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██ ██ ██████▄ ██████▄ ▄█████▄ ███████ ▄██████ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄██ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄██ ▐█▌ ██▄▄▄▄ ██ ██ ██▀▀▀▀ ██ ██ ██▀▀▀██ ▐█▌ ██▀▀▀▀ ▀█████▀ ██ ██████▀ ██ ██ ▐█▌ ▀██████ A History of the changes made to KBBS, starting with version Z.1816 (C) Copyright 1995, 1996 Anderson Research 2.20Z.20N Test release (internal compile number 28788) --------- LOOK/FEEL More changes have been made to make the interface more consistent around the sysop utilties generally. MULTITASKING/LOW LEVEL Several additions and fixes to memory, thread and stack handling have been made in this addition to make KBBS less memory hungry and more reliable. This represents the majority of the work for this release, although the actual modifications will not be listed here. The minimum number of concurrent threads will now be 7 instead of 4. We have found that less than 7 creates too much of a demand on the stack and crashes occur, and 7 will still run pretty efficiently on systems with less than 500K of conventional memory as long as there is EMS or XMS memory available. The background events are now configurable individually in the Setup, Nodes, Multitasker setup screen. CONFERENCE ISSUES The ALT-I in the QWK Network setup will now import from anywhere. DOORS The lockup when adding new doors has been fixed. EVENTS The event schedules will no longer fill up with empty schedule times when you ALT-I to initialize them. Other problems related to event execution have been fixed. FTS SUPPORT Due to the problems in getting this release out, TIC Hub support will follow in the next release. (Booo hisss) The ALT-I area import works now. MENUS In the menu tree, Dynamic menu settings, the "Use color settings below" toggle was reversed... now fixed. If you're having some strange problems with colors, look for this toggle and make sure your colors are what you want them to be. Some problems in the sysop utilities menus have been fixed. RING DETECTION More adjustments have been made for ring detection for RingMaster and distinctive ring systems. SEQ ISSUES The REFRESHFILE() command now works properly. NEW SEQ COMMANDS WRITEFILELIST command Files ======================================================= Purpose Creates a file list Syntax WRITENEWFILELIST( <fileindex>,<handle>,<level>,<control>); Remarks <fileindex> is of type filename, <handle> is a variable of type integer, <level> is of type byte, <control> is of type integer Outputs a files list of the file index <fileindex>, writing it to a text file, opened by one of the OPENTEXT... commands using <handle>. The files scanned are based on <level>-- only subjects and files within those subjects that may be accessed by the specified security level will be listed. <control> is bitmapped (32 bit) control variable that will be used to turn on and off various list features in a future version. In the current edition, the list will be structured as follows: Files and subjects listed in the main (root) subject ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Subject header including description │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Files and [subjects] listed in the above subject and so forth. Note that NO header is placed at the beginning-- this is left up to the programmer. No status is displayed while the file list is being created. Restrictions This command is ignored if the file <handle> is not open and ready for writing. See Also SCANNEWFILEDATE, SCANNEWFILES, WRITENEWFILELIST 2.20Z.20M Test release (internal compile number 28556) --------- MEMORY/LOW LEVEL ... another test to see if lockup and slowdown problems that existed on Hal Holland's machine are solved. They appear to be solved here. STACK checking has been enabled in this version, which slows things down about 5% but will allow us to find out where the stack crashing is occurring. INTERFACE ISSUES Major changes everywhere toward making the interface more consistent. Now you have to press F10 everywhere to save the screen, but you can also abort everything in case you make a mistake. In the "low cost dialing hours" and "pager schedule" the Every Day option now displays correctly in the picklist. It was displaying as Saturday. INTERNODE The indernode command SHUTDOWN _REALLY_ leaves the phone off the hook now... (I know-- this has been listed as fixed several times now, but I think we got it this time) COMMUNICATIONS We have switched the INIT and HANGUP code in the recycle process for a more intelligent way to manage the modem on recycle. (Gee... why didn't we think of this before...) FTS ISSUES The TIC importer now properly puts files OFFLINE as defined in the setups. The "Picture" bit will now be set properly in inbound TIC files that aren't processed by the upload processor. COMMAND LINE The command line parameter, COMPILENODELISTS, will now work, in addition to COMPILENODELIST. 2.20Z.20K Bug fix release (internal compile number 28438) --------- PLEASE NOTE We're soon going to go back to the daily UPGRADE versions for registered sysops, so we're going to start using our internal compile number. It will now appear at the top of your ERROR.LOG, and will help us to know exactly which version you are running. FIXES When running KBBSUTIL directly, the ALT-F1 and F1 (help) keys work properly. Event problems have been fixed. (Funny thing-- the problem would only manifest itself during the first 7 days of the month...) The SHUTDOWN NODE internode command will now leave the phone off hook if using the offhook option. FTS fixes: echomail packets attached to netmail messages will now be tossed properly, and non-echomail packets will be attached properly and not processed into the misc file subject. The TIC processor should now save and process incoming TIC's safely regardless of the existance of paths defined in the file subjects. The problem of "Minimum Age" settings to 115 years in file subjects has been solved... 2.20Z.20j test release --------- WHAT IS NOT IN THIS RELEASE After struggling this month with bugs, illness, family problems and whatever else fate could dish out, we're just happy to get this release out. We'll be doubling our efforts during the month of February to get through the rest of the enormous TODO list. The following were NOT included in this release, although they are coded and ready to be added this coming week: - support for Hubs and TIC files (right now it just processes them, but you can't hatch them... this is on the top of the list for Monday) - KBBSMENU problem fixes - RIP fixes - some SEQ addition requests LANGUAGE ISSUES We ended up doing a last minute reconstruction of the way we maintain setup files-- a major rewrite that forced us offline for about 2 days due to being half-upgraded. We're now ready to go through and add language/prompt editing support, which should be part of the next release. NEW KERNEL CODING After bashing our heads over a file corruption problem for the last week, we found the problem to be in the multitasking kernel and had to do a major re-think and re-write of a significant portion of that code. The benefits of this are faster execution, faster virtual memory access, and one additional step towards a 32 bit OS/2 and Win9x version. This version should also run on systems with restricted conventional memory. With all of the hammering on this version over the last month, we believe this version to be the most stable KBBS we've released to date. Field testing will be the truthteller on this one. TICK FILE SUPPORT BE SURE to go through all of the menus in the SETUP section of the new KBBS Fido menu... you'll see a few additional options that weren't there before. New documentation to support the changes will be out shortly. We have written and rewritten TICK support in KBBS so many times.. we have now come up with what we believe is the way to do this effortlessly (on the part of the sysop) in KBBS. * SETTING UP TIC SUPPORT in the KBBS Fidonet menu 1. Areas, TIC AREAS Here you must define all of the TIC area names and the file index and subject you in which files marked with the specified TIC area are to be placed. You may also define the fields used in the file index: Minimum Age, Hidden if no access, Security Levels, online/offline and whether or not to use the upload processor on incoming files. Currently, TIC files received without a password or with an incorrect password are still placed in their index/subject and placed offline. 2. Areas, UNDEFINED TICS (also found in the Fidonet Setup menu) This is similar to echomail's TRASHCAN--files with unrecognized TIC area names are processed according to these settings. It is recommended that the sysop deny access to these files until they can be reviewed for content before placing them online for general download. 3. Areas, INBOUND FILES (also found in the Fidonet Setup menu) This is for receiving non-TIC and non-mail files. Previously these files were placed in a NEWFILES directory, but are now placed in a selected file index and subject. This setup is identical to the Areas, UNDEFINED TICS above. NOTE: receive only support in this test version We have the code written for HUB .TIC support (hatching, etc.) but were unable to resolve a few bugs prior to this release. Documentation for the new Fidonet menu and a complete Send/Receive TIC support will be released shortly. SYSOP UTILITIES More restructuring has been done to the sysop utilities menu (this will be an ongoing process until we arrive to something that everyone likes). The DOS SHELL, LOCAL LOGIN, PROGRAM and EVENTS are now all activated by the ALT-F1 hotkey from ANYWHERE in the sysop menu! Hence, they have all been removed from the main menu. KBBSMENU AND HIGHLIGHT BARS A bug that caused KBBSMENU to ignore a field with an @end@ at the very end of a line has been fixed. A bug that failed to read the grid rows/columns properly has been fixed. The highlight bar support has now been properly fixed to support 8 columns both dynamically and ANSI sysop defined. USER AND SECURITY ISSUES Remember the old Re-serialize utility that would make everyone get their own mail on the next mailrun? That utility has been upgraded to NOT force everyone to get their own mail by quickly locating any dupe serial numbers in the user database and assigning new numbers to just those only. It is now named "SERIAL DUPE CHECK" and is found in the Users menu. This utility is automatically executed when you upgrade to this version. The error that occurred on some systems upon entry of the security level setup has been fixed. Security level changing based on ratios has been FIXED! (Really has this time, folks) You now have control over whether or not to force ratios, change levels based on ratios, or turn them off completely. Specific data about the security level change will now be logged so you can tell why KBBS changed the user's level. COMPLETE REWRITE: Expiration date based security level changing has been rewritten along with the ratio changing code, and it's now completely functional and configurable. See the new H2LEVEL2.ZIP documentation clip file for tech notes on how the security levels work. EVENTS, TIME AND SCHEDULES In all of the "Click" type schedules (pager times, etc) a new option "Every Day" has been added to the "Day" field, and the time is now handled as start-stop rather than start-duration. Events have been restructured to have multiple schedules per event setup. A "Crash" zone may be defined for each schedule so that if a system is down for a period of time without running events, you have control over what events may still execute at that later time. Events will no longer cause lockups if the system date changes, or lockups at midnight. New event types: * execution of SEQ programs * rebuilding of Ksearch file index LOW LEVEL ISSUES To handle a file-open bug found in both Windows'95 and some peer-to-peer networking software, we added special handling for read-only files in these environments. The Console Screen Editor has been fixed so it doesn't lockup or do thousands of print-screens, etc. (The stack was being relocated to the overlay buffer memory.) If a compiled .SEQ is corrupt, KBBS will now tell you which one, rather than just the location (i.e. SEQ Command Fault) KBBS will now detect and handle personal mail waiting flag problems (i.e. corrupted flags, duplicate conferences in notifications, etc). FILE AREA A new key, ALT-Q, allows Quick changing of various fields in the file records. You can now tag a bunch of files and change their security levels, minimum age requirements, etc. The ALT-T key while highlighted on the very last (blank) entry in the current subject will no longer delete the last item in the subject and put a blank file entry at the beginning. The underscore, hyphen and apostrophe have been added to the key sensitivity of Ksearch file indexes. An age restriction field has been added to both file subjects and files themselves. "Hidden if no access" has been added to files. Because these are toggles that are most conveniently set when the file is added to the system, the upload setup, TIC area setup and file import screens all have these fields as well. NOTE: this part still has some work left to go. For example, in a file search, hidden/noaccess files aren't displayed, but they are counted in the total files found. Because of the new "Hidden if no access" toggle, files that users cannot access will now show up in the new files search if they don't have access to it and the toggle is set to DISABLE. Upload subject now has two sets of security fields: who may upload to the subject itself, and what security is assigned to files uploaded to that subject. You may enable/disable the upload processor on an upload subject level. This also applies to TIC file support. FIDONET SUPPORT A bug that caused all nodes to execute a single FTS queue event has been fixed. A command line parameter has been added to compile the FTS nodelists: KBBS COMPILENODELISTS Type KBBS /? for help on all command line parameters. If a corrupt packet is handed to the message tosser, it won't lockup anymore. COLORS A toggle "Use color settings below" has been added to the menu tree "Menu" type, so the defaults may be used if desired. COMMUNICATIONS The hangup after recycle is a little more solid in this release. SEQ ISSUES The PACKETWAITING function is properly returning a BYTE result of 0 if no packet is waiting to be received, and the number of the sending node if a packet is waiting to be received. In all of our tests this is now working as it's supposed to be. (Note, the command originally returned a boolean result) SEQ COMMAND AND FUNCTION ADDITIONS GETMESSLINE( <linenum> ):string (function) <linenum> is of type integer. This command retrieves individual lines from the current message in the message buffer. The first line is line 1. If <linenum> is greater than the last line in the message, the global status variable RESULT will be set to 1, otherwise RESULT will be set to 0. The carriage return at the end of each line (soft or hard) is not included in the result. DELETETEXT( <startline>, <endline> ); Both parameters are of type integer. This command deletes the lines starting at line number <startline> up to and including line number <endline>. If <startline> is greater than <endline> then this command is ignored. The first line in a message is considered line 1. If <endline> is beyond the end of the message, the lines from <startline> to the end of the message will be deleted. (see INSERTTEXT for a command to insert text into a message) REFRESHFILE( <index>, <filename> ); <index> and <filename> are of any string type. This command performs the same function as ALT-R in the file utilities-- it reads the current information about the file <filename> in the file index <index>, updating the file size and date in the file index. It also updates the description using the FILE_ID.DIZ or DESC.SDI within the file if it is an archive and such a file is contained within. Also, if any information changed about the file, the posted date is changed to the current date and time, and the the new-file indexes are updated. A value of 1 is returned in the global status variable RESULT if the specified file is not found in the specified index, otherwise RESULT is 0. 2.20Z.20i test release --------- NOTE FOR TESTERS: The way color configuration worked in earlier versions of 20H has been changed. A new DEFAULT COLOR SETTINGS has been added in Setup, Global that define the colors for the whole system, and a toggle in each menu selection defines whether to use the default or additional definitions in that selection. If you were running an earlier version of 20H, this change will appear to have reverted your color changes back to default. Simple go into the menu tree and toggle on the "Use below colors" toggle. IMPORTANT LOW LEVEL STUFF The program launcher has been enhanced to give you more control over the amount of memory your programs require. The defaults everywhere are ALL memory, forcing KBBS to swap out and make available all conventional memory. You can now reduce this requirement for some programs that don't need it, which reduces the swapper resource requirements and shortens the time it takes to execute a program. An example of this is PKZIP and PKUNZIP which only use less than 200K if you have enough EMS/XMS memory, making a swap/allocation of the full 610K a waste of time. A new executable has been added, KBBSLOOP.EXE, that handles the dispatching from one module to the next, rather than the big modules having to swap themselves out to pass back and forth. This should result in less swapping time and sizes and give KBBS more memory to work with. This also elininated the benefit of having separate KBBSFIDO and KBBSFILE modules, so those are not integrated back into the old KBBSEXEC and KBBSUTIL sets. Recycle time should now be reduced because we have moved some of the recycle code into the KBBSLOOP module. ... update on this... we found we were creating a huge swap memory overhead problem by putting ALL of the startup code into KBBSLOOP. We're now compromising and although the recycle will be a little slower, the overall speed of the system should increase. MESSAGE EDITOR/VIEWER The color scheme for the message reader and editors is now definable in the Default Color Setup in Setup, Global. There is also a MESSPALETTE command, see below. Fixes to color inconsistency bugs in 20H are in this version. @ control codes are no longer converted while in the editor (it was impossible to edit before). EDIT SCREENS AND FIELDS The color scheme for the edit screens and fields is now defined in the Default Color Setup in Setup, Global. There is also an EDITPALETTE command, see below. SUBJECT TREES The conference letter/number issue has been fixed. Starting with the files section and then the rest of the subject tree lists, we have completely revamped the color displaying process to allow sysops to choose the color scheme completely. The color schemes are configured in the menu tree editor and with the LISTPALETTE command. Some bugs that caused the file tree to not fill the entire screen with subjects have been fixed. AT control codes will now work in tree subject (all), conference and door descriptions. FIDO SUPPORT The ALT-I (import RA/NA file) will now properly add the host address and tag chosen for adding conference names. The long conference name/description in the RA/NA is now used for the long conference name in conferences created by the ALT-I import function. A new indexing method is being used for the nodelist compiler, so you should recompile your nodelists when upgrading to this version. We have extended the detection wait time when receiving a call in order to respond to slower connecting modems. We WERE going to make the time a field in the modem setup but scrapped that for now. The toggle in the FTS user record that "combines packets" was disabled for the wrong state of the .PKT toggle. Fixed. The Enter Netmail option in the KBBSFido menu now saves the message as a normal message in the netmail conference which adds the "Normal" (routed) mail option and eliminates the truncated PKT problem Leonard is having (we HOPE). What seems like a simple fix ended up being a major rewrite to the KBBSFido structure, although not visibly different from before. The outbound dialer should now detect a BUSY more quickly. MENUS ANSI Highlight bar menus have been expanded to handle 8 columns of menu items instead of 4. The limit of rows is still 18. A new utility, KBBSMENU, can now be used to define the bars in an ANSI menu display file. See KBBSMENU.DOC for more information. Lots of minor fixes to the menus not listed here. A new field has been added to the menu tree to keep KBBS from clearing the screen before displaying the dynamic menu, allowing the option of special effects. This corresponds with the new NOCLS variable for use with the MENU() command. QWK IMPORT UTILITY The QWK import utility for setting up QWK/REP Networks is now accessed by pressing ALT-I while in the mapping setup. All bugs have been fixed in that area also, and major improvements to the speed of its operation now make it useful. Host conference name changes are now shown flashing in the picklist to make changing your mappings and conference names a breeze. FIXES AND ADDITIONS Another minor problem would cause a lost byte occasionally in the display file output routines... this has been fixed (this related to J.Scurran's RELNEWS.BBS sample with the color that wouldn't change to #8 properly). Time should now count down properly while users are in doors. KSearch indexes now contain the names of the files. Another minor rewrite to the outbound dialer should solve any remaining connect problems with some modems. Time shelled to an external program is no longer considered "idle" time by KBBS so that the user is kicked off immediate upon return. SEARCHBACKWARD and SEARCHFORWARD are now working properly and will search for text in messages. The SEQ set released with Z.21 will contain a MESSHEAD.SEQ that implements these commands. Execution of LOGOFF.SEQ will now leave the LASTCALL variable alone instead of setting it to a random or 0 value. The toggle in the door setup for "Ignore Errorlevel" was reversed and is now working properly. (i.e. Yes was actually No and vice versa) Highlight bar selections using the HOME and END keys wouldn't really be selected, now working right. The editor in the SEQ programming section will no longer stop on the error in column 65,000 or something like that. The Ksearch logic has been fixed so that when the first component of an AND results in no files found, the result is properly ANDed with the remaining components to result in 0 files (previously it would ignore it). SEQ FIXES AND CHANGES The EDITMESSAGE command will NOW edit the message in the current message buffer. A new EDITMSG.SEQ has been included with the full release and upgrade that reflect this addition. The READKEY and KEYPRESSED function now return a value in RESULT that specifies the source of the keypress: 0: none pressed (for Keypressed) 1: from Caller (across the modem) 2: from Console (the sysop keyboard) If a key is simulteneously pressed on the console and remote, priority is given to the keypress on the sysop console. Integer operations that would normally overflow the math co-processor's stack and result in an error 209 will now function properly (referring to Joshua Scurran's report of X:=BYTESLEFT*1024 when BYTESLEFT is a very high number). NEW SEQ VARIABLES NOCLS :boolean If FALSE, KBBS will send a Clear Screen before displaying an ANSI mode dynamic menu. If TRUE, KBBS will display the menu over the top of whatever is currently on the screen. This corresponds to the new field in the Menu Tree. USERLOGINSOUND :integer Returns the login sound defined in the user record LOGINSOUND: integer Returns the login sound defined for the current security level PAGEDURATION: integer Defines the pager duration for the remainder of the current session. Always set to 30 on startup of KBBS or when a user record is loaded (using one of the LOGIN types or LOADUSER/ NEXTUSER). The range is 0 to 9999 in seconds. This variable may not be used in edit fields since no direct pointer to this variable exists. NEW SEQ COMMANDS/FUNCTIONS SETNODESTATUS( <status>, <chatavail> ); <status> is a string, <chatavail> is of type boolean This sets the current node status string to <Status>. Set <chatavail> to TRUE if the user is able to chat, or FALSE during operations that would be interrupted by a chat request. MENUPALETTE... (See the syntax of this command below) All 0-7 values will now accept 0 to 15. Values 8-15 denote blinking attributes of the related foreground. EDITPALETTE( <c1>, <c2>, ... <c14>, <c15>, <c16> ); All 16 parameters are of type byte. NOTE: all 16 parameters are required! This command changes the color scheme used by all subsequent edit screens and fields. Unlike the MENUPALETTE command, all parameters in EDITPALETTE are in pairs of foreground and background. If a background parameter is above 7, the foreground will be in blinking mode. Parameter 15 defines the character used in the background filler. Parameter 16 is ignored but required. Foregr/ Backgr 1/2= Background filler 3/4= Title text 5/6= Normal text 7/8= Other text 9/10= Help text 11/12= Inactive field text 13/14= Active field text 15= ASCII number for background filler character 16= reserved LISTPALETTE( <c1>, <c2>, ... <c32> ); All 32 parameters are of type byte. NOTE: all 32 parameters are required! This command changes the color scheme used by all subsequent subject trees. This includes the Files, Conferences, Bulletins, Doors, ConferenceList (brief names) and other future areas. Unlike the MENUPALETTE command, all parameters in LISTPALETTE are in pairs of foreground and background. If a background parameter is above 7, the foreground will be in blinking mode. Foregr/ Backgr FILE SECTION BULLETINS CONF TREE DOORS 1/2= Title/ancestors (same) (same) (same) 3/4= Current subject (same) (same) (same) 5/6= Defaults/Separator (same) (same) (same) 7/8= Subject Selector (same) (same) (same) 9/10= Subject Text (same) (same) (same) 11/12= Subject Description (same) (same) (same) 13/14= File Selector Bull Slctr Conf Slctr Door Slctr 15/16= File name Bull Name Conf Name Door Name 17/18= File Size n/a n/a n/a 19/20= File Date n/a n/a n/a 21/22= File Desc, line 1 n/a Conf desc Door desc 23/24= File Desc, others n/a n/a n/a 25/26= Offline/free info n/a Co-sysop Mode info 27/28= Subject highlight (same) (same) (same) 29/30= File highlight Bull Hilt Conf hilt Door hilt 31/32= File other info n/a n/a n/a MESSPALETTE( <c1>, <c2>, ... <c32> ); All 32 parameters are of type byte. NOTE: all 32 parameters are required! This command changes the color scheme used by all subsequent message reading and editing. Foregr/ Backgr 1/2= Date label 3/4= Date 5/6= Time 7/8= Pvt/Ech/Rcd (message flags) 9/10= From Label 11/12= From name 13/14= To label 15/16= To name 17/18= Subject Label 19/20= Subject text 21/22= Conf/Reply labels 23/24= Conference name 25/26= Conference numbers 27/28= Separator bar/default colors 29/30= Normal text 31/32= Quoted text 2.00Z.20G Test release --------- NEW ZMODEM We had completely rebuilt the Zmodem protocol (again) and this one does quite a lot better than any previous version: - It keeps trying until it succeeds, no matter how bad line conditions get, unlike the previous version that aborted easily - We're attempting to emulate Moby, making transfers between two KBBS systems pretty quick. - True multi-thread operation separate disk reading from communications so that less CPU overhead is being used during transfers. - This Zmodem has improved the reliability of FTS support QUITE a bit - Procomm batch information is sent in the Zmodem file headers TWITT FILTERING The NET import QWK twit filter is still intact, and a new global import twit filter had been added to Trees, Conferences that filters the following message import processes: 1. REP Uploads from users 2. Inbound fidonet echomail packets 3. Net QWK imports (in addition to the current Net import filter) Unlike the NET import QWK import twit filter that allows sysops to lockout subjects, the global twit filter only locks out messages FROM the users listed in the filter. Note: although KBBS will handle several hundred twits in this list with no problem, a large number in this list will slow down import processes because of the additional task of comparing the FROM name in imported messages with entries in the list. CHAT LOGGING While chatting, CTRL-HOME will toggle Chat Logging on and off, defaulting to OFF when entering chat. A CHAT.LOG will be created in the KBBS directory and chat text will be appended. Also while in a chat, ALT-F1 will now shell to DOS locally. CONTROL CODES We've completely rewritten the control (@, Pipe and Heart) code processor to replace the previous buggy one. This one has no limit to line lengths (the number of codes you can squeeze on a single line) and is much faster. PROGRAM EDITOR/COMPILER The menu hotkeys (such as F6, ALT-0, etc) will leave the contents of the current line alone (was erased/reverted before). The "Save As" option now presents the current filename for alteration rather than garbage characters. A bug reported by Joshua Scurran that caused the compiler to overlook a syntax error in a program has now been fixed. DOORS A toggle has been added to the door setup to make KBBS ignore the DOS ERRORLEVEL result when returning from executing the door. We have found that some doors on some systems return a non-zero result regardless of the successful execution of the door. FTS The FTS.LOG logging has been shortened (a lot of debugging stuff removed for items that we know are working now). The WAZOO ONLY mode dialout/poll is now working. If KBBS in unable to dearchive a packet, it is now moved to the bad packet directory instead of deleted. The nodelist viewer has been given some additional cache memory so it displays a bit faster when browsing up and down in the picklist. Because of a bug in OS/2's FINDFIRST and FINDNEXT DOS interrupt commands, sometimes a packet would be send with no header... this has (hopefully) been fixed. NET STATUS Net status toggles are now found in the Security level setup as well as the user's individual records. This allows a sysop to grant an entire security level Net status in a set of conferences. The logic used is A user has net status in a conference IF a user has individual Net status OR his/her security level has net status. *** WHAT IS NET STATUS? Net status grants a user "sysop" access to a conference, enabling that user to (1) read private mail and (2) post messages that aren't FROM himself/herself. In essence, the user becomes a co-sysop in any conference in which he/she has net status. The primary purpose of net status is in QWK/REP mail networks. You must grant net status to sysops that wish to use QWK/REP mail to echo conferences from your system, or they won't be able to read and save messages to/from users on their own BBS. FILE UTILITIES The upload processor will now properly handle non-archives. It no longer runs out of file handles while editing descriptions. Files accidentally left open that caused the complete rebuild to crash if you previously edited a description just before you perform the rebuild are now being closed properly. When you type a name while in the file tree, and that file isn't located in the tree, it asks you if you want to add that file... if you answered "yes" the actual index record added was filled with garbage... this has been fixed. A temporary directory with a FILE_ID.DIZ was left behind every time KBBS updated the .DIZ in a file (after editing the description). A bug that occurred only rarely that would corrupt subjects when moving mass numbers of tagged files has been fixed. When KBBS adds a FILE_ID.DIZ description file to an archive, the date/time is now set to match the date/time of the archive. The message saved to the sysop when an upload is performed now displayes the correct file size and date information and is saved to the proper sysop alias or real name. SEQ COMMANDS/COMPILER The WRITETEXT and WRITETEXTCH commands were altered in 20F to replace the @ codes... this caused several SEQ programs to misfunction, so this has been reverted back to its original state of not replacing the codes... sorry about that everyone. The F5 key in the SEQ fields will now edit a SEQ properly. OTHER FIXES/CHANGES KBBS will no longer cause a "Insert disk for drive B and press ENTER" problem on single drive systems (more testing will prove this). A bug caused a misread of an ANSI mode toggle and would strip ANSI from some outgoing QWK messages.... fixed. The LASTCALL variable and user data is now updated properly. The text editor window everywhere in the utilities (except the program editor, which is separate) now uses F10 or ALT-X to Save/Exit. The ESCAPE key will give you the option of Save/Exit, Abort without saving, or return to edit. On some Win95 configurations, the DCDSTATUS line sometimes reports an OFF status when there is in fact a carrier present. KBBS now polls the line up to 10 times if an OFF status is reported to make sure it's getting the correct message. Instead of a CLEAR SCREEN, KBBS now outputs a HOME CURSOR for just the ANSI highlight bar menus. Dynamic menus still clear the screen, although we're going to add an option later to do otherwise for special effects (?? is this needed?). The FTS tosser will now unlock all files between packets to keep from holding the Netmail conference locked during long tossing jobs. Logging to the KBBS.LOG for local mode sessions has been fixed. Support for COM interrupts 8 through 15 has been added. The ^K and ^Q keys in the program editor will now display the signal properly in the upper left corner of the current window. The colors have also been fixed in the editor to not change when typing within a block. All picklists will now delay sorting until after exiting the list, and the sort algorithm is now cached to speed up the sorting process by 250% The sort process is now performed in protected mode and doesn't use the stack, so no more stack errors should result from large sort processes. The dialout process detects and reestablishes the carrier speed and error correction variables and leaves the buffer clear for the next process. The DIAL command used in the callback verifier now leaves the buffers clear upon return to the BBS. The import users utility (both KBBS and non-KBBS) will successfully import and index the names properly. Some adjustments made to the distinctive ring detection. 2.00Z.20F Test release --------- DOS SHELL FINALLY we have found the culprit causing the DOS Shell to engage so often when escaping out of things... simply an uninitialized register, but a TOUGH one to find. QWK/REP The problem/crash with uploading .REP packets with control messages has been fixed... nothing like trying to push 196K of data onto a 32K stack. FILE AREA AND UTILITIES The "Complete Rebuild" has itself been rewritten and put back in the file index repair menu. It's SAFE, it's THOROUGH, and we highly recommend you backup your files and run it as soon as you get this release. This rebuilder fixes most all index structure problems, and the new utilities are stable enough to keep them fixed. In the Tree Editor of the file utilities, the ALT-P key now initiates the new Utility Upload Processor that reprocesses the current file or tagged files as if uploaded. The ALT-W (Tag Multiple) and ALT-A (Tag All) have been repaired so that utilities that act on these tagged batches don't corrupt the subject structure. The tag-and-delete function now works (more testing will prove this). A whole new menu for the file utilities to eliminate some confusion as we start adding a lot more features to the menus. Deleting files from the file tree will now REALLY delete the file from the name and new file indexes. In the file tree, the "Offline" "Free" and "Resolution" messages now follow the descriptions. The correct status is now passed back to KBBS after external protocol transfers. UPLOAD PROCESSOR OKAY! Major upgrade of the upload processor, reflecting at least a month of work. Read this section carefully. Two items from the old upload processor setup are still being used, and are found in Setup, Global, Global Toggles: - Whether or not the user has to enter the name prior to upload - The default archive extension on your system, now only used in searching for a name in the file section when a user tries to flag a file without specifying the extension. The UPLOAD REP function will now assume that all files uploaded during that function are indeed .REP files, regardless of their actual name(s). More than one .REP file may be uploaded at once, and all are processed offline if the "(G)oodbye after transfer" option is selected. Subsequently, the regular upload function will NOT import a .REP file into the message base, but will process it as a normal file and place it in the appropriate upload path. The file utilities menu has been broken away from the main utilities menu to make it more readable, since we're going to be adding dozens of options to the menu(s) over the next couple of weeks. Because of the configurability of the new upload processor, the "Allowed upload extensions" picklist has been eliminated. The upload processor setup is now defined separately for each file index, and has three parts to it: UPLOAD SUBJECTS Just like before, except now the "complete rebuild" doesn't erase them! GENERAL PROCESSOR This is the general setup for processing uploaded files. There are LOT of new options... just keep an eye on the help window below and it's all pretty self-explanatory. CUSTOMER PROCESSOR This is a picklist of GENERAL PROCESSOR screens, where you can define a completely different processing method for different matching file masks. If an uploaded file doesn't match any of the masks in this picklist, the GENERAL PROCESSOR settings are used. The upload processor only operates in ASCII and ANSI modes. A RIP mode processor will come later. Two new @ control codes have been added for customizing the new ULPROC display screens to the sysop's liking: (these @ codes should be uppercase when used, shown here in lower case for ease of e-mail transmission) @ulprocname@ The current filename being processed, changed to the new name of the file if renamed by the upload processor. @ulprocstat@ The upload processor error status message, such as "Too many duplicates" etc. The ASCII screen (ULPROC.BBS) or non-highlight bar ANSI screen (ULPROC.ANS) is displayed only once at the startup of the upload processor, then status messages are shown on subsequent lines as files are processed. If the ANSI screen (ULPROC.ANS) contains highlight bar control codes, it is redisplayed for each file before processing, and may be structured similar to the highlight bar ANSI menus to highlight different status messages during the processor operation. The ULPROC.ANS screen operates differently in that more than one option may be highlighted at one time. The "Key" field is used to denote which message belongs to which status. One other important difference in the way the highlight bars work is the ULPROC.ANS screen's highlight bars are displayed WITHOUT stripping the ANSI codes in the bar text itself. This allows ANSI modification of the highlight color to create special effects. (See example) The highlight bar control codes for the upload processor ANSI screen are as follows: @00bf~##@ 1. Normal Menu Text goes here @end@ 00 = these two digits are ignored, since there is no row/column organization in the ULPROC.ANS screen(s). ## = the current stage of operation, two digits as follows: 01= Examining file 02= Dearchiving a file 03= Working on embedded archives 04= Running external process (any of them) 05= Running external process 1 06= Running external process 2 07= Running external process 3 08= Running external process 4 09= Running external process 5 0A= Scanning for viruses 0B= checking for duplicates 0C= adding archive comment 0D= getting archive description 0E= Running external process 6 0F= rearchiving file 10= Cleaning up temporary files 11= Moving archive to upload directory FE= done, failed FF= done, passed B = the highlight bar background color, 0 through 9 and A through F F = the highlight bar foreground color, 0 through 9 and A through F AT CODE FORCED LENGTH For normal @ control codes (not color or highlight bar codes) a colon and number may be added to the end inside of the code to force a specific length result. For example (using lower case so this may be posted in netmail), "@user:20@" would return "Keith Anderson " (20 characters total) if the current caller's name is Keith Anderson. SYSOP DEFINED FLAGS They have finally been removed to make room for the sysop defined database fields that we started linking in today and should be a reality within a day or so. FTS The command line parameter KBBS TOSS will now work without lockup. To satisfy those that complain because there are different keystrokes to access the FTS functions than before, the MAILER menu will now automatically be selected upon entry to the KBBS Fido utility menu. In the TIC area setup, it really DOES default to the "MAIN" file tree now, even if the tree field is blank. MESSAGE BASE One last conflict between two nodes saving/tossing messages has been resolved... no more halts or delays. The "From" name is now checked properly using uppercase so that messages "Not From User" are screened out properly. USER EDITOR No more having to rebuild conference HI/LO, etc, after editing a user record! We found the stray pointer. New utilities to import/export KBBS user databases has been added. SEQ ADDITIONS ATTACHEDFILE :string (variable) Allows access to the name of the file attached to the current message. Only a 12 character name is allowed (name and extension) since the file must always reside in the ATTACHPATH directory (ATTACHPATH is a variable of type Path). ATTACHEDREALNAME :string (variable) This is the real name of the file attached to the current message. Because two files with the same name could be attached to different messages, one or both must be renamed before being stored in the ATTACHPATH directory. The real name is stored in this field, and is used to rename the file back to its real name when retrieved from the attach directory. QUEUEFTSPOLL( <address>, <echomail> ); <address> is of type string, in a standard fidonet address format of x:yyy/zzz, and <echomail> is of type boolean. This adds a poll request to the queue for the specified address. If <echomail> is TRUE, echomail will be delivered with the poll event. FREQFILE( <address>, <priority>, <name>, <password>, <date> ); <address> is of type string, in a standard fidonet address format of x:yyy/zzz, <name> and <password> are of type string, <date> is of type date, time or integer. <priority> is of type CHAR with possible values of "I" immediate "C" crash (direct, economy time) This adds an FTS File REQuest to the FTS queue to the above address, or adds the request to an entry already in the queue to the specified address. If no password is needed, use "" (nul). If no date is needed, use 0 (zero). SENDFTSFILE( <address>, <priority>, <path>, <deleteafter>, <message> ); <address> is of type string, in a standard fidonet address format of x:yyy/zzz, <path> is of type string. <priority> is of type char: "I" immediate "C" crash (direct, economy time) <deleteafter> is of type boolean: TRUE=delete the file after a successful transmission. <message> is of type boolean: TRUE= send a message header to the sysop of the remote system notifying of the enclosed file(s). Adds a SENDFILE command to the queue. If a queue entry already exists to the above system, the sendfile is added to the existing entry in order to combine dialout events. EXECNEXTQUEUE; Executes the next FTS outbound queue entry, if any. The current node MUST have a modem installed for this command to be successful. Because a queue execution results in a recycle of the current node, this command terminates all SEQ execution and disconnects the current online caller, if any. SEQ PROGRAM EDITOR A second "Close" option has been added to the File menu, and some messages hinting to close files if running out of memory. Other FIXES AND ADDITIONS Message quoting has been dramatically improved in this version. When a local mode user runs out of time, things now recycle/ shutdown properly. Text mode is now restored at the end of a RIP session. A ClearScreen is now issued before any ANSI screen menu containing highlight bars to insure that they are positioned correctly. Non-standard modem addresses and ports are now NOT case sensitive. When LOADUSER fails to find the specified user, KBBS will automatically initialize an empty user assuming a "New User" posture. This should solve some problems with improper information getting stored in new user records. ZMODEM/8K Until we can narrow down the slipping blocksize problem with KBBS's internal Zmodem/8K, it will automatically detect the problem and revert to regular Zmodem after the 2nd attempt... in our tests, this seems to recover and proceed with the transfer with minimal delays. 2.00Z.20E Test Release --------- USER DATABASE/ACCESS CHANGES The last read mail pointers and other supplemental records are now only loaded when needed, so the login process is a LOT faster, and the LOADUSER, FIRSTUSER and NEXTUSER functions are also a LOT faster. There will be a slight pause the firsst time the pointers are accessed (when beginning to read a message, etc.) while KBBS loads the pointer records, but under normal operation, this shouldn't be very noticable. The NEXTUSER function is now functioning, and the USERDB program by Todd Powers is now functioning because of our bug fix. That USERDB.SEQ is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and distributed with the KBBS archives. Fine work, Todd! Send us your resume. <g> The VBBS user database import has been completed. The Maximus user database import has been completed. FTS CHANGES, ADDITIONS, IMPROVEMENTS *** READ THIS, IMPORTANT CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE *** The FTS setup code has been broken away from the main setup utilities to provide it with more memory to function properly. (Note: all executables will be recombined with the release of the DOS protected mode and OS/2 versions, Z.21) Instead of using the outbound password defined in the EVENTS, a new picklist has been created to define all outbound passwords. The picklist is also used to lookup commonly used addresses by recipient name. This has been placed in all outbound FTS windows, and SEQ commands and functions to scan the list have also been added (see SEQ ADDITIONS below). KBBS now uses the session password defined in the above outbound list in the EMSI and YOOHOO headers when receiving calls. The nodelist search engine has been given a shot of speed... it'll now search the big Fido nodelist in a few seconds instead of a few minutes. FIXES, UNCATEGORIZED Misc. misplacements in various screens in the utilities have been fixed. Another strange crosslink between Files/KB allowed per period and Bytes/time credit for messages posted has been fixed. The DOS Shell function will now look for the proper COMMAND.COM on systems with more than one operating system installed. The ANSI highlight bar menus won't crash now when the menu screen options don't match the underlying menu configuration (so items on the menu may be disabled for certain users, etc). Stray @ signs shouldn't appear in ANSI menu screens now... fixed. Display screens with complex pipe codes will now work properly instead of truncating and scrambling them. FIXES, FILE SECTION Problems with uploading have been fixed, such as name recognition, etc., althought the new upload processor didn't make it for this test release. The slash "/" has been included in the word parser for the Ksearch rebuilder so that words like "OS/2" can be keyworded. The following structure description file will now import: 3DVCP22.ZIP 3DVCP22.ZIP Visual Calendar Planner 2.2 for Windows !>ASP An extremely powerful scheduler with !>no learning curve. MS Database engine. !>3d look ADJSHARE.ZIP ADJSHARE.ZIP AUTOGRAMMATIK I: Adjective endings <ASP> !>probably contains one of the most !>succinct explanations of German !>adjective endings you will see anywhere. !> Online dictionary too. Viel Spass! AJEWISH5.ZIP AJEWISH5.ZIP A Jewish Mother's Cookbook V 5.0 <ASP> !>Anyone who's interest in Jewish recipes !>will love this cookbook! "2 Thumbs Way !>Up" J Binder (the above example should be justified to the left, but is indented for this document only) ADDITIONS, UNCATEGORIZED A "Toggle Status Bar" has been added to the SEQ key functions. SEQ ADDITIONS FTSLOOKUP :boolean (function) Works from the current message header information, searches for the current MESSTO in the outbound password list and sets the FTS Destination and password if found. Returns TRUE if found. ADDFTSLOOKUP; Adds the current message header information as an outbound lookup entry, specifically the MESSTO name, the FTSDEST address and the password. After issuing this command, the FTSLOOKUP function will retrieve the address and password when the name is provided. Note: this command does not look for the existence of an entry before adding the current one, so dupes will be added if FTSLOOKUP isn't polled first. UPDATEFTSLOOKUP; Similar to ADDFTSLOOKUP, this command works from the current message header, except it simply updates the information in the lookup database with the information in the header. That means if someone has changed the address or password on the destination system, the entry for that name will be updated in the lookup table. If the name is nul/blank, the specified address is searched and the password is updated. If the entry is not found in the list, a new one is added with the information in the current message header. 2.00Z.20D Test Release (includes Z.20B and C) --------- RIP FIXES/IMPROVEMENTS The local RIP graphics now support any VESA superVGA card. If the display is not detected as supporting EGA modes, VESA 800x600 mode will be selected, and the RIP screen (640x350) will be shown in the upper lefthand corner. This should enable proprietary cards with software VESA drivers to display local RIP graphics. Local mode RIP fonts should now work in any environment. The ANSI to RIP converter is now faster and much more accurate. The ANSI to RIP scrolling has been eliminated. When text reaches the bottom of the screen, the screen is cleared and text begins again at the top. FILE AREA FIXES/ADDITIONS A complete rewrite/overhaul to the file utilities has resulted in much more stability. Testing will tell, however. OTHER FIXES/ADDITIONS (UNCATEGORIZED) The display file output engine now performs a fast read and allows the disk to settle before the file is sent to the modem. This results in an overall faster display from the callers' point of view. The "Chat" SEQ Key has been expanded to include an optionally definable text file that will be displayed, if present, to the user before entering chat mode. SEQ Program execution has been cleaned up so that no more lockups or mis-executions happen. This includes - SEQ keys - internode commanded SEQ's - executed from menu trees - the CALLSEQ command - the CHAINSEQ command - SEQ events - many other places The global configuration is now being updated properly when the related SEQ variables are altered (i.e. couldn't change the total number of calls on system) The compiler now skips TAB and control characters in the source file. If no default is specified in a menu, the highlighted bar is properly selected when the ENTER key is pressed (for ANSI mode menus) When a user runs out of time, the modem is now flushed properly instead of locking up some systems. The hangup process should be working properly now. (It was locking up some machines if the user ran out of time) The line editor default menu is now set to Save instead of Continue. The login process has been corrected for alias nodes to state "Is your alias spelled correctly?" instead of "name." The internal file copy routines will no longer use XMS or EMS memory if running under OS/2. This speeds up the copy operation by keeping OS/2 from enlarging the swap file, etc. In Setup, Nodes, the Line Monitor toggle is now working, and the USE FIFO toggle is no longer crossedlinked with it. Changes made to the global setup from within the SEQ are now saved to disk properly. The recursive archive setup field is now pointing to the correct data. The "Upload Text" function in the full screen editor no longer wraps long lines in order to preserve ANSI screens. The distictive ring initiates a recycle if the incorrect ring is detected. FTS FIXES AND ADDITIONS The last scanned pointer file system has been changed to match the speed and reliability of the regular last read pointers in the main BBS. Hence, this is a one-way upgrade, but more stable than previous versions. BIG BUG: If an incoming FTS caller was using an address of 0:0/0, the first record in the FTS User list was selected (because of the blank secondary address fields) and their mail was delivered to the anonymous caller... this has been fixed! The magic name processor for FTS file requests will now handle wildcards within a magic name setup properly. Previously they were being rejected as not found. Global FREQ directories are now working properly. The FTS User "Pause" toggle is now working correctly. DOOR ADDITIONS Three more door drop file types have been added: Code BBS type Filename 8 Pheonix INFO.BBS 9 Spitfire SFDOORS.SYS A 2AM JUMPER.DAT SEQ PROGRAM EDITOR We have rebuilt the SEQ program editor again and eliminated the Turbo Vision libraries. The result is a less buggy editor with less memory constraints and the ability to open unlimited files simulteneously when we release the protected mode (Z.21) version. Additional fixes were made to the editor window to allow the menu bar to remain visible at the top in 80x25 text mode, and the editor window's side lines have been eliminated to expand the editable region by 2 more characters. CORRUPT INDEX DETECTION The balanced trinary tree engine that keeps track of just about everything in KBBS now has a corrupt index detection subroutine that will keep KBBS from locking up if an index file is corrupt. Because of the frequency in which this routine is called, we're currently unable to pass the corruption status to the sysop, but it simply shuts down the tree processes, ignoring the read/write requests... if you notice that KBBS isn't finding files, blocking dupe messages, finding users, etc., then rebuild that particular index. We'll be adding some kind of status passing method at a later date. We tested this pretty extensively by removing lock control from the indexer and allowed 5 nodes to write to the index simluteneously, corrupting it to bits... KBBS eventually ingored the index, where before it would have locked up tight. ANSI HIGHLIGHT BAR MENUS When using ANSI display screens for menus (in the "Sysop defined display menus" in the menu tree or the optional display screen parameter for the MENU statement) a new @ code sequence may be added to the ANSI screen to enable KBBS's internal highlight bars on the ANSI screen itself. In each location where you want a highlight bar to be displayed, the following @ code syntax must be used: @xyBF~key@ 1. Normal Menu Text goes here @end@ where x the menu column, a number between 1 and 4 inclusive y the menu row, a number from 1 to 9, then A (10) to I (18) B the highlight bar background color, 0 through 9 and A through F F the highlight bar foreground color, 0 through 9 and A through F key the key that activates the menu selection, corresponding to the actual menu configuration in the menu tree or MENU statement. If this key doesn't exist in the menu configuration, the user will be able to highlight the selection but not actually select it. If a select exists in the menu configuration but not defined on the ANSI screen, the user will be able to select that option by pressing the keys directly. (After a long night of working on this, I think I've lost my English... I'll come back and try to explain this better at another time.) Note: when assigning the x and y values, make sure they are contiguous. For example, KBBS won't skip from column 1 to 3 if column 2 doesn't exist. Each highlight bar terminates at the @end@ or at the end of the current ANSI line, whichever comes first (NOTE: "@end@" must be in upper case, but shown here in lower case so this file may be posted online). When the ANSI screen menu is displayed (it must be a display screen with an extension of .ANS), if any highlight bar codes exist in the menu, the highlight bar option is automagically activated. A highlight bar will be placed on the default menu selection, or on column 1 row 1 if no default was defined. The left-right cursor keys transvers the columns and the up-down keys transvers the rows. The ENTER key will then select the currently highlighted menu item. This whole process adds a small delay before any ANSI menu is displayed. (A sidenote, a utility in ARIdraw will simplify the construction of KBBS ANSI menus. We will be testing ARIdraw with a limited number of registered sysops in October) NEW SEQ RESERVED VARIABLES SCROLLLOCK :boolean NUMLOCK :boolean CAPSLOCK :boolean These three variables poll for and set the state of the scroll lock, num lock and caps lock respectively. This only affects the hardware running the current node and has no affect on the remote caller. NEW SEQ COMMANDS AND FUNCTIONS STRIPANSI( <instring> ) :string (function) <instring> is of type string. Returns a string of the parameter with the ANSI codes removed. Does not account for any cursor movement sequences EXCEPT the Cursor Right (C) sequence, which is converted to spaces. 2.00Z.20A Test Release --------- LEFT OUT: Due to the time taken to get our system back up, we just removed major new additions that had problems rather than delay the release any longer. The following will be debugged and ready for the next release: - New highlight bar based file, door, bulletin and conference trees - ANSI screen highlight bar menus - new upload processor... the new upload processor was having problems so we put the old code back in for this release. A follow up patch release will come soon that will have the new code fixed, which includes the .TIC support working and the file utility level upload processor. IMPORTANT FTS CHANGE MADE: The FREQ directory no longer exists, but has been replaced by a picklist setup of directories. You must enter your old directory in the new list for these types of FTS file requests to resume operation. SEQ ENCRYPTION (testing this encryption is critical... please report any SEQ FAULTs that any occur, and how to reproduce them) To protect against the threat of a SEQ executable decompiler, we have added a statement: SEQENCRYPTION "<encryptkey>" <encryptkey> is any number of characters placed between a set of double quotes. Characters not allowed in the encryption key: " (a double quote, used to terminate the key) (* or *) comment characters { or } comment characters /* or */ comment characters Examples of valid encryption key statements: SEQENCRYPTION "This is my encryption key!!" SEQENCRYPTION "908734 923 498249823498239 87239 8723" SEQENCRYPTION "ùí½╡ñº¿Æ£░║─äåçΩ±√ÇüGQ\" SEQENCRYPTION "It was Andy's fifth birthday and his parents were getting ready to take him out for a movie. His mother told Andy to pack a snack for himself in her purse to have during the show. The mother assumed he'd put in a granola bar or cookie...Later, in the theater, Andy leaned over to his mother and whispered...'Mom, may I have my ice-cream sandwich now?'" This must come absolutely first in the SEQ program, before any DEFINE, STRUCT or any other statements except comments. Encrypted SEQ programs may call non-encrypted SEQ's and vice- versa. SEQ execution speed is not affected by the size, presence or absence of an encryption key. Z.20 or later is REQUIRED for all encrypted SEQ programs, or KBBS will abort with a SEQ Program Fault. A SEQ is not encrypted (other than the usual compression) if the SEQENCRYPTION statement isn't present. Z.20 and all versions in the future will still execute SEQ's from all past versions. INTERKERNEL The internode kernel has been reworked to work faster and not cause exception errors on some systems, specifically those running OS/2 (our shared-memory trick wasn't working with some versions of Warp the way it was supposed to). FIXES The internode chat should be working properly in this release... File locking conflicts in message importing have been resolved. ANSI reading online has been fixed. The PCBOARD.SYS drop file type is now working correctly. New full screen editor code in this version... no more wrapping line problems, lines left behind, extra lines, etc. etc. etc. The ESCAPE key in the editors' menus doesn't save the message. The LASTMAINBULL and LASTBULL variables, if altered, will now be properly updated in the user record on the next call. When accessed, these variables always return the date/time of what they were set to on the LAST call. Sometimes if an error occurred online, KBBS would drop to the DOS prompt rather than recycle. This has been fixed. FOSSIL support has been reverted to its state before Z.19. The fixes we made evidentally made QEMM systems abort and some DOS systems lockup. The parallel file that now holds personal mail flags was being enlarged improperly, flagging users for mail in conferences where they didn't have any. This has been fixed. IMPROVEMENTS The limit on the maximum dials and failures for FTS mailer calls has been increased to 255. We still don't know why it was limited to 20. The highlight bar in the dynamic menus show up regardless of a default menu option. Message passwording has been completely removed due to lack of support from QWK and other offline message formats. The reserved variable MESSPW is still support, although it always returns NUL and assignments are ignored. FTS ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS The Global FREQ directory and password have been replaced by a picklist of File Request Directories in the FTS Setup menu. .... LAST MINUTE NOTE: The .TIC test crashed a machine with the release version, so we disabled functionality for the TESTZ20A version. We will diagnose the problem and release follow-up patch with this support enabled. Basic receive-only .TIC file support has now been added. TIC files are simply placed in their proper file subjects as defined in the new .TIC file setup. .TIC hatching and echoing will follow in the next test version. The setup for this is as follows: - In the FTS SETUP menu, a new picklist named .TIC AREA SETUP defines what file area subjects .TIC files are placed in when received. - In the GLOBAL FTS SETUP, the .TIC UNDEFINED AREA field defines where received files are placed if they don't match any of the defined TIC subjects The FTS Send Files process both in the FTS menu and in the Event setup now contains a toggle to optionally send or not send the "The following files have been sent" message to the destination sysop. A new field has been added to the FTS User setup (which requires upgrading to the database) that allows you to define ALLOWED AREAS. Toggling off the areas in that picklist make them invisible to that FTS user--they don't show up in Areafix lists, and the user isn't allowed to turn them on, etc. All toggles default to ON. Tossing of KBBSFido (areafix) packets is done immediately when received, and the reply packet is immediately sent to the sender in the same session. New areafix support has been added, replacing the old, faulty and inadequate support. References to "Areafix" have been changed to "KBBSFido" due to potential trademark issues with the name "Areafix." The following is the help reply that you get when you send a message of %HELP to the new AREAFIX: Address all requests to 'KBBSFido', 'Areafix', 'GEcho', 'AreaMgr' or 'ConfMgr' (without quotes). The subject should contain your Areafix password. In the body of the message: [+]<areaname> Turn ON an area (wildcards allowed). -<areaname> Turn OFF an area (wildcards allowed). %HELP This help text is sent. %LIST Reply with a list of areas available. %QUERY Reply with a list of ON areas. %UNLINKED Reply with a list of a OFF areas. %PWD <password> Change your AreaFix password. %PKTPWD <password> Change your Packet password. %RESCAN <mm/dd/yy> Rescan all ON areas starting with specified date. %PAUSE Suspend all scanning. %RESUME Resume all scanning. [---] An optional tear line may be added. Everything below the tear line is ignored. An example of an KBBSFido request: From: Your name To: Areafix Re: Yourpassword ------------------------------------------------- +ARI* -ARI_OFF_TOPIC %LIST %resume %ReScan 08/14/95 ADDITIONS The line monitor has been permanently attached via a toggle in the modem setup An INSERT mode indicator has been added to the top of the full screen editor. Four new conference level fields, and SEQ variables representing these fields have been added: EMPTYSUBJECT :boolean For USEnet newsgroups and other special needs conferences, this allows messages without subjects to be saved in a conference if set to TRUE. FORCETOALL :boolean For USEnet newsgroups and other special needs conferences, KBBS forces the TO field to "ALL" if set to TRUE. FORCEANON :boolean For special needs conferences, the FROM field is forced to "ANONYMOUS" if TRUE. FREEFROM :boolean For special needs conferences, anything is allowed in the FROM field if set to TRUE. 2.00Z.19D QUICK FIX --------- FIXES All carriage returns were being stripped from messages in QWK packets. The message reader had major problems... now fixed. The chat engine would ignore the local keyboard or anything transmitted from a remote node, unless operating in local mode. 2.00Z.19 -------- ENCRYPTION The user database encryption has not been installed. This version will startup first by prompting for an encryption code and then encrypting the user database. The entire user database is encrypted with this key, so DON'T LOSE IT. ADDITIONS New fossil support has been added to better detect and handle fossil drivers under Desqview and other multitaskers. Exceptions have been added to the FTS netmail routing that allow routing to a certain node for certain zones/nets except mail to certain nets and/or nodes. A Flag Files option has been added to the menu tree. The dynamic menus have changed considerably. They are now decent and presentable (unlike the previous crummy menus) and have the following features: - in ANSI mode, cursor keys may be used to select the menu using a highlight bar. The spacebar also moves the highlight bar around the menu - They are now under control of the MENUPALETTE command... see below. There are some systems that, in upgrading from version to version for months, the serial numbers that keep users from receiving their own messages have been corrupted. A re-serialize utility has been added to the USERS menu in the sysop utilities to reserialize the user database, FTS users and QWK .NET files. FIXES Messages with long lines are now handled properly. ANSI is now maintained properly between all mail mediums in conferences that allow ANSI. Online message passwording has been removed, since QWK/FTS mail doesn't provide for any security on a message-by-message basis anyway. External protocol parameter replacement has been fixed. PERSONAL MAIL FLAGS should be working now! it was a dumb programming error that caused this one... just one that was hard to find. Another small bug in the internal Zmodem might have caused problems sending large files, but unsure about this. Problems with the COMPILE command line parameter have been fixed. The problem with infinitely expanding bulletin files has been fixed... although more testing will prove this. To keep problems from occurring when using the LOADUSER, FIRSTUSER and NEXTUSER functions, time is suspended until the STARTUSER command is issued, if ever. This makes it so temporary loads of other user records don't subtract time from them. NOTE! The new variable SUSPEND (boolean) controls whether or not time is suspended. If you use LOADUSER to retrieve another user's record, then restore the current user's record back with another LOADUSER command, you must set SUSPEND to FALSE! The PCBOARD.SYS drop file set has been fixed. The CHAIN.TXT drop file has been fixed to put the correct name in the Real Name field. The optional file flagging failure screens are now working properly... testing will prove whether this is true. External protocols should be working again, although not completely tested. The ALT-M (Move Files/Subjects) in the file tree has been fixed. The CHOOSEPROTO command's optional parameter will now correctly display an ANSI, RIP or ASCII file in place of the generic menu. Files attached to inbound FTS messages are now left attached properly. In the Console Screen editor, the fields picklist (when adding fields) would take some systems up to 30 minutes to sort the list, giving the illusion that it was locked up. (Well, it may as well have been locked up for all of the usefulness it had.) The list is now presorted and displayed in 5 seconds on those same systems. The DELETE TAGGED FILES in the file tree is now working. The "Run user database packer in foreground" is now working. The "Shutdown KBBS" event will now properly leave the modem off hook according to the settings. The ALT-R in the event setup will now execute any event. Some problems causing QWK prescans to not launch have been fixed. Timeslices weren't being yielded properly in the dialer... this has been fixed. Bad ratios are now actively enforced: users can no longer flag files that will exceed the bad ratio (except free files, of course). Before, KBBS would let them flag forever then drop their access on the next call.... this was causing some problems and a rewrite was necessary to fix the whole thing to work as advertised. The LOADUSER, FIRSTUSER and NEXTUSER functions have been fixed to reset node status variables properly. We FINALLY found a bug in the Zmodem that would cause certain terminals to not recognize the autostart sequence... stupid prgrammer error. The status bar toggle has been fixed. Exported NET REP packets and other packets are now producing packets without corruption. (We found that on systems with less than 262K of EMS or XMS available at initialization of a NEW .REP packet, KBBS was dumping exactly 16256 bytes of garbage after the REP header. This has been fixed.) This was a virtual memory management problem and could have affected other areas in unpredictable ways that we may not have recognized. The Ksearch rebuilder is now working properly. Two crucial files were left incomplete that would cause the actual search to return a result of 0 files found. The screen object switcher has been fixed so that crashes don't occur when executing SEQ keys and other SEQ programs chained from edit screens, message reading, menus, editors, etc. (Field testing will prove whether this was really fixed or not....) Problems with sharing the dupe message index between nodes has been fixed. EXECUTABLE CHANGES The KBBSPROG, KBBSFILE and KBBSUTIL programs have been modified to include their own initialization code, which means you can execute them directly. Parameters are ignored. The purpose of this is to reduce memory requirements even further on cramped systems. Parts of these modules are still called from the main KBBS.EXE when necessary, and all KBBS parameters remain the same. KBBSPROG: just like entering PROGRAMMING from the sysop utilities KBBSFILE: just like entering TREES, FILES from the sysop utilities KBBSUTIL: just like typing KBBS at the prompt with no parameters IMPROVEMENTS When adding conferences, the default number becomes the next unused conference number after the last conference added. The SEARCHFILES command (with the Ksearch index) has been modified to NOT ask "view the list" when files are found. Instead, the number of occurrances found are placed in the title at the top and the list is displayed immediately. The conference list loader has been sped up a little to reduce the delay before the conference list is displayed. The spinning cursor thread's speed has been increased to give the effect of more going on during certain waits. (Yes, it's silly) If only one conference is setup for scanning and it's the current conference, the conference list is aborted and the above conference is selected automatically for reading. If no conferences are configured for scanning, the current conference is automatically selected. NEW VARIABLES COMPRESSED :boolean Set this to TRUE for compressed dynamic menus, set it to FALSE for normal dynamic menus. SUSPEND :boolean If set to TRUE, time stops counting down for the current user. The LOADUSER, FIRSTUSER and NEXTUSER commands set this to TRUE. The STARTUSER, LOGIN, etc. commands set this to FALSE. REPLYQUOTE :string[3] Up to three characters to be used by EDITMESSAGE following REPLYMESSAGE to quote the current message. It is set to the message author's initials and the ">" character when REPLYMESSAGE is called, but may be changed at that point before calling EDITMESSAGE to use a different quote prefix. NEW SEQ COMMANDS AND FUNCTIONS! MENUPALETTE( <c1>, <c2>, ... <c16> ); All 16 parameters are of type byte. Note: all 16 parameters are required! This command changes the color scheme used by all subsequent dynamic menus. 16 parameters are required, defined as follows. In the current version, this only affects ANSI menus. RIP links will be made to this command for the next version. Min Max Default c1 = title foreground 0 15 15 c2 = title background 0 7 7 c3 = screen background 0 7 0 c4 = menu key foreground 0 15 9 c5 = menu key background 0 7 7 c6 = menu description foreground 0 15 0 c7 = menu description background 0 7 7 c8 = menu border 0 7 7 c9 = menu shadow 0 15 8 c10 = Selected foreground 0 15 15 c11 = Selected background 0 7 1 c12 = reserved, should be set to 0 c13 = reserved, should be set to 0 c14 = reserved, should be set to 0 c15 = reserved, should be set to 0 c16 = reserved, should be set to 0 The color values are the standard DOS RGB as follows: Black 0 Blue 1 Green 2 Cyan 3 Red 4 Magenta 5 Brown 6 LtGray 7 DarkGray 8 LtBlue 9 LtGreen 10 LtCyan 11 LtRed 12 LtMagenta 13 Yellow 14 White 15 LISTPALETTE( <c1>, <c2> ... <c16> ); This is exactly the same as MENUPALETTE, but governs the colors in the lists. Although programs using this command in this version will compile and run, this command has been left unlinked until more testing is performed. (i.e. it has no effect in this version) More information will be posted in the following version when it is operational. REGISTERINDEX( <index>, <description> ); <index> is of type filename, <description> is of type string This command is used to "register" or make KBBS aware of a collection of indexes to use in subsequent index commands and functions, such as SEARCHFILES(%); where % represents all of the indexes registered using this command. <index> is the name of the index, and <description> is a name or description of the index to display to the user, and has a maximum valid length of 70 characters. If an index already exists in the list by the same name, the command is ignored. This command is GLOBAL, meaning registered indexes are valid for all subsequent SEQ programs in a session, not just for the current index. If no indexes have been defined, and the % parameter is used in index areas, the "MAIN" index is assumed. CLEARREGISTER; This command clears out the list of indexes defined by calls to REGISTERINDEX. If no indexes have been added using REGISTERINDEX, this command has no effect. If the % parameter is used with no indexes defined, the MAIN index is assumed. PAGING( <nodenum> ) :boolean <nodenum> is of type byte. This function returns TRUE if the user on the remote node NODENUM is currently paging the sysop. CHATWITH( <nodenum> ); <nodenum> is of type byte. Performs a private, one-on-one chat with the remote node number <nodenum>. This is identical to the direct sysop chat (defined in the SEQ keys) but is between two users that are online. KBBS will attempt to connect and chat with <nodenum> for 15 seconds before timing out and aborting. No message is displayed to the user during connection protocol establishment. EXTENDED COMMANDS The following commands have been extended to use the % parameter in place of the <index> in order to make use of multiple indexes defined by the REGISTERINDEX command: FLAGFILE( <index>, <file> ); Example: FLAGFILE(%,'FILELIST.ZIP'); When flagging <file> using an <index> of %, the first occurrance of <file> in the list of indexes will be flagged. DOWNLOADBATCH( <index> ); Example: DOWNLOADBATCH(%); The normal process of this command is to prompt the user to enter additional filenames to include in the download batch. The first occurrance in the list of indexes of any files entered by the user will be flagged. SEARCHFILES( <index>, <searchspec> ); Example: SEARCHFILES(%); This command has been extended to search through all of the indexes defined using the REGISTERINDEX command. IMPORTANT NOTE: when using SEARCHFILES with multiple indexes, the Ksearch databases MUST exist for the specified indexes... the slow search is NOT performed unless only a single index is specified or registered! In the menu tree (Trees, Menus), the DOWNLOAD BATCH function that may be defined as a menu selection may also use multiple indexes by using % as the name of the index. Z.1818 ------ FIXES The doors are now working properly The loss of global setup information has been fixed when KBBS switches between modules (specifically, the loss of CD ROM setup) A crash problem when overflowing time/date fields (the sysop utilities) has been fixed. Some work has been done to last read mail pointers, personal mail flags, security level movement and the user database editor, indexer and other areas. If you were having problems with empty users showing up in the user database editor, reindex the users and it they should disappear. ADDITIONS A new path index corruption rebuild utility has been added to put files back online after a major corruption or major hard disk reconfiguration. A utility to delete all files in the index with a specific CD ROM id has been added... to take old CD ROM's out of the index. Z.1817 ------ ADDITIONS KBBSDIAG has been integrated into the sysop utilities archive and is now activated by typing KBBS DIAG at the prompt. It's a faster version that the old KBBSDIAG, but it still produces a KBBSDIAG.LOG that we request that people with problems upload to us. Support for the TRIBBS.SYS door drop file has been added To assist some old-Rockwell chip based modems send commands properly, the COMMANDWRITE command has been altered to send the characters to the modem with a 3 millisecond delay between each character. No other modem I/O is affected by this. The ALT-R "Run Door" key in the door setup will now execute the SEQ's defined to execute before and after the door, so the sysop can get the full picture of the process. FILE AREA AND UTILITIES File flagging should work in long lists the wrap back to "A" and previous wrong-file flagging has been fixed (run the Name Index rebuilder if it's still happening on your system with this version). A lot of recoded utilities are being placed online in this version, specifically the rebuilders and some of the online stuff in order to add stability and speed to these areas. New utilities will be added in the following version(s). NOW RELIABLE: The COMPLETE REBUILD has been recoded for higher speed and MUCH better reliability... especially to NOT corrupt the original copy of the index. A more reliable CD ROM identifier has been added, which will better distinguish between different disks. The odds of two CD ROM's reporting the same ID number is now one in 16 million. An ID override has been added just in case you still beat those odds. A utility has been added to quickly change the ID in the index for all of the files on a CD ROM. A toggle has been added to the Global Toggles to set AUTOMATIC or MANUAL CD ROM scanning. 1. In Automatic scanning mode, KBBS uses its internal CD ROM ID method for determining which CD ROM is online. 2. In Manual scanning mode, the sysop may assign CD ROM ID's and a picklist screen is used to assign which CD ROM is currently in the drive(s). All CD ROM utilities and setups have been put in the index menus, even though they are settings that apply to all file indexes. A new utility has been added to the CD ROM section to change files in the index to point to a different CD ROM drive. Because this version changes the CD ROM identification method, you will need to run this utility on all of your CD ROMs. (It's pretty fast) And your CD ROM's should stay online properly from now on. IMPROVEMENTS The pointers are now updated upon logoff after a QWKcrash session to save QWKcrash callers the extra seconds it takes to update pointers after the packet has been sent. Drives A and B are ignored by the file utilities, to prevent the "insert disk for drive B:" problem on single drive systems. BUG FIXES The ALT-F1 DOS Shell will now return properly without messing up the screen. An additional fix keeps pointers updated actively while a user reads online. This should wrap up this problem once and for all. Time left is now properly updated if a user drops carrier while in a door or other external process. The local run option (ALT-R) in the door editor is now linked and running. The problem with long FTS origin lines has been fixed. The last read pointers are now being updated properly for callers that read mail online. Conference are now deleted and marked as deleted properly. File locking problems in various places has been fixed. The color attribute is now forced to $07 when shelling to DOS. SHARE is now being detected properly (although it is used when no other record locking driver is detected, KBBS would run without it and reporting "Node x in use") The DCE rate is now properly placed in the DOOR.SYS file. NEW SEQ COMMANDS AND FUNCTIONS LOADUSER( <username>, <aliasmode> ) :boolean (function) Loads a user record, pointers and setup files <username> is of type string <aliasmode> is of type boolean Searches for and finds the user <username>. If found, the current user record, pointers and setup files are updated to disk, and the user record, pointers and setup files for the specified user are loaded, becoming the user that's currently logged in and online. Modifications to the user variables are then made to the newly loaded user's record, pointers and setup files. If <aliasmode> is TRUE, KBBS assumes <username> is an ALIAS, otherwise <username> is a REAL NAME. This function returns TRUE of the user was found in the database and the user's record, pointer and setup files were loaded. If not successful, no user record will be loaded. NOTE: For replacement login sequences, simply loading a user with this function does not complete the login process! To complete the login, you must call the STARTUSER command, which loads the security level and session startup values. FIRSTUSER :boolean (function) NEXTUSER :boolean (function) Loads user records, pointers and setup files sequentially. These are functional equivilents to LOADUSER, except FIRSTUSER loads the first user in the database, and calls to NEXTUSER load the next user after the previous FIRSTUSER or NEXTUSER call. Both functions return TRUE if the operation was successful. FIRSTUSER should always return TRUE, unless the user database is corrupted or deleted. STARTUSER; Initializes the security level and session startup values for a user that has just logged in. Time is reduced for upcoming events, and security access to the current node and schedule is checked. This command MUST be called after the LOADUSER function if LOADUSER is used to replace the standard LOGIN commands. UPDATEUSER; For data integrity, this command saves the current user's record, pointers and setup files to disk. Because this data is updated to disk upon logoff, this isn't necessary except in conditions where power outages, etc, might cause the system to go offline prior to a proper logoff. This command has no effect if the user record, pointers or setup files have not been modified. This command is ignored if the current user online is new and an ADDUSER command hasn't been executed. DELETEUSER; Deletes the current user from the user database and clears the current user record (i.e. no user will be online after this command is issued). This command has no effect if no user is currently online. WRITEUSERLIST( <filepath>, <aliasmode> ); <filepath> is of type path. Creates a text file named <filepath> and outputs a sorted list of user names to the file, closing it afterward. This is the only method for quickly obtaining a sorted list of the users in the database. DROPFILE( <bbstype>, <destination> ) :path (function) <bbstype> is of type char <destination> is of type path Creates a door drop file of type <bbstype> at <destination>. The following are the possible values for <bbstype>: '1' DOORFILE.SR '2' DOOR.SYS (52 line) '3' PCBoard v14.x (PCBOARD.SYS, PCBOARD.DAT and USERS) '4' WildCat 2.0 (CALLINFO.BBS) '5' RBBS (DORINFO1.DEF) '6' WWIV (CHAIN.TXT) '7' TriBBS (TRIBBS.SYS) This function returns the full path to the drop file, if successful. WRITETEXTCH(...) This is functionally equivilent to WRITETEXT, except a carriage- return and linefeed are not added to the file, as with WRITETEXT. See WRITETEXT NUMCDS :integer (function) Returns the number of CD ROMs defined in the CD ROM setup. Use CDONLINE and CDNAME to access information about each CD ROM. CDNAME( <num> ) :string (function) <Num> is of type integer Returns the name of CD ROM number <num>. <num> must be an integer from 1 to NUMCDS. If <num> is out of range, this function will return an empty string. CDONLINE( <num> ) :boolean (function) Returns the online status CD ROM number <num>. <num> must be an integer from 1 to NUMCDS. If <num> is out of range, this function will return FALSE. Z.1816 ------ ADDITIONS A rebuild/degragment utility has been added to conference maintenance to rebuild corrupted setup and net status files (the new format files) and to defragment them if they seem to be running a little slow. The current conference will appear on the conference list regardless of whether it is configured for scanning. This will help sysops that use the "Join" command to find the conference they joined on systems using the CONFLIST in the read area. A color editor has been added for changing the colors in the sysop utilities. (See Setup, Global) BUG FIXES We found that systems with low conventional and XMS memory didn't upgrade properly from pre-15 to Alpha 15. If you suspect you're having pointer, setup or net status file problems, rebuild those in conference maintenance with this version and it should be fixed. We finally found a clue to the Zmodem autostart problem some people are having... some terminals are watching for the "rz" signal instead of the 00000 etc. block start, and they only look for the "rz" if it's at the beginning of the line. KBBS now sends a carriage return before the "rz" to help those terminals see light. Although the new recoded file utilities aren't finished yet, the CD ROM online/offline problem should be working properly in this version. If not, we'll release a patch fix (we're unable to test it properly here). Local mode drop files will use 19200 for baud rate, regardless of the current modem or node. (We chose 19200 becase 0 caused problems with some doors, and 38400 with others. 19200 seems to work everywhere, unless someone finds otherwise) The DOS program execution code has been re-written and should work in finding the path, swapping the proper code and data segments and returning FROM the executed program without problems... watch in case we're mistaken on this. The Internode pipeline is now being launched properly. The last read mail pointers are now being updated properly on exit. On low memory systems, the pointers are now being properly updated without crashing or ignoring the update request. KBBS EXPORT will now properly append to an existing .REP. This also affects QWK packet scanning on some low memory systems, where the resulting QWK packet was corrupted, or messages were missing. The upload credit for time is fixed (it's not giving thousands of minutes of time credit for uploads anymore) The drop-to-DOS in the sysop utilities has been fixed to not mess up the interprogram screens. The ALT-V in the File Utilities has been fixed. KBBS will now accept FLAGPATH() parameters with wildcards, and will not duplicate names in the batch (which also keeps FTS conflicts from occurring). The LOCAL=x parameter has been repaired. The F1 popup help should work now in the sysop utilities.