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Text File | 1994-08-11 | 26.1 KB | 533 lines

This is the Arc-Binkley Fidonet Mailer Changes Log, since 2.16 The developers, and their initials from which changes are identified, and their fidonet email addresses are as follows : Stephen Davies (SLD) [?????????????????????] Geoff Riley (GIR) [2:250/208.0 @ fidonet] Hugo Fiennes (HF) [2:252/102.0 @ fidonet] Steven Haslam (SRH) [2:250/116.3 @ fidonet] Keith Hall (KEH) [2:250/219.0 @ fidonet] This programmer's log is in reverse-chronological order (jeez!) meaning that the newest stuff is at the top and the oldest at the bottom. Entries with the same version number but different dates are internal versions; i.e. they were never released. a *R* by the developers initial indicates that version was a release version. All updates since 2.09 developed by Keith Hall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Aug 1994: V2.19 *R* Ensures modem is offline before sending init strings, will stop the 'Modem not responding' line appearing AFTER a session has ended. Fixed exits menu so it exits with the correct number rather than 10 less! Cured problem which made ARCbbs think all calls were none-ARQ... Fixed FTS-1 received filenames problem. (Can't uniquify <Binkley?Ib is usually the thing which appeared, leaving a __TMP__ file in the inbound. FTS-1 sessions from points hopefully sorted. Fixed EMSI data received backslash problem... Fixed problem with duplicated filenames received, when reached postfix '9' on end of filename, jumps to 'A'... instead of going back to '0'.. Passwords in yoohoo fixed - caused problems like Password Protected sessions when they shouldn't be, and messages like : Password error: Needed '!KàêŴøãêì....', got '' All instances of NodeServer swis removed and certain things changed, for new version of NListMgr module >0.80. Multiple Freeze attempts disallowed now. Incorrect log written if searching for address with a domain in that wasn't known... Will not write path of logfile into domain info now! Updated UK messages file for additional log entry when hydra forces unidirectional mode if output buffer < 4096 bytes, and the change from '<< EMSI <<' to 'Receiving EMSI data packet' etc.etc... Updated Wimp Messages yet again! this time the UnFreeze message no longer has the timeout entry, and the Exit-to-bbs message has got the line number back! Also, will now act on line numbers of -1 meaning ANY available mailer, and ACKnowledges such messages. No longer fills up logfile with hydra resend lines.. UseDBAforDebug config command removed - DBAssist 1.02 will automatically tell binkley to route debugging to it if loaded, and back to logfile when quitted. The new DBAssist is available from The Plasma Sphere and other popular BBS's. 01 Jul 1994: V2.18/beta *R* Immediate flavour items in the outbound to non CM nodes will no longer produce the 'This is ZMH only node...' message. Version number changed to /beta from /B0313. Possible emsi timeout problems fixed for slow speeds (2400 baud) 14 Jun 1994: V2.18 I'm afraid that this version and all future versions will not work (properly?) on RISC OS 2 - so now here's another reason to upgrade! This could well be the last version of Arc-Binkley you'll see from me... Look out for !ArmMail in the near future (hopeful release date Acorn World Show 1994 (if the show exists!)).. ArmMail will be a more up-to-the-minute mailer and will be SHAREWARE. Added code to stop 'nested' rescans, abort polls, init.modems etc. Neatened up the File transfer window during a transfer. The filesize is displayed alongside the bytes-so-far figure. The Info section gives the approx.time, and if receiving, it displays what kind of file it's receiving (ArcMail, NetFile, Request, or MailPkt). If a caller made Hydra skip a file being sent to it in a flow file, then the flow file would be deleted rather than simply closed, as if the file had been successfully sent. *** Major code rewrite/reorganisation - now using DeskLib rather than Risc_OSLib for the wimp handling... Improvements include better NodeInfoBox routines (manual poll etc), Recent activity display etc. Displays info about blockdriver in the system info window. Fixed bug which corrupted the flow file if you rerouted it. Fixed bug which caused ECDelay to hang up the machine. When exiting to the BBS, the BBS_Exit message would be broadcast, then the normal 'exitting' message. Now only the BBS_Exit one is sent. Maximum window height for the outbound window now uses the size the window is defined to be in the Templates file. Added config command 'UseDBAforDebug' - this will force binkley to send all debuglog to !DBAssist. DBAssist is available from The Plasma Sphere, Arcade and various other BBS's. The advantage to this is that the debugging information doesn't clutter up the main binkley log, and should be faster. *** Escape is needed to be pressed TWICE instead of once to exit to the bbs. This is to help avoid messed up mail sessions. Implemented rest of the Immediate mailtype to outbound handler... Now if any packet filenames end with IT, or flow files IO, then the mailer will dial out irregardless of any cost or scheduling restrictions. Implemented simple checking for OK response from modem on sending Init strings. A message 'Modem not responding - is it connected?' will be produced if no OK response is detected. *** Implemented Messages file - with all textual messages placed in the file, this has many advantages including : o Smaller !RunImage file o Language translation capability o Can change log character type (e.g. from ! to > or * to +) EMSI code made faster and more robust (shouldn't get any timeouts waiting for ACK's anymore unless there's something SERIOUSLY wrong!). Initialises the wimp much faster now so the desktop shouldn't hang as much when starting binkley up. WimpSlot command reduced to 288k. Rewrote !Run file. ### Support for 'Aka' & 'Point' config keywords removed. Use multiple 'Address' lines instead (see example config file) Config keyword 'ForLine' added - syntax: ForLine <port> <cfg.cmd> The point of this is to allow you to use one config file for all ports, with just the data which is different between ports (system name for example) prefixed with ForLine <x> ... ### Structure of Binkley directories revised. All resources (sprites, templates, messages etc.) are now found in a directory called !Binkley.Resources. All configuration files are in a directory called !Binkley.Config. The path variable Binkley: is set up to point to !Binkley and then !Binkley.Resources. ### A new command line parameter 'Line' is required to start up !Binkley. This is to set up the internal variable which handles the 'ForLine' config keyword. ** Added new menu option Choices - this is currently used to configure the country binkley will use upon startup. Selecting Germany or typing in a country directory name and then 'Save choices' will change binkley to use that particular country's resources (templates,sprites,messages). See later on for details of the 'Windows ->' entry. Hydra send code looked at again... Seems like Hydra overruns with tx, hence an output buffer of at least 4096 bytes is REQUIRED. If it's any less, code has been added to the start of binkley and will give a warning that there isn't enough buffer. *** Filetypes are now implemented into hydra transfers. Updated Wimp messages to now include : FTNMailer_Incoming (1) FTNMailer_StatusRequest (8) (& 9) FTNMailer_BusyRequest (10) (& 11) Line numbers are now acted upon in messages - previous versions of arc-binkley would act on a message even if it wasn't for that instantiation's line no. If Poll is clicked on with ADJUST, in the node info window (manual poll) the window stays open. ### Changed LockFossil to LockBaud, and added a new functionality : Syntax: LockBaud [<baudrate>|<ARQ string>] <ARQ string> is a string following the Connect xxxx msg, such as 'ARQ' in 'Connect 2400/Arq', or 'REL' in 'Connect 1200/Rel', or even 'Mnp' in 'Connect 2400/Mnp4'. Multiple LockBaud lines are required for setting multiple ARQ strings, or with locked baudrate. This is the string which determines an 'ARQ Connect' or not. Hydra_Fdx and Hydra_NoFdx commands are now case-insensitive. ### Avail, About, KnownAvail, KnownAbout, ProtAvail, ProtAbout all removed as are superseded by ~AVAIL and ~ABOUT in the OkFile(s) (which also allow aliases). ### BossPhone and BossPwd are no longer implemented, and changed some config keywords: NetFile is now Inbound. Hold is now Outbound. FTS_0001 is now FTS-0001 MaxReq is now ReqLim. OKFile is now ReqList. ### Dial config keyword removed now - dial translations should be done in NListMgr. *** New command 'DefNode' can be used instead of a nodelist, it can also be used to override nodelist information. Syntax: DefNode <5d address> #<phone> [!<pwd>] [$<sysop>] [@<sysname>] e.g. DefNode 2:250/219.0@Fidonet #0925-757920 $Keith_Hall @The_Plasma_Sphere DefNode 2:254/27.0@Fidonet #%%081-655-4412 !MYPASS The password, sysopname and systemname are not mandatory, and can be in any order, so long as the identifier (!,$ or @) is present. The phone number must be the TRANSLATED version (i.e. country code not present - this is the number that is actually dialled [blinddial '%%' can be placed in front of the number]). Now is more helpful for mis-configured systems... For instance, if you have forgotten to define the system address the error 'Please configure your system address' is reported. Should fallback to WaZOO/DietIFNA/FTS-1 if there is no common protocol in EMSI. ** Changed '_' to '/' for replacing the '.' in DOS extensions, in accordance with Acorn's guidelines. Will not add '/' to files received from another Arc-Binkley system. Cannot run two copies of binkley with the same line number now. *** Amended Zmodem to support full streaming with invisible backchannel reading. Basically it makes Zmodem send faster. Nice little sliding icons giving a visual percentage of how far file transfers are completed. * Outbound window now uses separate icons, to ensure aligned entries for when the operating system of the future is around ... :-) Ah well, at the time of writing that sentence, RISC OS 3.5 wasn't publically known. * High resolution sprites file support added, and includes new high-res sprites in the distribution archive. ** Allows iconisation of windows when closed with select while holding the shift key down using new sprites. *** New outbound window display using icons for displaying the flavour of outbound items (H N D C I - Hold, Normal, Direct, Crash and Immediate) Click on these icons to reflavour them. Note you can't reflavour or reroute Request files. A timer is now used when altering flavours, meaning that Arc-Binkley will not rescan until 5 seconds has elapsed after the last reflavour has been made. This allows multiple reflavours without having to wait for the outbound to be rescanned every time... Templates updated with accordance to the RO3 Style Guide (Issue 2). Asks for confirmation of polling non-CM nodes outside the Zone Mail Hour (ZMH) when performing a manual poll. The config keyword to enable this useful feature is 'PollWarning'. This basically reminds you that the node you are dialling may not be online (not 24 hours). Removed 'Flags' menu entry. *** Added Windows option to the Choices menu, when moving across, a box with lots of little squares in will appear. This is used for telling binkley which windows to pop up/close down at what 'state'. The state is what arc-binkley is doing, such as Waiting, Dialling, Connected (receiving incoming call) and Transferring, hence W D C T along the top of the window below '• State'. Down the side are the list of windows that arc-binkley uses. The Mouse column is for when you click SELect or ADJust on the arc-binkley icon on the iconbar. To explain: Mouse • State Window Sel Adj W D C T Status • o • o o o Outbound • o o o o o NodeInfo o o o o • • Transfer • o o o o • Activity • o • • • • The '•' means that the particular option is active (on) and 'o' means it's off. Interpreting the above display: Status window will open when clicking Select on icon bar icon and also when arc-binkley is in Waiting mode. When clicking with adjust, when polling, receiving a call, or in a transfer the window will be CLOSED. Outbound open on Select, and closed all other times. NodeInfo open when receiving incoming call, and in transfer. Transfer open on Select (when in transfer), and also when in transfer (note that Transfer will not open when pressing select if there is not a transfer is progress) Activity open on Select, and all other times. Closed on Adjust click. If the '• State' icon is not selected (i.e. 'o State') then the windows selected below the State column will not be opened or closed automatically when arc-binkley reaches that state. i.e. the windows will be left exactly how you left them. Commands->Manual Poll window has been replaced by a submenu, of which the first item 'Manual...' is used for polling any system. The items following the Manual... item are added when scanning the outbound directory. Mini window removed from iconbar. It's now placed in status window on the bottom. Unfortunately this means you need to have this window open to see what binkley is up to. ** Fixed little bug which caused multiple outbound groups if you had an Outbound00, or Outboundxx if xx was your default zone. e.g. Outbound02 if you're in zone 2. You can now press f12 when the manual poll/set loglevel windows are open! ### StatusLog config keyword changed to Logfile. ### Changed !Run file command line parameters to have '-' in front. e.g. config becomes -config, -line, -poll etc. * Added -logfile parameter to !Run file - replaces Logfile in 'Main' config file. A warning is given if both are present. Logfile in 'Main' is (and will continue to be) valid, but -logfile takes precedence. *** Changed exit-to-bbs exit level in accordance to the current MailerMsgs document. God, Steven, why do you have to keep changing the standard and not telling anyone. *** Added config keywords 'RescanDelay' to configure the time delay between rescanning when in Waiting Mode, and 'ComputerLink' which tells binkley that it's connected to another computer instead of a modem. See the Modem help file for more details. * Change to modem char.string process, if you enclose a string within quotes (") then NO INTERPRETING of special characters is done within that string. The "'s don't get xmitted. e.g. v`^`"Server Ready"| is a valid string. 30 Jan 1993: V2.17 Added detailed debuglog in scanning routine. Will now work on RISC OS 2 again! FasterScan config keyword added - faster scanning - less info. Stopped opening transfer status box automagically if main status box not open. Will open and close xfer status box with left and right buttons on icon IF and only if a session is in progress. Bug fix in 'FILES' file request logic, if the caller placed a password in his request, or if it was not upper case it would fail. Added 'Open logfile' to Commands menu. Fixed bug in not updating Files I/O on current status window during a Hydra xfer. Added 'Immediate' flavour type to outbound window handler. Fixed Request sending routine for 5d outbounds. Added two new configuration commands, NoPrivate and NastyMailer: NoPrivate makes -unpublished- nodes in the nodelist undiallable (instead of trying to dial '010--unpublished-' or whatever, and changes the phone number in the Node Info window to 'Private'. NastyMailer has a parameter, which is the hexadecimal number of a mailer's FTSC product code. This is used to disable certain mailers from calling (i.e. CrossPoint = e9) which cause problems. If you have 'NastyMailer e9' in your config file, whenever a Crosspoint system is connected, the session will end before any file transfer can take place. Fixed bug in EMSI whereby incorrect passwords could be sent back to a system who's password is undefined in your nodelist, and also the capabilities (ZedZap, Hydra) etc. were corrupted. Fixed bug in LogChars menu dialogue box whereby anything you manually typed into the writable icon would be ignored when you pressed return or clicked on OK. Added debuglog character 'Z' for Zmodem file transfers. Fixed *nasty* bug for added tolerance for bad zmodem implementations found in programs like Portal of Power, CrossPoint etc, whereby they don't NULL-terminate strings in the ZFILE header like they should do. (Another one which cost a packet to fix :-) (no pun intended!)) Will open default inbound directory when select Display->Inbound dir. 27 Oct 1993: V2.16 *R* When sending ArcMail without aliases (xxxxxxxxM1 files), it will now substitute the correct day code (Su/Mo/Tu/We/Th/Fr/Sa). Last caller display made bigger so you can see the full address rather than just "Last: 2:250/219 @ F" etc. New config option 'DomainType' to alter the way Arc-Binkley displays domains... e.g. DomainType # will display addresses like : Fidonet#2:250/219.0 Spherenet#20:925/101.0 whereas DomainType @ (default) displays : 2:250/219.0 @ Fidonet 20:925/101.0 @ Spherenet NoPickup flag placed in flags menu so you can call a system and not pick anything up (EMSI only) When rescanning the outbound, the window is cleared properly! Outbound window has a minimum size so it will always 'look' right when only a few nodes are in it. Ensured DTR is enabled and XON/XOFF disabled before an init - could have caused problems before, symptoms are extremely slow quitting, problems mainly occured on non-Internal serial ports. When rescanning outbound, now displays 'Rescanning' in outbound window. Selecting Exit from the task manager should now shut up shop properly! Mask out 'locked' and 'reserved' bits on file reception attributes. * * * Completely reviewed (rewrote most of) the outbound handling routines, now should be faster, and more detail. Mail on hold for other domains and zones which you do not have nodelist data for, will now be displayed in the outbound window. 6d support added to outbound scanner (actual sessions won't work yet). * * * Complete redesign of templates, including a File Transfer window and System Info window to take the load off the Current Status window. ##### Copy the 'Templates' and 'Sprites' files into the same directory as !RunImage (i.e. !Binkley), the RiscOS200, RiscOS300 and RiscOS310 files in !Binkley.System are no longer required. NOTE: I will *NOT* be creating special windows for RISC OS 2 users, it takes too long to recreate them for such a minority of users. Obviously you can try to alter them if you wish, as long as the icon numbering or validation lengths don't get changed (see file IconNums). Outbound window now displays mail type (Mail, Flow, Freq etc.) and the relevant size (bytes or files for freqs) of the item. LogLevel replaced by a more flexible LogChars option, from which you specify the 'log characters' (e.g. +,:,*,! etc) which you want present in your logfile (and recent activity window). LogChars menu option now a dialogue box from which you can enter your own logchars or select them via the old method by clicking on 1,2,3,4,5 for loglevels 1-5, and Deb, Hyd and Ems for DebugLog, HydraLog and EmsiLog. Removed LogLevel, DebugLog, EmsiLog and HydraLog from configuration file. Removed Nodelist from config file (this is now irrelevant with the use of NListMgr). Removed a lot more config commands from the config file parser routine, for details see the example Config_0 file in the System dir. Tidied up source, removed redundant/inappropriate code/config lines. ##### The task name has now been changed from BinkleyTerm_x to Arc-Binkley_x (where x is the port number). To change ARCbbs you need to edit the file !Config, and change the line shown as : from Set ARCbbs$MailerTaskName "BinkleyTerm_%d" to Set ARCbbs$MailerTaskName "Arc-Binkley_%d" RiscBBS users need to edit their SysBBS files and change the line from binkley `<Binkley$Dir>.!Run 0` BinkleyTerm_0 to binkley `<Binkley$Dir>.!Run 0` Arc-Binkley_0 Note that they are case-sensitive. A symptom of an incorrectly set up bbs host is that when a user presses escape to enter the bbs, and nothing happens. Outbound window now has a Node Info entry, if you move across this a window will appear, from which you can see details of the node such as name, sysop, phone number or password. A nice feature of this window is the option to edit details of the node such as the password or phonenumber before polling. The same window is used to replace the Manual Poll option on the main menu, and hence you can edit the address (node number) of the system you want to poll, press return (or the down/up arrow keys to edit the phone number or password), the details of the node will appear, and you can either cancel or poll. Clicking on Cancel or pressing escape will remove the window, and clicking on Poll or pressing return a few times will poll the node in question, so long as a phone number is present. Dial Prefix menu has been added, so you can set the dial prefix up before making a call without having to quit and reload binkley after changing the config file. No config changes are required, simply alter the Dial Prefix from the Commands menu and poll! (Don't forget to change it back afterwards)!!! ;-) Outbound window menu now has Re-flavour, Re-direct and Delete options, to change the flavour (Normal, Hold, Crash or Direct) of an item in the outbound directory, then you press menu over the required item, then move across Re-flavour and select the desired new flavour. This is so you can easily change the status from Normal to Hold (for example) without having to interfere with the outbound directory at all. Re-direct means you can re-route mail and files to another node, for example, there is a netmail to 2:250/219.0 and you want to reroute it to your hub, click menu over the item in the outbound, move across Re-direct and enter the address of the system you want to route to. Delete is plain enough, select the item, press menu, move across delete and click on 'Do it' to delete the item. A new command line option 'errlog <fsp>' has been added, for details of errors in config lines etc. It is also used for more specific debugging which normally cannot be activated until the Binkley Icon is on the icon bar. To enable it insert it before the %*1 at the end of the line which looks like this: Run <Binkley$Dir>.!RunImage config <Binkley$SystemDir>.Config%0 errlog <Binkley$Dir>.Error_Log %*1 The FTSC product code list is now read in at startup rather than being hardcoded in the !RunImage - this is located in the System directory, called 'FTSC_Prods', and is the list of all known Fido programs. A new menu command 'Ensure events' is used when the event file has been altered. After you have altered your events file, click on Ensure events to make sure that the new events are registered. If you simply change the event file and save it back, the changes are not registered by Binkley unless you delete the BinkSch and BinkDay files too, so this is why 'Ensure events' has been added. There is no need to delete the sch and day files any more. Split up the Display=>Inbound menu into three separate submenu items: Default, Listed and Secure, for the three separate inbound directories (if you have it configured like that, otherwise just Default is the option).