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1992-12-13
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NewsMaker 2.0
For
RBBS-PC
Copyright (C) 1992 By Benny Carr
Legalities
==========
This software and accompanying materials are distributed "AS IS" without
warranty, expressed, implied, or statutory, including but not limited to
any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose. In no event shall anyone involved with the creation and production
of this product be liable for indirect, special, or consequential damages
arising out of any use thereof or breach of any warranty.
What this means, plainly put, is that if you choose to run this program
and it eats your system alive, well, I'm real sorry about that, but I can't
be held responsible. By using this product you are assuming all liability.
Copyright
=========
Yes it is. This program is Copyrighted and is the property of Benny Carr.
You are being granted a limited license to use it. You may not disassemble
nor alter this program in any manner. You may not distribute this package
in conjunction with any other package, either commercial, shareware, or any
other kind of ware, unless requesting and receiving permission from the
author of NewsMaker.
Registration
============
Naw. Nope. None required. In the spirit of RBBS-PC and other fine
"freebie" packages, there is no charge required to use this program. If
you wanna use it ... be my guest. It would be nice to hear from you that
your using it, but if not enjoy it!
What Did You Get
================
NWSMAKER.DOC - Hopefully you got this cause your reading it.
NWSMAKER.CFG - Example Configuration File
NWSMAKER.EXE - The actual program
MAIN.CFG - Sample config file for Main Conference
APOGEE.CFG - Sample config file for Apogee Conference
MAIN1.TXT - Sample Text file
What Is It
==========
NewsMaker will read a configuration file and create the 3 flavors (Plain,
ASCII, and ANSI) of News text files for RBBS-PC. NewsMaker will allow
the SysOp to configure the Header Box color, the color of text within
the box, and the actual news text color. NewsMaker will work with multiple
configuration files. This will in turn allow you, the SysOp, to use NewsMaker
to create News files for all of your conferences and sub-boards, and to even
customize the colors for each.
How Do I Use It
===============
The first thing you should do is create a sub-directory to hold the various
files associated with NewsMaker. Now copy the NWSMAKER.EXE into this new
sub-directory. Next you'll need at least 1 configuration file. You can either
copy 1 or both of the supplied sample *.CFG files and modify them to suit your
needs, or build them from scratch. Below is an explanation of MAIN.CFG.
New Woodstk RBBS <----- Your BBS Name
MAIN <----------------- Conference name (Up to 7 characters)
C:\RBBS\TEXT\ <-------- Path/Dir for *.NWS files, with trailing \
MAIN*.TXT <------------ Name of text file to process. Wildcards ok
{CS <------------------ Clear Screen
{PB <------------------ Page Break
1;31;40m <------------- Header Box color
1;33;40m <------------- Color of text within box
1;36;40m <------------- Color of news text
Line 1) Your BBS Name would go here.
Line 2) This is the name of the conference that the *.NWS files will be
produced for. In other words, if this is MAIN then MAIN.NWS,
MAING.NWS, and MAINC.NWS will be produced. If the name in line 2 is
APOGEE then APOGEE.NWS, APOGEEG.NWS, and APOGEEC.NWS will be produced.
And so on and so forth.
Line 3) This is the directory where NewsMaker should put the *.NWS files that
it makes. This line include the complete path with the trailing \.
Line 4) Name of the text files to read. Wildcards are allowed here. What I
do is create text files for my MAIN conference with names such as
MAIN1.TXT, MAIN2.TXT, MAIN3.TXT etc etc etc. Text files for APOGEE
would be APOGEE1.TXT, APOGEE2.TXT etc etc etc.
Line 5) Clear Screen
Line 6) Page Break
Line 7) Color to be used for the header box. Must be typed exactly as the
example is. NewsMaker will handle the escape stuff but you have to
put the little m at the end.
Line 8) Color to be used for the text within the box.
Line 9) Color to be used for the News Text.
Now you should create a text file for NewsMaker to read. The text file(s)
*MUST* reside in the sub-directory along with NWSMAKER.EXE and the various *.CFG
files. These files can be created with your favorite text editor. The very 1st
line of the text file is going to be used by NewsMaker as the title of the news
bulletin, and will be centered automatically by NewsMaker. The remaining text
will be the actual news you want to display. NewsMaker works on the "way you
type it is the way you get it" principle. What the heck does this mean? Well,
this means that however you type your *.TXT files is the way NewsMaker will
build the text within the *.NWS files. Any spacing you do will be re-created
within the *.NWS files.
You can have many news items by simply creating many *.TXT files. If you
want to delete one of the news items simply delete the .TXT file that
you no longer need and run NewsMaker again.
* Please note that NewsMaker will sort the various *.TXT files you've
* created by file date and will need access to DOS's SORT, either by
* a path statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or by placing SORT in the same
* directory as NewsMaker.
At this point typing NWSMAKER along with the name of one of your *.CFG files
and hitting enter should do it for you. (EX: NWSMAKER MAIN.CFG or NWSMAKER
APOGEE.CFG or any other one that you may have.)
Support And New Releases
========================
Support and new releases can be obtained by contacting me in one of the
ways listed below.
Benny Carr BusiLink Net 10:101/3
FidoNet 1:273/229
New Woodstk RBBS 1-215-750-6670
I also browse the RBBS-PC Echo so you can find me there.
History
=======
Version 1.0 October 30, 1992. 1st public release
Version 1.1 November 14, 1992. Bad Bug Killed. Applied
insecticide to a bug that would pop up when
using NewsMaker in an environment where SHARE
was loaded. Seems NewsMaker didn't care for it
and would continuously write an undefined error
to the NWSMAKER.LOG until you either stopped it
or you ran out of disk space. Sorry bout that one
gang. (Thanks to Gary G. for helping out on that
one.)
Version 1.2 November 18, 1992. Bad Bug Killed, finally.
Version 1.1 knocked it out but didn't quite kill
it. This time it's dead.
Version 2.0 December 13, 1992. Cleaned up some little creatures
that were lurking about. Added support for the creation
of *.NWS files for multiple conferences/subboards.
Gave it some life, added color.
Credits
=======
Thanks go to BusiLink (tm) Net and it's members that gave the Beta copies a
try, and for providing distribution of the Betas.
Thanks go to all that tried a Beta copy along the way.
Thanks to the Copyright holders and various authors for RBBS-PC. If it
wasn't for them this program would serve no real purpose. :)
Thanks go out to those of you out there that are willing to try NewsMaker
and for your input towards any future releases.
Thanks go to Gary Glueckert for letting me abuse his drives while looking
for the Big Bad Bug in 1.0 (& 1.1). Also for his suggestions and thoughts
concerning this program. And another thanks to him for the fine programs he
himself writes for RBBS-PC.
Thanks to my family for letting me play.
And, thanks to Ed Harrigan for his constant answers to my constant questions.