CD Shareware Magazine 1997 January

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Welcome to: ████████╗ █████╗ ██████╗ ╚══██╔══╝ ██╔══██╗ ██╔════╝ ██║ ███████║ ██║ ███╗ ██║ ██╔══██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ╚██████╔╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═════╝ ` ██████╗ ' ██╔═══██╗ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ╚██████╔╝ ╚═════╝ ███╗ ███╗ █████╗ ████████╗ ██╗ ██████╗ ████╗ ████║ ██╔══██╗ ╚══██╔══╝ ██║ ██╔════╝ ██╔████╔██║ ███████║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║╚██╔╝██║ ██╔══██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ╚═╝ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ╚██████╗ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═════╝ Version 11 Software by Simon Avery FidoNet 2:255/20.1 Email: savery@mail.zynet.co.uk savery@pillarbox.coracle.com Many thanks to Kevin W. Kelly for testing and suggestions ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Contents: │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ SYNOPSIS DISCLAIMER CONDITIONS OF COPYING WHAT'S NEW? (See HISTORY.TXT) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FILE LIST QUICK START CONFIGURING TAG-O-MATIC USING TAG-O-MATIC USING TAG-O-MATIC WITH TerMail USING PERSONALISED MACROS TAG-ADOPTION FILTERING TAGFILES DUPE-CHECKING REFORMATTING TEXT USING SIGFILES UPGRADING PROBLEMS WHY REGISTER? TECHNICAL STUFF CREDITS └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SYNOPSIS │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Program Name : Tag-O-Matic (Previously called Tag-Nabbit) (Previously called TAG-TAG) (Confused? You will be...) Ware : FreeWare Purpose : Superior TagTool and SigTool and reformatter Language Used : Borland Turbo C v.3.0 DOS Release Date : As in HISTORY.TXT Why? Because when I changed from Bluewave OLR, I found that none of the point programs had very much in the way of tagline support. Ok, there are other tagtools around, but none suited my needs. They were either; VERY slow, needed their tagfiles compiling, limited the number of taglines, were pigs to setup, needed registering, needed environments set, used Hi-Ascii, had non-standard precursors, didn't have sig-support or just plain didn't work! I started with Tag-Tag, it evolved and became Tag-Nabbit which in turn evolved into Tag-O-Matic. I'm reasonably happy with it now, AFAIK it's the fastest and most fully-featured tag-tool around and it's all mine! It's become a bit of a hobby. There's always something else to add, people suggest great new ideas and I try to put the best ones in. It's grown a little big now, but there's more to do yet! This is an almost complete rewrite of the docs. V.11 has had extensive work to the cosmetics and all parts of the engine, and is a little different to use. Oh yes, I apologise for the docs. They've gotten quite convoluted as T-Matic has been updated so often. All the information is there (I think), but it's a bit disjointed. If you can't figure something out, please netmail me. There's also the chance that some of the less-often used features may have bugs in 'em. Despite the best efforts of me and beta-testers. If you find one, let me know and I'll either tell you you're doing it wrong, or I'll try and fix it. I tend to concentrate on the features that I use myself, and forget about others. Let me know if that's so. A big thankyou to Kevin W. Kelly for beta testing and a seemingly endless supply of good ideas! Also a big thanks to everyone else who's suggested improvements, or told me about problems! ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ DISCLAIMER / CONDITIONS OF USE │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ This program is designed to do a job. Whether it does or not depends a lot on you, but it should do provided that the system requirements are met by your PC. I don't guarantee that it does, has ever done, or will ever do anything but take up a chunk of disk-space. As far as software support goes, you're looking at it. (Although a friendly Netmail is usually answered) On my system, it works perfectly, which is saying something, since a lot of programs won't. On a 386-sx25 it's fast, and should be acceptable even on an XT. On a DX4-100, it's VERY fast (ie, instant). As with all programs, it's only as fast as your computer. It significantly out-performs all other tag programs I've tried. It runs extremely well under Windows 95, despite being primarily written for pure DOS. Despite any claims in the FILE_ID.DIZ, it won't make the tea for you, won't give you a back-massage if you're feeling stressed or snuggle up to you on a cold winter's night. Maybe in the next version. It does do taglines though. And sigs. And reformatting. It does them pretty well (IMO). Oh yeah, more legal stuff. This program shall not be reverse-engineered in any way. You *may* give copies of this program to anyone, provided all the files in the "Files List" chapter are also supplied. You *may* distribute this program in any archive or compressed format, provided all the files in the "Files List" chapter are contained. The .ZIP format is encouraged, but not forced. Only use .RAR if you must. By running this program, you are agreeing to this notice. If you don't agree with this notice, then delete these files and never run the program. (You'll never know what you missed...) You may NOT bundle this program with any other program without written permission of the author. (Ie, please have the common decency to ask!) T-Matic v.10 was released on a CD collection. I wasn't consulted, but hey! I don't care! You are welcome to bundle it on CD's or on an ftp site or on a BBS, PROVIDED: No charge is made for the actual program. The archive is not fiddled with in ANY way. (Excepting an odd BBS advert added as a seperate file, if you must) ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ CONDITIONS OF COPYING │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Well... You can copy this program as much as you want. PROVIDED, all files in the FILE LIST are enclosed in the archive, and that none of these files are altered. You can add a file or two should you wish, such as a BBS advertisement or new tagfiles. If you do do this, please add it as a seperate file, not onto the end of the supplied tagfile. Also please enclose a READ.ME or similar file saying who you are, and what you've done. One thing you may not do is charge for copying or duplication in any way, other than a "reasonable" copy fee in the case of disk vendors. If you're unsure what I call a "reasonable fee", please contact me, as it's liable to change with the economy. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Minimum req's: A PC. DOS 3.1 or later. Up to 5 free file handles. (FILES=5 plus whatever is already being used) Recommended: A hard disk. Colour monitor. A 'pooter. (Doesn't have to be particularly fast, even for huge tagfiles, although don't enable dupe-checking when doing a mass-steal unless you're going out for the evening...) A sense of humour. Tested with: DOS v.5 through 7.0 Windows 3.1 Windows 95 Termail cPoint PPoint Bluewave Timed Golded ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ FILE LIST │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ FILE_ID DIZ Sysop Stuff T-MATIC DOC This file. HISTORY TXT Text file giving version information. T-MATIC EXE Tag-O-Matic, the program. TAGLINES TAG A sample tagfile of tags. LONGTAGS TAG An example of long taglines. (Also used by the /L option) REDWARF TAG Some Red Dwarf taglines. (Americans: you probably won't understand) T-MATIC TEM Example template file for Termail's group function. T-MATIC NAM Example of a "twit file" T-ADOPT BAT Example batch file for adopting to alternative file. SIGFILE 1 Example Sigfile using Macros. Extra Files (Not supplied) : ============================ (Warning! Don't create files with these filenames in T-Matic's directory, or they might get lost!) T-MATIC.CFG Created by T-Matic automatically. T-MATIC.DAT Data file created and used by Tag-O-Matic. Keeps note of the number of taglines in a file, and the current tagline and sig- file it is at. (For non-random selection) T-MATIC.DIT Created by the /G option. Deleted after T-Matic picks a tag. T-MATIC.DUT Created by reformat, to see whether file has changed. PROCESS.TAG Created when adopting new files. Contains new taglines. TO-KILL.TAG List of filter-words. See below. NOT-DUPE.TAG Temp file created when sorting tagfile for dupes. T-MATIC.$$$ Temp file created when doing various things. {tagfile}.IDX Index file created automatically for {tagfile} ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ QUICK START │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ If you're familiar with the concept of taglines and seperate tools, then just run T-Matic. Since this is the first time you've run it, it will jump straight into the Setup screen. Toggle things on and off until you're content, then just read the file "INSTALL.TXT" which will tell you how to add it to your mailer so it works automatically. If you get stuck, or can't figure anything out, then read the rest of the docs. If you're still stuck, drop me a netmail. Here's a screen-shot from an old config. (I can't be bothered to update this bit every time I change T-Matic, so some options might be different, missing or new) Tag-O-Matic V.9.01b (c) Simon Avery Jan 21 1996 British Freeware ───────────────────────────────────┤ Setup ├──────────────────────────────────── TAGID: Tag-O-Matic V.9.01b Freeware ... This is a tagline! --- Tag-O-Matic V.9.01b (558 Taglines) [Quoted: 0%] ╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ Show Message Info [Yes] Use Macro's [Yes] │ │ Check for Dupes [Yes] Words in date macro [Yes] │ │ Use Registration Info [No] Use macro's in Sigs [Yes] │ │ Use Tagline Total [Yes] Use Tag-Location [Yes] │ │ Use TAGID Kludge [Yes] Use Quoted % [Yes] │ │ Use Trailing CR [No] Use Extended Info [Yes] │ │ Use Lottery Numbers [No] Show Countdown [No] │ │ Prompt [Yes] Filter Hi-Ascii [No] │ │■ Number of Sigs to use [ 9] Adopt to seperate file [Yes] │ │ Edit Reg. String Use fuzzy checking [Yes] │ │ Edit 2nd line Prefix Trim trailing spaces [Yes] │ │ │ ╘════════════════════════╡ Tired Dog Software ╞═════════════════════════╛ Number of Sigs to use. (0 if none) ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Use Arrow keys / END / HOME and Space to Edit. ESC to save and quit. The four lines underneath the -[Setup]- bar change to represent what would be added to the message. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Configuring Tag-O-Matic │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ The first time Tag-O-Matic is run, and can't find T-MATIC.CFG, it will default to the config screen. (You can do this at any time by typing T-MATIC /C) Use the up and down arrows to select an item, then space or left and right to change it. You can use HOME/END to skip to the beginning or end of the selections. Hit ESC to save and quit. The options are thus: 1. Show message info (Toggle) (Deleted from v.11 - it's forced on anyway) 2. Check for Dupes (Toggle) Change to Y if you want T-Matic to scan for dupes when adopting taglines. This also filters taglines, using the file TO-KILL.TAG if available. 3. Use Registration Info? (Toggle) Change to Y if you want "Registered to: Your Name" added to the message. (Small hint; this is all you need to do to register Tag-O-Matic...) 4. Use Tag Total? (Toggle) Change to Y if you want "(n) Taglines" added to message. (Where 'n' is the total number of taglines if your tagfile. (In case you want to boast.)) 5. Method of identification. You can toggle this to one of three settings: Tearline: Just adds the tearline, plus anything else you've toggled on. TAGID: Adds the TAGID kludge to the top of the message. Both: Does both. For most purposes, the tearline is suitable. The TAGID kludge is not FTSC compliant, and some moderators have been known to moan about such things. Personally, I think they're being petty-minded, but they're entitled to their opinion. (Much in the same way Hitler was) 6. Use trailing CR? Will add a trailing newline character after it's message. Some mailers have problems otherwise and tend to append their own tearline onto the end of T-Matic's (cPoint for one). Not many do, so try without first. 7. Use Lottery Numbers (Toggle) Just select it from the Configuration menu and it'll add the following line: -$- Use these Lottery Numbers : 3 15 21 27 33 41 The six numbers will be generated on the fly. BTW, if this program generates a winning number, you are of course encouraged to break the Freeware concept and send me lots of money! 8. Prompt (Forced from v.11 onwards) 9. Number of Sigs? (Number from 0 to 255) If you don't want to use sigs, then leave this at 0. Otherwise, change it to the number of sigfiles you want to deal with. More on sigs later. 10. Right Margin (From 30 to 80) This sets the right margin to start reformatting both long taglines and text. I've found 75 to be reasonable, it allows for a few successive re- quotes before wrapping. 11. Edit Registered String (Edit) If you don't like the "Registered to: Nobody " string, you can change it here. 12. Edit 2nd line Prefix. (Edit) If you don't like the "~~~" prefix used on the second line by Tag-O-Matic, change it here. Note that only four characters are used. (Including space) You could change it to ^!^ or ~~~ or --- Whatever. Note that you can't change the tagline precursor from "... ". This is deliberate and follows the most common tagline specs. (Makes for easier stealing for T-Matic and other tagprogs) 13. Use Macros (Toggle) Toggle this for personalised taglines. See section on "USING PERSONALISED MACROS" for more info. 14. Words in Date Macro (Toggle) If you want the date converted to words. (ie, "Sat 12 October 1995" instead of "12/10/1995" then toggle on. 15. Use macros in Sigs (Toggle) This extends macro support to your sigfile. See "USING PERSONALISED MACROS" for more info on this. Bear in mind that this will slow down operation by a very tiny amount, so if you aren't using them, you'll get more performance by toggling off. 16. Use tag-location (Toggle) This allows you to place a tagline at a position other than at the end of the message. To use, place the line: @TAG anywhere in your message. T-Matic will scan through the file, locate that line and replace it with the tagline. If it's not found, T-Matic will append in the normal manner. Note that with this, the lottery and second lines are not appended, but the TAGID kludge is forced on. 17. Use Quoted % (Toggle) If enabled, this calculates and adds the amount of quoted text to the second line of T-Matic. Ie, with it enabled, the 2nd line could look like: --- Tag-O-Matic V.n.x [Quoted: 42%] Registered to: Fred Bloggs If you're interested, then it works on bytes, calculating the percentage on the message _before_ T-Matic appends anything, so it's not 100% accurate. It couldn't be anyway, since most mailers add their own kludges and tearline after T-Matic. 18. Use Extended Info (Toggle) Pops another small info box onto prompt, giving filenames etc. (V.11 - forced on anyway) 19. Show Countdown (Toggle) Pops a box when searching for the randomly picked tagline. It gives the current tag number, the total tag number, the chosen tag number and the number of tags to go. Beware that using this will slow down operation by around 3 to 4 times, but can be handy so you know it hasn't gone to sleep. 20. Filter Hi-Ascii (Toggle) Will replace high or low ascii characters and replace with an asterix (*). Helps moderator's blood-pressure. 21. Adopt to seperate file (Toggle) When adopting from JAM message bases, will create or append to a file called PROCESS.TAG. It will still use the tagfile supplied on the command line for dupe-checking (if enabled), but new tags are saved into this file. Then you can edit them prior to adding them to the tagfile. Handy hint: Use T-Matic's append feature to add them. 22. Use fuzzy checking (Toggle) When checking for dupes (globally, not when adopting), T-Matic can check for "Near enough" dupe-checking. If toggled on, T-Matic will only compare the alphanumeric characters in the tagline. All punctuation and capitalisation are ignored. If you check your tagfile, chances are you'll have two or more tags that are very similar, but are missed by normal dupe-checking since they may have one character that's different. (An extra space, a capital letter or anything) Switch this on if you would like to remove these - there's a minimal speed difference, but it's really not worth worrying about. 23. Trim trailing spaces (Toggle) When dupe-checking, T-Matic will remove trailing spaces from all taglines. If a tagline has lots of spaces after it, then it will confuse T-Matic and it will often "wrap" it, forcing a second tagline which contains nothing. Best to leave it on. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ USING Tag-O-Matic │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Command-Line Options: (These must be added as the first argument, ie, before filenames.) T-MATIC Runs config if no .CFG file is found, otherwise just shows the help screen. T-MATIC /? Shows a complete list of arguments and syntax. T-MATIC /C Forces Tag-O-Matic to go into the config screen. See above. T-MATIC /T letter.txt Text reformatting. See section "REFORMATTING TEXT" for more info. T-MATIC /L tagfile nn Sort through the tagfile. It removes any taglines longer than nn characters and places them in the file LONGTAGS.TAG (appending if already present). A backup file OLDTAGS.TAG is created of the original tagfile. The length of the tagline is set by the right margin in Setup, this ensures that the tagfile contains no tagline that will wrap onto another line, ensuring the tagfile only contains taglines that will fit on one line. T-MATIC /B bookfile letter.txt r_margin Strange one this, you probably won't use it. It basically picks a random string from a textfile of r_margin characters long. Might be useful for quotations, if you're into that kind of thing. T-MATIC /R tagfile datfile num_to_do Based on an Amiga program, Spewtag. What it does is basically create taglines based on a template. A sample template is included (COUNTRY.DAT) which is clean (use your imagination here to create others). tagfile is the file to append new tags. datfile is the template file and num_to_do is the number of tags to create (up to 4 billion) Eg: T-MATIC /R TAGLINES.TAG COUNTRY.DAT 2000 Quick way to make huge tagfiles. Been tested up to a 75Meg tagfile (around 1 million taglines). Will run out of HD space before it dies. Note that no dupe-checking is done, so sort & run /D over it afterwards. Instructions on making datfiles are included in the file: SPEWTAG.TXT T-MATIC /S letter.txt tagfile.tag Puts Tag-O-Matic in thief mode. It will scan letter.txt and any taglines it finds will be appended to tagfile.tag. See TAG ADOPTION for more info. This can be used on certain non-JAM mailbases to globally steal taglines. T-MATIC /U letter.txt Tells Tag-O-Matic to remove any taglines from the message. Any line beginning with "... " will be removed. This doesn't remove any tagtool tearlines or kludges. T-MATIC /F tagfile filterfile datfile Filters taglines from (tagfile) to (filterfile). The file (datfile) contains the words to filter (one word per line format). There's a maximum of 20 words, and each word must be less than 20 chars in length. The effected taglines are NOT removed from the original tagfile (which isn't changed). It merely copies them across. T-MATIC /D tagfile.tag Checks tagfile for dupes. See DUPE-CHECKING for more info. Also does /K. T-MATIC tagfile.tag letter.txt Chooses a random tagline from tagfile.tag and appends it to letter.txt. This is the normal command you'd use. (If Sigs are used, it will do that as well) T-MATIC /J tagfile.tag echo_dir JAMbase thief-mode. T-Matic will scan the directory "echo_dir" for all jam .JDT files, and will append any taglines it finds into "tagfile.tag". If dupe- checking is turned on, it will also dupe-check and filter incoming taglines. T-MATIC /G (!GROUP) To be run before the message. Will use the file T-MATIC.TEM for reference and match the !GROUP macro (supplied by Termail) to indicate sigfileSets and a tagfile. See below for more info. T-MATIC /W (!MSG) A stand-alone function. Will generate stats for that message. Usage T-MATIC /W messagefile or the !MSG macro if calling from Termail. T-MATIC /A (tagfile) (Otherfile) Will append the contents of (otherfile) onto the end of (tagfile) quickly. Does not delete (Otherfile) when done. (Following two are Termail 3.0+ specific) T-MATIC /O origins.txt T-MATIC /M moods.txt These two work very much alike. Basically, they pick a random origin or mood line (up to 55 and 25 characters long respectively) from the .txt file and replace any origins or moods in TM.CFG. Simply make a text file with all your origins or moods - one per line (just like a tagfile) and run this before Termail is loaded. It uses the same tag-choosing engine as everything else, but is forced into slow mode (so it actually works faster on the relatively small sized origin/mood files). IMPORTANT! Since this changes TM.CFG directly, you are well advised to make a backup first. T-Matic will make a new backup [TMCFG.BAK] every time this is run, but nothing can beat a hand-copied one for peace of mind. I've been using these functions every day for about six months, and it hasn't screwed with the config yet, so I think they're pretty safe, but use at your own risk. The format for the finished tagline is thus: Line 1: The randomly chosen tagline from the tagfile, with a "... " prefix. Line 2: Program banner, and if found, registration stuff. An example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Line 1: ... "Bother," said Pooh, as Christopher Robin shut the washing machine door. ^^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ └ Tagline prefix. └ The tagline Line 2: ~~~ Tag-O-Matic v.?.? (115) Taglines Registered to: Simon Avery ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | | | Program ID. ^ ^ Optional registration string. └Prefix. └ Number of lines in tagfile (If selected) If Lottery is enabled, then Line 2 will become line 3, and the lottery line will replace Line 2. Or something. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are using sigs (more on this later), Tag-O-Matic will choose a random sigfile and append it to your message file _before_ it does the tagline. If you are using a big tagfile, there will be a short pause whilst Tag-O- Matic counts the lines in it. However, the pause is quite short compared to some tagtools. If the tagfile hasn't been changed since the last time T-Matic was run, it doesn't need to re-count all the taglines. With 8.5, T-Matic uses a seperate index file for each tagfile. These are created automatically, and updated whenever the tagfile has been changed. A full recount is only needed if the tagfile has either shrunk, or it's been updated 10 times (so it doesn't get out of line). If it's grown, then it only counts the new taglines so is much faster. Ie. A tagfile of 12000 lines, running on a 386sx25 and picking, say, line 5000, would take around 4-5 seconds in slow mode. Bluewave's internal tagline selector takes approximately three times that. With FAST tag picking, it's actually quicker on a large file. On a smallish file (say, lesser than 100 taglines) it'll be slow and it's recommended you use SLOW tag picking for that. V.11 will switch automagically if the tagfile is of the wrong size. You can list all options by typing T-MATIC /? Use: T-MATIC tagfile.tag letter.txt Where "tagfile.tag" is your ascii file of taglines. And "letter.txt" is the letter you want to add a tag to. If sigs are to be used, they will also be added. See the enclosed file: INSTALL.TXT for more info on installing T-Matic. Long taglines. V.9.0 Tidies up T-Matic's approach to long (greater than 70 char) taglines. It will split each line and output it with the tagline precursor, wrapping words etc. To use this, each tagline should be on a line of its own in the tagfile, and should be less that 2048 characters long. (We have to have some limits) An example tagfile: LONGTAGS.TAG is supplied. Multi-lined taglines are banned from most Fido echo's. T-Matic cannot steal multi-line taglines, unless each line has its own tagline precursor "... ". If so, then you will have to reformat each tagline manually. The Prompt Menu: With v.7+, there's a rather fancy prompt menu that is displayed at the time of execution. Scroll through the options with the arrow keys and select with SPACE or ENTER. The options are thus: A) Accept current tagline. You're happy with the displayed tag, so press and it'll use that tagline in the message. B) Pick another random tagline. As it says, it'll select another tagline. C)* Manually enter your own tagline. if you want a tagline that fits in with the message, or you want to add a pithy one-liner at the end in the guise of a tagline, then select this. You can then type in your tagline (up to 76 characters). D) No tagline at all. (Or press ESC) No tagline, no tearline and no TAGID will be added to the message (just as if T-Matic had never been run). Useful if you are writing Areafix netmails or serious letters. E) Kill this tagline. If the randomly selected tagline is rude, unsuitable or quite simply unfunny and you don't want it in your tagfile, select this. It will remove the tagline (and any duplicates) from your tagfile. F) Toggle alternative sigfile. Switch between SIGFILE.nnn and ALT_SIG.nnn. See "Sigfiles" for more info. G) Use another tagfile Prompts for the filename of another tagfile. Could be useful if you have separate tagfiles for different areas, and have a tagfile specifically suited to the topic of an echo. Once changed, T-Matic will use that tagfile for it's random selections. H) Search for string. Prompts for a string. Type in the word or phrase to look for, and T-Matic will search the tagfile for any tagline that has that phrase in it. No longer Case-Sensitive, and will keep picking up the next match until you're happy. If it reaches the end of the file before it finds a match (or the next match), it'll use the catchy tagline: "Error getting tag from tagfile!" I)* Edit this tagline. You can edit the currently selected tagline. J) Reverse tagline. Simply converts the current tagline so that it reads backwards. F2)! - Allows you to edit your T-MATIC.TEM template file. F3) - Toggles lottery numbers on/off just for this message. F4)! - Allows you to re-edit your message. * Denotes that with these selections, a box pops up asking whether you want to save this tag to the current tagfile. No dupe-checking is done at this point. ! The DOS program, EDIT must be pathed for this to work. ALT+J shells to DOS. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ USING PERSONALISED MACROS (V.8.2+) │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ If "Use Macros" is toggled on in Setup, T-Matic will search the selected tagline for certain codes, and will replace them with other info. The codes are: @F First name @L Last name @N Full name (first and last) @B Inserts a new line. @D Current Date. (In numeric or alpha format, depending on the toggle in Setup) @T Current Time. (hh:mm:ss) @R The registered string. Note that even if "Use Registered To" is toggled off, then these will still appear. @Q Quoted Pct. (Expands into "nn%", the amount of quoted text in the message) @X Name of the sigfile. If used in a tagfile, it expands into the filename of the sigfileset selected. If used in a sig, it also includes the full filename and extension. @Z Name (Full path) of the tagfile used. @P Number of tags in the tagfile. (Expands to number only) Eg. A tagline saved as and used on a message to Fred Bloggs: Howdy, @F! Do you like my tagline? Would be translated to: Howdy, Fred! Do you like my tagline? Now, you need to make some changes to your template so that when the message is saved by the mail editor, it puts the person's name on the very first line. T- Matic reads this line, and deletes it from the message. If the first word is NOT "~NAME" then T-Matic will not delete that line, although it will attempt to take the name from the line anyway. It will print a warning, but won't abort. This may make any personalised tags incorrect, so keep your eyes peeled? So, in Termail for example. If you template was: MsgStart Howdy @F! Change it to: MsgStart ~NAME @F @L@CRHowdy @F! (~NAME First name, last name, new line, normal greeting.) (Please also check out INSTALL.TXT for more info) If your mail editor doesn't allow for this, and you want to use personalised tags, then you must enter the person's name manually when you edit the message. If this is the case, you might find it better to do without macros. NEW! Version 8.3 extends Macro support to sigfiles. All the macro's above are available in your sigfiles. Just toggle "Use Macro in sigs" on in Setup, and experiment. Here's an example of a raw sigfile. .-. To: @N .-. | First Name: @F .-. | | Last Name: @L | | | | ___ Time: @T | | | |/ _ \ ___ Date: @D | /o\_'| |.' o `. Registered String: @R | \=/ /| | `___' \ ___/ / \ \____/ (`__') When processed, T-Matic will change it to something like: (In a message to Fred Bloggs) .-. To: Fred Bloggs .-. | First Name: Fred .-. | | Last Name: Bloggs | | | | ___ Time: 18:42:35 | | | |/ _ \ ___ Date: Fri 29 Dec 1995 | /o\_'| |.' o `. Registered String: Registered To: Binky | \=/ /| | `___' \ ___/ / \ \____/ (`__') Included in the archive is an example sigfile, called SIGFILE.1 This should give you something to play with. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ USING Tag-O-Matic with Termail │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Please see the file INSTALL.TXT for full details. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ TAG-ADOPTION │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ (Hot-key single-message stealing) Although primarily designed for Termail, I see no reason why T-Matic won't adopt tags from other programs provided they allow for a macro and also export the current message when allowing for an external program to be run. NB. T-Matic only adopts "standard" taglines. Ie, those with the most common tag-precursor: "... " Note that when T-Matic successfully adopts a tag, it will strip the first four characters (ie, the "... ") before appending it to your tagfile. It works in a very similar method to Bluewave's internal tag-stealer. It will also steal tags done with TmNice which use the ".!." precursor. T-Matic will also check your tagfile for a duplicate of the tagline it's currently stealing, (if enabled) and if found, will not add it to your tagfile. Use: T-MATIC /S tagfile.tag letter.txt Where "letter.txt" is the ascii file containing the taglines you want to steal, and "tagfile.tag" is the file you want them to end up in. Configuring Termail for auto tag-steal: --------------------------------------- (See INSTALL.TXT) JAM message bases ================= With version 8.0, T-Matic adds multiple tag-stealing from multiple JAM message bases. Automatically! This means, that rather than manually adopting likely-looking tags from your messages, you can run T-Matic in "Klepto" mode once a week, or whatever, and it will steal all the taglines in your message base! To run, simply type: T-MATIC /J {tagfile.tag} {echo_directory} tagfile.tag is simply the name of your tagfile. echo_directory is the echo that houses your JAM message base. Eg. My echo base is in C:\TERM\TERMAIL\ECHO, and my tagfile is TAGS.BW. I'd run: T-MATIC /J TAGS.BW \TERM\TERMAIL\ECHO (Note that full path is not needed, but easier to explain) T-Matic will search every file in that directory that has the .JDT file extension (message text) and grab any tagline that looks likely. With Termail, you'll probably have two or three directories, such as ECHO, NETMAIL or SAVEAREA. You'll have to run T-Matic three times to grab all these. NB. if T-Matic is configured to "Check for dupes", then it will do this when mass-stealing. Note that this can slow down operation by a huge amount (with big tagfiles especially). If you have a large tagfile, then it could be wise to copy the tagfile onto a ramdrive, or have a large disk cache to soak up all the searches of the tagfile. I've no intention of loading the entire tagfile into memory to speed it up, since that would make things complicated to the user, and reduce the simplicity of T-Matic. If you don't like it, tough! It also scans TO-KILL.TAG and filters any taglines containing any strings found in that. (Swearwords, Blue Wave, etc) BTW, test on my DX4-100, with a 5000 line tagfile, and scanning 85 jambases (around 10,000 messages), and WITH dupe-checking on, T-Matic took around 2 minutes. Without dupe-checking, it took around 20-30 seconds. If you toggle (Adopt to alternative tagfile) then instead of appending the new taglines onto the tagfile supplied on the command-line, T-Matic will create or append a file called PROCESS.TAG with all the new taglines. I'd recommend using dupe-checking unless you have a very slow computer, or are just trying to get a tagfile started. With V.8.2, the file TO-KILL.TAG is also checked. If any of those strings are contained in the new tagline, it is discarded. See FILTERING for more info on the TO-KILL.TAG file. Remember that you can always sort and dupe-check your tagfile afterwards! Hudson Message Base stealing ============================ Works in much the same was as JAM (except use /H instead of /J) but works on a single file, called MSGTEXT.BBS. Untested at the mo - any feedback welcome. (I don't run Hudson, and can't find a beta-tester who does) Briefly tested on a single Hudson message base, and missed several taglines. I don't know why, but it does. I put my money on it being the pixies. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ FILTERING │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ V.8.9 (Option now covered by /D, but left in 'cos it explains about the TO- KILL.TAG file.) Usage: T-MATIC /K tagfile.tag (/K no longer supported. See /D) This feature will allow you to delete taglines with certain words in them. These could be swearwords or whatever. To do this, you need to create a separate file with your text editor with the words on them. Enter each word on it's own line, and make sure there are no trailing spaces. There's a maximum of 20 words/lines. Eg: ---------------- Flip Heck Blue Wave ---------------- (Obviously, I don't want to use proper swear-words here...) Save this file as TO-KILL.TAG Now, run "T-Matic /k tagfile.tag". T-matic will search every tagline and if it contains one of the words in TO-KILL.TAG it will be rejected. Other tags are retained. The file TO-KILL.TAG is NOT deleted after use, so you can periodically check your tagfile for the same words by macro, if you want to. Also, with V.8.2, this file is checked when adopting taglines (provided "Check Dupes" is enabled). This screens any new taglines. Also used with dupe-checking, so the /K switch is almost reduntant - the /D switch does both dupe-checking and filter-checking. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ TAGFILE │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ T-Matic uses "Raw" tagfiles. That is, one tagline = one line of text. The line can be up to 2048 characters long (any more and they'll be chopped) and can contain any ascii (hi,lo or mid) characters. See the enclosed files (TAGLINES.TAG and LONGTAGS.TAG) for examples. Maximum Tagfile Size -------------------- Your tagfile can be any size. Theoretically, it can contain up to 4 billion taglines. However, in version < 9.92b, any taglines higher than 32,000 wouldn't be picked. They still won't be picked unless Fast tag-picking is enabled. With v.11, T-Matic switches to FAST tag picking if the tagfile's > than 30,000 lines automatically. Big Tagfiles. ------------- Presently (2 February 1996) my main tagfile is around 1.3Meg in size, containing over 27,000 non-duplicated taglines. You probably won't want such a large tagfile, but if you do, T-Matic can evolve to suit you. I do have another tagfile of 33Meg in size, and my beta tester is quite happily using a tagfile of 75Meg in size (over a million taglines). He tells me that T- Matic picks a random tagline instantly. Sounds good to me. As of v.9.3, there is an added option: Fast Tag Picking. Turn this on for any large tagfiles. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ DUPE-CHECKING │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ T-Matic will automatically check newly entered taglines for duplicates when it adopts them. (If enabled in Setup). However, if you already have a large tagfile and it contains some dupes, then T-Matic can help you out. This feature is not as developed as it could be (for size reasons), but works well, PROVIDED you have sorted the file into alphabetical order first. Sorting the tagfile, prior to checking it for dupes: ---------------------------------------------------- Dos contains a utility called SORT. (Run HELP SORT for more info) This is fine for small files, and is run with the syntax: SORT <TAGFILE.TAG >SORTED.TAG This will create the file SORTED.TAG which contains all the taglines from TAGFILE.TAG but in alphabetical order. On large files, SORT runs out of memory. There are other tools around, notably CUSORT, which can cope with much larger files and it might be worth seeking these out if you intend to sort a large file. Some word processors also allow alphabetical sorting of text files too. Addendum: Under DOS 7.00 (Windows 95), DOS's sort prog doesn't appear to run out of memory. I've tested it on a 33Meg tagfile and although it took forever, it did work. Once sorted, you can run T-Matic. Usage: T-MATIC /D tagfile.tag This will check every line against the previous one. If they match, the later version is discarded. It's fast, but it's not particularly clever. It works, though. It also scans tags for "filtered" words, contained in the file TO-KILL.TAG, see the above section for more info. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ REFORMATTING TEXT │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ With version 9.9+, T-Matic will now reformat text prior to (or after) editing. You may have noticed (and if you've used Termail, you can't have failed to) that some mail programs, when they create the dropfile when you reply to a message they wrap long lines messily. Eg. A paragraph from a message. Prior to reformatting. SA> This is a long line that's been mutilated by the message editor and SA> makes SA> it very hard to read, if you see what I mean. After reformatting, it'll read something like this: SA> This is a long line that's been mutilated by the message editor and SA> makes it very hard to read, if you see what I mean. Much nicer. I've only seen one other program that does this, TmNice. However, that reformats all the text, and needs templates to stop it reformatting your header and sig. T-Matic, on the other hand, ONLY reformats quoted paragraphs, so you don't need to worry about templates or anything like that. This also means you can re-edit a message without the formatter scrunching what you've already done. Of course, it's not infallable. Some text, such as Ascii drawing, or source files are best left unformatted. So, when T-Matic reformats a message, it creates a file of the original. Ie, a message called TM.MSG would be reformatted, and the original saved as TM.BAK Then, if your message is too scrunched, just load in the original. Of course, if you're running a decent editor, you can edit the mailer program so that it calls the editor and loads both the original and the formatted copies. Ie, with Protext, running it with the command: PROTEXT TM.MSG TM.BAK Will load the reformatted message as primary, and the original as the alternative file. See INSTALL.TXT for details on running. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ USING SIGFILES │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ What is a sigfile? Stands for "SIGnature" or "SIGn-off". Basically, you can put it at the end of your email. It could be a short one like: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yours sincerely, Joe Bloggs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Or it could be a long one like: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- .,:;. .,:;***%***%***%***%*;:,. .,;..:,. .,:;*%***%***%**;:,. .,:;,. .,:;)o .,ad88888ba,. o);:,. .,:;)o .,:;(o .,ad8888888888888a, o(;:,. Better to burn out .,:;(o .,:;)o d8P"""98888P"""98888b, o);:,. than to fade away. .,:;)o .,:;(o 9b .. d8888, `9888B o(;:,. -Kurt .,:;(o .,:;)o ,d88aaa8888888b,,,d888P' o);:,,,,... .. . .. ...,,,,:;)o .,:;(o d8888888888888888888888b o(;:,. Sean Green .,:;(o .,:;)o d888888P""98888888888888P o);:,. .,:;)o .,:;(o 88888P' 9888888888888 o(;:,.internet address here .:;(o .,:;)o `98P' 9888888888P' o);:,. .,:;)o .,:;. .,:;***%***%*`"9888P"':,. .,;..:,. .,:;**%**%***%**;:,. .,:;,. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Thanks Sean...) Tag-O-Matic allows up to 255 separate sigfiles, and each one should be contained in it's own file. For example, say you had three sigs you wanted to use on a random basis. Save them as SIGFILE.1, SIGFILE.2, SIGFILE.3 (etc) and type T-MATIC /C to enter the config screen. Change "Number of Sigs" to 3. That's it. Now, whenever you run Tag-O-Matic to add a tagline, it will pick a random sigfile between 1 and 3 (or whatever) and append it to your message file. N.B. I take no responsibility for you getting an official warning from an echo moderator. Extended sigs are banned from a lot of the Fido echo's, so check first. (Yeah, right!) NEW! (With v.4.0) Tag-O-Matic now supports an alternative set of sigfiles. I found this necessary when using the same copy of Tag-O-Matic with various networks of which some allows extended sigs, and some did not. Hence... When run, Tag-O-Matic now searches for a file called "DO_ALT.SIG". This is still supported in V.7.0, but you can also specify alternative sigs from the prompt menu. If found, it will change into Alternative sig mode. The normal rules for sigs apply, but the new set uses the filenames "ALT_SIG.n" rather than "SIGFILE.n". This can be quite useful if you are using the one copy of Tag-O-Matic for various echo's, and some of them allow for extended sigs. The best way to use this feature in practice is to define a macro in your Word Processor (Protext is ideal). Ie, ALT-S to save normally. And ALT-Z to save with extended sigs. Ie. ALT-Z does: SAVE TM.MSG (change to suit your mailer's dropfile) SAVE DO_ALT.SIG (Save the same file as DO_ALT.SIG, just so it exists) QUIT (Reverts back to batch file/mailer which calls Tag-O-Matic) Tag-O-Matic, if it finds DO_ALT.SIG will change into that mode, and delete the file when it has finished. Hence, it is very important you don't put anything of value into that file. With version 8.4, T-Matic can now be run before the editor to correctly set your tagfile and sigfile for that group. A new file is supplied, T-MATIC.TEM, a sample template file for this feature. Have a look at it, it's fairly self-explanatory. Edit it in the format: Groupname (Max. 8 chars) SigfileSet Tagfile Comment Eg: %─Group┬─Sigfiles──┬─────Tagfile─────────────────┬──Comment (Unused)─────────┐ B_BAR BAR-SIG BARNET.TAG BarNet from BackYard S_FIDO SIGFILE TAGS.BW Fidonet from Satellite The first is the name of the group. This MUST be in capital letters, as Termail will export it that way. The second is the filename (Note, no extension - allowing for random sigfiles means that the numerical extension (1 to the limit set in Setup) is added automatically, along with the "." seperator. The third is the name of the tagfile for that group. The forth is simply a comment so you can remember which is which. Now, you must again edit TM.CFG. Hunt through for the BeforeEdit string. Change this to: BeforeEdit T-MATIC /G !GROUP T-Matic will search the template file, T-MATIC.TEM for a match to the supplied group. If it finds it, it will create a small file; T-MATIC.DIT containing the new sigfileSet and tagfile names. This will be loaded when T-Matic is run after the message and will default to the new names, over-writing any supplied tagfile on the command line. T-MATIC.DIT is then deleted. Also worth remembering, since this feature was added-on as an after-thought, there must be an equal number of sigfiles of each type. So if you set your number of sigfiles up as 10 in the config screen, there must be 10 SIGFILE.n's and 10 ALT_SIG.n's. If you don't like this, you can get a complete refund of all monies received from you for the use of this program... ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ UPGRADING │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ If you're already using an older version of Tag-O-Matic, then upgrading is fairly simple. Read the HISTORY.TXT file to see what new features you've now got, and these docs for further enlightment. Now, run T-MATIC /C (If an older, non-compatible config file is found, it will ask you if it's Ok to delete and start anew) Toggle on anything that looks fun and ESCape to save and quit. You might want to test T-Matic on a small dummy message just to see that it does what you want. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ PROBLEMS │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ T-Matic has proved reasonably popular, and a few people have asked for help. I'll try to outline one or two of the most common problems, and their solutions. Q. Why do I get a space before the tagline pre-cursor? A. Your message ends, not with a newline character, but with a space. Since T-Matic appends to the very end of a message, the last character should be a newline. If you are using Sigs, then your sig could have the trailing space. Version 7.0 stopped this problem. Q. When I reply to a message in another echo, or netmail in Termail, the macro's don't work. A. 'Cos Termail puts a line above your ~NAME entry in the message. V.11 checks the second line also, to get around this. Q. T-Matic appears to work, but nothing seems to be added to the message. A. 1. Is it appending to the correct file? 2. Your editor is appending the ascii character 27 (common amongst older editors that couldn't use an End-Of-File character. TED is a prime example). Sometimes this stops message-viewers dead, and anything below that is ignored. Change editors or find a way to stop it doing that. Q. When I change a message, T-Matic keeps adding taglines each time. A. It doesn't any more. V.6.5 fixes it. Q. When I change a message, T-Matic doesn't add another tagline, but does add the TAGID kludge. A. Version 7.0 fixed that. Q. T-Matic takes too long picking a tagline. A. Are you kidding? T-Matic is probably the fastest raw-tagfile tagline selector around! Compare it to other tagtools and stop moaning! Q. T-Matic appends my entire tagfile to the message before I even get a chance to edit it! A. Kevin, you set it up wrong in Termail... Q. The macro's don't work! A. Check the message has "~NAME (Their name)" on the very first line. If it doesn't then play around with your templates again. Enable "Macro" in Setup, and if it still doesn't work, drop me a netmail with the relevant bit from your TM.CFG file. (Ie, the templates, and the "BeforeEdit" and "AfterEdit" bits. Q. The macro string "~NAME ..." gets munched, or disappears. A. Are you using TmNice? That can confuse things mightily. Also, make sure you have changed all the templates. It is NOT recommended that you use TmNice with T-Matic, since T-Matic now has it's own text reformatter which doesn't scrunch unquoted text. If you have a genuine problem, drop me a netmail at one of the above addresses and I'll do my best to help you out. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ WHY REGISTER? │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Well, cos basically it costs you nothing, and you can do it in a few seconds... How to register Tag-O-Matic in three easy steps: 1. Type T-MATIC /C 2. Change the user name to your own name. 3. Toggle option 1. (Use registration Info?), ESC to save and quit. That's it! When Tag-O-Matic runs it will now add "Registered to: Yourname" at the end of the banner. Simple huh? You can also change the "Registered to: " string if you want to. Something like "Owned by:". Or, if you really want to be nice, you could change both so that they read "The Best TagTool around!".... You don't need to send me any money, but I would appreciate a netmail to say you're using it. Send it to the addresses at the top. You can also send any bug-reports or new ideas to those addresses. I collect taglines (Surprise!) so if you like it, please send me your tagfile! MIME, uuencoded or file-attached via email or netmail. (Addresses at the top) Another way you could show your appreciate :) is to upload T-Matic to a BBS or FTP site, or even onto a filebone. After all, what's the point of writing a program if nobody's going to use it? 'Course, that's not to say that if you feel strangely compelled to send me money, I won't turn it away... ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ TWIT FILE │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ There's a file included in the archive called T-MATIC.NAM. What this does, basically, is setup specific tagfiles and sigfileSets for use with certain people. Useful if you want to goad someone with a particular setup. This only works if "Use Macros" is enabled, and you've got your mail software correctly setup so that T-Matic can grab the user's name. Unlimited entries, just keep to the template. %─F Name─┬─L Name──────┬─Tagfile──────┬─Sigfile────┬──Comment────────────────┐ Simon Avery BESTTAGS.TAG HI_SIMON For the author of T-Matic! For this example, if you wrote a message to me, T-Matic would use the tagfile "BESTTAGS.TAG" and use the sigfileSet HI_SIMON.nn (if defined). Great for winding up your enemies. >') ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ TECHNICAL STUFF (AND BOASTING!) │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Tag-O-Matic has been tested on tagfiles over 1 million lines in length and works considerably faster than most, if not all, tagtools. It should handle anything up to 4 billion taglines, so there's no reason why you have to worry about the size of the tagfile at all Just make sure you've got enough disk space! 4,294,067,295 lines long. It's very unlikely that you'll ever get that big a tagfile, because even if there were that many taglines in the world, and even if your hard disk was big enough, you'd probably fall asleep before Tag-O-Matic got to the end of the file... (It's fast, but it's not *that* fast!) There was a bug in versions earlier than 8.0 that would never pick a tagline if it was on line 32,000 or more. Now fixed. How it works ============ (Not telling you!) Other bits. If any programmer wishes to incorporate the code for T-Matic into their own program, then Turbo C source code is for sale. Netmail me for more details. If any programmer wishes to recommend T-Matic for use with their mailer or similar program, please netmail me first. I'll probably be extremely happy to permit this, but I'd like to know first. Note that T-Matic can NOT be bundled with software unless written permission from me has been given. All code, executables and document files are copyright 1995-96 by Simon Avery. No changes can be made in any way, shape or form without WRITTEN permission from me. Simon Avery 4 August 1996 ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ CREDITS │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Borland International Ltd for their excellent C/C++ compiler. Arnor for their perfect word processor, Protext. Me, for writing the bloody thing. Those nice chaps in Fidonet's C_ECHO for answering my questions, and not once telling me to shut up! Some bloke in the Barnet echo's for the idea of the Lottery thing. Junichi Uekawa for the idea of remembering how many taglines in a file. Kevin W. Kelly cos he'll moan if he's not mentioned. He also found a bug in 6.5 and suggested improvements for V.7.2 onwards. Beta tested all these versions and many more, so blame him. T-Matic killed his tagfile once, so don't be too hard on the chap. Mike Garner for a couple of suggestions, used in 8.4. Richard Downer for the idea of putting the "Quoted %" on the tearline. 8.5 <EOF>