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Professional Analyzer
for RBBS-PC
Version 17.4 - 05
By: Charles Doughty
Capitol City Gateway RBBS
(916)-381-8788 USR HST 9600
RBBS-Net 8:914/301 FIDO-Net 1:203/909
ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
Table of Contents
<CTRL> V at the main menu will give you TRUE version #
Description of ProAna.................................... 1
Why Do You Need the Professional Analyzer?............... 1
Starting Out............................................. 1
Bringing up ProAna....................................... 2
Configuring ProAna....................................... 2
The Main Menu............................................ 3
Analyzing the Callers File............................... 3
Creating a Report........................................ 4
Site Selected Statistics................................. 5
Analyzing the Messages File.............................. 6
Analyzing the Users File................................. 6
The PROSTATE.TBL File.................................... 7
The User Editor.......................................... 7
You Found a Problem?..................................... 8
Limited Warranty......................................... 8
Distribution............................................. 8
Registration............................................. 8
Appendix A: Automated Reports............................ 10
Appendix B: Report information........................... 12
Appendix C: Revision History............................. 14
Important Notes.......................................... 15
ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
i
======> Description of ProAna
The Professional Analyzer (ProAna) is a tool used to
give access to important and interesting statistics when running
a bulletin board. Information such as when the most people
call during the day, how many people use a particular protocol,
and other data... such as how many people read your bulletins
on various subjects, are included in the reports.
======> Why Do You Need the Professional Analyzer?
Well, of course if you don't run a RBBS-PC bulletin board I
can't give you any reasons, but if you do.... ProAna is a produc-
tivity tool. Let's say you run a BBS for your company and you
need to know how many out-of-state users you have. Now, with
ProAna you'd simply hit F4 at the main menu and, in seconds you
would receive a complete breakdown of how many users you have
from each state. Or if you are a SYSOP who is contemplating
purchasing a 9600 bps modem, and you have borrowed one from a
friend for a week and put it on-line. After that week, you can
use the Callers File analyzer to see how many people actually
used the 9600 bps, and then make your decision based on that.
Another case would be if you were a SYSOP Beta testing a new
version of RBBS-PC that has some minor fixes when suddenly RBBS
starts trashing every user who answers a questionairre. (Of
course with RBBS this would NEVER happen!) Luckily, you caught
the bug after only one user got trashed, but now that user's
defaults are all messed up. Again, with Proana you can edit
almost every field and reset everything to normal.
As you can see, the possibilities for ProAna are limitless!
======> Starting Out
ProAna is very easy to install. All you have to do is copy
ProAna's' working files to ANY directory of your Hard Disk and
run it. The files required are PROANA.EXE, the main program,
PROCALL.EXE, the callers file analyzer, PROSTATE.TBL, the table
that includes states and common abbreviations, PROCALL.CTL, a
file that includes special site-selected statistics. (This file
is optional.) and PROTO.DEF (a RBBS-PC file).
If you would like to install ProAna to another directory
than C:\RBBS then you would have to add that directory to your
path statement, and set the environment variable "PROANA". If
your RBBS files are in "C:\RBBS" and you would like to run
ProAna in "C:\RBBS\PROANA", you just add C:\RBBS\PROANA to your
path statement and add the line "SET PROANA=C:\RBBS\PROANA" to
your autoexec.bat on a separate line. This will tell ProAna
where to find it's files. But more on that shortly!
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ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
======> Bringing up ProAna
To bring up ProAna you enter the command:
C>proana #
where '#' is the number of the node that you want to analyze or
edit. '#' must be a valid integer from 1 through 36. If '#' is
not included, or is invalid, ProAna will assume node #1 for
convenience. Once you have started ProAna, you will see an
introductory screen that can be cleared by pressing any key. If
this is the first time running ProAna on a particular node, you
will not get the introductory screen until you have configured
ProAna.
======> Configuration
WARNING: Use full path and names for all files in ProAna Config-
uration items. Do NOT use implicit paths. (i.e.: Use
C:\RBBS\NODE1\CALLERS and not NODE1\CALLERS.)
Before you can use ProAna, you must tell it a few things.
First, you need to let it know what type of monitor you are
using. The default choice is "M" for monochrome, and if that is
correct, you should press the down arrow to continue. (2 on the
numeric keypad.) If you are using a color card and color moni-
tor, you should first change that value to a "C", and then DO NOT
press the down arrow. ProAna will advance you to the next field
automatically.
After you have specified your monitor type, you must specify
the name of your RBBS Callers file as specified in Config parame-
ter #90. This may be any fully qualified path name up to 26
characters long.
Then after you enter the Callers file path and name, you
must advance to the next field and enter the RBBS Messages file
name. This is the same file that is described in parameter #86 of
Config.
The next field is the name of RBBS's Users file. This should
be the same as the file specified in parameter #87 of Config.
Following the Users file name, is the name of the ".DEF"
file that RBBS uses. This will be "RBBSxPC.DEF" where 'x' is
node-number or a '-' for non-multiple node operations, by default
in RBBS. Otherwise, if you use a special name for the ".DEF"
file, you must specify that.
Next is the name of the file that ProCall (the call analy-
sis program) uses when you O)utput a report. This can be any
name, including the name of the bulletin where the SYSOP keeps
his RBBS stats. Following this, are the names of the dates
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ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
between which ProAna will analyze in the Callers file.
These must be numeric, and the default is the whole file, by
specifying dates which are out of range.
Now, the next two fields, are the names of the files where
the user file report and messages file report will be output to.
The next field will ask you if you want standard windows or
the pop open / exploding window type menus.
The last option to configure will be the full path and
extension for the output of the various single screen reports
that ProAna will output for you in the form of single screen
bulletins.
Once you are finished, if everything is correct, hit the
{ESC} key, and respond "Y" to the question "Save Configuration
File <Y/N>?".
As you can see when the screen comes up, there are defaults,
and if those suit your particular configuration by chance, you
may just press {ESC} and save it.
======> The Main Menu
After you have brought up ProAna, if you have run it before,
you will be given a Main Menu to choose from. The options avail-
able are:
F1 - Configuration
F2 - Analyze Callers file
F3 - Analyze Messages file
F4 - Analyze Users file
F5 - Edit Users file
ESC - Quit to DOS
You can select any option by pressing the related function
key. (E.g. F1 will select the Configuration sub-program.) If
you HAVEN'T run ProAna before, you will be given a message saying
that ProAna is creating the necessary CONFIG files, and you will
then be presented with a configuration screen, which is described
above.
======> Analyzing the CALLERS file
One of the most important functions of ProAna is the analy-
sis of the callers file. This provides a vast source of informa-
tion, commonly displayed in two or more methods. To analyze the
callers file, you must, from the Main Menu, push the "F2" key
which starts the separate analysis program. It will take a
little while for it to get loaded, depending on your particular
configuration.
First, after having selected "F2" and ProCall (the name of
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ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
the call analysis program) having been loaded, you will see a
display similar to this:
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Buffer Size Date: Time: │
│ 128 06-30-1989 14:15:34 │
│ / \/ │
│ 1 2 │
│ │
│ │
│ Control Strings Records 1st Logon Last Logon │
│ 4 1858 5_ 06-27-89 06-30-89 _6 │
│ / /1800 \ 12:48 PM 12:22 AM / │
│ 3 4 \ 7 │
│ 8 Start Date/ \End Date │
│ 01-01-1980 12-31-1999 │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
1) Buffer Size for CALLERS file
2) Current Date & Time
3) Number of strings in PROCALL.CTL file
4) Number of records in CALLERS file
5) Time & Date of 1st logon in CALLERS file
6) Time & Date of last logon in CALLERS file
7) Start & End date of range to analyze
8) Number of records left to search in
increments of 100.
NOTE: After ProCall is finished reading the CALLERS file, it
will begin sorting. A note will be displayed in front of #8 to
that effect.
Once the loading process is finished, ProCall will then
display a menu of options that you may display. First, you can
return to this menu at any time by pressing "F1". Second, you
can look at the numbers and totals for all the stats by selecting
"F2", or you can go right into it by pressing "+".
There are several pages of data tied to the F1 Charts, the
"+" and "-" keys navigate through them. On the right while dis-
playing the stats, you will see a list of downloaded files, which
can be navigated by using the "PgDn" or "3" on the numeric
keypad, "PgUp" or "9" on the numeric keypad, "Home" or "7",
"End" or "1", and can be sorted by count by pressing "s".
After the stats come the graphs. The first graph can be
displayed by either pressing "F3" or by paging past the end of
the stats. (You can page through the whole report by pressing
"+" and "-".) This graph is a breakdown of the number of calls
per hour. This is one of the most important graphs, as it tells
when the bulletin board is being used the most.
Other graphs are accessed by pressing the F4 through F7
keys. These graphs should be self explanatory. Since this is a
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ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
very modified version (in that the code has been greatly econo-
mized) and several changes have been made AND only minimal BETA
testing has been accomplished, please let us know if something
needs more explanation.
======> Creating a Report
Another excellent feature of ProCall is the ability to put
all these statistics into an easy-to-read, comprehensive report.
This report can be formatted for RBBS, the screen, or printing.
To output a report, you must, after ProCall is loaded, press
"o" at any time while displaying graphs, or the Main Menu. (This
is as shown on the last couple lines of the display. As you've
probably discovered by now, the last few lines of the display
usually have a brief summary of the options available.) After
you select "o" you will be prompted for the type of format you
want it outputted for. You can select "s" for "SCREEN", which
works well with text readers such as Vernon Buerg's "List" pro-
gram, or you can select "p" for "PRINTER", which will format it
66 lines/page, and adds extra things here and there.
Finally, you can select "r" for "RBBS" which will output a
report based on a screen length of 23, and usually works well
with RBBS. It is a bit different though, depending on where you
start showing it, and this is because of RBBS. For example if
you selected "N)ew bulletins" and it displayed it in the context,
the page stops would be different then selecting "6" from the
bulletin menu, and that would be different than selecting
"b;6" from the main menu of RBBS. New with 15.1C you can also
include ANSI color in your RBBS reports, too!
After you have specified the format for the report, ProCall
will begin writing the report to disk and issue a message to that
effect.
When you are finished with ProCall, you can press {ESC} to
return to the Main Menu of ProAna.
======> Site Selected Statistics
Occasionally, some SYSOPs will add their own messages that
go into the CALLERS log. Never fear, ProCall has made provi-
sions for these special statistics! An optional file you can
have in your ProAna directory/disk, is a file by the name of
"PROCALL.CTL", which contains control strings to search for, and
strings to be displayed on the Site Selected Statistics page of
ProCall's stats. The format of this file is:
"<SEARCH_STRING>","<DISPLAY_STRING>"
IE: "need","Users needing more time to download"
where <SEARCH_STRING> is the string to search on in the CALLERS
file, and <DISPLAY_STRING> is the string to be displayed on the
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ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
screen. You can have up to 19 site-selected statistics, the
search string can be up to 20 characters long, and the displayed
string can be no longer than 25 characters long. This file must
be created using an ASCII editor, and must contain the double
quotation marks ('"') and the commas. (',')
======> Analyzing the Messages File
The MESSAGES file analysis routine can be reached by press-
ing "F3" from the Main Menu of ProAna. It will take only a few
seconds to load, depending on the size of your MESSAGES file.
After loading, a report will be written to a file as named in
the PROANA CONFIG file.
This is one of the easiest routines to execute in the whole
package, as there are no prompts, almost no waits, and only one
screen. So, the documentation for this one will be brief. The
routine will display various information concerning RBBS's MES-
SAGES file, including how many nodes are sharing it, the number
of killed messages, the number of active messages, the number of
kill protected messages, the number of receiver protected mes-
sages, the number of password protected messages, the average
number of records required by each message, and the list goes on
and on. If you use elastic message bases some of the numbers may
appear to be in error, but the program is using the information
from RBBS-PC.DEF so it can't tell properly what the size of the
file should be.
Some of the more confusing numbers are the statistics on the
right column of the screen. When ProAna says "Record Number", it
means "Record Number"! The "Record Number" is the actual record
number where RBBS gets the certain statistic. To exit this sub-
routine, like the others, press {ESC} and you will be returned
to ProAna's Main Menu. No key presses are needed here, ever and
it will output a message report automatically!
======> Analyzing the User File
To analyze RBBS's USERS file, press "F4" from ProAna's Main
Menu. As with the MESSAGES file analyzer, this routine is
fairly simple, and takes a few seconds to load. After it is
loaded, the list of states described later on will be shown on
the display, and ProAna will start analyzing the USERS file. The
lower box on the screen shows ProAna's progress, including the
number of users found, and the number not found unless you have
set the PROSTATE.TBL file to generate a bulletin as discussed
later. No key presses are needed here and it will generate the
report automatically to a file named in your PROANA CONFIG file.
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ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
======> The PROSTATE.TBL File
Required by ProAna's user analysis routine is a file called
"PROSTATE.TBL" which must exist in the same drive/directory as
ProAna. This file can have up to 60 entries in the following
format.
ST/LONG STATE NAME/CITY/CITY/CITY...etc.
where "ST" is the 2-character abbreviation for the
state/country/providence, "LONG STATE NAME" is the full name of
the state, and "CITY" is any number of cities in the state. The
only required field is "ST", which is displayed on the screen and
searched for. The other fields are used to cut down on the
number of exceptions because occasionally users specify a city,
and no state, or a long name for a state...etc. These fields all
must be in CAPITAL LETTERS. If you put "**/" as the first line
in your PROSTATE.TBL the report will instead of listing the
exceptions, list just the number of users found for each
state/country/province. The PROSTATE.TBL comes without "**/" in
the first line. "*c/" is the same as "**/" except the "c" will
cause the report to be generated in COLOR.
======> The User Editor
One of the most convenient features of ProAna is the ability
to edit almost all of the fields in the user record. This would
be handy if, for example, a user moved. The SYSOP could then
start the user editor by pressing "F5" from the Main Menu, and
change the user's city, state, and individuation (if needed).
The keys used in the User Editor are similar to the keys in the
configuration editor, with the following exceptions. "Home" is
used mainly to verify the subscription dates on the second page,
but will also change the color (from green to cyan if on a color
display) of the fields on the second page. "PgDn" is used to get
to the second page from the first, and "PgUp" is used to return
to the first page. You may match on a partial name here, there
is no need to remember or type the whole name.
The only fields that aren't editable in the user editor are
the "NAME" and "LAST DATE & TIME ON" fields. ("LAST DATE & TIME
ON" will be editable in a later version.)
You can change the fields to just about anything you want
to, within the realm of reality. For example, you can't set the
page length to "hg" or the subscription date to "22-40-1943".
One note: The fields in bright white on a color display are NOT
editable. And they can't be eaten either.
The individuation field is the 19 compressed bytes that were
formerly used for "Machine Type" on older versions of RBBS-PC
starting at position 87 and extending to 105 in the user record.
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ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
======> You Found a Problem?
If something is not working as documented, or ProAna will
not work in your particular configuration, I'd like to hear about
it! You can call my board anytime.......... 24 hours a day and
leave a message. Optionally you can send Echo Mail to me at Fido
Net 1:203/909 or RBBSNET at 8:914/301. I am not promising any-
thing, just that I will try and do what I can for you. Registered
users will receive a voice support phone number.
======> Limited Warranty
The warranty is VERY limited... There isn't one!! These
programs are provided "as is", without any warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not
limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness
for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and
performance of these programs is with you. I do not warrant
that the functions contained in these programs will suit your
needs or that the operation of these programs will be uninter-
rupted or error free.
======> Distribution
This program may be freely distributed. Please distribute
this program at User Groups, and your favorite bulletin boards.
No charge may be made for this program other than actual costs
for duplicating the disk.
If you use this program, and would like more of it's kind,
please consider sending a small contribution of just $20.00 to
the following address. The price of this program has been kept
to such a low fee because of the understanding of the time,
effort, and financial sacrifice that have gone into a BBS.
=====>> Please send all registrations to:
The Capitol City Gateway
Mail Stop - ProAna
BOX 60550
Sacramento, California
95860-0550
There are many benefits involved if you register, including:
- RBBS-PC support on the author's bulletin
board(s). 24 Hrs, 7 days a week.
- You will receive notice every time a new
version of ProAna is available.
- Registered users are considered serious
users and your comments and suggestions
are given top priority.
- A voice help line number for Registered users.
You can contact me at the following RBBS systems in the
Golden State of California:
Capitol City Gateway RBBS
8
ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
(916) 381-8788
The board now runs
24 hours a day, 14,400 Baud (HST)
The latest version of ProAna will always be available on the
board, and I will try to keep the latest on Jon Martin's, Ken
Goosens's, Doug Azzarito's and John Morrison's RBBS Systems.
Thank you for your support! Happy analyzing!
Charles Doughty
9
ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
Appendix A: Automated Reports
A feature added in version 15.1C of ProAna is the ability
to automatically produce reports from the command line. You
can produce a report from ProCall only, OR you can produce a
global reports analyzing the callers file, messages file, and
users file.
The syntax for producing a report is quite simple. Basi-
cally it is as follows:
C>proana <node> <type> <start_date> <end_date> <output_fmt>
Where:
<node> The node number your wish to analyze for. ProAna
will use the correct PROANA.CFx file.
<type> The type of report you wish to output. Either
"-g" for a G)lobal report, or "-o" for O)nly
the callers file analysis.
<start_date> The ProCall START DATE for outputting the
report. The dates should be strictly numeric
using no hyphens or slashes.
<end_date> The ProCall END DATE for outputting the report.
As above, no "-" or "/" should be included.
<output_fmt> The format the ProCall report will take.
This is in the form of an option:
/RA = RBBS ANSI Color format
/R = RBBS format
/P = Formatted for output to a printer
/S = Easy to view with such programs as
"LIST" by Vern Buerg.
-g = To use the Global report function,
you must choose "Y" for the last item
in Proana's Config Page (F1 key).
An example of this would be:
C>proana 1 -o 010180 123199 /R
Which would output only the Callers file analysis in RBBS
format using the default filename set up on the Configuration
procedures.
10
ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
From this, a very handy batch file could be made:
C>copy con:prorept.bat
echo off
echo Produces a complete ProAna report for node 3!
proana 3 -g 010180 123199 /ra
copy user.rpt c:\rbbs\bulletin\bullet1c
copy user.rpt c:\rbbs\bulletin\bulletc
etc.. etc .........
echo on
^Z
1 file(s) copied
NOTE: Now, as of this version, when making an automatic bulletin
using the -0 or -G command line option, you no longer need be
there to press the enter key. The front screen and the last
screen are removed and after all bulletins are generated, Proana
is exited and control returns to the calling program or batch
file. Try editing the included batch file 'RPT2BUL.BAT'.
11
ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
APPENDIX B: Description of Callers Log Analysis
Page 1. This page gives you information on types of connections
to your BBS. This page will give you the baud rate of
all callers to the BBS, and the total number of callers.
Then it will give you the number that are using either
MNP or V.42, the number of "proper logoffs", dropped
carrier, and sleep disconnects.
Page 2. This page tells you how many security problems you might
have. Keep in mind that some of the entries here may
very possibly be due to mistakes by users. All entries
are pretty much self explanatory.
Page 3. Gives you download statistics both for the total amount
of files downloaded, and total number of files. This
screen also gives you the number of files, and the aver-
age number of files per day downloaded by each protocol.
NOTICE - If a particular protocol is not used, it will
not appear here even though you do have it in your
PROTO.DEF.
Page 4. FNMBU or FMDD - File Name Misspelled By User or File
Missing from Download Directory - Means the same as the
old 'File not found!'
Attempted duplicate upload - Tried to upload a file when
a file of the same name already is on your hard drive.
ADT - Attempted Download Terminated - User aborted down-
load.
Not enough DL time left - User tried to download a file
that took more time than he had left in the session.
Page 5. System Control Statistics
This page will tell you about non-fatal errors that are
generated by RBBS, new users, messages left and read,
door usage, comments left, pages etc. The comments left
field will not work properly if you have the config
option for comments left as private messages set to yes.
This page will also give you the utilization of your
system. NOTE - National average percent of utilization
for RBBS is 38%.
NOTICE - This page will not give you the same results if
you are using a front end mailer on your system due to
the mailer handling the calls to the system.
Page 6. Bulletin Statistics. If you use Named bulletins (i.e..
BUSE) this page will give you the number of times that
the 12 most read bulletins have been read, however if you
use numbered bulletins, it will give you the number of
times that any bulletin has been read.
Page 7. Site Selected Statistics - This will report on the sta-
12
ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
tistics you chose to have included your self.
Page 8. Graphical display of calls received by RBBS per hour.
Page 9. Graphical display of connect rates as reported by your
modem (or front end) to RBBS.
Page 10.Graphical display of the first twelve protocols used as
listed in your PROTO.DEF. This will not show protocols
that are not used.
Page 11.Graphical display of total system time up, system time
idle, and system time used. National AVG. is 38% used.
(According to a poll of over 350 RBBS-PC systems)
Page 12.Graphical display of methods of leaving RBBS. Carrier
drops also includes voice calls, calls where carrier is
not detected, and people who hang up on RBBS rather than
using the "G" command.
Page 13.Who uploaded files during the time you are analyzing.
This will list the file names and tell you who uploaded
the file using the name in the users file. NOTE - Files
uploaded by the SysOp will not show the sysop's private
name, but will show Upld by: ==> SYSOP.
Page 14.Two column display of files sorted alphabetically in the
first column, and sorted by the number of times it has
been downloaded in the second column. This will allow
you to determine if a file is not being downloaded, and
also allow you to see what the most popular files on your
BBS are.
13
ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
Appendix C: Revision History
15.1B-01 - First shareware release of ProAna. Originally
called 'CALLANA'. (07-07-87)
"Rel. 2.2" Was a temporary "bug fixing" release
which corrected problems with 9600 bps and other
minor errors. (07-16-87)
15.1C-01 - Released corresponding with RBBS 15.1C, and includes
such features as automated reports, and color re-
ports. Also fixes a few bugs found in previous
versions. (11-15-87)
16.1A-01 - Loren Jones & Andrew Hoag now responsible for updating
the code, Jerry Sanders no longer is involved with or
using RBBS-PC itself. Again released on the same
date as RBBS-PC 16.1A, and includes full support of
RBBS-PC 16.1A's features. Bugs were fixed, and the
user file editor now uses the PASSWRDS file to
determine subscription length. (03-20-88)
17.3A-01 - Charles Doughty takes over the responsibilities for
re-writing the code, making changes and updating each
version to coincide with RBBS-PC releases. Updated to
reflect the most recent version of RBBS-PC. Many
deletions and additions. Some bugs fixed, now runs
slightly faster. Major changes to the output charts.
Major portions of the code rewritten to compile
under a newer / different compiler. (08-11-89)
17.3A-04 - Now requires the Sysop to use a PROTO.DEF file.
PROANA now reads the PROTO.DEF file to format several
reports. This allows the Sysop to do as he pleases
with his download/upload protocols. Ver. 17.3A-01
required a standard PROTO.DEF and may have restricted
Sysops in some ways. (09-11-89)
17.3A-07 - Final version until RBBS-PC Ver 18 comes out. Allows
file share using the DOS SHARE command. All bugs
fixed? New feature added tells Who Uploaded What
files. (Apr.-19-90)
17.4 -02 - Maybe really final version before Ver 18 comes out.
Fixed minor bugs. Updated to allow reading of the new
RBBS-PC features. 10% reduction in the size of
PROANA.EXE due to more re-writing of the code. Color
changes & clean-up. Faster than the previous version.
Reads up to 16,000 baud now, Puts Sysops REAL name
instead of LOG-on name in the WHO UPLOADED WHAT file
listing and much more! Individual reports are now
generated instead of just one long report. (July-29-1992)
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ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
IMPORTANT NOTES
With this version of PROANA, a PROTO.DEF file is required
if you want download stats and charts. However, differing from
PROANA version 17.3A-04, this version allows the sysop to use any
PROTO.DEF and not a standardized one! PROANA reads the PROTO.DEF
file and uses that info to search the callers file and
format/display the stats and charts. You will notice that on the
stat page showing downloads, that ONLY the protocols that are
actually used are shown on the page. This is because there are
only 15 lines on that page available for these stats and some
proto.def files have over 30 different protocols listed. BUT,
even though there are that many listed and available to RBBS-PC
callers, most often only 5 to 10 are used on a given BBS system.
PROANA will display up to 15 however. As for the download sta
tistics chart, only the first 12 used protocols are shown, since
more than that would 'trash' up the screen. If enough users of
PROANA request it, I will add a second chart screen that shows
another 12 download protocols. So far though, I have not seen
any board where the users are actually using that many protocols
to download with.
Finally, there is one change you should make to your PROTO.DEF
file in order to make it work correctly with PROANA. That is to
remove (with most any ASCII text editor, or EDLIN.COM) any car-
riage returns occurring right after the first field in each
record. For instance, if your PROTO.DEF file looks like the
following:
"1) Ascii [RBBS internal]
",0,IA,,,,,,0.92,,,,
You should remove the carriage return so that it looks like this:
"1) Ascii [RBBS internal]",0,IA,,,,,,0.92,,,,
There should be no leading space before the first character in
each line. I have included a copy of my PROTO.DEF that you may
either use or look at in order to get a better idea of what I
mean here. If you use the PROTO.DEF file I have included, you
will have no problem, just remember, if you add another protocol,
don't add any carriage returns right after the first field. A
later version of PROANA may eliminate the need for this.
There are two .EXE files included with this package, do not try
to start the program with PROCALL.EXE, instead, use
PROANA.EXE.... PROCALL is called from the main menu when needed.
Finally, the only programs I am involved with are in support of
RBBS-PC, if you have any ideas, suggestions or thoughts for a
utility or stand alone program you think would enhance RBBS-PC,
please feel free to leave a note on the system and I will take it
into serious consideration. Thank you for using Proana, I am sure
it will help you with your system.
15
ProAna For RBBS Ver. 17.4
I would like to thank Jon Martin for his valuable suggestions
concerning this latest release, when I was really stuck trying to
figure a way around the PROTO.DEF problem.
Special Thanks to co-authors, contributors and registered users:
And Very Specially to :
Loren Jones
Jon Martin
Richard Coutour
Randy Sun
Andrew Hoag
Lee Nelson
Jerry Sanders
John Morrison
And Many others
Richard Coutours'
San Francisco PC Users Group RBBS
1-415-621-2609
(San Francisci California)
Jon Martins' "Aircomm RBBS-PC"
1-510-689-2090
(Bay Area, California)
John Morrison's
Mailbox RBBS-PC
1-607-798-0315
(New York State)
Ken Goosens'
Your Place RBBS-PC
1-703-978-6360
(Fairfax, VA)
Doug Azzarito's
TCI Consultants RBBS-PC
1-407-487-3441
(Florida)
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