ftp.wwiv.com/ftp.wwiv.com.zip/ftp.wwiv.com/pub/HATCH/WWIVNEWS.ZIP/9304_1.NWS

Text File | 1993-04-10 | 8KB | 181 lines

                ┌┐┌┐┌┐┌┐┌┐┌┐┌────┐┌┐  ┌┐┌─┐ ┌┐┌────┐┌┐┌┐┌┐┌────┐
  ╔═════════════││││││││││││└─┐┌─┘││  │││ └┐│││┌───┘│││││││┌───┘═════════════╗
  ║  Volume 3   ││││││││││││  ││  └┼┐┌┼┘│  └┘││└───┐│││││││└───┐   Feb/Mar   ║
  ║ Issue 10/11 ││││││││││││  ││   ││││ │┌┐  ││┌───┘││││││└───┐│    1993     ║
  ╚═════════════│└┘└┘││└┘└┘│┌─┘└─┐ └┼┼┘ ││└┐ ││└───┐│└┘└┘│┌───┘│═════════════╝
            │   └────┘└────┘└────┘  └┘  └┘ └─┘└────┘└────┘└────┘   │
            │ Serving WWIV Sysops & Users Across All WWIV Networks │
            └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                           ┌─────────────────────┐
                           │This Month's Features│
┌──────────────────────────┴─────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┐
│ Random Factors.......................................Wayne Bell (1@1)      │
│                                                                            │
│ Type 0 Forum.........................................Omega Man (1@1)       │
│                                                                            │
│ "Box Mods" - Threat or Menace?.......................Starship Trooper      │
│                                                       (1@2750/12754)       │
│                                                                            │
│ Filo's Mods of the Month for February & March........Filo (1@5252)         │
│                                                                            │
│ TechnOTES............................................WWIVnews Staff        │
│                                                                            │
│ WWIVNet-Compatible Network Listing (4/1/93)..........Red Dwarf (1@6264)    │
│                                                                            │
│ Dateline: @#$*()#!...................................Omega Man (1@5282)    │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────
               │               Random Factors                │
               │   Creative Commentary by Wayne Bell (1@1)   │
               └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

As most people certainly know, WWIV v4.22 is out now, and yes, there are a few
bugs here and there, as well as a couple of problems regarding the use of WWIV
and WWIVNet. I'll address these problems a bit, and then comment on some of
what's in store for v4.23.


FIX.EXE:

There is a bug in the version of FIX.EXE that was released with 4.22, and this
has been addressed. The version of FIX released with v4.22 did have a bug in it
in that it would not work correctly if you have more than 64 subs. An updated
version, FIXV6.zip, is available on my system which supports however many subs
you have.


PKZIP 2.04xxxxx:

If you have any flavor of PKUNZIP 2.04 online on your BBS, and you have it set
up to allow people to extract files, make sure you have the "-o" option on the
command line. This should be there for PKUNZIP 1.10 also, but it is not as
critical.

Just to remind people, for WWIV the recommended command lines (for any version)
are as follows:

add:      pkzip -a %1 %2
extract:  pkunzip -o %1 %2
list:     pkunzip -v %1

Those interested in direct-screen-write overrides should check your release
docs from PKWare for the necessary information.

[Editor's NOTE: For added security, some sysops prefer to add the direct path
to these files in INIT, and remove said path from the PATH= command in their
AUTOEXEC.BAT files.]


GATING NETWORKED SUBS:

A short note needs to be made to update people on the WWIVNet rules regarding
the gating of subs:

With regards towards gating subs, gating - such as with WWIV v4.22 and net32 -
should ONLY be done BY THE HOST, or WITH THE HOST'S PERMISSION. If you do not
host a specific sub, then do >NOT< gate it to another network, *UNLESS* you
*FIRST* get the host's permission. If you do not first get permission, you
will almost certainly be dropped from the sub, and nobody will like you.


UNSOLICITED E-MAIL:

As for sending unsolicited E-Mail, if you are starting up your own network (or
drumming up business for one), do NOT send applications or "Please join my
network" E-Mail to sysops in WWIVNet or any other net, for that matter. You
should only send an application to someone if they have explicitly expressed
interest in your sub (eg, they E-Mail you asking, "Please send me an
application"), or if you have very good reason to suspect they would be
interested (eg, you see a post from them saying, "I wish there were a network
that...", and describes your network, or you are starting up a network
specifically for blue-haired people, and you see a system named "Blue haired
person's BBS").

Almost all sysops detest unsolicited net applications (or any unsolicited
junk E-Mail), and blindly sending net applications to everyone will only make
them LESS likely to want to join your network. If you want to get people to
join your network, look for a generic netted sysop sub, or something similar,
and POST something advertising your net. But do *not* E-Mail it!


//CHUSER BUG FIX:

There is a bug in void chuser(void) that can cause the qscan pointers of those
accounts being accessed via //CHUSER to become a bit confused. Registered
sysops can correct this bug by replacing this void with the one below:


void chuser(void)
{
  char s[81];
  int i;

  if (!checkpw())
    return;
  if (!so())
    return;
  prt(2,get_string(328));
  input(s,30);
  i=finduser1(s);
  if (i>0) {
    write_user(usernum,&thisuser);
    write_qscn(usernum,qsc,0);
    read_user(i,&thisuser);
    read_qscn(i,qsc,0);
    usernum=i;
    close_user();
    actsl=255;
    sprintf(s,get_stringx(1,17),nam(&thisuser,usernum));
    sysoplog(s);
    changedsl();
    topscreen();
  } else
    pl(get_string(8));
}


SUBS.LST:

As many people have seen, I'm currently involved in fixing the SUBS.LST
updating. So far, 27 people have E-Mailed me saying that they are willing to
take it over. However, I think most likely I'll end up handling it myself,
since it is almost completely automated now. I am in the process of setting up
some categories for the SUBS.LST file, and once that is sent out, anyone using
v4.22/NET32 will be able to select the category for each sub in //BOARDEDIT.
I'll then hack up a program to sort out by category, and sort subs within
categories, and everything should be working fairly easily, and automatically.

Note that sub descriptions are (incorrectly) cut off at 40 chars currently.
That is a bug in NETWORK2.exe that will be fixed in NET33.


NODE RENUMBERING:

We're currently working out a node renumbering scheme for WWIVNet, since the
current numbering scheme is being pushed beyond where it was intended to go,
and when the phone company runs out of x0y and x1y area codes, we'll have to do
something new anyway. Something will probably happen with this in a few months.


WWIV V4.23:

I believe I have multiple-language support installed now, but I am waiting for
some non-English .STR files before I try it out "for real". I have a long list
of things to be added into v4.23, but am not sure how many of them will be
fully implemented in v4.23 (I want to avoid putting TOO much in each release)

So far, I have NETWORK.EXE modified to swap itself to EMS or disk (if
necessary) when running DSZ or HSLINK, so if you are short on memory for net
callouts, this will give you about 90k more free for running protocols for net
transfers. I've also implemented a new external method, whereby external net
messages are processed by the external program when the message is received,
instead of sometime later when the external program happens to run. Hopefully,
external programs will start supporting this sometime after NET33 is released.
I also hope to have NET33 support transfers for multiple networks in one net
call, but have not started implementing that yet.

No, I don't have any release date yet for either v4.23 or NET33, but NET33 will
be out before v4.23.