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1992-11-06
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Documentation for QWK'n'Dirty 1.1a
Copyright 1992 by
Anthony W. Hursh
LIMITED WARRANTY
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
THERE ARE NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES. THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES OF
OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER SHALL NOT IN ANY CASE BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL,
INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR OTHER SIMILAR DAMAGES ARISING FROM
THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY TO USE, THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDER OR HIS AGENT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
QWK'n'Dirty is a combination offline reader and terminal program
for QWK compatible bulletin board systems. QWK'n'Dirty is a shareware
program. If you wish to continue using QWK'n'Dirty after an evaluation
period of two weeks you must register your copy. Send $25.00 in U.S.
funds to:
Anthony W. Hursh
P.O. Box 141293
Anchorage, AK 99514
You'll receive a registration code by return mail. This code, when entered
into the REGISTER.EXE program that comes with the QWK'n'Dirty package,
registers your copy of QWKNDTY.EXE and removes the annoying "unregistered
shareware" line from the posted messages. You'll also receive a
distribution code that lets you earn money by distributing QWK'n'Dirty.
See MAKECASH.DOC for further details.
GENERAL INFORMATION ON QWK READERS
A QWK reader allows you to download messages from a bulletin
board system and read them on your own PC. This saves time (= money,
if you're calling long distance) for both you and the BBS. In addition,
you can use your own personal text editor to write your messages.
A QWK compatible BBS generates .QWK files. You download these files,
read them with the QWK reader, and write replies. Your replies are
put into a .REP file that you upload to the BBS. With most QWK readers
you must use a separate terminal program to call the BBS and up/download
your messages. Not so with QWK'n'Dirty. It is a terminal program and
a QWK reader, all in one.
PREINSTALLATION NOTES
Before installing QWK'n'Dirty, you must have a couple of programs
that aren't included with the distribution:
1. DSZ.COM or DSZ.EXE from Omen Technology. This program is used to
download .QWK packets and upload .REP packets, using Xmodem,
Ymodem, or Zmodem.
2. PKZIP/PKUNZIP from PKWare, LHA by "Yoshi", and/or ARJ by
Robert K. Jung. These programs are used to compress and uncompress
your .QWK and .REP packets. QWK'n'Dirty supports ARJ, LZH and ZIP
compression. Which one you need to use depends on the BBS you're
calling. Most boards seem to prefer ZIP, but there are some out
there which use ARJ, and some which allow you a choice. Check with
your sysop if you can't figure out which to use. If you call several
boards, you may need two or more of these.
These programs must be in the QWK'n'Dirty directory or another
directory on your PATH in order for QWK'n'Dirty to find them.
SETTING UP QWK'N'DIRTY
Make a new directory and put all the QWK'n'Dirty files in it.
QWK'n'Dirty automatically creates any subdirectories it needs under
this main QWK'n'Dirty directory. If you wish to run QWK'n'Dirty from
other directories, you can put the QWK'n'Dirty directory on your PATH.
You must also set a QWK'n'Dirty environment variable to run QWK'n'Dirty
from other directories. Otherwise the program will not be able to find
the files that it needs. Do this by putting the line:
SET QWKNDTY=C:\SOME\DIR\
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, where C:\SOME\DIR is your QWK'n'Dirty
directory. Then reboot.
If you'll always be running QWK'n'Dirty from the QWK'n'Dirty directory
you don't need to set your PATH or the environment variable.
QWK'n'Dirty requires a FOSSIL driver. A FOSSIL is a special program
that takes control of your communications port and makes it easy for
applications programs to use it. OpusComm, a public domain FOSSIL driver,
is included with the QWK'n'Dirty distribution. There are several other
shareware/freeware FOSSIL drivers available, including X00 and BNU.
The supplied OPQWK.BAT file loads the included OpusComm FOSSIL driver
before running QWK'n'Dirty, and unloads it after exiting. BNUQWK.BAT
loads and unloads BNU (BNU is not supplied with this distribution).
I've had poor luck getting X00 to work with QWK'n'Dirty (or any other
program, for that matter). It locks up my machine and leaves the serial
port in such a state that Ctrl-Alt-Del will not restore it to proper
functioning (the computer will reboot but the serial port is toasted.
Only a complete power down will restore normal operation). This may
be due to some peculiarity of my serial card. If X00 works for you
with other applications, it may work with QWK'n'Dirty. Give it a try.
If you already have a FOSSIL driver installed (for example, to run a BBS)
simply execute QWK'n'Dirty by running QWKNDTY.EXE directly instead
of using OPQWK.BAT or BNUQWK.BAT.
The default FOSSIL setup should work fine for most machines. If you
have special needs, and you're using OpusComm, check the documentation in
OCOM_531.ZIP for more information. In particular, you may need to increase
the FOSSIL buffer size if you have a high-speed modem (or a slow computer).
One symptom of this is dropped characters. If you're using another FOSSIL
driver, such as BNU or X00, check the appropriate documentation.
Now, edit the QWEDIT.BAT file. QWEDIT.BAT is used to edit your replies.
The file name to edit is passed to the batch file as %1. The QWEDIT.BAT
file goes in the same directory as your QWK'n'Dirty program. The supplied
QWEDIT.BAT file is set up for use with QEdit, a popular shareware text
editor. You could easily change QWEDIT.BAT to use any other text editor,
even the pre-DOS 5.0 EDLIN (gag!). To do this, you'd put:
EDLIN %1
in the RUNQWK.BAT file. The DOS 5.0 EDIT program (*much* better) could be
used by putting the line:
EDIT %1
in the RUNQWK.BAT file. You can use any text editor that allows you
to specify the file name on the command line, and allows you to save
ASCII files. You could even use a word processing program such as
WordPerfect (talk about overkill :-) if the program lets you
save the file in ASCII format (WordPerfect calls an ASCII file a
"DOS Text File"). Make *sure* that your editor uses ASCII, or
Really Ugly Things will happen.
QWK'n'Dirty has no internal editor. In my experience, the internal
editors supplied with QWK readers are slow, clumsy, confusing, and
increase the program size dramatically. It's much better to use your
own editor.
USING QWK'n'Dirty
Run the program by typing one of the following:
OPQWK (if you're using OpusComm)
BNUQWK (if you're using BNU)
QWKNDTY (if you already have a FOSSIL installed).
After the FOSSIL driver loads you'll see a title screen and shareware
notice. Hit any key.
The first time you start up QWK'n'Dirty you'll go through the configuration
process. This is where you tell QWN'n'Dirty what com port to use, the
default baud rate, your modem initialization string, and so on. The
default values supplied will work with most machines, with the possible
exception of the com port. QWK'n'Dirty uses COM1: for the modem by
default. If your modem is on COM2:, make sure to set it so in the
configuration process.
You can reconfigure QWK'n'Dirty from the terminal screen by typing
ALT-O.
You'll now be in terminal mode. Any ordinary key you type will be
sent to the modem, and any incoming data from the modem will be
sent to your screen. You can also use ALT commands from the terminal
mode to access other QWK'n'Dirty commands. Here is a summary of
the available commands:
ALT-D: This command is used to get to the menu for dialing other systems
and reading QWK packets. For a full explanation see "The Dial/Read Menu",
below