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1991-11-04
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22KB
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533 lines
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4 Maximus/2 and BinkleyTerm . . . . . . . . . . . 2
5 Differences from DOS version . . . . . . . . . 3
6 Multiline Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7 The MAXPIPE program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8 The PMSNOOP program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Index 8
1 Introduction
In addition to all the features mentioned in the main
documentation, Maximus/2 2.00 is different from version 1.00 in
the following ways:
* Version 2.00 uses MAXCOMM.DLL instead of COMM.DLL. The
Comm API is the same; the DLL name was changed because
of a conflict with another product.
* All low-level message handling code is contained in
MSGAPI.DLL. Maxp.exe and many other utilities use this
code (SILT, SQUISH, etc). It is our hope that third
party developers will use this API/DLL to access
messages, rather than trying to do so directly.
2 System Requirements
Because OS/2 uses virtual memory it may be possible to run
Maximus/2 with less than the following configuration, but it is
not recommended.
* OS/2 Version 1.20 or greater. It may be possible to
run Maximus/2 with earlier versions of OS/2, but it
was not tested.
* Memory: For a single line system (one copy of
Maximus/2 running), you should have, at least, the
amount of memory recommended by your version of OS/2.
For IBM OS/2 1.30, this is 3MB.
As you add more phone lines, and/or faster modems,
you will have to increase the amount of memory in your
system if you want to prevent file transfer overruns.
This is especially true if you have an 80286 processor.
If your system is a mail-only system (no file
transfers), this may not be as large a concern.
* If using an 80286, you should have PROTECTONLY=YES in
config.sys. This prevents interrupts from being lost
by switching to real mode; a very slow undertaking on
that processor. Even on an 80386 or I486, if you are
using high speed modems, switching to the dos box may
cause bytes to be lost (this will not be a concern with
OS/2 2.00).
* Unless there are very extenuating circumstances, you
should leave the config.sys PRIORITY parameter set to
the default setting, DYNAMIC. By setting it to
ABSOLUTE, you turn off OS/2's pre-emptive
mutlitasking.
* Maximus/2, like all OS/2 RS232 software, does not
require a "FOSSIL" driver. OS/2, unlike MSDOS, is
shipped with a proper device driver for the serial
ports. The driver is called COM0x.SYS (where x = 1 for
ISA computers, and 2 for Microchannel).
Unfortunately, most (if not all) versions of OS/2 have
shipped with a COM0x.SYS file that is broken in some
way. Included with this package are Gerry Rozema's
(1:153/905) COM16550.SYS and COM16450.SYS drivers.
These are replacements for COM01.SYS, and seem to work
better than the standard issue. Both drivers are
contained in COM16550.LZH.
* HPFS is strongly recommended. A ten-fold (or greater)
performance increase can be had if you have large *.MSG
type messages areas.
3 Installation
Maximus/2 is installed the same way as Maximus/DOS, using the
provided installation program (INSTALL.EXE), with the exception
that it should be installed from an OS/2 session, not DOS.
INSTALL will copy 3 DLLs (MSGAPI.DLL, MAXCOMM.DLL, SNSERVER.DLL)
to your C:\OS2\DLL directory, which it needs to complete
installation. These DLLs are also copied to your Maximus system
directory. After installation, you may wish to erase the DLLs
copied to C:\OS2\DLL, and add your Maximus system directory to
your LIBPATH in config.sys. If you are at all unsure about what
some of the terms mentioned in this paragraph (DLL, LIBPATH,
CONFIG.SYS), then do nothing. Maximus should work as installed.
4 Maximus/2 and BinkleyTerm
Currently, the only fidonet mailer available for Maximus is
BinkleyTerm. This section discusses running Maximus/2 with
BinkleyTerm as the front end.
* BinkleyTerm *MUST* use the "BBS Spawn" method to load
Maximus. Furthermore, you must start BinkleyTerm with
the SHARE command line option ("BTP SHARE"). These two
options cause Bink to pass the opened COMM handle to
Maximus.
* Maximus must be passed the FILE HANDLE of the opened
COM: port from binkley. Using the sample batch file
(spawnbbs.cmd) supplied with this document does this
properly. DO NOT try to hard code this value. Passing
a '1' for COM1: will NOT WORK!
- 2 -
* ALL serial port options (bps, parity, handshaking) are
inherited from BinkleyTerm. Maximus does not open,
close, or alter the COMM parameters in any way, except
for XON/XOFF flow control. Therefore, the MAX.CTL
"Mask Handshaking" statements for CTS and DSR do
nothing. XON behaves as described.
NOTE: Later versions of BinkleyTerm may act in much
the same fashion, so it may be necessary to use the
"MODE COMx:" command to set up your port before loading
BTP.
5 Differences from DOS version
* In WFC (wait for caller) mode, Maximus/2 only polls
the keyboard about every 2 seconds. Therefore, please
be patient if you hit ALT-X or ALT-K, etc. This was
done so that a negligible amount of CPU cycles are used
while Maximus/2 is waiting for the phone to ring.
Modem responses are handled immediately.
* The "-p" command line option (which specifies the port
number under dos) specifies file handle of the comm
port. Binkley passes this open handle to SPAWNBBS.CMD,
which in turn passes it to MAXP.EXE. Do not try and
pass something like '-p1' for COM1:, '-p2' for COM2:
etc; it will NOT work!