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Text File | 1991-11-05 | 31KB | 599 lines

▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒█ ▒▒█▀ ▒▒█ ▒▒█▀ ▒▒█▀ ▒▒█ ▒▒█▀ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█▀ ▒▒█ ▒▒▄ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒▄ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█▀ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█▀ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒█▀ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒█▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▒▒▒▒▒▄▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒█▒▒█▒▒█ ▒▒█▀▀▀▀ ▒▒█▒▒▄▒▒█ ▒▒█▀▀▀▀ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒█▒▒█▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒█▒▒█▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▒▒█▒▒█▒▒█ ▒▒█▀▀ ▒▒█▒▒█▒▒█ ▀▀▀▒▒█ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▒▒█▒▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▄ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▒▒▒▒▒▒█ ▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ Volume 1, Issue 7 August/September 1991 Table of Contents ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The US Robotics Information Network..........................Ken 1@5921 Documentation for Using Chains..............................Filo 1@5252 WWIV v4.20 Changes...........................................Random 1@1 WWIV Edit v2.2 Review..............................The Emperor 271@9964 NetUtil v2.10 Review...............................The Emperor 271@9964 The Pending File.........................................WWIVNEWS Staff Letters to the Editor...........................................Various The Editor's Corner.................................East Bay Ray 1@9964 Acknowledgements.........................................WWIVNEWS Staff ======================================================================= The US Robotics Information Network by Ken 1@5921 Recently a Net sub has been added to the Subs List, hosted by the Exodus BBS (@5921, WWIVNET) in Spokane, WA. called the USRobotics Information Network. Since it's conception, users and Sysops have been preparing information to be obtained through this sub, which will also be sent in on occassion to WWIVNEWS for non-subscribers. The type of information provided is based entirely on everything from USR's technical notes to new releases of their line of modems. Information not readily available to people that do not call the USRobotics BBS will be available on the sub also, as well as question and answer discussions in general. But what will make this different type of message sub? Well, subscribers to this sub will be receiving a monthly newsletter and updates to a National BBS List of boards running USR High Speed Modems. A Public Domain program has been provided by a user for both IBM and Apple systems, along with a BBS List that will be released soon covering as many USR modem-run boards as can possibly be obtained by it's first release. The monthly newsletter will contain all news obtained from USRobotics inc., Consultants, and Dealers about USRobotics modems, covering everything from their complete line of modems, such as new technological advances, special pricing offers, upgrades for your HST, etc. Occasionally, test results will be also included for a comparison basis when shopping for a high speed modem. ======================================================================= Documentation for Using Chains by Filo 1@5252 The WWIV documentation written by Will Daystrom provides some information regarding the operation of Chains or Doors in WWIV. This document is meant to supplement what is found there and to provide some help on running doors that may be written for other types of software. I hope that you will find this information to be useful to you. 1.0 WWIV Games Games can be characterized as WWIV games if one of two conditions occur. First, if the game is written to specifically make use of the drop file known as CHAIN.TXT. By drop file, is meant a file that is created by the BBS software either at the time of logon or when a door (chain) is entered. This file typically contains information about the user and/or the system. A commented CHAIN.TXT, written by MrBill is available on my BBS for download. Some games are written to make specific use of the information contained in the CHAIN.TXT file. These games, although perhaps not specifically written for WWIV alone, are discussed in the category of WWIV games because they have been written to work with WWIV. The second condition that causes a game to be known as a WWIV game is that it makes use of the special dos color codes contained in the WWIV software. These games are characterize by use of the DOS color commands (pseudo-ansi) found in WWIV. These colors are discussed in the DEFAULT section of the software and are configurable by the user. WWIV will interpret the symbol as a color command when it is followed by a number. Because WWIV is one of the few BBS programs that can use these color commands, games containing them are almost always written for the exclusive use of WWIV boards. These games are also most often characterized as games where the CHAINEDIT option of USE DOS INTERRUPTS should be left at the default setting of Y. 2.0 Games for Other Software Games that may be considered as being written for other software are those which do not use CHAIN.TXT and which instead use one of the drop files of another bbs software. These usually include games which use DORINFO1.DEF (RBBS, QBBS, REMOTE ACCESS), games which use PcBOARD.SYS (PcBoard versions 12 and 14), games which use DOOR.SYS (Wildcat 3.0, GAP, and PcBoard 14.5+), and games which use CALLINFO.BBS (pre-version 3.0 of Wildcat). These games can often be made to work with WWIV provided that a 'converter' is also used. The use of converters and so forth will be discussed later. 3.0 Setting up WWIV games Most WWIV games have relatively good documentation and therefore setting them up and getting them to work is usually very straight forward. However, if there is no documentation and/or the documentation seems insufficient, then there are a number of things that you can experiment with by trial and error to see if you can get the game to run. 3.1 Placement of Game Files If the game does not tell you where to place the files, you can try each of the following setups to see if one of them causes the game to work: a. In its own directory Example: C:\WWIV\MWAR b. In a directory called CHAINS (especially for older WWIV games) Example: C:\WWIV\CHAINS c. In a directory off of CHAINS (also popular place for older WWIV games) Example: C:\WWIV\CHAINS\MWAR d. In the main BBS directory Example: C:\WWIV 3.2 Relationship to CHAIN.TXT If you get a 'parameter file not found' or other type of error message from the game, then it may be that it is not finding CHAIN.TXT correctly. You may try incorporating a batch file and copying the CHAIN.TXT to the directory where the game is located. Example: Use DOS commands as follows: copy con MWAR.BAT @echo off copy chain.txt c:\wwiv\chains\mwar cd chains\mwar mwar cd\wwiv then press CTRL Z or F6 (ie function key 6) to save the batch file. 3.3 DOS Interrupts Some games written especially for WWIV will let the BBS handle the DOS INTERRUPTS. This is especially true of many games written in PASCAL for use with WWIV. A sign that sometimes the DOS interrupt option is set incorrectly is when the game echos double characters. If the game is viewable from local mode but not from the remote mode, then you may want to experiment with setting the DOS INTERRUPTS option differently. 3.4 SHRINK Option Many games do not necessitate the BBS to shrink out in order to run them; however, if you experience a "lock up" or freezing of the computer when you try to run the game, this may be an indication that there is insufficient memory available and that you should shrink the BBS. Also, in my experience, it may be helpful to set the BBS to shrink out if the game is large (ie the file size is big). 4.0 Setting up Non-WWIV Games Because these games are not specifically made for WWIV, the first step is to determine what software they support. You will know what CHAIN.TXT CONVERTER to run by noting the types of drop files supported. The more popular converters currently in use by WWIV Sysops are: WWUTIL5 by Phil DeWitt. This utility will convert CHAIN.TXT to DORINFO1.DEF, CALLINFO.BBS, and PcBOARD.SYS. WWUTIL6 by Filo. This utility is based upon Phil DeWitt's code, but it offers two additional parameters which may be useful. A command line parameter of H will pass the user's handle rather than his real name to the door and an F will pass a locked comport speed rather than the user's baudrate. The latter is sometimes helpful in getting a game to work where you are running a hi-speed modem with a locked comport. QKDOOR by Christopher Hall. This utility provides the ability to convert the drop file from anyone of the following types of BBS software to any of the others: GAP -> Door.Sys Genesis Deluxe -> CallInfo.BBS GT PowerComm -> GTUser.BBS Osiris# -> ExtInfo#.QBS OsirisSE### -> Out###.QBS PCBoard v12xx -> PCBoard.Sys PCBoard.Dat Users PCBoard v14xx -> PCBoard.Sys PCBoard.Dat Users QuickBBS -> DorInfo1.Def RBBS# -> DorInfo#.Def WildCat -> CallInfo.BBS Remote Access -> Dorinfo1.Def SpitFire WWIV -> Chain.Txt Syntax used for QKDOOR is: QkDoor [Path\]From_Door_Type [Path\]To_Door_Type [Locked_Baud_Rate] 4.1 Batch files using converters You will want to call the non-WWIV game with a batch file that uses a converter. For example, let us say that you are going to run a QBBS game (one that requires DORINFO1.DEF using Filo's converter (WWUTIL6) with user handle's being passed t the game and the game (MWAR) is located in C:\WWIV\MWAR, then the batch file to call the game would be: @echo off WWUTIL6 H (the H is for Handle) cd C:\WWIV\MWAR MWAR (plus any command line parameters) cd\WWIV If that does not work, then it may be necessary to add a line to the batch file immediately after WWUTIL6 H which copies the DORINFO1.DEF to the game directory: (ie. "copy dorinfo1.def C:\WWIV\MWAR") 4.2 Fossil Drivers WWIV does not require a fossil driver in order to run because Wayne Bell has written all of the I/O calls to the comport; however, some BBS software requires a Fossil Driver in order to operate because the authors have written their program to use the Fossil. Thus, some games may expect a fossil to be present even though that is not mentioned in the documentation of the game. This is particularly true for games written for QBBS, RBBS, and OPUS. WWIV should operate just fine even when a fossil driver is loaded. Most of these fossil drivers take 5-10k of memory, so if your system is tight on memory, you may wish to load the fossil only when shrinking out and unload it when you finish the game. This may be accomplished by using the EXE or COM version of the fossil and having it loaded and unloaded in the batch file that calls the game. The better known fossil drivers are X00, BNU, and OPUSCOMM. I personally use BNU170, but many WWIV system operators report excellent results from X00. I do not have experience with OPUSCOM and so make no claims for it. However, using BNU I have been able to get many games to run that would not otherwise do so. 5.0 Other Comments regarding CHAINS Some of the games written for WWIV in Pascal are presented in uncompiled form by the authors. This is often done so that the pascal code may be altered or customized for your board. Usually these authors have made use of something called a COMMON.PAS file which interfaces the game with WWIV. If a particular game has not been compiled, you must first compile it with the appropriate version of the Turbo Pascal compiler using the appropriate version of COMMON.PAS. Most of the versions of COMMON.PAS are available for downloading on the WWIV Support Boards. 5.1 BRUNxx Some games written in QuickBASIC have been compiled to utilize an intermediate program called BRUN (Basic RUN time module). Such games require the BRUN module specific to the compiler. Current versions of BRUN are BRUN20, BRUN30, BRUN40, and BRUN45. Again, these programs are available on most WWIV Support Boards. The BRUNxx file may be placed in your path and used by all programs that require it. One advantage of the Basic RUN time compilers is that the resulting EXE's require significantly less space (approximately 35k less per program). 6.0 Comments and Suggestions Please send comments and suggestions regarding this doc file to Filo (1 @5252 WWIVnet, 1 @15252 WWIVLink). ======================================================================= WWIV v4.20 Changes by Random 1@1 The source code has been cleaned up quite a bit. Consult the source docs (wwivsour.doc) for more info, if you are registered and have the source code. A few of the file formats have changed; run the init program once to convert any WWIV v4.12 or earlier data files to the v4.20 format before running the BBS. As always, lots of little bugs and oversights have been fixed. Additional security has been added in to the temporary extraction area in the transfer section. It will now find the full path name of pkzip/dsz/etc when executing any program (so it won't run a 'pkzip.bat' file out of the temp dir). Also, before allowing a user to extract any files out of a .ZIP file, the BBS first scanns the .ZIP file to see if it has anything like ".." or "\" or ":", or "command" in it. If it finds anything questionable in it, it will tell the user, and not allow him to extract anything out of the file. This prevents a user from extracting a file "..\config.dat" or "c:config.dat" from a .ZIP file. I do not believe this is a problem with other archivers (arc, pak, lzh, etc), but I do not know for sure. The transfer section newscan has been speeded up, for the case when there are no new files in a directory. The message base newscan/quickscan has been speeded up also, for the case when there are no new messages on a sub. You will see the "< Nothing new on General 1 >" in this case. The modem handling routines have been completely done. The modem info/result codes section in init has been replaced with a simple 'select your modem' menu. If your modem isn't listed, or the modem isn't handled correctly, consult the 'wwivmodm.doc' file. A new command-line option has been added to the BBS, /S. If a user is connected at 14400/HST/HST/V.42bis (thus the modem speed is 14400, but the com port baud rate is 38400), then you would say "BBS /B14400 /S38400 /O" to say that the modem speed is 14400, the com port speed is 38400, and to quit the BBS when the use loggs off. NOTE: You will only need to use this if you are running a front-end program to the BBS. You can say "//NET=5250" from the main menu to start the net listing at a specified system number. //rsort from the dl main menu will reverse-sort the entire xfer section by date. This is to allow you to easily remove old files. UARTS with buffers now have the buffers enabled by the BBS. The init program automatically detects buffered UARTS. The BBS now supports dos-macros. Create a file in your data directory called "macros.txt". The format of the file is one char then a DOS command-line. For example, if you put "d dir" in the macros.txt file, then whenever you hit ALT-D while in the BBS, the BBS will shell-to-dos and run the "dir" command (running "dir" is fairly useless, but you get the idea). I use it for editing WWIVnet message files, having entries such as "n q data\n*.net", which runs qedit on all the n*.net files when I hit alt-n. The baud rate the user is logged on at is displayed on the boarder line for the top-of-screen info. For WWIVnet email/posts, the &,%,^ indicators (for NC, GC, AC) are displayed in the message only if the email/post is from user #1 on the system. When people reply to a post (via the 'W' command in the messagebase), in addition to the "RE:" line, a "BY:" line is saved, indicating who posted the message that the reply is in reference to. When extracting out posts/email using the 'E' command, the title is now written out along with the post/email. When receiving source-verified net-email, a line on the message now indicates that it is source-verified, and who it is from. Batch downloads have been expanded, and batch uploads are now supported. Any protocol that writes to the dszlog can now be used as a batch protocol (for upload or download). The files to up or download are passed to the protocol in the "@c:files.lst" method, where a file listing the files to transfer is passed to the protocol. The appropriate lines for DSZ (minus any flow options you may need) are: Batch Send: "dsz port %2 speed %1 est 0 %4 sz @%3" Batch Receive: "dsz port %2 speed %1 est 0 %4 restrict rz" Any unexpected files that are uploaded with batch upload will simply be deleted. When selecting up/download or batch up/download, only the protocols available for that function will be listed. Protocols can now be restricted to error-controlled (ie, LAPM, MNP2-4) connections only. There is now a batch upload directory, which defaults to your temp directory. You may want to change this to be a directory on the same disk where most of your uploads are, for increased performance. BIMODEM is >NOT< supported currently. The upload event is now run anytime a file is uploaded (including //upload, //uploadall). A "Please wait..." message is displayed, and the output is NOT re-directed to the com port, as it was in v4.12. This ensures that the upload event will completely run, even if the user hangs up while it is running. File searches (by date, filename) can now be aborted more quickly by hitting a spacebar, even if there is not anything being printed out to the user at the time. The users SL is now always saved and restored when you use F9 to make the user a temp-sysop, even if you use //dos to shell to dos. A bit more info is printed out in uedit about a user, including their birthdate, where their mail is forwarded to, and their WWIV reg num (if any). The user-search now includes the ability to search based on number of logons, ie, "LOGONS<[2]" to find any user only logged on once. You can now import file descriptions from other BBS formats (such as QBBS, RBBS, PCBoard). First, ensure that you have the DOS directory set correctly in //boardedit (to point to the directory which the files are in). Then, in xfer section, go to the correct directory, and type //uploadfile. It will first ask you for the file format, then the file name for the file which holds the file names/descriptions. This command runs pretty much the same as //upload, except it takes the descriptions from the text file instead of prompting the user for the descriptions. [Ed's Note - WWIV v4.20 represents many much smaller changes which are of interest to sysops that Wayne did not include here. I look forward to someone compiling such a -complete- list of source changes.] ======================================================================= WWIV Edit v2.2 Review by The Emperor 271@9964 I know I will confuse you Sysops even more by writing this (because of my handle and the author's handle), but I will do so anyway...For I, The EMPEROR, have discovered a wonderful program I must share with you. For those of you who have not yet been utilizing WWIV Edit v2.2 (By The Emporer 1@6470), now is the time to get it. I am pretty sure it has made the rounds, but if you don't have it, please download it or feel free to SNARF it from my BBS. This program is not just an ordinary Full-Screen Editor. This is an excellent asset for your board! Everyone on the net has probably seen my beautiful taglines thanks to this program, (HEY -- Don't let that turn you off!), but that is one of many, many great features of this editor. Speaking of taglines, users are even permitted to program up to three personal taglines, which are one line long, and are inserted to the bottom of every network email and post they make. They can choose one, and have it used all the time, or they can have them appear at random. Think your users might abuse this? No problem. The sysop may turn this and a lot of other features off simply by changing the command lines in INIT. Installation is very simple, and the documentation is excellent. Also, if you have ANY problems, the author is 110% supportive. He definitely supports his product, and even has a WWIV Edit Support Sub available, sub-type 16470, Host 6470. What about BBS Taglines you ask? You can have UNLIMITED random BBS taglines with this great program, without an expected major source code modification. These taglines will appear on everything except local email directly after the unzip, but you can easily configure which subs you would like them disabled on, with a feature new to this version. Instead of seeing the same boring tagline, post after post after post, you can make literally hundreds of different ones! For those familiar with v2.1, macros were internal. The author has once again made them external. Sysops/Local users can program an astounding amount of macros with this program, although I am perfectly happy with my simple three. Also for v2.1 fans, the author added the ^X feature in the editor, which I missed the second I started using it. WWIV Edit is compatible with several color mods, Quote Mods, and even DOS 5.0 with Wayne's Fix, with only a little mod. [Ed's Note - WWIV v4.20 revision -B- fixes the editor shelling problem.] Some other very popular functions of WWIV Edit include the ability of local users to block read in a file. I find this very useful. Also useful is a built-in two-way chat mode, which is very similar to WWIV's. I find this very useful to break into users writing nasty messages to Wayne on my board <Kidding>. The help section (accessed by CTRL-O, is very informative, and instead of printing out a whole boring file, the user can simply choose a topic and go directly to that section. Also, a nice feature is that you don't have to learn a thousand new ^Q^P^R^Z^T^F^B commands, as you had to memorize with outdated editors, such as FSED. WWIV Edit uses most standard WWIV editor commands, and you can also center a line (no matter where you are on it, by hitting ^C!). Also new to version 2.2 is block commands! These help tremendously, and run basically like Turbo C's block commands, allowing you to cut, paste and delete large blocks of text, and more. Besides all these great features, the author has included a Spell Checker in this version. To check your message, simply type "/CHECK" on a line. Coming stock with the distributed ZIP file is a 6,000 word dictionary. To save ten hard-earned dollars, you can add every word you want to it yourself, or for us lazy sysops, all we have to do is register, as the author offers a 24,000 word dictionary to registered sysops. Though it is not absolutely necessary to register, I strongly feel that the author needs to be compensated for all the time and work put into this fantastic editor. I have used MANY, MANY editors since I started using the wonderful WWIV software, and this one is the absolute best. I am proud to be one of the first ten sysops to register. :) One last thing -- When you email the author to tell him what an awesome job he did, be sure and email The Emporer and not me. I would love to take credit for this fine editor, but it is not my work, it is Adam Caldwell's. ======================================================================= NetUtil v2.10 Review by The Emperor 271@9964 8-Ball (1 @3121) has finally released version 2.10 of his excellent Network Utility program for sub hosts. Using this daily to add and delete subscribers to my many subs, I have found this program to be most valuable. I highly recommend this program to all sysops who host networked sub-boards (large number of us, isn't it?), because it saves a lot of time and hassle. I used to have to drop to DOS to edit my N*.NET files, but now, I press Control-V, and all is taken care of. This small yet powerful program has many great features: Add nodes, Delete nodes, change nodes, search for nodes, etc. Also, a very well-used feature of this program are the fancy subscriber listings it generates. Also new to this version is the ability to send a form letter to the requesting system directly from NetUtil. Summary: Great program! Grab it today. Thanks to 8 Ball and the [DSS] for all their mods, files, and total support of WWIV. ======================================================================= The Pending File (Tips, Tricks, and News) by WWIVNEWS Staff NET26 has been released. There's no real rush to grab it, though. The few changes include: - A few (unnamed... uh-oh <grin>) bugs were fixed from NET25. - NETWORK1 processing speed is dramatically increased. - NETWORK now searches for DSZ.EXE as well as DSZ.COM. - File network support has been integrated. (NOTE! Wayne has only included this at my request, because I am writing file network software for WWIV. Wayne is not in any way connected with this, so I would not suggest e-mailing your questions to him.) WWIV v4.20 has been released, almost exactly a year from the date which WWIV v4.12 was released. The major changes are listed in an article in this issue of WWIVNews. It is important for the reader to note that there are THREE REVISIONS of v4.20. Revision B (replacing Revision A and WWIV v4.20 standard) fixes many bugs found, both in the source code and pre-compiled (Shareware) versions. If at all possible, ONLY download Revision B. If you are not sure, check with the sysop about the revision letter. (Ask for "B" by name...) ======================================================================= Letters to the Editor (Various Authors) WWIVNews - Hey... just thought I'd drop ya a line to make a small correction to the WWIVnews... just read the latest... and here's the *small* change for the next edition. MYREGION.. the latest version is MYREG791.ZIP... I have taken over the editing of it for Allen [Wittenauer, a.k.a. Ethereal Cereal, Merlin]. Just thought that you would like to know. I can't get it to all the Core Support boards, so I will be posting it on the WWIVLink Mods Net (so Filo can grab it) and I already noticed that PDB [Pillsbury Dough Boy] has posted it on the WWIVnet Modnet also.. - Stardriver #3 @5819 ======================================================================= The Editor's Corner by East Bay Ray 1@9964 Gasp! Shock! WWIVNews is now published every two months. The submissions are really falling off... (hint hint hint HINT) There was a ton of news I could have dredged up from the networked subs, but I am not going to write and edit 32k of news every month (or every two). This represents the collection of submissions mainly gathered in late July and early August that didn't not make it into the last issue. Many thanks go to Filo 1@5252 for his submission, and well as to Random 1@1 for finally releasing v4.20! SEND IN THOSE SUBMISSIONS! WE'LL TAKE JUST ABOUT ANYTHING HERE! ======================================================================= Acknowledgements WWIV (c) 1988 by Wayne Bell. All other products mentioned are either registered trademarks or copyrighted by their respectives manufacturers. ======================================================================= The End