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1992-11-08
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A.C. Software BBSBULL
This program does two things. First it keeps a database of BBSes and
sysops. (I use it for a Visiting Sysop BBS list.) Second, it generates
a nicely formatted bulletin listing the BBSes in either alphabetical
order or by area code by BBS name, with Wildcat 3.0 color codes or in
plain text (for printing out or use in other BBS programs).
This is a BBS lister so you can put out your own nicely formatted BBS
list AND this also makes a bulletin with Wildcat Color codes in it so
you can have your BBS list (or visiting sysop list) in your Bulletins
section. Being a database (offline) it's easy to change and add or
delete BBSes!
BBSBULL is shareware. A psaltry 10.00 registration fee will allow me to
keep you current on the lastest version and also, if you want, I'll
customize the colors for you. There is no difference between the
registered version and this version except a good feeling and maybe your
favorite colors. I feel a shareware registration should work on the
honor system. Send registration fee with name and comments to:
A.C. Software Shareware
P.O. Box 7643
Phoenix, AZ, 85011-7643
Log on our support BBS (see end of docs for number and ad...)
INSTALLING BBSBULL:
Best to put it on its own directory but if you want to put it in the
WC30 root directory, be sure to keep all the files together. The
package you received should have:
BBSBULL.EXE --> the executable program
BBSBULL.DOC --> this documentation
SAMPLE.TXT --> Sample list of Cheese Whiz Visiting Sysops
(text)
BULL1.BBS --> Sample list for bulletin with WC30 color
codes embedded.
LISTBBS.DBF --> Database with one record in it for Cheese
Whiz (you DO want that in there, don't you?)
PRT.EXE --> Handy printing program for printing out
these DOCS. Type in at DOS prompt:
PRT BBSBULL.DOC
QUES0002.DAT --> Sample BBS visiting sysop questionaire which
can be used on a Wildcat! 3.02 BBS or modified
with MAKEQUES.EXE
MAKEBBS.BAT ---> Handy bat file for launching BBSBULL and
making an archive of the text file etc
CONFIG.BAT ----> BAT file for reconfiguring BBSbull...
WHATSNEW.TXT---> New features in this release of BBSBULL.
PRT BBSBULL.DOC (press {ENTER})
And it will print out these docs with page numbers, headers. You can
put in up to 5 files on the command line with PRT.
When you run BBSBULL, it will put up a screen asking you the name of
your BBS for the Title of the Bulletin. It will ask you if you want the
words "VISITING SYSOP" included in the title of your BBS list. This
allows you to use it as a regular BBS list as well as a Visiting Sysop
BBS list. It also allows you to put in a two line message. You can skip
the message if you want but must enter the name of a BBS.
On this configuration screen, touch {ENTER} on the last field to save
it. You can move up and down between fields with the arrow keys. (See
the control keys at the end of this documentation for other editing
shortcuts you can use.)
If later on, you change your mind and want to configure the program
differently as to BBSname or message, simply erase the "BBB.MEM" file
and then the next time you run BBSBULL, it will allow you to fill in
this information again.
The new configuration screen looks like this:
+-----------------------------------------------------------
BBSBull Configuration
BBS name : CHEESE WHIZ WILDCAT
Phone number: (602) 279-0793
'Visiting Sysop' included in the title? Y
You can have a one or two line message at the end of your
Bulletin. (See included samples for suggestions..)
Type in a message for bottom of bulletin:
> Sysops, don't forget to fill out Questionaire #2 to get on this list!
> (People have killed for less! <G> )
Output bulletin filename (no extension): BULL1
Path for bulletin output file : C:\WC30\BULL\
Name of Sister BBS <to highlight> : YOYODYNE
Letter for User Flag <ENTER for none> : C
Description of User Flag <text to appear at top of list>:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------
Following are explanations of the different things you can configure:
BBSNAME: The name of your BBS the way you want it to appear at the
top of the list.
PHONE NUMBER: The phone number of your BBS (with the area code). This
will appear at the top of your list also. If you don't
wish to put in your phone number, just press {ENTER} at
this screen. It's recommended to put your phone number
(of your BBS in) however, as you can distribute this
list as a download BBS list and this way, people will
see your BBS phone number and you might get more users.
MESSAGE: Next is a message which will go at the end of your
or BBS List. It can be anything you want. Just type
in line one, presse {ENTER} and then type in line 2.
(see our sample list!)
OUTPUT BBS BULLETIN: This is the name of the file which BBSBULL will
generate for you. If you are going to use it as a
Bulletin, it's suggested that you name it as you would name
the bulletin. For example, my Bulletin is Bulletin
#1 so I typed in "BULL1" (without the quotes, of
course). If you are only going to use it for a
download file, you can name it anything, of course.
PATH FOR BULLETIN OUTPUT FILE: This is the directory you want BBSBULL
to write the BBSlist it generates to. This enables
you to automatically replace an older version of the
list with a newer version and write it to the proper
directory. Since I offer my BBS list as a bulletin
AND a file download, I write the files to the BULL
directory and then, have a bat file (which I will
talk about later) ARJ the TEXT version of the BBS
List and copy it to the BBSLIST file download
directory. Type in the entire path, Drive and all.
(see the sample above).
NAME OF SISTER BBS TO HIGHLIGHT: Most of us have a favorite or
sister BBS which we would like people to notice.
This new feature in BBSBULL will show the sister
BBS we specify here, as being in purple,
regardless of what software they are running.
If you don't have a sister BBS, just press
{ENTER} here. No problem. Also, you don't have
to put the entire name in. You can put part
of the name but make sure it's a unique part.
If you want to highlight CHEESE WHIZ WILDCAT!
BBS (a GOOD choice! <G>), you can just type
in CHEESE and that would enough to make BBSBULL
catch on when it came to Cheese Whiz that it
should highlight it.
LETTER FOR USER FLAG: This is another new feature. You can add a
flag of your own to the flags which are built into
the program and which display after each BBS. The
built in flags are A=Adult section, O=Offline Reader
Door (like a QWK door) and G=online Games. In this
spot, say you want to highlight all the BBSes which
are high speed access (like 9600 and up). You might
put an "H" in this spot. Or say you want to show all
the BBSes which run ANET. Now, you CAN'T use an A
because that's used already. You could use an "N"
however. As you can see in the sample, in my BBSlist
I have flagged all the BBSes running the Catholic
Information Net.
DESCRIPTION OF USER FLAG: This is the description which will appear
at the top of your list. Make it as short as you
can without making it difficult to understand. See
above for sample on mine...
And that's all... when you get to this point, you can arrow up and
change anything you want. Or if you think you are done, just press
{ENTER} on the 'Description of user flag' spot and you will go into
the program. Remember, anytime you want to reconfigure, just run
the convenient bat file, CONFIG and it will put up this screen again!
USING BBSBULL:
This program has everything to do on one screen and you don't go to
separate menus to do things like other programs ..... You see
the "file window" on the screen which is like a list. If you want
to browse through it, you can press the UP or DOWN arrow keys or you
can go a screen down by pressing the PgDn key and a screen up, by
pressing the PgUp key. You can go to the END of the file by holding
down the CTRL key and tapping the PgDn key. You can go to the TOP
of the file by holding down the CTRL key and tapping the PgUp key.
The light bar on the screen tells you what record you are on. If you
want to EDIT a record, move the light bar that THAT record and press
the RETURN [or ENTER] key. You will see a window appear on the screen
and you can change anything on the record you want. If you decide to
not make any changes or don't want to save the changes you made, just
press the ESCape key and the record will remain the same as it was
before. Pressing F2 or RETURN on the last field will write the changes
you have made to the file.
To ADD a record to the file, press the INSert key. Just fill in the
blanks in the window which appears on the screen and then, when done,
press RETURN [or ENTER] on the last field, or press F2. Press ESCape
if you change your mind about ADDing a new record. Now if you want
to flag that BBS with the flag you defined in the configuration, you
need to put a # sign right after the BBS name. Like if you wanted
to highlight all the BBSes running ANET, you would put in Cheese
Whiz as "Cheese Whiz Wildcat#". Don't worry, the "#" sign won't
show up on your list. It just tells BBSBULL to put that flag on
the end of the other flags for this particular BBS. There is a
reminder line about this special flag incase you forget with
character to use. I needed that reminder line for ME since I
forget it every time! :-)
DELETING or removing a record is a two part process. First, you press
the DELete key and select "Delete" from the little menu which pops up.
It will mark the record which the light bar is on as a DELETED record.
If you change your mind and don't wish to DELETE that record, then,
press the DELete key again and you will see that the word, "Delete",
has been replaced with "UNdelete" <because the record is already deleted.>
Select "Undelete" and the record will be UNmarked as deleted. If you
HAVE deleted the correct record, then you need to take the second step.
You need to get rid of the record forever. This you do by pressing the
DELete key again, and selecting "PACK" from the menu.
Sometimes you might want to find a record really fast or sort the file
in a different order. You use the SEARCH option for this. Press F5
<function key 5> and you will a red box pop up with three blank fields
in it. Fill in the field you want to search on and it will then, do an
indexed search on that field.
You can search on sysop name (first name first), BBS name or Area
code/phone number.
You can type in the first part of the BBS name, Sysop's first name or
just the area code and it will put you either on the correct record if
only one record satisfies the search word you put in, or on the first
record which fits, or if there is NOTHING like it in the file, it will
put you right after the place where it WOULD be if it were in the file.
If you fill in all three fields for the search, BBSBULL will search
on the first field it comes to which is filled... which in this
case would be BBSNAME. So if you want to search under SYSOP, leave
the BBSNAME field blank.
Now, the file is ordered contigent on what you searched on. Like if you
searched on the BBSname, you will see the file is in the order of the
BBSname. If it is NOT in the right order after you searched or if you
searched for something you knew was in the file and it didn't go to it
and you checked the spelling and you spelled it right, then touch the
{DEL} key, select "PACK" and that will fix the indexes. These are B+
tree indexes (complex!) and occasionally, they get confused.
MAKING A BBS BULLETIN:
To make a bulletin ordered by Area Code by BBS name, press F8 <function
key 8>. You will see a box which says "WILDCAT 3.0 color codes?". If
you answer "Y", (or press {ENTER}) it will print to disk in the same
directory you specified in the configuration, a formatted BBS list
with Wildcat color codes embedded. Your user flag is white on
blue, Wildcat software BBSes are shown in chartreuse and other
BBSes are shown in white. The sister BBS you specified (if you
specified one) is shown in purple.
IF you answer "N" to Wildcat 3.0 color codes, it will print to disk an
ascii text list suitable for putting up on a non Wildcat BBS (if anyone
would not want to run the best BBS program for some reason!) or printing
out to printer. It prints in the same directory you specified for
the Wildcat bulletin to print. You can use a bat file to compress
it, and move it to the proper files directory.
Pressing F9 makes a list ordered by BBSname. It works the same as F8.
If you are done using the program and want to quit, Press the ESCape
key. A small MENU will pop up and give you the choice of Quitting,
or PACKing or returning to the program. You would PACK if you
search for something that you know is in the file but it doesn't find
it. Or if you get an error message at the top of the screen about it
being "unable to open NAMEX.NTX" or the like. Sometimes after a storm,
the indexes may be messed up. Just select the PACK option from the QUIT
menu and you will be "in business" again.
If PACKing doesn't help the indexes, simply go to DOS and delete
all the files with an ".NTX" extension. Then, when you run the program
again, it will remake all the indexes. DO NOT DELETE THE FILE WITH
a ".DBF" extension. That's your DATA files!
When you are in this program, the DATA FILE is OPEN at all times and
so, BE CAREFUL to NEVER NEVER NEVER leave the terminal while in this
program!!! If you need to walk away, EVEN FOR A FEW MOMENTS, press
the ESCape key and EXIT this program! ALSO, be SURE to make REGULAR
backups with FULLBAK or FASTBACK. Taking this care may save you work
later!
The following Control Keys work while adding or changing a record
CTRL and y: this will clear out a field in the record or delete a
line in a comment.
CTRL and f: moves one word to the right.
CTRL and a: moves one word to the left.
CTRL and t: deletes the word the cursor is on.
END <key> : moves to the END of the line.
HOME <key>: moves to the beginning of the line.
F2 (function key 2) : always exits and saves to disk
{ESC} (the ESCAPE KEY) always exits WITHOUT saving.
HINTS: I use BBSBULL in conjunction with the fine Wildcat utility,
QUESVIEW. I view questionaire #2 and quickly copy the answers (you
can print these out if you have a printer. Quesview will show you
the latest entries into the questionaire. Now, having them printed
out or copied down, you can quickly fill out the fields and enter
them into your database.
At first people were looking for something which read the
Questionaire. I thought long and hard about this but there are
problems with reading the questionaire every time. What do you do
if a BBS changes or goes down? (which happens almost on a weekly
basis) With a database, change or deletion is very easy and you
can keep the list up to date. Also, if you have a program which is
reading the questionaire, you have to keep that large and growing
questionaire on your drive... it becomes unwieldy and unmanageable.
Another problem in reading the questionaire is you have to use MY
questionaire. This way you can make up your own, putting the things
on there which are important to you. And many users fill out the
questionaire but they don't want their board on the list because it
may be private. Those would be hard to gage if BBSBULL were
automatically reading the questionaire. I have not given up on
making it read the questionaire but have to solve all these
problems when I do. For now, it works easy and nice this way,
especially if you have a BAT file to load it, ARJ the text file and
move it etc.
Here is the bat file I use which is included in this packet.. and
explanations...
------------------------------------------------------------
@echo off JUST TURNS OFF THE ECHOING OF DOS COMMANDS
echo ... put backup disk in the a drive..CTRL-C to abort or
pause THIS BAT FILES MAKE A BACKUP TO A DRIVE SO MUST HAVE DISK IN DRIVE
d: I STORE MY BBSBULL ON THE D DRIVE. THIS GOES THERE.
cd \bbsbull GOES TO THE PROPER SUBDIRECTORY
bbsbull LAUNCHES THE PROGRAM
copy d:\bbsbull\listbbs.dbf a:\ AFTER I GET OUT OF PROGRAM, COPIES FILE
TO A DRIVE.
c: BACK TO C DRIVE WHERE WILDCAT IS.
cd bull TO BULLETINS DIRECTORY
arj a cheesbbs bull1.txt COMPRESSES THE TEXT FILE I MADE WITH ARJ
copy bull1.txt d:\non_ibm\cheesbbs.txt COPIES TO THE RIGHT DOWNLOAD
DIR
copy cheesbbs.arj d:\bbslist\*.* COPIES ARCHIVE TO RIGHT DIR
copy cheesbbs.arj a: COPIES ARCHIVE TO THE A DRIVE
del bull1.txt DELETES TEXT AND ARCHIVE FILES
del cheesbbs.arj FOR HOUSEKEEPING...
cd \wc30 GOES TO DIRECTORY WHERE I WILL LAUNCH WILDCAT.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can modify this batch file to YOUR needs! (use the I included, not
this... the comments here would make it not run <G>)
This program was produced at the Phoenix location (and only location) of
A.C.Software, POB 7643, Phoenix, AZ 85011. For a $10 registration fee,
I will customize the colors and other SMALL changes.
Log on our support BBS, CHEESE WHIZ BBS 602-279-0793 running the
awesome WildCAT! software!
+---------------------------------------------+
| Another application from |
| A.C. Software |
| |
| (co) 1992 |
| by Sue Widemark |
| Reliability, Quality, speed and service! |
+---------------------------------------------+
