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1995-02-13
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High Voltage! Software Presents:
ENSEMBLE 1.0
(C) Copyright 1995 by Michael Russo
All Rights Reserved
LICENSE
-------
The user is granted a limited license to test this door for a reason-
able period of time which I consider one month. This door will not
expire and contains no crippling that would hinder its true evaluation.
After this period, it is required that the door be registered as out-
lined in the REGISTER.DOC included with the door. Ensemble is not
public domain.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY
------------------
By the use of this product, the user agrees to all terms contained in
this document. The user accepts all responsibility for its use and the
author is in no way liable for any damage or loss of income caused by
this product. Your rights may vary from state to state. Technical
support provided by Michael Russo or any other representitive of High
Voltage! BBS also covered by this Limit of Liability.
WARRANTY
--------
There is no warranty expressed or implied on the fitness of this
product. If you register the door, it is assumed that you have found
the door fit for your needs. Since this door is not crippled, there is
no reason to believe that the registered version will work if the
unregistered doesn't.
DISTRIBUTION
------------
You are encouraged to distribute this file to other BBS's as long as no
specific fee is charged for this door. Also, no alterations may be
made to the original archive without the permission of Michael Russo.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
-----------------
Technical support is available through High Voltage! BBS throughout the
life of HVBBS. High Voltage! BBS support can be revoked if
the user doesn't abide by the general user requirements as outlined on
High Voltage! BBS. High Voltage! BBS is a public board and you will have
access to E-Mail on your first call. HVBBS can be reached at 916-758-8837 or
916-758-8887.
WHAT IS ENSEMBLE?
-----------------
Ensemble is simpily a match maker door. It allows users to answer
a questionnaire, then make matches on the other users who have answered
the questionnaire. Ensemble allows users to view what others have put down,
and they can even leave messages to each other in the message center. This
door is a child of Nexus, the adult version. Ensemble, however, was made
for users of all ages where Nexus is for adults only. Currently, if you
register either Ensemble or Nexus, you get both of the doors for the price
of one. Buy one, and the other is free. This may change, so hurry.
The best way to see what Ensemble is all about, is to run it locally. If you
want to do that now, just type ENSEMBLE /L in the directory where you
unzipped your Ensemble archive.
WHY REGISTER?
-------------
First of all, I put a lot of work into this door and I think that it is
well worth the registration fee. Registering the game not only makes you
feel very good about yourself (it really does, try it!!), but it also
keeps me encouraged to continue support and new releases of Ensemble. Now,
if all that wasn't a good enough reason, then you should register because
the unregistered version only allows up to 10 users in the door. If
you register you can have as many as you like.
ONLINE REGISTERING
------------------
If you don't want to wait to register Ensemble by mail, you can call
High Voltage! BBS and register with your VISA/MC/AMEX/OPTIMA or JBC card.
If you choose this method registrations are usually ready within 48 HRS.
GETTING STARTED
---------------
The first thing you need to do is create a directory where you will
store your Ensemble files. Next you should unzip the Ensemble archive in
that directory. You should have the following files in that directory:
ENSEMBLE.EXE - Main Program
RUNMAINT.EXE - Ensemble Maintenance Program
ENEDIT.EXE - User editor
MAKE.EXE - Questionnaire Maker/Editor
ENSETUP.EXE - Sets up your config file
ENSEMBLE.CFG - Needed to run Ensemble
QUEST.DAT - A sample questionnaire
HELP.TXT - Ignore, used by Ensetup
SYSOP.DOC - You are reading it now
REGISTER.DOC - Info on registering Nexus
Once all files are accounted for, edit the file ENSEMBLE.CFG to suit the
needs of your system. This file contains instructions within it, so there is
no need for explaination here.
For those of you with a mouse, use ENSETUP.EXE instead to prepare your
ENSEMBLE.CFG file. This is a graphical setup program, and makes life a bit
easier.
MAKE
----
If you do not want to use the default questionnaire that comes with
Ensemble, run the program MAKE.EXE from your ensemble directory. With MAKE
you can either edit the default questionnaire, or erase it and make a
completely new one. I suggest you check out the questionnaire that comes with
the archive before you erase it, you may like it. At the least it will give
you some ideas.
You will notice in the editor that you can create single response
questions, that is the user must choose ONE answer from the given choices,
or you can have multi-response questions where the user can choose a
bunch of responses from the given possible answers. If the question
asks for eye color, obviously it should allow only one response. If,
however, it asks the user their favorite hobbies, they should be able to
pick as many as they want from the list.
Ensemble allows you to WEIGH the questions according to what YOU feel is
important. For instance, let's say you have a question that asks the user
for their hair color. If two people match on hair color this is
obviously not a very important stat as to their compatibility. Therefore,
when assigning the amount of points given on a "match" for this
question, it should be 0, or at least very low. I consider sleeping
habits important to a sucessful relationship. For instance Night Owls can
have problems living with morning people.. so when assigning the amount
of points to this question I would assign 10 points (the max) to a
match. Keep in mind that if a question allows multiple responses, the
system awards points not only to those both users selected, but also to
those answers both users left blank. For instance if the question is
asking for hobbies, there are ten choices and one of them is skiing, both
users do NOT select this hobby, then the system considers that a "match"
and awards the points accordingly.
ENEDIT
------
Ensemble comes with a user editor. This is a seperate program for Sysops
that will allow you to browse through your users, edit their personal info,
or even delete users. This program can be run locally, or you can set it
up as a door if you like. You might want to make it available from your
sysop menu so that you can edit users remotely, or so the your CoSysop can
edit Ensemble users. If you run it locally, you need to call it with the
local switch. For instance... ENEDIT /L ... would start your editor
locally. If you set it up as a door, just use the same batch file you use
to run Ensemble, only replace ENSEMBLE.EXE with ENEDIT.EXE. MAKE SURE YOU DO
NOT MAKE THIS PROGRAM AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL MASSES!! Enedit will look for
Ensemble.Cfg in the directory from which you run it, so make sure it is there.
BATCH FILE
----------
Now that Ensemble is configured, you need to set it up to run on your system.
All BBSs have different ways of handling DOORS, but I will use Wildcat 4.01
as my example. If this doesn't help, please refer to your sysop guide.
You should create a batch file, let's call it ENRUN.BAT ... the batch
file needs to contain little. Just switch to the Ensemble directory and
run Ensemble with the appropriate command line switches. For instance..
CD C:\WILDCAT\WCWORK\NODE1\ENSEMBLE
ENSEMBLE /PC:\WILDCAT\WCWORK\NODE1 /N1
EXIT
Here is a list of command line options and what they do:
/Pyyy : Tells door the path to your door drop file. For instance
where DOOR.SYS or PCBOARD.DAT is located.
/Nx : Tells door what node it is running on.
/Cx : Specifies a com port where x is 1 - 4.
/L : Tells door to run in local mode.
/E : Expanded memory specification for increased performance on
systems with over 1 MEG of memory.
/Bxxxxx : Tells comm routines to lock the baud rate at XXXXX speed.
/Mx : If you want to use more that one config file, you MUST use
this switch to call the door. For instance if you used
/M2 it would tell door to use ENSEMBL2.CFG instead of
ENSEMBLE.CFG
/V : Tells the system to turn off local display while caller
is in the door. This can speed things up a bit.
/W : Flags network present even if one was not detected. This
can be useful with some LAN systems.
That is really all there is too it. Set up your system to run ENRUN.BAT
and modify your door menu to include Ensemble. In case you forgot, there is
a sample batch file shown above.
MULTI-NODE
----------
Ensemble is not currently a multi-node door. It can be run from any node
on your BBS, but only one caller can access it at one time. I plan to
look into multi-node capabilities soon, but for now set your BBS to allow
only one caller at a time. In case your system can not do that, Ensemble
create a file called INUSE.NOW when the door is in use, and it will delete
this file when it is finished. If INUSE.NOW exists Ensemble will not allow
anyone to enter the door. If you can't get into the door and nobody is
using it, check to see if INUSE.NOW exists, and if it does, kill it!
If you need to specify a non-standard IRQ, you can do so in ENSEMBLE.CFG
using the PORT line. The file explains all about that inside.
If you are running a multi-line system, I recommend you make use of
an environmental variable to specify your path to the drop file. For
instance you can put something like SET WCNODEID = 2 in your batch
file that starts node 2 of your BBS. Then you can do something like this
in your Ensemble batch file..
ENSEMBLE /PC:\WILDCAT\WCWORK\NODE%WCNODEID% /N%WCNODEID%
and the system will sub the number 2 in place of %WCNODEID%.
MAINTENANCE
-----------
The program RUNMAINT.EXE will take care of deleting inactive users. You
should set it up to run as an event once a night. It will automatically
delete users who haven't used the door in 60 days, or you can change the
number of days by specifying a new number on the command line.
RUNMAINT /D30
This would delete all users who haven't used the door in 30 days, for
example. Just RUNMAINT by itself uses the default of 60 days.
RIP GRAPHICS
------------
Ensemble is not fully ripped out at this point, however it does feature
some limited RIP graphics. In the future I plan to release a version with
FULL RIP support.
I may can RIP due to the reports I have had of RIPTERM 2.0 failing and
the fact that the company who makes RIPTERM plans to charge for it now. Let
me know if you have an opinion on this matter.
REGISTERING
-----------
If you choose to register, make out a check payable to MICHAEL RUSSO
for $15.00 and send it to the address below. Of course you can send more
if you can, but I wanted to keep the registration price affordable for
those sysops, like myself, who are finding their hobby expensive! :)
Make sure you also print out REGISTER.DOC and mail it as well.
Michael Russo
1959 Lake Blvd. #135
Davis, CA 95616
I can be reached either at my BBS, High Voltage!, 916-758-8837, or on the
Internet... use my MSI account Michael.Russo@Mustang.Com. I can also
be reached on WildNET in the doors conference.
SPECIAL THANKS
--------------
Special thanks to the following:
Randall Barker
Patt O'Brien
Scott Baker (DoorDriver)
Steve Lorenz (Doordriver Plus)