home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Black Box 4
/
BlackBox.cdr
/
bbs_ra
/
smenu110.arj
/
SMENU.DOC
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-03-10
|
14KB
|
329 lines
SMENU.EXE Version 1.10
Written by John Huls
Features:
=========
- Used for editing/creating menus used in SuperBBS
- Completely window driven
- Consequent use of keys throughout the whole program
- Completely mouse driven
- Includes all menu-types in SuperBBS
- Full color, although also usable on monochrome sets
- Intelligent asking for needed fields
New features for SMENU.EXE Version 1.10
- Multilanguage Support built in
- Added support for multiline features new to SBBS 1.10
- Added help on the main-menu screen
- Added rudimentory show-feature
- Squashed some bugs in the previous version of SMENU
Introduction:
=============
The program is used for creating and/or modifying menus used with
SuperBBS version 1.10. This menu-editor was created because I
missed some of the menutypes in current menu-editors. Besides that
I disliked some features in other editors which I used to use while
editing menus. After testing this program by various people I
decided to donate this program to everybody, to be used and (I
hope) appreciated...
Mouse Support:
==============
The complete program can be controlled by using a mouse. Menutypes
can be selected by using the mouse to navigate between the various
menutypes. You can also change color using the mouse and select all
other options while in the Edit Window or on the Prompt Window. The
only place where you cannot use the mouse is in fields which
require manual input e.g. the User Display.
In this manual I will discuss the use of the menu's with use of the
keyboard. However, on every place where you find the ENTER-key, you
can also use the left mouse buttom. And whenever you see the use of
the ESC key, you may use the right mouse button instead.
Environment:
============
SMENU.EXE can be started from anywhere on your system, as long as
you set the environment variable SBBS to point to the directory
where SuperBBS has stored it's system files. Enter in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT something like:
SET SBBS=C:\SUPERBBS[\]
Alternatively you can make the SuperBBS system directory the
current one when you start up SMENU. The program will locate the
file CONFIG.BBS and read it, to find out where the menu-files are
stored on your system.
Usage:
======
By entering SMENU on the dos prompt you start up the program. It
will show you an empty window which is titled NONAME.MNU. Also the
path is given where the files will be saved after editing. You may
also enter the name of a file which you want to edit on the
commandline. Entering e.g. "SMENU FILES" will open the FILES.MNU
file if it exists and display its contents on the screen. If the
file does not exist, an empty screen will be displayed with the
name given, ready to be edited.
Multilanguage Support:
======================
Whenever a file LANGUAGE.CTL is found in the system-directory of
SuperBBS, the program will change to multilanguage support mode.
You are presented with a screen which shows you all languages from
which you can make you're choice. Selecting one will automatically
select the corresponding menu-directory which you installed with
LCONFIG.EXE from SuperBBS. After this you will end up in the SMENU
main menu screen.
Screen display:
===============
When you start up SMENU you will be presented a window where the
menulines used in your menu will be displayed. The screen is
divided into several areas:
The top 24 lines form a window which displays as much lines as you
have in your menu. If you have more than 22 lines, a bar will be
displayed to the far right, showing the position of the cursor in
the window.
Line 25 is a status and comment line. It shows the name and version
of the program, a display with the cursor position and the total
number of lines in the menu, a field which will indicate when a
menu is changed and finally the name of the author. The cursor
position will be something like 10/18. This means that the cursor
is on position 10 and there are 18 menulines in this menu. If the
"Changed" annunciator is present, any attempt to leave the program
will ask you if you want to save the changes made.
The Menuline Wondow:
====================
Each line in the menu-window consists of the following parts:
The first field shows the User Display in the exact colors as it
will appear later on the actual menu. The second field is the Key
to be pressed for selecting that menu-option. The next field is an
abbreviated description of the menu-type and the last field is the
Optional Data field. In order not to disturb the actual color
display, the cursor only consists of the last three columns.
The cursor can be moved using the up and down keys or the mouse.
Pressing ENTER (or left mouse-button) will select the highlighted
option in the menu. The cursor can be moved one position farther
than the actual number of menu-options. This is to allow the
insertion of new menu-lines to the menu. The line will become
active if it is actually selected. It will be marked on the status
line in the cursor position field. The cursor position will be one
more than the actual number of lines in the menu.
You can also insert a new line by moving the cursor to the desired
position and hitting the INS-key. The menu-line under the cursor
will be moved downwards thereby pushing all other lines one
position further down.
A line can be deleted by selecting it with the cursor and pressing
the DEL-key. A message will appear which asks it this is really
what you want. Hitting any key but 'Y' will abort the delete
function.
Main Menu Helpscreen:
=====================
According to the SAA-standard, you should get help by hitting F1.
This is true for the main menu. On the mainmenu you can get help by
pressing ALT-H too (In fact any key that has no function on the
main menu will provide you with the help screen. On this screen you
can find options which are valid while working on the main menu.
The helpscreen can be removed by hitting any key.
Editing a menu-line:
====================
When you have selected a menu line using the above method, you get
a second window which is labelled -Menu Edit Window-. On this
window you can edit any option of the menu. This can only be done
when an option is actually valid for a chosen menu-type. E.g. the
menu-type 0 (Display a textline) does NOT require a Hot- Key to be
chosen, nor does it require Optional Data. Therefor you are not
requested to fill in those options, because they do not even show
on the Edit Window! This help you to find you're way in the
multitude of functions offered by SuperBBS.
The Edit Window contains the following fields (if available).
- Prompt Text for editing the Overall Menu Options. We will come
to this later in detail.
- Menu Type for selecting the desired menutypes.
- Security Level for selecting who may use the option.
- Text Color as shown on the previous menu for the User Text.
- Hot Key settings for selection of the key to select the menu.
- User Display which will be shown to your users.
- Optional Data which is required by some of the menus.
- A..D Flag Security for editing the flagpattern for access-
control.
The first selection (Menu Type) is already highlighted and can be
selected by pressing ENTER (or left mousebutton). The bar can be
moved with the cursor up- and downkeys or with the mouse. You can
also select one of the given options by pressing the highlighted
first character of each option.
Menu Type:
==========
Selecting this option will open a pull-down menu, where you can
select with mouse or cursor keys which type you need. The types are
split up into 9 sections with types which are more or less related.
Selection of one of the options can be done by pressing ENTER. If
you press ESC, the previous menutype will be maintained. This kind
of selections works throughout the whole program: Selection of an
option by hitting ENTER, aborting a selection by hitting ESC. If
for any reason you want to enter a new menutype which isn't used in
the pull-down menu's yet (since they don't exist in this version of
SuperBBS) you can select the Various pull-down, choose the Define
Your Own Menu Type. You will then be asked to enter a two-digit
number. If you enter a known type, it will be translated
immediatelly to the known menutype and text.
Security Level:
===============
Here you can enter a number between 0 and 64000 for a security
level to be used on this menu-option. Entering a value outside the
bounds above will give an error-message on the 25th line. The error
can be erased by hitting any key.
Text Color:
===========
Here you can select the User Displays normal color. The HighLight
color can be set on the Prompt Menu. You see a box with all
possible colors. With the help of the cursor-keys or the mouse you
can select any color you like. During this selection the line
"Color Example" will be shown in the selected color for better
evaluation of it. Pressing ENTER will select this color, ESC will
abort the option.
Hot Key:
========
Consists of two options. First you must choose whether or not you
need automatic action of the menu-option. Selection can be done
with the cursor-keys or the mouse. If you select Yes that's all
there is .... If you select No, you are requested to enter the
character that you want to use. You can use all standard characters
here which can be printed from the keyboard. There is no difference
between upper- and lower case. In fact Uppercase is the only
possible option.
User Display:
=============
Can be up to 75 characters wide. You can enter the text to be
displayed to your users. Use of the character "^" for changing
between highlight and normal color is the same as in the manual for
SuperBBS is mentioned. You can also enter the characters ^F and ^K
for displaying variables inside the menus. For more details see the
manual of SuperBBS. The statusline gives information of special
characters which can be used in the User Display line as well.
Optional Data:
==============
If the menu-option requires optional data this line is present.
Else it will not be available. In that case it will be
automatically set to an empty string. Again the statusline displays
possible options which can be used on the line. For more details
see SuperBBS manual.
Flags:
======
The display gives the flags as a string of "-" and "X". However,
when entering the flag-mask, an "X" is used to set a flag, and any
other character can be used to clear a flag. So entering "XZXCXXZQ"
has the same result as entering "X-X-XX--". If you entered the
wanted pattern you can keep it by hitting ENTER. Again ESC will
abort the flag-setting. If you hit ENTER the new flags will be
displayed with the usual characters ("-" and "X"), not in the
actually entered characters. You can use the mouse or cursor keys
to go to the place where you want the flag-bit changed. You don't
need to type the whole string of flags if you only need to change
one position.
General Menu Options:
=====================
Selecting this option with the keyboard can be done by using the
up- arrow when you are on the Menu-type prompt. You cannot get
there by hitting the down-arrow when you are on the D-Flags
settings. Of course you can hit 'P' to get there from any place in
the Menu Edit Window.
If you select the Prompt Text option you will get another window
which is labelled "Prompt Edit Window". On this window you can
select options which apply to the complete menu. These include the
HighLighted Color of the User Display, The Prompt Text and the
PromptColor. The selection can be done in the same way as described
above for the Menu Edit Window. Although this option appears on
each menu-option line, you need only change it once for each menu.
All changes will apply to the complete menu. You can leave the
Prompt Edit Window by pressing ESC.
Pressing ESC (again) will save the changes you may have made to the
current menu-line, and the window disappears. The Menu-line
selection window will be updated if needed. If there was indeed a
change in the menu-line, the "Changed"-annunciator will light up on
the status-line, indicating that a change has occurred.
Saving Menus:
=============
If the Changed annunciator is present while pressing ESC once
again, a question is asked if you want to save the changes made to
the menu-file mentioned in the top-line. You are able to change the
name of the file (ONLY the name need to be entered, NOT THE MNU-
extension). If you press ESC once again, the file WILL NOT be
saved. If you pressed ENTER the file will be saved, thereby
overwriting an existing file.
Selecting a new File:
=====================
If you choose to ESC from the Menu-line Selector Window you enter
the File Selection Window. Here you can select a file to be edited
or changed. By using the cursor keys or the mouse you can select
the wanted file. The file can be selected by pressing ENTER when
the cursor is on the wanted filename.
Quitting the program:
=====================
If you are on the File Selection Window above, pressing ESC one
more time will leave the program. The screen will be cleared and
the program is terminated.
That's All Folks:
If you have remarks, wishes or a contribution to make to the
program, you can leave me a note on the following addresses:
FidoNet: 2:512/123
SIGnet : 27:3331/1
Snail : Montgomerylaan 701, Eindhoven - Holland.
Any comments are welcome.