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mrpointy.txt
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1995-01-09
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Mr Pointy v1.12 (released 08/12/94)
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Program and related files are (c) 1994 BlobbySoft.
This is a not-so-little shell for network points. It works on all
machines in all screen modes. The dialogue/window manager is based on
FLDLIB by Martin Maisey, and takes advantages of the excellent WiNX if
installed.
How do I use the damn thing?
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In the main menu dialogue there are eight buttons for pre-defined
programs and nine for user-defined utilities. Shift-click on a
program's button or menu-entry to configure that program.
In the configuration dialogues, you can double-click on most text fields
to bring up a file selector.
If a program's extension is T?? then the program will be executed as a
TOS program, otherwise it will be executed as a GEM program. The
enviroment variable TOSRUN is ignored.
In general, the close-box on a dialogue means 'cancel'. There are a
few exceptions to this (eg: the file request dialogue.) Control-U can
always be used to close a window, and Control-W can be used to cycle
the windows if you have AES 3.30 or greater.
To use the file request system you must first specify your primary
outbound folder and zone number in the set-up dialogue. The file
request system is simple to use. To load an old file request, type in
the address and click on the little 'L' button. Selecting the 'Cancel'
button will erase the fields and close the dialogue. Clicking on the
close box closes the dialogue, leaving the fields intact.
In dialogue boxes with no close-box, you must exit the dialogue by
clicking on the "Done" button, and there is no way of cancelling
the changes you made.
Text files
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You can load up to twelve text files into memory. Files packed with
Pack Ice v2.4 are supported. When choosing which file to load, you can
use wildcards, allowing multiple files to be loaded. The filenames of
loaded text files appear in the 'Textfile' menu and selecting a name
opens a window containing that text file.
To remove a text file from memory, click on its menu entry or its
window close-box while holding the Control key.
The cursor keys can be used to scroll the text file one line/column at
at time, and by holding shift you can scroll the file in page-size
steps. Control-Up moves the window to the top of the file,
Control-Down moves it to the bottom.
You can select a line in a text file window. When a line is selected,
it may be added to the current file request by selecting 'FREQ
selection' from the 'Textfile' menu, or (when the text file window is
the top window) pressing Return. To deselect a line, click on it a
second time.
There is also a faster way to FREQ a line from a text file -- Just
double click on it. :]
You can search for strings inside the text file. When a string is
found, the line that it is on becomes the 'selected' line. You may
choose between case-sensitive and case-insensitive searches.
Nodelist dearchiver
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Once set up, the nodelist dearchiver system lets you unpack all your
new nodelists with a few mouseclicks. You need to set up entries in
the "Archiver configuration" dialogue for each archiver used to depack
nodelists. You must specify:
1. A name for the archiver (which you will use to refer to it later.)
2. The full pathname. (Path and filename.)
3. The command line that will be passed to it.
The command line can (and should) contain the special strings %% and
&&. Where %% is used, the name of the archive being depacked will be
inserted. Where && is used, the destination path for depacked files
(the path of your nodelist folder) will be inserted. Some example
archiver configurations:
Name Pathname Parameter
Zipper C:\UTIL\ZIPJR.TTP -x %% && *.*
LHA C:\UTIL\LHARC.TTP x %% && *.* m
Arc v6 C:\UTIL\ARC.TTP x %% &&*.*
Note that Zip requires you to seperate the destination path (&&) from
the file specification. (*.*)
When you have set up your archivers, you can go on to set up your
nodelists. For each nodelist you must specify a name (for your own
purposes), an archive file specification, and the archiver used to depack the
nodelists. Unlike the archiver configuration, the number of nodelists
is not fixed, hence you must use the "Add" and "Delete" buttons to
change the number of nodelists. Some example nodelist configurations:
Name Filespec Archiver
Fidonet R25 REGION25.A?? Arc v6
Nest NESTLIST.Z* Zipper
Turbonet TNETLIST.Z* Zipper
When you have set everything up, make sure you save your
configuration. Clicking on "Scan inbound" will now depack all the
inbound nodelists, and may also delete the nodelist archive afterwards
if you have selected that option in the general configuration
dialogue. Afterwards, Mr Pointy will activate the nodelist deleter (to
remove any unwanted nodelists) and finally it will execute your
nodelist compiler if there were any new nodelists depacked.
Nodelist deleter
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Once this is configured you can select "Scan nodelists" and all
out-of-date nodelists in the nodelist folder will be deleted. In the
nodelist deleter configuration (not to be confused with the system
discussed in the previous section) you can set up varius nodelists.
For each one you must enter the filename, substituting %% for the
three-digit issue-number given to all fidonet-compatible nodelists.
For example, if the NeST nodelists you receive are called
NESTLIST.053, NESTLIST.060, NESTLIST.067, etc, you should enter
NESTLIST.%% as the filename.
When you click on Scan nodelists, the Mr Pointy will search for
nodelists with higher issue-numbers than others of the same type. It
will then delete the older nodelist. If you have turned on the "Query
before deleting nodelists" option in the General configuration
dialogue, the program will ask before deleting the nodelist files.
Mr Pointy will always make an educated guess to decide which of two
nodelists is the older. When it cannot be certain if a nodelist is
old or new, it will force you to decide by way of the alert box query.
There will be an extra button on this alert labelled 'Swap' which
switches the two files around, allowing you to delete one or the
other.
Notes
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This program is BlobbyWare. You are free to use the program on the
condition that you will send me a netmail and say what improvements
you'd like to see in the program. If you can't think of any changes
you would like, just say hello! If you like the program, tell me, and
if you don't like it, give me some reasons and maybe I can improve Mr
Pointy to match your requirements. :]
Bug reports are also welcome, be sure to tell me your AES version.
Thanks to the following people who have helped with Mr Pointy. (Some
without realising it! :}) Martin Maisey, Kevin Osborne, Robert
Darling, Colin Huxted, Evan Langlois, Mark Baines.
Netmail addresses: 90:104/100.3@nest.ftn
51:504/1.3@atarinet.ftn
100:1012/0.1@turbonet.ftn
2:254/80.42@fidonet.org
Future improvements
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Mini desktop: You'll be able to drag names of a commonly-used files
onto names of commonly used programs, and Mr Pointy will execute the
program with the file as a parameter. You set up AREAS.BBS,
BINKLEY.CFG, IOSMAIL.CFG, BINKLEY.LOG, filelists, etc as your
commonly-used datafiles and a text editor and text viewer as your
often-used programs.
Management of AREAS.BBS. Automatic areafixing in/out of areas. :]
Send me your ideas!
Known problems
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Searching text files is a little slow. I'll be adding an assembler
search routine later.
Scrolling the window using the cursor keys results in some problems
with the fast-scroll mode. Scrolling works fine with the mouse so I
won't bother fixing this problem for the moment.
Minor problem in the nodelist dearchiver configuration dialogue... You
won't notice it... I hope :]
Programers!
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My GFA Basic window manager is available on request. It is powerful,
flexible, and is certainly not for the beginner. Once you've started
using it in a project, adding new forms and features is VERY easy!
There is no documentation, but the source to Mr Pointy will be
provided. Ask for more info if you're interested.
Version History
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1.10 First fully-GEMed version
1.11 Fixed redraw problems, fixed double-click file request
problems, added help screen, added "Run other" option.
Windows now scroll nicely if when they are completely
visible.
Improved text viewer. Foreign ASCII formats and tabs
are now fully supported. You can now set the tab size
in the font selector window, and you can also set a
default tab size.
Mr Pointy should still work well in 40-column modes.
1.12 Added two completely new systems, the nodelist
dearchiver and the nodelist deleter. I was getting
pissed off with the number of nodelists I have to
depack manually and this is the solution.
Change to main dialogue -- Program 'Scan' has now been
replaced with 'NL Compiler', short for 'Nodelist
Compiler'. This program is automatically executed after
the user selects 'Scan inbound'.
You can specify the filespec of textfile(s) to load on
Mr Pointy's command line. They/It will load
automatically. Mr Pointy makes a handy text viewer. :}