CD Shareware Magazine 1996 December

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THE STOCK EXCHANGE - v1.6 A Stock Market program that uses the Wildcat user record. (C) Copyright 1995, 96 Sapphire Software Released on August 5, 1996 Written by Scott J. Bradbury of The Coral Reef BBS "A Unique Underwater BBS Experience" BBS Support: (517) 894-0729 Multi-Line For use with Wildcat! v4.12+ BBS Software ■ WHAT IS THE STOCK EXCHANGE? The Stock Exchange is similar to other stock market type door games with one exception. This program is designed to use fields within your Wildcat! BBS user record. The big advantage to this is that you can create custom display files to show your users their stock portfolio from anywhere on your system. The Stock Exchange makes use of the @-Codes to display this information. The original concept of this program came from the System Operator of The Chocolate Malt BBS (517-686-6974). The Sysop set up a stock market to help his users earn more "Malt Money". Malt Money is the form of currency on his board and allows users to purchase homes, stocks, participate in auctions, lottery, and many other contests. When I set up the city of Atlantis and a form of currency I call "Sea-Shells" I decided to write a program to automate the purchasing and selling of stocks. Until this time, all work had been done manually by the Sysop. If you would like to see more of how we have these cities and ideas set up you can call my BBS or The Chocolate Malt. Phone numbers are listed under the "Technical Support" section of this documentation. ■ TECHNICAL SUPPORT Should you have any questions, suggestions, or run into problems with this or any Sapphire Software product, you can contact me by one of the following methods. Many of the ideas incorporated into our programs are the result of suggestions by users. THE CORAL REEF - My Personal BBS The Coral Reef - Node 1 (517) 894-0729 (300-14,400) The Coral Reef - Node 2 (517) 894-5052 (300-14,400) The Coral Reef - Node 3 (517) 894-0413 (300-14,400) For the most part, I answer my mail on a daily basis so you will get a fast reply. * Note - Calling Node 1 will automatically "trunk hunt" over to the other nodes if it is busy so there is no need to try each number. They are listed only for reference. FIDONET Our fidonet address is 1:239/600 and you can FREQ the magic name of SAPPHIRE to get a short document listing all our products, cost, magic names, etc. MUSTANG SOFTWARE SUPPORT BBS You can also reach me on the Mustang Software Support BBS. I frequent their system a few times a week so you will get a reply but not as fast as if you call my system. INTERNET MAILING My internet address is "BRADBURY@CRIS.COM" and use this service a few times a week also. MAILING ADDRESS Last but not least, you can reach me via the postal system. Address: Sapphire Software C/O - Scott Bradbury 1808 N. Golfview Drive Apt. #6 Essexville, Michigan 48732 ■ FILES INCLUDED Your copy of THE STOCK EXCHANGE is distributed in a single compressed file. This one file contains all the files necessary to run this program. If any of the following files are absent from the archive you can call The Coral Reef (517) 894-0729 for a complete copy and the most current version. Program and Configuration Files: * STOCK.WCX - The Stock Exchange * GENERATE.WCX - Program to Generate Daily Indexes * STOCK.DOC - This Documentation * STOCK.CFG - Configuration File * VIEWRPT.WCX - Program to View Daily Report at Login Display Files: * HELPMENU.BBS - Help Menu * HELP1.BBS - Help on Purchasing Stocks * HELP2.BBS - Help on Selling Stocks * HELP3.BBS - Help on the Stock Portfolio * HELP4.BBS - Help on Reporting Features * INFOMENU.BBS - Information Menu * INFO1.BBS - Stats on Stock #1 * INFO2.BBS - Stats on Stock #2 * INFO3.BBS - Stats on Stock #3 * STOCKRPT.BBS - Daily Stock Report Display File * PROFILE.BBS - Main Portfolio Display * BUYMENU.BBS - Purchasing Menu * SELLMENU.BBS - Sell Menu * BYE.BBS - "Ending" or "Goodbye" Message * VOLMENU.BBS - Title screen for Volume Report Miscellaneous Files: * FILE_ID.DIZ - File Information * DESC.SDI - Short Description File * HISTORY.DOC - History on The Stock Exchange * PRODUCTS.DOC - Other Products Available by Sapphire Software * WHATSNEW.DOC - List of New Features in this Version * UPGRADE.DOC - Upgrade Instructions There are also many data files and logs that the program will create. ■ EVALUATION POLICY There are no special "keys" required to make this program work. The program will not stop working at any time. If you do intend to use the program, you are encouraged to register it with us. This will unlock all features and remove timed delays. ■ THE CONFIGURATION FILE 00000 - Registration Number Local Telecom, Inc. - Name of Stock Company #1 LTI - Abbreviation for Company #1 15 - Max. Change in Daily Index for Stock #1 400 - Max. Value of Stock #1 1 - Comment Field Number to use in User Record Gano Downs Inc. - Name of Stock Company #2 GDI - Abbreviation for Stock Company #2 100 - Max. Change in Daily Index for Stock #2 600 - Max Value of Stock #2 2 - Comment Field Number to use in User Record Great White Industries - Name of Stock Company #3 GWI - Abbreviation for Company #3 20 - Max. Change in Daily Index for Stock #3 500 - Max. Value of Stock #3 3 - Comment Field Number to use in User Record 10 - Percentage to use for Calculating Bonus Y - Y = Broker Fee "On" / N = Broker Fee "Off" 25 - Amount of Broker's Fee S - S uses Subscript. Bal and N uses Netmail Bal Note - Stock #1 is safe and sure. Stock #2 is risky and fluctuates. Stock #3 is moderate between the two previous. All lines must be accounted for in the configuration file. The file also has descriptive comments at the end for reference. These lines are ignored by the program and can be left as is. Line 1: This is your registration number. Until you register this software there will be a few delays. Leave this as "00000". Lines 2, 7, and 12: This is the name of your stock companies 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Each name must be 25 characters or less. Lines 3, 8, and 13: This is the abbreviation of each stock company. Each abbreviation must be 5 characters or less. Lines 4, 9, and 14: This line instructs the program as to what the maximum value is for each stock company. If you enter 100 that will let the program make a stock jump +100 points or fall -100 points. Lines 5, 10, and 15: This sets the maximum value a stock may attain. When the value gets this high the program will no longer add points to the index. It will, however, subtract points if the index is negative for the day. You as the Sysop will have to change this value in the VALUE.IDX file. More on this is referenced later in this documentation. Line 6, 11, and 16: Enter a number from 1 to 5 on these lines. This will let The Stock Exchange know where to store the amount of stock shares purchased in each company. Use 1 for Comment 1, use 2 for Comment 2 and so on. Line 17: This is the percentage amount for calculating a bonus. The amount of shares purchased in each company are recorded daily. The company with the highest amount of purchases will receive a bonus. This bonus is calculated as the amount of shares purchased times this number. This value will be added on to the daily index ONLY IF THE INDEX RISES. If the index is negative or remains even for the day there will be no bonus at all for any company. Line 18: Inserting a "Y" on this line will turn the Broker's Fee option on. This will charge the amount indicated on line 19 ONCE PER DOOR ENTRY if they make a purchase or sell stock. If a user enters The Stock Exchange to view information, etc., then no fee will be charged. It's important to note that the program will subtract the amount on line 19 from the user's subscription balance upon entry. This is to ensure your "broker" gets paid. The amount will be added to the user's subscription balance if the exit with no purchases or sells being made. Line 19: This is the amount to charge for the broker's fee mentioned in line 18. Do NOT include any decimal numbers. Line 20: S will use the subscription balance and N will use netmail bal. ■ UN-ZIPPING THE ARCHIVE The first step you need to do is make a directory called STOCK on your hard disk. The program can run any drive. (Drive C, D, etc.) Unzip the archive containing the Stock Exchange files into this newly created directory. ■ SETTING UP THE MAIN STOCK.WCX MODULE Setting up The Stock Exchange is very simple! You will need to use the MAKEMENU program supplied my Mustang Software. Use this program to add a new menu item for the Stock Exchange. You can add this item to any menu you wish. Once you have chosen a menu to which to add this program you will have to select a letter to call the program. Enter your text on the description line for this item. Choose "RUN WC-CODE PROGRAM" as the "type" of menu function you are adding. Enter the following as the path and filename for the parameters: C:\STOCK\STOCK.WCX This is assuming that you use drive C for your hard disk. You can replace this with any drive. However, all files must be located in the \STOCK directory. The program will not work properly if located in other areas on your hard disk. ■ SETTING UP THE VIEWRPT.WCX MODULE This is an optional program and does not have to be used. VIEWRPT will simply display the current days stock report to your users. I use this program in my logon sequence so callers can see the report without having to enter The Stock Exchange itself. To do this I just copied the VIEWRPT.WCX file to the \WILDCAT directory and renamed it either LOGON1.WCX or LOGON2.WCX. Wildcat will run either of these programs if it finds the file in the directory. You could also set this program up as an option on a menu. The choice is yours. ■ SETTING UP THE GENERATE.WCX MODULE Set up the GENERATE.WCX module as an event similar to the TREND.WCX module. The Generate program will create your next daily index, figure any bonuses for the stock companies, write the new stock report to disk and perform a few other functions necessary for the main program to operate. ■ DISPLAY FILES The Stock Exchange was written with customization by the Sysop in mind. To this end, I want to mention that just about all the display files can be customized to your personal taste. The information that follows will help explain what some of these files are and where they are used in the program. PROFILE.BBS - Used on the main menu to display above the caller's stock portfolio. This file can only be 5 lines long or it will force text past the 23 line page length. A caller will then have to press a key at the "[C]ontinue [S]top [P]revious" prompt. INFOMENU.BBS - This is your information menu. You can change any of the options listed on this menu. This way you can put any kind of information you want in these bulletins. Just keep in mind that option 1 will call the "INFO1.BBS" file, option 2 will call the "INFO2.BBS" file and so on. HELPMENU.BBS - This is your help menu. Very similar to the information menu only it's purpose is to give help on the use of the program itself. However, you can change it to your liking. This menu will call the "HELPx.BBS" files where "x" is a number. STOCKRPT.BBS - This file cannot be changed. It is created automatically each night when maintenance runs. You could change it but your changes would be overwritten the next time maintenance runs. ■ PROGRAM INFORMATION AND SPECIAL FEATURES COMPINFO.DAT - This file needs to have the symbol for the stock company, the maximum number of shares and the number currently owned. After that, the program maintains the file stats. A default is already in the directory that you should edit the company symbols. You can leave the values as is or change them. DATETIME.DAT - Do not delete this file! This file contains a number in it which informs the stock program when to run it's maintenance routines. Deleting the file will cause maintenance to run more often than necessary. SPLIT.DAT - This file contains three numbers in it. The first number represents a split value for the stock in company #1, the second number for the second company and so on. When the value of the stock in the VALUE.IDX for a company matches it's corresponding value in the SPLIT.DAT file a stock split will occur. A split will cut the value in half but double the amount of shares of everyone that has invested in the company. Example: SPLIT.DAT VALUE.IDX 200 245 425 157 155 155 All the people that have invested in company #3 will have their stock doubled because the daily index in VALUE.IDX is 155 and we have 155 setup in the SPLIT.DAT file to be the point when the stock should split. Essentially, on the day of the split, they have the same amount in net worth. But if and when the stock goes up they will be richer because they now own double the shares. If you do not want to have the stock split you could set the value in SPLIT.DAT higher than the maximum values you have set up for each company in the STOCK.CFG. BROKER'S FEE - The broker's fee is an optional choice for the Sysop to use. This will charge the caller IF they make a purchase or sell stocks. The caller will get charged EVERY TIME they enter the door but will only get charged one transaction fee for as long as they are in the door. To ensure the caller does not spend all their credits on stocks, the fee (definable by the Sysop) will be deducted upon entering the door. If a purchase or sale is made the fee is then used. If no purchase or sale is made then the amount of the fee is added to the caller's subscription balance upon exiting. This feature is not available until registered. BONUS - Every time a transaction is made the number of shares purchased or sold are tallied in a file. When maintenance runs this file is checked to see which stock company had the most sales. If the index for this stock is "UP" then a bonus amount is added to the index and the value of the stock will go up even more. If the index is "DOWN" then no bonus is given. This feature does not check for the next highest amount of stocks purchased. It takes the highest of all three stocks and ONLY if the highest is UP will it perform this feature. If the index is DOWN it will not check the other companies for a bonus. COMMENT AND SUBSCRIPTION BALANCE FIELDS This program makes use of 3 out of 5 comment fields plus the subscription balance field. You can use comment field 1 - 5 to keep track of the amount of stocks each user owns. The subscription balance field is where the program adds and subtracts credits when a purchase or sale is made. Make sure that you use the comment fields that do NOT have any existing information in them. This program will overwrite what is currently stored there. If you use the subscription balance for other features you may not be able to use this program. ■ HOW DO I SETUP CREDITS IN THE SUBSCRIPTION BALANCE FIELD? On my system, I run a lot of contests in which I give out "Sea-Shells" for credits. When callers win contests I put this amount in the winning caller's subscription balance. They can then use this "money" to buy a home in our imaginary city of Atlantis, participate in auctions, buy stocks, buy cards in our cardshop and many other places. If you would like to see how some of these features are set up then I suggest you to call my system. Suggestions for Contests: - Hold a contest to see who can achieve the highest score in a game or several games. You can determine how many credits to give out per contest. I generally give between 1000 - 4000. - Post trivia or riddles in a HELLOx.BBS screen and see who can get them correct. Give all correct answers an amount. - Pick a letter in the alphabet. All callers who's last name begin with this letter and calls on a specified day will receive credits. - Finally, you could just throw a lump sum into their account and let them spend it. If they run out then that is their mistake. You could see who could earn the most credits by playing the stock market in a set amount of time. ■ WARRANTY INFORMATION THE STOCK EXCHANGE IS DISTRIBUTED AS SHAREWARE. THE PROGRAM WILL WORK WITH THE EXCEPTION OF A FEW FEATURES UNTIL YOU OBTAIN YOUR REGISTRATION CODE. THIS PROGRAM IS GUARANTEED TO DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING EXCEPT TAKE UP DISK SPACE. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. NEITHER SAPPHIRE SOFTWARE NOR ANY OTHER PERSON INVOLVED IN ITS DISTRIBUTION IS RESPONSIBLE IN ANY WAY, FOR ANY DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ITS USE OR MISUSE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE IS ENTIRELY WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR OTHER DAMAGES TO YOUR EQUIPMENT, SOFTWARE, OR OTHER PROPERTY. SAPPHIRE SOFTWARE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST MONIES, OR OTHER SPECIAL, GENERAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS) OR ANY OTHER LOSS EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. REGISTRATION WILL REMOVE DELAYS AND ENABLE SOME FEATURES THAT ARE OTHERWISE RESTRICTED. ■ REGISTRATION INFORMATION Registration of this program will do two things. 1. Remove all delays. 2. Enable the broker's fee option. 3. Encourage me to add more features. :) Print out the file REGISTER.DOC and send it to me with a check or money order. NO CASH PLEASE! Upon receipt of your payment we will setup a personal registration number for you to use. This number is to be inserted in the configuration file on line 1. There are a number of ways to obtain your registration number. Information is provided on the registration form itself. ■ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the following people for their support and help in testing this product and in all my efforts. (During both the good and bad times). Tammy Bradbury - My wife, Co-Sysop, and best friend! Brian Gano - Sysop of The Chocolate Malt BBS (517) 686-6974 Beta Testing Site Bobbi Gorden - Coral Reef "Beach Bum" Staff and Support Beta Tester Gordon MacQueen - Coral Reef "Beach Bum" Staff and Support Beta Tester There are several dozen callers on my BBS that helped by using the program and giving me their comments and suggestions. My thanks to all of them as well in the development of The Stock Exchange.