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Text File | 1996-04-02 | 22.6 KB | 455 lines

CATNEWS! - A cool Newsletter Generator for Wildcat! v4.x/v3.x BBS's. Creates a "VGA Looking" ANSI/RIP Newsletter for your users. Written by: William Mantz April 1994 Now Supports the RIP Graphics Protocol!! Catnews! Copyright(C) 1994 William Mantz II All rights reserved. Why CatNews! ???? On my BBS I always had the problem of keeping everyone current using the Mail system. This was because that when you leave mail to everyone, it doesn't tag it for Personal Mail the way personal mail is left. And, many of my users were missing out on important changes that I was making in the moonlite hours. Wouldn't it be great to have a utility that would add on to the newsletter so users could scroll thru from date to date. (I know there are some out there that have accomplished this already by means of another way), however, CatNews! makes it real easy with it's built in editor right in the Newsletter. The Newsletter consists of a Banner with your BBS name and the Date, followed by the News that you enter in the Built in Editor. NOW with v5, CATNEWS.WCX will format the data for the CATNEWS.EXE program. The WCX program can even create the NEWSLETTER remotely if you needed it too. CATNEWS.WCX calls the internal WILDCAT! editor so you get all the functions usually available in the Message FULL Screen Editor. CATNEWS.WCX will then run the CATNEWS.EXE program which actually creates the NEWSLETTER. The DOS System Date is Read in automatically and placed in the Newsletter for you. Real EASY, REAL Simple, that is why Most WC! sysops today are using CatNews! SETUP is real Simple! ---------------------- 1) Copy CATNEWS.EXE, CATNEWS.CFG and CATNEWS.HLP to your WC home directory. Usually this is the \wc30 or \WC40 directory. But just as long as all the files are in the same directory you will be fine. 2) Edit the CATNEWS.CFG file. Line 1: Your First and Last Name (NOT THE BBS NAME, Your Name!) Line 2: Complete drive and Path, and Name to NEWSLTR.BBS Line 3: Complete Drive and Path, and Name to NEWSLTR.RIP Line 4: Your Registration Code which Enables RIP support and disables any Registration Beg screens. Line 5: Number of Newsletters to KEEP or 0 to keep all. * The number entered in line 5 will KEEP that amount of Newsltrs when it reads in the old Newsltr (providing you dont select Delete the Old Newsltr in the program). For Example: If you have a 4 on LINE 5 of the .CFG file, Catnews will place your latest Newsltr first, then read in 5 more Newletters from the old Newlstr.BBS file. This saves your Newsltr from getting to old. If you want all your Newsletters read in, then put a 0 on line 5 to KEEP all. Placing a 0 (zero) on this line has Catnews! working the way it always had. YOU MUST SET THIS VALUE IF YOU INTEND TO USE THE CATNEWS.WCX interface Program to Catnews! v5 Documentation Page 2 CATNEWS.EXE! It is the only way to keep your newsletters from getting too large. * NOTE! The KeyCode Matches your LINE 1 Name CASE SENSITIVE! Example CATNEWS.CFG -------------------------------------------------------------- William Mantz C:\WC30\DISP\NEWSLTR.BBS or C:\WC40\DISP\NEWSLTR.BBS C:\WC30\DISP\NEWSLTR.RIP C:\WC40\DISP\NEWSLTR.RIP 1234AAAAA or C:\WILDCAT\DISP\...... if used as an example..... ---->>> Make A BACKUP of your NEWSLTR.BBS the first time you run this program. Play it safe!!! Just to make sure it works fine. NEWSLTR.BBS should be in the \WC30\DISP directory. If you don't have a newsletter already, CatNews! will create it! 3) If you are running Wildcat! V4.0x or Better and want to use the new wcCODE CATNEWS Interface program (CATNEWS.WCX) Copy that in the same directory as your CATNEWS.EXE program files. RUN MAKEMENU from the Wildcat Home directory and add this wcCODE program to your Sysop Menu. I chose number 3, but you can pick any open letter or number in MAKEMENU to run this program. IF YOU USE THE WCX to create the News, you dont need to do step 4 below. 4) DROP to DOS and Run CATNEWS from the Home directory. It should display a welcome screen followed by the Header of the Newsletter which contains the Dos Date and a full screen Editor for your Text. * * * * P L E A S E R E A D * * * * Notes about EDITING. I wrote this small editor in here and was not sure how to do a word wrap at the end of each line. So it does NOT word wrap! Sorry! Just watch what you type when you get towards the end. 2nd! Dont PUT ANY wildcat! @ CODES @ IN YOUR newsletter! The Newsletter created makes a full screen "VGA LOOKING" newsletter for your viewers. I have carefully mapped this page out for your callers at 24 lines per page. Pressing ESC will abort and NOT save, Press F4 to Save and continue. 3rd Delete the Old Newsletter? will appear. [Default is NO on Enter] The program will put the Latest information first, then read in the Old NEWSLTR.BBS and append it to the bottom. You do NOT need to delete the OLD NEWSLTR.BBS unless you want a Fresh Newsletter with just the text file you created in it. If CATNEWS! can't find the old NEWSLTR.BBS it will prompt you if it actually exists or not. *** Please note! If you use the NEW CATNEWS.WCX interface program, you will be using the internal editor built into the wcx, not the editor in Catnews.EXE. CATNEWS.EXE is called from CATNEWS.WCX and will create the newsletter from the information provided by CATNEWS.WCX. It will automatically append the newsletter. It will never delete the old one, Catnews! v5 Documentation Page 3 so setting the AUTOTRIM function in the CATNEWS.CFG file is very important if you use the WCX program to run CATNEWS. 5) Log on locally and check to see if your Newsletter made it ok! It should even prompt you to tell you that it was updated, Do you want to view the newsletter [Y] ? RIP Graphics Support!! Well, I am not too familiar with RIP graphics. However, I did manage to create a CATNEWS! Border for the Wildcat! Newsletter. It does look really good when combined with the VGA LOOK of the Newsletter. I have included a sample NEWSLTR.RIP for you to view if you can put it in temporarily and login with RIP. NOTE! The Evaluation copy has the RIP Generation disabled. RIP Generation is enabled in the REGISTERED copy only. Sorry. ** Don't Like my CATNEWS! Wildcat RIP BORDER, Create your Own... ** I did create the possibility that you would know more about RIP graphics than I, so Catnews! looks in the directory for a header called CATNEWS.RIP. If it exists it will import this instead of using the default border I used. A freind of mine created a BORDER Screen that looks like a TV Set. It has a TV Set appearance and a Large Text window. So he can use that! Using a program called RIP-PAINT you can design your own borders for Catnews! All you have to do is save it as CATNEWS.RIP and place it along with CATNEWS.EXE in the directory! Catnews Will import it when it makes the Newsletter! If that is too fancy... The Catnews program will use a default border around the Newsletter. No big deal! Your BORDER MUST HAVE a LARGE Text Window in it for CATNEWS to write the NEWSLETTER in. 80x24 lines. Make sure you have a Large Text Win. REGISTRATION!!!! Well, I know what you are gonna say. Catnews! V2.1 was FREEWARE, now Shareware for version 3.0? All I can say is if you like 2.1, you can still use it absolutely free. However, If you use this New version You must register it with me after a 15 day evaluation period or remove it from your Hard Drive to remain legal with the Copyright laws. I have spent a great deal of time writing this program in C with a Graphical Interface/Editor and am asking a fee of $15.00 plus $5.00 handling ($20.00 US) and you get your Key Code plus a Disk in the mail with the latest version on it. If you call my BBS and use my ONLINE charge Door (CatCharge!) you can purchase your item using your Credit Card or your Own CHECK by using the ONLINE CHECK feature. If you Order ONLINE, I can provide faster service by placing your Key Code in a Private Mail message in about 48 hours after your order. (Orders ONLINE are Purchased from Dragon Business Services, INC). PLEASE NOTE! Maddog Productions DOES NOT Charge for Upgrades of any of it's products. Once you Register a product, Your KEY CODE will work with future releases providing the key is not circulated against the registration agreement. Your KEY CODE is valid for 1 computer/BBS of Catnews! v5 Documentation Page 4 the person registering. I also mail a Disk and a letter with this information for the Price stated above. Here is what Registration will entitle you to. * You will recieve the Registration Code that Matches your name which will remove any of the UNREGISTERED Beg screens that are in the program and ENABLE the RIP Generation or NEWSLTR.RIP per Line 3 of CATNEWS.CFG file. * You will recieve a 5¼ or 3½ in floppy disk containing the latest copy I have in the mail. This is a 1 time mailing. Please note: While there is no fee to future upgrades, you will not be getting upgrades in the mail as they come out. You can obtain the latest and greatest (if there is one) thru My support BBS or MSI HQ BBS. I am only guaranteeing the Key CODE to your name as the REGISTRATION item which will be good on future versions. You can FREQ CATNEWS at any time from my BBS. * Your Key Code will be valid for future versions of CATNEWS! as they come out. * Product support! Well Product support is good for REGISTERED as well as UNREGISTERED Users.. How would ya expect someone to register your program if they cant get it working right? Just fill out the ORDER.FRM and mail a check for $20.00 US made out to: William Mantz 213 East Third Street Lansdale, PA 19446 (Credit Card Orders and ONLINE Check Orders with your Check can be Handled ONLINE ONLY on my BBS! This is handled by Dragon Business Services Inc.) The Online Ordering Door will provide details when you enter it. OK Other Disclaimers! ********************** This program is being offered "AS IS" and does not carry any guarantee or warranty of any kind. Quite simply, You use it at your own risk. To safegaurd any system, you should make backups of your storage devices on a regular and timely basis. I have taken EVERY Precaution in this program including a BUILT-IN HACK Check for Virus additions or hackers. I guarantee Nothing and can not be held responsible for the use or mis-use of the program. The Source Code Sorry, the Source code for CatNews is not being distributed. I have worked many hours on my programs and this guarantees me that the program's integrity is not altered in any way. Catnews! v5 Documentation Page 5 CALL FOR SUPPORT ON MY OWN BBS!!!!! You can get the Latest version of PRINT2 or CATNEWS from my own BBS: MADDOG PRODUCTIONS BBS running Wildcat! (of course!) 24hours Lansdale, Pennsylvania (215) 855-4621 2400 to 28.8k HST USRobotics Also, You can leave me Mail on the WC HQ BBS in Bakersfield, CA. or for you FidoNet Users!!! My Node number is 1:2614/716 Another fine program from... ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░ ░ ░ +++++++++++++++++ Maddog Productions BBS +++++++++++++++++++ ░█ ░ 24 Hours A Wildcat! BBS Over 60,000 Files ░█ ░ Latest Software (215) 855-4621 Node 1 using a CD-ROM ░█ ░ Lansdale, PA (215) 855-1028 Node 2 Rotation System ░█ ░ 2400 to 28.8k USRobotics HST and 440 Meg HD! ░█ ░ 2400 to 14.4k USRobotics Sportster ░█ ░ for IBM Compatible Computers ░█ ░ ░█ ░ FidoNet 1:2614/716 ▀▄▀▄ RaceNet/United Net 7223:2200/1 ░█ ░ Race Fans! Check us OUT! ▀▄▀▄ NASCAR & Motor Sports NET! ░█ ░ ░█ ░ Internet: william.mantz@f716.n2614.z1.fidonet.org ░█ ░ Programming, Utilities, Database, Publishing, Hobby, Games, Gifs ░█ ░ C Programs, BASIC, Fortran, PASCAL, Assembler, UNIX, ADA Libraries ░█ ░ Large BRE Netted Game in USA! TradeWars and L.O.R.D. Reg. ░█ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░█ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ "Home of the CDROM Rotation System!" - Rotating popular shareware discs! Check out my other Fine PROGRAMS! FREQ PRINT2 from Maddog Productions! Print2 = A 2 column LaserJet, DeskJet, or Dot Matrix print utility. Great for Printing the ALLFILES.LSTs or CDROM ALLFILES.LST and shareware documentation. SAVES %50 of your paper. Creates BINDER Ready Output. FREEWARE!!!! CatCharge! - wcCODE V4x ONLINE ORDER DOOR! with Credit Card, Tabs and Checks ONLINE Features! See my file PROGRAMS.TXT for more information about Maddog Products. Credits! WILDCAT! Copyright (c) Mustang Software Inc. 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994 Thanks to Bryan Henderson of IronHead BBS in Columbus Ohio for all his Great C support and Help... Without other C programmers, Where would we be! C is a tough language some times, and My Wife knows when I am programming in it from the language that filters up the stairs..... So yes... That is why it is shareware. <g> Graphics & Catnews! v5 Documentation Page 6 Windows is a all new ball game. Error Codes .... If you recieve an Error code in the program. Write it down and crash mail me the code with an explanation of what the program tried to do. BUT BEFORE you CRASH MAIL Me, Check 1) that you are running CATNEWS from the Same direcotory that CATNEWS.CFG is in. 2) that CATNEWS.CFG is edited correctly. (Top 4 lines per instructions). 3) That you tried it again. NOTE that the EVALUATION COPY will NOT Genereate the NEWSLTR.RIP Bulletin. That is a REGISTERED FEATURE ONLY! Here is another Code you may See which is a Check for Virus's or Hack. * Error PROGRAM INTEGRITY Violation - - Program hacked! If you encounter a message like this, it means the integrity of the program has been altered in some way. I read the CATNEWS.EXE back to make sure it was not "hacked" or had some additonal code added to it the way a Virus does. Also, You will encounter this error message if you just recently used a file compressor on it like DIET or PKLITE. Just expand it again and it should work fine. Sorry, Cant Compress it, and the program will not run if virus adds itself to it either. The Program will NOT run if even 1 Byte changes from original. Some Hack protection! * ERROR when the CATNEWS.WCX shells out to run CATNEWS.EXE.. The NEWSLETTER is NOT being created. RED SCREEN APPEARS with a siren. This is probably due to a couple of problems. Mainly, the possibility that CATNEWS.EXE or its config file exists somewhere else on the HARD Drive. OR The CONFIG file is specifying a wrong path and file name for each of the values. REMEMBER! The CATNEWS.CFG MUST have 5 lines filled out at the TOP. See above. An error like this means that Catnews! is having trouble locating the Newsletter, or the File that CATNEWS.WCX creates with the editor. Make SURE you have the CATNEWS.EXE CATNEWS.HLP, CATNEWS.WCX, and CATNEWS.CFG all in the same directory. Wildcat! Test Drive THIS PROGRAM DOES NOT WORK with the Wildcat! Test drive. The Test drive version does NOT use the @codes@ that WC Commercial version uses. If you are running Test Drive, you can try BBSNews! which outputs the ANSI Codes. BBSNews can be downloaded from my BBS. ---- History of Catnews!!! ------- v5.0 Release of the new CATNEWS.WCX which is an interface program from the WILDCAT! Menu to the CATNEWS.EXE Program. CATNEWS.WCX actually runs the CATNEWS.EXE and features the internal editor used by Wildcat! v4.8 Changed 1 Header File to be more consistent with the others. Made the Text larger of the header. Catnews! v5 Documentation Page 7 v4.7 Small bug fix, that may have not even been noticed. If you made a multipage newsletter and saved the first page, then changed your mind and HIT ESC on the second page. When you would re-create the next newsletter, the aborted first page would have shown up. This is fixed. The Auto-Trim feature in v4.6 seems to work pretty good! I have mine set at 3, which keeps the Present Newsletter, plus the latest 3 below that. See Below. v4.6 Added a New FEATURE that will save X amount of Newsltrs you specify in the .CFG file. This way you dont have to manually delete the old newsltrs with an editor. v4.5 Re-Compiled the Program with BIOS Screen Writes. Some users were reporting the program was putting Drive\path information in the Program and in the NEWLSTR. Not sure why, but I recompiled it Fresh. V4.4 was a BETA test and Not Released or distributed. v4.3 NetWork users kept getting a Command Line error when catnews started. This is fixed. Catnews or CATNEWS /Q is the only accepted line. v4.2 A few Users requested that I add the option of Adding an additional page when you completed one. So now, in addition to the F4 to Save, there is a PgDn key option to Save and bring up another Page. This will continue until you actually Finish with the F4 key. Here are the Editor Options. F4 - Saves and Finishes the Newsletter. ESC - Quits without saving. PgDn - Saves current page, and Brings up a new blank page to edit. *** Sound a Problem? *** I added a /Q Command Line switch to Disable sounds. To disable Sound, start Catnews with a /Q Ex. CATNEWS /Q v4.1 3 different Headers are added to the Catnews! v4.1 The Header will change from the standard one when News is APPENDED to the OLD news. This results in a change of "look" when the Next date comes up. As soon as CATNEWS! Reads in the OLD Newsletter, it will Read the old Header, and Change to a New Header for the Current News. There are now 3 different Catnews! Headers that will show as your Newsletter Gets longer. When only 1 newsletter is created with 1 date, the Standard Catnews Header is used. As you Add to the Newsletter, the Header will rotate for each date. ***NOTE!!! The HEADER of the NEWSLETTER will only change on FUTURE newsletters you Enter. I don't touch the newsletters that you already have written, (meaning previous dates). As you add onto the NEWLETTER by Selecting [N]o Deletion, it will change the header of the Current Newsletter. As you use Catnews!, you will see the Newsletter Header is changing from 1, 2, and 3. 1, 2, and 3 providing that you would never delete the Old News. v4.0 Release for Compatibility for WC4.x and WC3.x Versions. NOTE! Catnews Catnews! v5 Documentation Page 8 will NOT work with the TEST DRIVE Version as this uses WC @CODES@. BBSNews will work for the TEST DRIVE Version as it uses ANSI Codes. Small Fix for RIP Screen display that may have gone un-noticed. v3.3 Cleaned up the Sound Effects and Rip Screen a bit. No other change. FidoNet Address changed to 1:2614/716 FREQ' CATNEWS for latest at any time. v3.2 No difference in the Results of the Program. However, this release is just a clean release to keep the version number straight. v3.1 was renamed to v3.2 for clean release. v3.0 Well. Version 3.0 now has a full feature full screen Editor that lets you Edit the actual Newsletter. The Newsletter created has a "VGA Look and Feel" to it and the new window interface lets you create the newsletter on the fly. CatNews v3.0 is Now shareware and can be used or evaluated for 15 days. After that period, you must either register it with me or delete it from your hard disk. Only $15.00 US. Credit Card Door ONLINE at Maddog Productions. I have written CatCharge, an online credit card ordering door for users to register the shareware or the BBS subscriptions. For fast service of your Key Code, You can Register ONLINE and in about 48 hours I will have your Key Code waiting for you in the Email section of the Private Mail Conference. The cost is $15.00 US + $5.00 for Handling. ********* You should have printed this Documentation with PRINT2 ********* FREQ PRINT2 from 1:2614/716 Maddog Productions BBS!