 38 USERLIST.BBS This file contains the user records. It is maintained by using the USERLIST program or by using the Sysop user-editor from within Simplex itself. NONGRATA.BBS This optional file contains the names of all users that you want locked out of your system. The format of the file is as follows: firstname lastname firstname lastname for each user that you want to restrict. If the name is found in this list when a user logs in, they are shown the NONGRATA.ASC file. FILES.BBS Each file directory needs a FILES.BBS. This file contains the names of the files along with a description line as follows: <filename> <description> The filename should be in all caps and any amount of spaces or tabs may separate it from the description. The maximum length of a line can be 250 characters. If a line begins with a hyphen then it and all subsequent lines will be shown in bright white. If a line begins with a space or hyphen, it is shown as is. For example: - My Main File Area ----------------- FILENAME.DOC A description of this file area for my users. SIMPLEX.ZIP The latest Simplex programs. ANOTHER.LZH Yet another file in this area. 9.5-Files Created by Simplex 9.5-Files Created by Simplex _________________________________________________________________ The following files are found in the Simplex home directory and are created and maintained by Simplex and its utilities. They are best left alone by the user. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 39 Page 39 MSGHEAD.BBS This file contains the header information (such as to, from, subject) for each message in the Simplex system. It contains an offset pointer to the relevant text in MSGBODY.BBS. MSGBODY.BBS This file contains the text of messages in the Simplex system. MSGLINK.BBS This file contains abbreviated information about each message in the Simplex system and is used for quick searching. MSGDATA.BBS This file contains information about the total number of messages in Simplex and in each message area. MSGREAD.BBS This file contains the last-message-read pointers for each user for each message area in the Simplex system. MSGCOMB.BBS This file contains the combined message board information for each user. USERINFO.BBS This file contains information about the last/current user for external utilities to use (such as SRECENT). DORINFO#.DEF This file is created by Simplex before running external programs and contains information used by certain games and utilities. The # is replaced by the node number (e.g. 1 if Simplex is on COM1, 2 if on COM2, etc). 9.6-Files used by Simplex Utilities 9.6-Files used by Simplex Utilities _________________________________________________________________ The following files may be found in the Simplex home directory. They are files that are needed by external Simplex utilities and must be edited with a pure-ASCII text editor. They will not be needed if you do not intend to run Net mail. AREAS.BBS This file is used by SMAIL to Export/Import echomail. It is organized as follows: <msgarea number> <echo-areaname> <destination addresses> -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 40 Page 40 The <msgarea number> is the Simplex message area number as defined in CONFIG. The <echo-areaname> is the official echo "tag" for that echo. The destination addresses are the addresses which your BBS "feeds". The special area "number" P is reserved for "pass through" echomail areas, that is areas which are not on your BBS but which you might be passing on to other BBSes. Comment lines in this file begin with a semicolon (;). In order to support external mail handling by other packages (e.g. Areafix), there is the ability to specify a "toss" directory. This is done in a comment line (to avoid confusing older packages), and it is formatted as: ; T <"name"> <destination path> The quotes are essential for names with embedded spaces (e.g. "John Doe") but not for single word names (e.g. Autoecho). Here is an example of an AREAS.BBS file: -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 41 Page 41 ; This is a sample AREAS.BBS comment! ; ; Here are normal areas. The mail is tossed into the ; message base and forwarded if neccessary. ; 10 C_ECHO 1:151/401 1:151/403 1:151/404 1:151/1000 11 SIMPLEX 1:151/401 1:151/404 1:151/1000 12 LUNATIC 1:151/401 ; ; Here is a pass-thru area - messages are not imported, ; just passed on to the respective addresses. ; P WRITING 1:151/404 1:151/1000 P AMIGA 1:151/403 1:151/1000 ; ; Here is an example of a Toss area - messages are not ; imported, just tossed as *.MSG files into the ; specified directory for later processing. ; ; T areafix g:\bbs\areafix ; T "autoecho" g:\bbs\areafix C_ECHO, for example, is imported to area 10, and is forwarded to the other addresses listed. On the other hand, AMIGA is not imported, but just forwarded to the listed nodes. Note the full use of zone notation. If you omit the zone and net they will default to the same as your zone and net number as configured in CONFIG (e.g. 10 C_ECHO 401 403 404 1000 is the same as above since my address is 1:151/402). Messages to areafix or to autoecho are tossed into the g:\bbs\areafix directory as MSG files. Urgent: In AREAS.BBS, the FIRST line must contain a comment or anything other than an echo area list. This is for compatibility with older systems. SMP.CTL This file is used by SMP to export messages to other systems. Notice: Prior to version 1.04 Simplex, it was somewhat similar to oMMM's CTL file. After 1.04's release, the verbs changed radically to bring them in line with the new policy underlying Net mail as implemented in Simplex. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 42 Page 42 Routing verbs allow mail to be converted between states (Held <-> Routed <-> Direct), moved out and into of the reach of mailers (Left <-> Send), and archived (Arc, Zip, Zoo, Lzh) to specific nodes. Here is a listing of the various verbs: HOLDTO <destination> <sources...> This causes all held mail bound to sources to be held for destination. e.g. HOLDTO 151/402 151/400 151/401 151/402. This holds all held mail for 151/400, 401 and 402 for 151/402. HOSTHOLD <destinations...> This causes all held mail bound to destinations to be held for network host (node 0 of one's net). e.g. HOSTHOLD 151/ALL 120/ALL will cause all held mail for nets 151 and 120 to be held for 151/0 (from 151/401). ROUTETO <destination> <sources...> This causes all routed mail bound to sources to get routed to destination. e.g. ROUTETO 151/402 151/ALL 120/ALL will route all routed mail for nets 151 and 120 to 151/402. HOSTROUTE <destinations...> This causes all routed mail bound to destinations to get routed to network host (node 0 of one's net). e.g. HOSTROUTE 151/ALL 120/ALL will cause all routed mail for nets 151 and 120 to be routed to 151/0 (from 151/401). DIRECTTO <destination> <sources...> This causes all direct mail bound to sources to get directed to destination. e.g. DIRECTTO 151/402 151/ALL 120/ALL will direct all directed mail for nets 151 and 120 to 151/402. HOSTDIRECT <destinations...> This causes all direct mail bound to destinations to get directed to network host (node 0 of one's net). e.g. HOSTDIRECT 151/ALL 120/ALL will cause all routed mail for nets 151 and 120 to be directed to 151/0 (from 151/401). ARCHOLD <destination> <sources...> ZIPHOLD <destination> <sources...> LZHHOLD <destination> <sources...> ARJHOLD <destination> <sources...> ZOOHOLD <destination> <sources...> -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 43 Page 43 These options archive held mail for sources using the archiver specified to the specified destination. e.g. ZIPHOLD 151/402 151/401 151/402 151/405 151/406 will archive all held mail to 151/401, 402, 405 and 406 with ZIP and route it to 151/402. ARCROUTE <destination> <sources...> ZIPROUTE <destination> <sources...> LZHROUTE <destination> <sources...> ARJROUTE <destination> <sources...> ZOOROUTE <destination> <sources...> These options archive routed mail for sources using the archiver specified to the specified destination. e.g. ZIPROUTE 151/402 151/401 151/402 151/405 151/406 will archive all routed mail to 151/401, 402, 405 and 406 with ZIP and route it to 151/402. ARCDIRECT <destination> <sources...> ZIPDIRECT <destination> <sources...> LZHDIRECT <destination> <sources...> ARJDIRECT <destination> <sources...> ZOODIRECT <destination> <sources...> These options archive direct mail for sources using the archiver specified to the specified destination. e.g. ZIPDIRECT 151/402 151/401 151/402 151/405 151/406 will archive all direct mail to 151/401, 402, 405 and 406 with ZIP and route it to 151/402. HOLDROUTE <destinations...> This option converts all held mail bound for destinations to routed mail (from HOLD to ROUTE). e.g. HOLDROUTE 151/402 will convert held mail for 151/402 to routed mail. HOLDDIRECT <destinations...> This option converts all held mail bound for destinations to directed mail (from HOLD to DIRECT). e.g. HOLDROUTE 151/402 will convert held mail for 151/402 to directed mail. ROUTEHOLD <destinations...> This option converts all routed mail bound for destinations to held mail (from ROUTE to HOLD). e.g. ROUTEHOLD 151/402 will convert routed mail for 151/402 to held mail. ROUTEDIRECT <destinations...> -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 44 Page 44 This option converts all routed mail bound for destinations to directed mail (from ROUTE to DIRECT). e.g. ROUTEDIRECT 151/402 will convert routed mail for 151/402 to directed mail. DIRECTHOLD <destinations...> This option converts all direct mail bound for destinations to held mail (from DIRECT to HOLD). e.g. DIRECTHOLD 151/402 will convert directed mail for 151/402 to held mail. DIRECTROUTE <destinations...> This option converts all direct mail bound for destinations to routed mail (from DIRECT to ROUTE). e.g. DIRECTROUTE 151/402 will convert directed mail for 151/402 to routed mail. LEAVEHOLD <destinations...> This option converts all held mail bound for destinations to non-active held mail. LEAVEROUTE <destinations...> This option converts all routed mail bound for destinations to non-active routed mail. LEAVEDIRECT <destinations...> This option converts all direct mail bound for destinations to non-active direct mail. SENDHOLD <destinations...> This option converts all non-active held mail bound for destinations to regular held mail. SENDROUTE <destinations...> This option converts all non-active routed mail bound for destinations to regular routed mail. SENDDIRECT <destinations...> This option converts all non-active direct mail bound for destinations to regular direct mail. POLL <destinations...> This will create a blank .flo file to the destinations providing there is not already direct mail addressed to the same address. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 45 Page 45 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Simplex Sysop Options Simplex Sysop Options _________________________________________________________________ There are a number of features in Simplex that cater exclusively to the sysop or the user running in local mode. These are evaluated in the following sections. 10.1-The Sysop's Keyboard 10.1-The Sysop's Keyboard _________________________________________________________________ While a user is online, the Sysop has a number of keys at his disposal. These can be used to raise or lower the user's time, drop into chat mode, or terminate a user. The following keys are active on the Sysop's keyboard when a user is online: Alt-A Abort upload or download. This key combination is the only one active during uploads and downloads and has no meaning otherwise. Alt-C Initiate chat mode. Once in chat mode, ESC exits and returns the user to the BBS. Ctrl-G sends a beep to the other terminal and Ctrl-L toggles the Sysop's chat log on and off. Ctrl-F toggles in an 8th bit filter which is handy when you encounter a user who is online with 7-E-1 instead of 8-N-1 and you wish to chat with them and tell them of their mistake! Alt-F Edit a user's flags. In this mode, merely press the letter corresponding to the flag you wish to toggle and press Enter to finish. Alt-K Switch keyboard on or off. This is handy if there is any danger of keys being pressed accidentally by little fingers. Alt-J Jump to DOS (or OS/2) shell. This suspends the BBS and allows you to work at the DOS prompt. When you are finished, type "exit" at the prompt and the BBS will regain control. Alt-H Help! Toggle showing of sysop keys on status line. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 46 Page 46 Alt-P Edit a user's privilege level. Once in this mode, type in the new user's privilege level (between 1 and 255) and hit Enter to change it. To cancel changes, just press Enter on an empty field. Alt-T Terminate a user. Hangup immediately. Alt-X Exit Simplex while it is waiting for a call. Ctrl-PgUp Increase a user's time by one minute. Ctrl-PgDn Decrease a user's time by one minute. 10.2-Local Uploading and Downloading 10.2-Local Uploading and Downloading _________________________________________________________________ While in local mode, the upload and download options would seem superfluous. However, Simplex uses them as specialized copy commands. A local Download will ask for a destination directory and then a list of filenames. It would then copy the files to that directory. A local Upload will ask for a source directory and then a list of filenames. It would then copy the files in to the current file area and then prompt for file descriptions for each file. 10.3-Message Exporting 10.3-Message Exporting _________________________________________________________________ In local mode, a privileged user will have an <E>xport option on his/her message menu. This permits the user to send a copy of the message to any file or device. To send the message to the printer on lpt1:, just enter the name LPT1 as the export filename and press Enter. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 47 Page 47 10.4-Downloading Hours 10.4-Downloading Hours _________________________________________________________________ Simplex, as of v 1.04.02, enforces downloading hours as set up in CONFIG. By default, these hours extend from 00:00 to 23:59 (all day), but they can be set to reflect any downloading time zone that you care to enforce. The start time does not HAVE to be earlier than the stop time (e.g. from 17:00 to 08:00). Sysops can still download outside of these hours. In order to implement this feature in v 1.04.02, everyone with a priv level of 250->255 is considered "Sysop" level. This will disappear in a future version of Simplex wherein you can set the level to what you prefer it to be. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 48 Page 48 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 11 Chapter 11 Simplex External Mail Utilities Simplex External Mail Utilities _________________________________________________________________ This chapter describes all of the external mail utilities for Simplex. These utilities are basically of two types, utilities to maintain Simplex's message base, and utilities to handle incoming and outgoing Net mail. Simplex's message base is contained in a series of files contained in the Simplex root directory. The message files are described above. Net mail is exported from the message base in standard FSC-0001 message format. Incoming Net mail may be either in standard FSC-0001 packed message packets or in archived format. Outgoing Net mail is prepared in standard FSC-0001 packed message packets and then archived by SMP. 11.1-SUPACK: Simplex Deleted User Packing Utility 11.1-SUPACK: Simplex Deleted User Packing Utility _________________________________________________________________ SUPACK.EXE (or SUPACK2.EXE for OS/2) is a utility to purge deleted users from the Simplex user's list. Just run the utility from the command line whenever you have deleted users. This utility will pack the USERLIST.BBS file, the MSGCOMB.BBS (for combined boards), and MSGREAD.BBS (for lastread pointers) into .BAK files. If everything is successful, the .BBS files will then be deleted and the .BAK files will be renamed. 11.2-SCLEAN: Simplex Mail Cleaning Utility 11.2-SCLEAN: Simplex Mail Cleaning Utility _________________________________________________________________ SCLEAN.EXE (or SCLEAN2.EXE for OS/2) is a message base maintenance program which cleans out messages from message boards. Messages can be cleaned out completely from message boards, deleted if received, or deleted if older than a specified number of days. SCLEAN has the following options: -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 49 Page 49 -q Quiet....do not show message by message activity -dxx Sets maximum days for message killing to xx -nxx Sets maximum number of messages to keep on boards to xx -knxx Kill messages on board #xx keeping maximum number in area -kaxx Kill ALL messages on board #xx -kdxx Kill messages prior to maximum days on board #xx -krxx Kill all received messages on board #xx The quiet flag can be used to speed up SCLEAN considerably on slow machines. SCLEAN can be used to kill messages older than 10 days on message boards 1, 7 and 12 and kill all received messages on board 8 with the following command line: sclean -d10 -kd1 -kd7 -kd12 -kr8 The -ka option will normally be used to remove a defunct message board's messages from the message base. Notice that SCLEAN merely deletes messages and does not actually remove them from the message base. 11.3-SPACK: Simplex Message Base Deletion 11.3-SPACK: Simplex Message Base Deletion _________________________________________________________________ SPACK.EXE (or SPACK2.EXE for OS/2) is a message base compression program. It will analyse the message base and determine how many messages have been deleted, then check file space prior to packing. Packing may optionally be done in-place instead of in duplicate files if disk space is at a premium, however this method is frowned upon since it might be dangerous should a power failure occur. SPACK has the following command line options: -q Quiet....do not show message activity -k Kill unreasonably sized messages (>100K each) -p Pack message base -w Write message base files in place The quiet flag will speed up SPACK considerably and should be used on slow machines! -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 50 Page 50 In order to pack the message base, use the following command line: spack -p Notice: While SPACK runs, if it finds messages larger than 100K, it will automatically delete them under the presumption that if a message is that large, it is most likely a corruption of the message base. 11.4-SLINK: Simplex Message Thread Linker 11.4-SLINK: Simplex Message Thread Linker _________________________________________________________________ SLINK.EXE (or SLINK2.EXE for OS/2) is a message base thread linker program which will link messages by topic by message board. What SLINK loads all the message topics for a board, removes all RE's from the topic lines, then links matching message topics into threads. By default, SLINK links ALL message boards, however if a file called SLINK.BBS is located in the root Simplex directory, only the board numbers contained in that file are linked (SLINK.BBS is a series of 16-bit ints with each board number to link). This file is generally created by SMAIL when it is importing Net mail so that SLINK would not waste time uselessly relinking boards that were not imported. There are no options to SLINK. To run it, merely type SLINK (or SLINK2) on the command line and hit Enter. 11.5-SMAIL: Simplex Net Mail Utility 11.5-SMAIL: Simplex Net Mail Utility _________________________________________________________________ SMAIL.EXE (or SMAIL2.EXE for OS/2) is a Net mail importation and exportation utility. SMAIL is used to export Net mail and Echomail to other systems after mail has been entered, a situation which can be determined by Simplex's exit errorlevel. Incoming Net and echomail can be imported into the Simplex message base when your front-end mailer detects incoming mail packets. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 51 Page 51 The command line options for SMAIL are the following: -ua unarc inbound mail packets -it import/toss net and echo mail -ib import/toss net and echo mail in bad messages area -nx export netmail to other systems -ex export echomail to other systems -re report on echomail passing through the system -es enable echo security -r export echomail as ROUTED (normal) instead of DIRECT (CM) -s disable conversion of "sysop" messages to sysop's name -#xxx limit number of .MSG files im matrix to xxx. -c### clean out signatures over ### days old SMAIL uses the unarchiver command lines from CONFIG's option 5 if you specify the -ua flag. It also uses the packet path from CONFIG's option 4 as the destination directory for the contents of the archived mail. SMAIL handles Echomail signatures, which are files containing data from messages which have passed through the system. These are kept in order to stop duplicate messages from being passed along. These signatures are kept in the Simplex directory in files called SMAILxxx.SIG where where xxx is the Julian date of the year when the signature file is created. These files can be maintained by using the SMAIL -c command. This deletes signature files older then the specified number of days. A reasonable period to keep signatures is between 3 and 10 days. Too short a period might allow duplicates to slip through, and too long a period will slow the system down excessively while loading the files. The best time in your setting will be best left to experimentation! The -ES flag enables echomail security. This ensures that echomail for each area is only imported from nodes listed for that echo in the AREAS.BBS file. The -RE flag reads in the signature files and generates an echomail traffic report for each area contained in the areas.bbs file. Echomail is exported generally as DIRECT (Crash) by SMAIL. Since most other mail processors normally toss it out as ROUTED, SMAIL allows you to select the -r flag if this is your preferred methodology. Since DOS has problems with large quantities of files in a directory on FAT drives, systems that handle lots of mail can use -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 52 Page 52 SMAIL to limit the actual number of files in a directory by using the -# option. This option will not allow *.MSG files to exceed the number following the # (i.e. -#250 limits the MSG files to 250). If mail still remains to be tossed because SMAIL reached this limit, it creates a file in the Simplex directory called SMAIL.LIM. Your batch file can always check for the existence of this file and loop back to catch the rest of the mail when SMP completes packing. Here is an example: :unpack smail -ua -it -#250 smp -p if exist smail.lim goto unpack SMAIL, by default, converts any messages addressed to "Sysop" over to messages addressed to the sysop's name as specified in CONFIG. This behavior might be considered annoying by some Sysops and therefore can be disabled using the -s switch on the command line. Here are some sample parts of a Net mail compatible system's batch file which illustrate using SMAIL for exporting entered mail: :runbbs simplex -b%d -x if errorlevel 6 goto runbbs if errorlevel 5 goto echomatrix if errorlevel 4 goto echo if errorlevel 3 goto matrix goto runbbs :echomatrix smail -nx -ex smp -p goto end :echo smail -ex smp -p goto end :matrix smail -nx smp -p goto end :end -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 53 Page 53 Here is a sample of a front-end mailer's batch file, demonstrating the use of SMAIL for importing and forwarding incoming mail. :runmailer mailer if errorlevel 2 goto runmailer if errorlevel 1 goto import goto end :import smail -ua -it smp -p goto runmailer :end 11.6-SMP: Simplex Mail Packer 11.6-SMP: Simplex Mail Packer _________________________________________________________________ SMP (or SMP2 for OS/2) is a Net compatible mail router/packer/archiver. It uses the archiver command lines from CONFIG's option 5. Essentially SMP reads the messages in the matrix directory, and based on the rules in the SMP.CTL file (see above), packs the messages in packets and optionally archives them to their ultimate destinations. SMP will delete truncated (i.e. 0-length) files in the outbound directories before it begins packing. Notice that it will not delete truncated files for the current day of the week, only for the other 6 days. SMP's options are the following: -p Pack and route files in matrix and outbound areas -s(tag) Use information for sched (tag) in SMP.CTL where (tag) is a letter from A to Z Use of SMP is demonstrated in the sample batch files under SMAIL above. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 54 Page 54 11.7-SMAILFIX: Simplex Mail Fixer 11.7-SMAILFIX: Simplex Mail Fixer _________________________________________________________________ Occasionally, systems crash and lock up. That is almost a rule in the world of computing. Unfortunately, these crashes and lock-ups have a nasty habit of occurring at the worst possible moment, and in the case of Simplex, the worst possible moment is when the message base is being manipulated! Since the message base files are so intertwined, any corruption to any of the files could be quite disasterous. Hence the raison d'etre of SMAILFIX. Should your message base appear to have become corrupted, SMAILFIX gives you a chance to attempt to restore/rebuild some of the message files so that you can recover as much of the message base as possible. OS/2 users should ensure that no utilities are able to manipulate the message files while SMAILFIX is running, and both DOS and OS/2 users should ensure that their systems do not shut down or reboot before SMAILFIX is finished. To run SMAILFIX, just type it's name on the command line and hit Enter. Notice that you should be in your Simplex root directory when you do this. SMAILFIX will prompt you if you are sure that you want to run it. Answer Y and it will begin attempting to recover your message base. Once it is finished it will inform you if you need to run SLINK and/or SPACK on the message base. An option for SMAILFIX is the -DATE (or /DATE) option. This makes SMAILFIX delete any messages which have a date beyond today's date. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 55 Page 55 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 12 Chapter 12 SUSAGE and SRECENT: Simplex Screen Builders SUSAGE and SRECENT: Simplex Screen Builders _________________________________________________________________ There are two utilities which can be used by Simplex in order to generate special screens. These are SUSAGE, a utility which generates an hourly usage chart for your system, and SRECENT, a utility which creates and maintains a recent callers listing. In order to take advantage of these utilities, one must have the BBS exit after each user has logged off. Both of these utilities read and utilize the USERINFO.BBS file created when a user logs in. SUSAGE must have the -G option enabled in order to generate usage files. These files are placed in the screens directory and are appropriately named SUSAGE.ANS and SUSAGE.ASC. These files normally use normal 7-bit ASCII characters to build the bar charts, but should you prefer to use IBM 8-bit characters, you can specify that with the optional -I switch. SRECENT must have a numeric option which specifies the number of last callers that you want to keep up with. SRECENT 30 will keep information on 30 users and will build the screens with that information. The resulting screens are placed in the screens directory and are called SRECENT.ANS and SRECENT.ASC. You may list names which you do not wish to show up on the recent callers list by creating a file with an editor in the Simplex directory called SRECENT.CFG. This file would contain the first and last names of people who are exempt from SRECENT separated by an ENTER. For example: Susan Smith Fred Flintstone John Doe Jane Doe Whenever these people log off, they will not be included in the recent-callers list. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 56 Page 56 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 13 Chapter 13 Simplex Questionaire Language Simplex Questionaire Language _________________________________________________________________ Simplex has a rather simple but powerful questionaire language. A questionaire file is an ascii file with a .QF extension which is placed in the screen files directory. This file can be created using a flat-ASCII text editor. The answer file is placed in the same directory and has the same base name as the questionaire file, however it sports an .AF extension. The following is an alphabetical list of questionaire commands. Commands are case-insensitive. Strings are included in double quotes like this "string". ASK (variable) (len) : This will accept up to the maximum length specified of a user's input and store it in the variable specified. After hitting Enter, the system will go to the next line. CHOOSE (variable) (choices) : This will load the variable specified with the choice letter selected from the list of choices. CLS : Clears the screen to the current color. COLOR (foreground) [(background)] : Sets the current color to the specified foreground/background (optional) color. EXIT : Immediately exits the questionnaire file. GOTO (labelname) : Jumps to the label specified. If label is not found, it will exit. HANGUP : Unconditionally drops carrier on the user. IF (variable) = ("string") *or* IF (variable) != ("string") *or* IF (variable) = (variable) *or* IF (variable) != (variable) ENDIF : If the case is true, the questionnaire will fall into the if-endif. If it is not true, it will skip -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 57 Page 57 over it. *Warning* Do not "nest" ifs! The != indicates "not equal to". HANGUP : Causes Simplex to hangup on the user immediately. LABEL (labelname) : Sets the labelname as a point to which the GOTO will jump. If a label is reused, then it will replace the previous use. LEAVEMESSAGE (area #) ("user_name") : Permits the user to leave a message to the specified username in the area. Notice that you MUST separate first and last name with an underscore ("_") and NOT a space. LOGENTRY ("string") *or* LOGENTRY (variable) : This will stick the string into the Simplex sysop log. PRINT ("string") *or* PRINT (variable) : Shows a string of contents of a variable on the screen. Does not go to the next line. PRINTLINE ("string") *or* PRINTLINE (variable) : Shows a string of contents of a variable on the screen. This will then go to the next line. SET (variable) = ("string") *or* SET (variable) = (variable) : Sets a variable to a string value or to the value of another variable. SETFLAG ("string") : Turns on or sets the user's flags corresponding to the letters contained in the string (A through P, 16 flags) and updates the user's record. SETPRIV (priv) : Sets the user's priv level to the specified level if it is a legal value (1 - 255). SHOW ("filename") : Shows a file (filename.ans if ansi is on, otherwise filename.asc if it is not. UNSETFLAG ("string") : Turns off or resets the user's flags corresponding to the letters contained in the string (A through P, 16 flags) and updates the user's record. WRITEINFO : Writes the user's name, time and date, and other info to the questionnaire answer file. WRITE ("string") *or* -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 58 Page 58 WRITE (variable) : Writes the string or variable to the questionnaire answer file. This does not add a CR-LF pair at the end. WRITELINE ("string") *or* WRITELINE (variable) : Writes the string or variable to the questionnaire answer file. This adds a CR-LF pair at the end. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 59 Page 59 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 14 Chapter 14 SQUOTE: Simplex Quote File Compiler SQUOTE: Simplex Quote File Compiler _________________________________________________________________ You may create quote files for Simplex which are searched for random sayings either on login (see DAYQUOTE.CQ above) or in response to a type 52 menu option. These files can contain salty wisdom sayings, scripture verses, variations on Murphy's Law, short jokes, or whatever else you desire. Simplex can "randomly" select one of these sayings on demand and show it to the user. Creating quote files is a rather simple operation. You need to edit a flat-ASCII file containing one quote per line (Maximum of 512 characters per saying) and then compile it using SQUOTE. The quote file produced by SQUOTE must be placed in the screen files directory. The uncompiled quote file must have a .Q extension (e.g. DAYQUOTE.Q) and the compiler will create a file with a .CQ extension (e.g. DAYQUOTE.CQ). Here is an example of a simple uncompiled quote file: The toast always falls on the carpet buttered-side down! A penny saved is a penny earned. God is love. (I John 4:16a NIV) Notice that each line is an individual saying. Blank lines between quote lines will not hurt anything so you could group similar sayings together and separate them with blank lines as above. This might make it easier to maintain your quote files. Assume that the above file is called DAYQUOTE.Q, compiling it is achieved by doing: SQUOTE dayquote[.Q] where the .Q is assumed and is optional. The compiler will indicate how many lines of quotes it found and write out a DAYQUOTE.CQ file. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 60 Page 60 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 15 Chapter 15 SANSI: Simplex Ansi Compiler SANSI: Simplex Ansi Compiler _________________________________________________________________ In order to assist you in preparing your ANSI and ASCII files, Simplex includes a compiler and a high-level language. This system is called SANSI. You can write a single "source" file which includes all of the information for screens which can be compiled into the respective .ANS and .ASC files. The compiler will leave any ANSI statements out of of the .ASC files. The SANSI language will also access to special Simplex features as well as ANSI codes. Special SANSI codes are introduced with ` (forward single quote) in the .ANS and .ASC files (`` is interpreted by Simplex as being a `), however, use of the high- level language is strongly recommended for ease of maintenance. SANSI keywords are encoded in text in curly braces as in {sequence}. Any number of SANSI keywords may be included in the curly braces separated by spaces (like {stopoff cls bell}). To encode an true opening curly brace, simply type two in a row like this {{. Following is a list of SANSI keywords and codes. 15.1-SANSI User's Personal Information 15.1-SANSI User's Personal Information _________________________________________________________________ Code Representation SANSI Keyword ----- ----------------------------------------- ------------- `A User's Full Name name `B User's First Name first `C User's Last Name last `D User's City-State citystate `E User's Home Number homephone `F User's Work/Data Number dataphone `G User's Password password `H User's Privilege Level (1 to 255) priv -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 61 Page 61 15.2-SANSI User's BBS Settings 15.2-SANSI User's BBS Settings _________________________________________________________________ Code Representation SANSI Keyword ----- ----------------------------------------- ------------- `M User's Baud Rate (300 -> 19200 or Local) baud `N User's Ansi Setting (On or Off) ansi `O User's More Setting (On or Off) more `P User's Clearscreen Setting (On or Off) clear `Q User's Editor Setting (Line or Ansi) editor `R User's Expert-mode Setting (On or Off) expert `S Length of User's Screen Page (for More) pagelen `T User's Netmail Credit ($x.xx) credit 15.3-SANSI User's Time/File Information 15.3-SANSI User's Time/File Information _________________________________________________________________ Code Representation SANSI Keyword ----- ----------------------------------------- ------------- `a Date of User's First Call (MM/DD/YY) firstdate `b Date of User's Last Call (MM/DD/YY) lastdate `c Time of User's Last Call (HH:MM) lasttime `d User's Total Daily Time (M mins S secs) totaltime `e Total Time Used Today (M mins S secs) timeused `f Time Remaining for Today (M mins S secs) timeleft `g Time Used During This Call (M mins S secs) timeon `h User's Total Uploads (Number of Files) ul `i User's Total Uploaded Bytes (Kilobytes) ulkb `j User's Total Downloads (Number of Files) dl `k User's Total Downloaded Bytes (Kilobytes) dlkb `l Number of User's Calls to System calls 15.4-SANSI System Information 15.4-SANSI System Information _________________________________________________________________ Code Representation SANSI Keyword ----- ----------------------------------------- ------------- `p Day of Week (Monday, Tuesday, ... Sunday) day -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 62 Page 62 `q Short Day of Week (Mon, Tue, ... Sun) shortday `r Date (MM/DD/YY) date `s Time (HH:MM:SS) time `t Number of Times User Yelled for Chat yells `u Total Number of Users on System users `v Last User on System lastuser 15.5-SANSI System Control 15.5-SANSI System Control _________________________________________________________________ Code Representation SANSI Keyword ----- ----------------------------------------- ------------- `0 Turn [More] Off moreoff `1 Turn [More] back On (If user allows it) moreon `2 Turn [Stop] Off stopoff `3 Turn [Stop] On stopon `4 Pause and Wait for [Enter] to be Pressed enter `5 Clearscreen code (FF character) cls `6 Bell bell `7 Backspace bs 15.6-SANSI ANSI Sequences 15.6-SANSI ANSI Sequences _________________________________________________________________ Representation SANSI Keyword -------------------------------------------- ------------- Set black foreground black Set red foreground red Set green foreground green Set brown foreground brown Set blue foreground blue Set magenta foreground magenta Set cyan foreground cyan Set white foreground white or lightgray Set gray foreground gray or lightblack Set light red foreground lightred Set light green foreground lightgreen Set yellow foreground yellow or lightbrown Set light blue foreground lightblue Set light magenta foreground lightmagenta -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 63 Page 63 Set light cyan foreground lightcyan Set bright white foreground lightwhite Set black background onblack Set red background onred Set green background ongreen Set brown background onbrown Set blue background onblue Set magenta background onmagenta Set cyan background oncyan Set white background onwhite Set blinking characters blink Erase to End of Line erasetoeol Erase to End of Screen erasetoeos Erase to cursor from top of screen erasefromtos Erase screen erasescreen Move cursor up one line cursorup Move cursor down one line cursordown Move cursor left one character cursorleft Move cursor right one character cursorright Home cursor home -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 64 Page 64 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 16 Chapter 16 SMC: Simplex Menu Compiler/Decompiler SMC: Simplex Menu Compiler/Decompiler _________________________________________________________________ In order to speed up development of menus on big Simplex applications, it might be easier to use SMC, the Simplex Menu Compiler. This allows you to use a text editor to build menu source files, and thus be able to use the block-copy and find/replace facilities of the editor to ease the burden of menu development. Keywords are the following: menu "STRING" : This sets the name of the menu file and resets the line number counter. Maximum length of string is 8 characters. e.g. menu "main" prompt "STRING" : Sets the string as the prompt and all subsequent information before the next "menu" or "line" keywords will refer to the prompt. Maximum length for string is 70 characters. e.g. prompt "[^$r min^] What is your choice? " line "STRING" : Sets the string as a menu line and all subsequent information before the next "menu", "prompt", or "line" keywords will refer to the new line. e.g. line "<^M^> Go to Message Areas" define DEFINITION NUMBER *or* define DEFINITION "string" : Allows the definition of a constant value, either numeric or string. Later use of the definitions will be substitued for the representative number or string by the compiler. e.g. define WHITE 15 define RETURN "<^M^> Return to main menu" type NUMBER : This is only valid in a "line" clause and sets the type of the menu item to the specified value. For a list of menu types see above or type SMC without parameters. e.g. type 0 /* show a menu line */ -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 65 Page 65 priv VALUE : This is only valid in a "line" clause and sets the user privilege needed to see/access the menu item. This value may be between 0 and 255. e.g. priv 255 flags "flag_vals" : This is only valid in a "line" clause and sets the user flags needed to see/access the menu item. Flags are lettered from A to P (16 flags). e.g. flags "ABJMP" color VALUE : This is valid in a "line" clause or a "prompt" clause. It sets the non-highlighted color for either the current line or the current prompt. The value is a normal IBM color value from 0 to 255. See below for a list of color values. e.g. color 10 hilite VALUE : This is valid in a "line" clause or a "prompt" clause. It sets the hilighted color for either the current line or the current prompt. The value is a normal IBM color value from 0 to 255. See below for a list of color values. e.g. hilite 14 key "CHARACTER" : This is valid only in a "line" clause and it sets the value of the hotkey to trigger the option for that menu line. A character is any value >= ASCII 32 decimal. To specify a non-keyed line, use key "" with nothing between the quotes. The character may be upper or lowercase, however when a character is receieved by the menu handler, it is case does not matter (i.e. there is no difference between key "A" and key "a"). e.g. key "A" auto : This is valid only in a "line" clause and indicates that the menu item autoexecutes when its line is being shown. See menu type 49 above for an example of using autoexecution. e.g. auto expert : This is valid only in a "line" clause and indicates that the menu item is shown even if a user has expert mode toggled on. At least menu titles should be qualified with the expert keyword so that a user can know where they are on your system. e.g. expert data "STRING" : This is valid only in a "line" clause. It is used to provide the additional data line needed by various menu types (see above). Maximum length of string is 70 characters. -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 66 Page 66 e.g. data "logoff password" Using the SMC compiler will permit you to use the script language to put together a series of menus (you can have more than one menu in a .SMC file) and avoid the overhead of using the line- by-line menu editor in CONFIG. Should you wish to decompile an already existant menu, you can do it with the command line: SMC /d file.mnu > file.smc which will redirect the decompiler's output into the required file which can then be editord and then recompiled using the following command line: SMC file[.SMC] Color values in the IBM machine consist of an 8 bit number which is broken up as follows: High | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Low ^ | Background| ^ | Foreground| Blink Hilight The background and foreground colors range from 0 to 7 and represent the following: 0 Black 4 Red 1 Blue 5 Magenta 2 Green 6 Brown (Dark Yellow) 3 Cyan 7 Light Gray (Dark White) The highlight bit refers to the foreground color so that essentially the following color numbers in the lower 4 bits indicate the following colors: 8 Dark Gray 12 Light Red 9 Light Blue 13 Light Magenta 10 Light Green 14 Yellow 11 Light Cyan 15 White The blink bit will make the foreground color blink. Here is a list of all of the possible combinations using a black foreground: 0 Black on black 128 Blink black on black 16 Black on blue 144 Blink black on blue 32 Black on green 160 Blink black on green 48 Black on cyan 176 Blink black on cyan 64 Black on red 192 Blink black on red 80 Black on magenta 208 Blink black on magenta -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 67 Page 67 96 Black on brown 224 Blink black on brown 112 Black on white 240 Blink black on white Using this table, merely add your desired foreground color to the base value given, and you will have the number for that color. For example, light red on white is 12 + 112 = 124! In strings, to encode a literal " (double quote), use the sequence \". For example, "this is a \"string\"" will become: this is a "string" after it is compiled. In menu lines and menu data lines, the following meta commands are recognized and are substituted accordingly: $$ Dollar sign $r Time left for call (mins) $f User's first name $l User's last name $d Current date $t Current time $a User's ANSI flag $u User's number on system $b User's baud rate $## File board's directory In menu lines the following have special significance: $c As the final two chars of a line means "continue" next menu line without going to next line. ^ Indicates a change of color from normal to hilight or vice versa. ^^ Means show a caret (^) mark. In data lines the following have special significance: $* Shell with hot fossil (DOS only). Do not deinitialize fossil driver before executing program. Note that this option is not passed as a parameter to the program in a type 240 menu option. $e After executing program, pause and wait for Enter before continuing. Note that this option is not passed as a parameter to the program in a type 240 menu option. Here is a sample fragment of an SMC script for a menu: /* Comments are done like this and can span ** multiple lines. */ menu "logoff" /* this begins the menu called logoff */ prompt "[^$r min^] What is your choice?" color 15 hilite 14 -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 68 Page 68 line "[ ^Log Off Menu ^ >----------------------" type 0 expert priv 0 color 13 hilite 14 line "" /* blank "space holder" line */ type 0 priv 0 color 7 hilite 15 line "" type 0 priv 0 color 7 hilite 15 line "<^Y^> Yes, log me off right now!" type 255 key "Y" priv 0 color 11 hilite 14 line "<^N^> No, do not log me off!" type 3 key "N" priv 0 color 10 hilite 14 line "<^L^> Leave a message to Sysop and log off!" type 16 key "L" data "1 /T=Chris_Laforet /L" priv 0 color 12 hilite 14 -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 69 Page 69 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 17 Chapter 17 Acknowlegements and Thanks Acknowlegements and Thanks _________________________________________________________________ First of all, thanks goes to God for His strength and guidance during the development of Simplex BBS. Without His Spirit, this project would never have made it off of the ground! I know that it is not very often that I seem appreciative of the many bug reports from my beta testers, especially since bugs pop up at the most inconvenient times. I know that getting a BBS up and running can be rough especially when you have bugs to contend with, and users who jump all over you when features break down!! Thank you guys for a job well done, and may I add, keep up the good work. The job accomplished by beta testers is so important and yet it is downplayed. These are the guys who actually stand on the front line and get pounded by bugs and undocumented "features". Special thanks goes to my beta testers: Scott Hughes of NightHawk BBS Robert King of Collosus Programmer's Net BBS Jesse Warford of Nightwings ][ BBS Tony Till of The Starship BBS Eric Weaver of North State BBS Dale Robertson of D & R BBS Robbie Foust of Stardate Multiline BBS Thanks goes especially for my wife, Sherry, a "computer widow" who spent much time listening to me pecking at the keyboard late into the night for the many months spent while developing Simplex. She is the one who named the package and I dedicate it to her and to my lovely daughter Rebekah. Thanks to Brady Flowers of Oberon Software in Mankato, MN for helping me through some of OS/2's uncharted reefs! Thanks to those who have helped in many little ways, including beta testing over the past versions. I would like to mention the following names in this regard: Kelly Hughes of Bedside Manor BBS Fred Niemczenia of The Warped Drive BBS Robbie Foust of Stardate Multiline BBS -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 70 Page 70 Craig Newlander of Chicago, Ill Steven Tower of Neutral Zone BBS Al Pollenz of Dateline 2100 BBS Thanks to the many people who have made excellent suggestions for features in Simplex over the course of time. Thanks also to the many kind souls who reported bugs and who sent messages of encouragement. Thanks to those dedicated users who have taken time to write utilities for Simplex. Any BBS package is improved by having a rich set of external programs to enhance it. In this respect, Simplex's ultimate success will depend upon the utility writers. Sometimes, the utility authors help to improve the package by making suggestions for additional features to support their utilities. Invariably this helps to shape Simplex into a better package! -------------------------------------------------- Simplex BBS A User's Manual Simplex BBS A User's Manual Page 71 Page 71 ____________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Table of Contents ____________________________________________________________ Chapter 1 Legalistic Mumbo-Jumbo (i.e. Better Read Chapter 1 This Stuff) 2 Chapter 2 Introduction to Simplex 4 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Installing Simplex 5 Chapter 3 3.1 Simplex and Answering the Phone . . . . . . 6 3.1 3.2 Setting Up Simplex BBS Paths . . . . . . . . 6 3.2 3.3 Presumptions Underlying Simplex's Net Mail . 7 3.3 3.4 Installing a Network Node . . . . . . . . . 9 3.4 3.5 Setting up a non-Net BBS . . . . . . . . . 10 3.5 3.6 Configuring Simplex with CONFIG . . . . . 10 3.6 Chapter 4 Simplex Menu Types 15 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Menu Templates 25 Chapter 5 5.1 Assigning Menu Template Macros . . . . . . 25 5.1 5.2 Using Template Macro Assignments . . . . . 26 5.2 Chapter 6 Running Simplex 27 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Setting up Downloadable and QWK Mail 31 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Virus Checker Interface 33 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Simplex Ancillary Files 34 Chapter 9 9.1 Files for Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 9.1 9.2 General Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 9.2 9.3 Files Created by CONFIG . . . . . . . . . 37 9.3 9.4 Files Needed by Simplex . . . . . . . . . 38 9.4 9.5 Files Created by Simplex . . . . . . . . . 39 9.5 9.6 Files used by Simplex Utilities . . . . . 40 9.6 Chapter 10 Simplex Sysop Options 46 Chapter 10 10.1 The Sysop's Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . 46 10.1 10.2 Local Uploading and Downloading . . . . . 47 10.2 10.3 Message Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 10.3 10.4 Downloading Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 10.4 Chapter 11 Simplex External Mail Utilities 49 Chapter 11 11.1 SUPACK: Simplex Deleted User Packing 11.1 Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 i 11.2 SCLEAN: Simplex Mail Cleaning Utility . . 49 11.2 11.3 SPACK: Simplex Message Base Deletion . . 50 11.3 11.4 SLINK: Simplex Message Thread Linker . . 51 11.4 11.5 SMAIL: Simplex Net Mail Utility . . . . . 51 11.5 11.6 SMP: Simplex Mail Packer . . . . . . . . 54 11.6 11.7 SMAILFIX: Simplex Mail Fixer . . . . . . 55 11.7 Chapter 12 SUSAGE and SRECENT: Simplex Screen Chapter 12 Builders 56 Chapter 13 Simplex Questionaire Language 57 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 SQUOTE: Simplex Quote File Compiler 60 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 SANSI: Simplex Ansi Compiler 61 Chapter 15 15.1 SANSI User's Personal Information . . . . 61 15.1 15.2 SANSI User's BBS Settings . . . . . . . . 62 15.2 15.3 SANSI User's Time/File Information . . . 62 15.3 15.4 SANSI System Information . . . . . . . . 62 15.4 15.5 SANSI System Control . . . . . . . . . . 63 15.5 15.6 SANSI ANSI Sequences . . . . . . . . . . 63 15.6 Chapter 16 SMC: Simplex Menu Compiler/Decompiler 65 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Acknowlegements and Thanks 70 Chapter 17 ii