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1992-02-12
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Generic Split Screen Chat Utility 1.40 Wed 12 Feb 92
Copyright 1992 by Chris Patterson, All Rights Reserved
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GCHAT is my solution to the split-screen chat problem. Every time I get a new
chat program promising to the best program I have ever used, I find notices to
register the program, delays and annoying beeps and whistles. Well, I finally
had enough of the crap and wrote my own.
GCHAT should work with any BBS that has a FOSSIL driver loaded. All of the
options are passed on the command line, making it easy to work with almost any
system out there.
GCHAT has it's own internal ANSI and AVATAR terminal decoding functions. The
entire package is written using my own QwikTools programming library for C
programmers. No other libraries other than the Borland RTL were used. The
QwikTools library will soon be available for all C programmers to use and is
very powerful for creating DOS applications quickly.
GCHAT DOES NOT PAGE THE SYSTEM OPERATOR!!! Do not use GCHAT as a menu exit
which is available to users. The program goes immediately into chat mode
without checking to see if the sysop is around, etc. It was written to be
used with the RA 1.1x external chat command line. If you have an unregistered
RemoteAccess, this option is not available and you need to register to use it.
I may add the ability to page the sysop at a later date, however, I doubt it
since I use the program with RA 1.11+. If enough people ask about it, I may
sit down a write the code to do it.
If you do not have RemoteAccess registered, you can use it with a function
key exit. See the manual on how to setup an Alt-Fn key to run an external
program.
GCHAT includes the following great, easy to use features:
* Full split-screen chat mode with ANSI support
* Regular line oriented chat mode for non-ANSI callers
* Word wrap at the end of text lines in both modes
* The ability to clear the individual chat windows with
a single keystroke (Ctrl-L)
* The user and sysop names can be displayed in the lines
which divide the chat areas in full-screen mode
* User can exit chat when abandoned by the sysop (Ctrl-X)
(removed in 1.30+)
New features for 1.10 include:
* AVATAR/0+ support
* Chat windows scroll line-by-line in AVATAR mode for
smoother conversations
* On-screen clock in full-screen chat modes gives local
time of day
New features for 1.20 include:
* Both SysOp and User screens look identical now, with either
side having their text displayed on the bottom and the session
partner on the top of the screen. This provides a more even
thought pattern, and makes it so that the user does not have
to adjust between being on the top or bottom depending on
whether they are calling or answering.
* The wordwrap code has changed and now all text in the chat
window is maintained internally. There should be no more
problems with straggled characters.
* ANSI mode callers now have scrolling equal to two-thirds of
the chat window for easier reading.
* DESQview aware. If the program is waiting for input,the
program will give away time-slices to the other processes
which are running. I have not tested this code in this
program, however, I tested it in a simpler test program
using QEMM 6.02 and DESQview 2.42 and it worked without
blowing up.
New features in 1.30 include:
* ALT-J Shell To DOS feature for sysop use. Allows sysop to
exit to dos without exiting the chat mode. Full-screen redraw
is performed on return, leaving chat text intact.
* Program will swap to EMS/XMS/Disk when ALT-J is hit, allowing
maximum available memory for DOS usage.
* Screen redraw in case of line noise (Ctrl-R, sysop OR user)
* Pressing ALT-A on sysop or user (via DOORWAY mode) will set
the current emulation mode to ANSI while in chat mode only.
If a user is calling with a non-AVT/0+ compliant program
(such as Qmodem), they can switch it to ANSI for the scroll
functions to work right.
* Pressing ALT-V on sysop or user (via DOORWAY mode) will set
the current emulation mode to AVATAR while in chat mode.
Note that this will only work if AVATAR was originally the
emulation used on startup.
* There were several problems with the ANSI and AVATAR color
routines that were introduced in version 1.20 that have now
been fixed. All of the colors should appear correct in this
new version.
* File logging of chat sessions is now available. This log
style is compatible with that used by RA, FD, GECHO, etc.
The log is appended to if it already exists. The logging
can be toggled on/off by using the ALT-L key. An indicator
is displayed on the sysop side only.
* The sysop can switch between the sysop and user chat window
using the ALT-W combination. This is fun for playing tricks
on users, such as stuffing in bad keys to create spelling
errors, etc. But in the end, it will allow the sysop to edit
the user's chat portion of the screen with the arrow keys so
that while a user and sysop are discussing a piece of code or
something, the sysop does not have to retype, etc. Quoting
is also going to be added I think...
New features for 1.31 include:
* Fixed the bug which occurred if a user had only AVATAR codes
on without ANSI codes. The program now works correctly for
users with only AVATAR (2) turned on.
New features for 1.40 include:
* Help screen to instruct users on which keys are available while
using GCHAT.
* Fixed a display problem with the ANSI/AVT && AVATAR indicators.
* Removed FOSSIL detection and only use the FOSSIL initialization
call to determine if the program can continue, since the detect
routine always dies when using DESQview.
* GChat will use the current baud rate if no baud rate is specified.
This option will work in most cases, however, your application
may be different. (It works with RA 1.1x)
* The program can now read the DORINFO1.DEF file (RBBS-style) which
is created by RemoteAccess before running an external application.
The board name, sysop name, user name, user location, modem port,
and graphics mode are read from this file.
* Support for the RemoteAccess 1.1x EXITINFO.BBS file is added.
GChat can now obtain the user's name, location, and screen length
without command line parameters.
* The program can now read the RA 1.1x configuration files. The
sysop name, board name, etc. can be read from the RA configuration
files.
* GChat can now be used with any length screen display. If the user
has specified a screen length longer than the local screen can
support, the length will be limited to that of the local screen.
* If GChat is brought up with a com port of 0 or a baud rate of 0,
it will startup in LOCAL mode without making any calls to the
FOSSIL driver. So now you can chat to yourself while logged in
using local mode.
* Digraph compression. Digraphs are two characters which have a
single sound. In the upper-128 bytes of the IBM character set,
all of the foriegn language characters can be cons