ftp.wwiv.com/ftp.wwiv.com.zip/ftp.wwiv.com/pub/HATCH/WWIVNEWS.ZIP/9403_1.NWS

Text File | 1994-03-02 | 26KB | 500 lines

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  ║   Issue 1   ││││││││││││  ││   ││││ │┌┐  ││┌───┘││││││└───┐│    1994     ║
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            │   └────┘└────┘└────┘  └┘  └┘ └─┘└────┘└────┘└────┘   │
            │ Serving WWIV Sysops & Users Across All WWIV Networks │
            └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                           ┌─────────────────────┐
                           │This Month's Features│
┌──────────────────────────┴─────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┐
│ Random Factors.......................................Wayne Bell (1@1)      │
│                                                                            │
│ Stac vs Microsoft: David & Goliath redux?............Omega Man (1@5282)    │
│                                                                            │
│ Soft Servings........................................Filo (1@2050)         │
│                                                                            │
│ TechnOTES............................................WWIVnews Staff        │
│                                                                            │
│ What's Hot in the world of WWIV Utilities?...........King Lerxt (1@8863)   │
│                                                                            │
│ A Review of The WWIVnet Oracle.......................Necromancer (1@4079)  │
│                                                                            │
│ Random Titles: Laziness or Just Plain Stubborn?......King Lerxt (1@8863)   │
│                                                                            │
│ Filo's Mods of the Months............................Filo (1@5252)         │
│                                                                            │
│ Type 0 Forum.........................................Omega Man (1@5282)    │
│                                                                            │
│ PC Pursuit Bytes the Dust!...........................H20 Doc (1@5284)      │
│                                                                            │
│ A Cheat Sheet for WWIV...............................Crystal Wizard        │
│                                                      (1@5295)              │
│                                                                            │
│ How to be a Good Co-Sysop.............................Louie (IceNET 6@1)   │
│                                                                            │
│ Dateline: @#$*()#!...................................Omega Man (1@5282)    │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────
               │               Random Factors                │
               │   Creative Commentary by Wayne Bell (1@1)   │
               └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Wow. Been a while, huh? We've got a lot to cover, so let's get going:

WWIV 4.23:
──────────

If you've not bothered to upgrade to 4.23, here's what you're missing:

 1) Almost all known bugs fixed. More on this in a minute.
 2) PW not showing in INIT startup.
 3) Up to 250 chars for E-Mail name (good for gateway routing).
 4) //UPLOADFILE reads extended descriptions also.
 5) NET31 and earlier bug in //BOARDEDIT not allowing net subs to be added
 6) Color changes in [PAUSE] now supported.
 7) Moving file optionally resets daten for nscan searches.
 8) by/re/internal editor commands (/es, ...) now in BBS.str
 9) Multiple languages supported.
10) Multiple fast local logons for sysops (with <space>num).
11) Remote autovalidation (1,2..0 keys act as AltF1-AltF10 would) when in
    uedit.
12) 255 SL protection from Alt-F keys and remote autovalidation.
13) Better pending display. Shows all network connections rather than just
    those with bytes waiting. Also shows to minute accuracy rather than
    hour accuracy. This display is now abortable.
14) Autodialing for network callouts. Can specify number of retries.
    Abortable with ESC key. Key is '.' at wfc for autodialing, '/'
    does just one try as usual.
15) Can specify minimum k before network callout. One-day override: if an
    entire 24 hours goes by and the minimum k is not reached, then the
    BBS will start calling again as if there were no minimum k defined.
    NET33 required (so that a re-analysis doesn't erase the |<num> entry).
16) Support for colors 8 and 9 in messages, defaults, etc.
17) Topscreen/F1 color setting changed to white on blue (and uses a #define
    for easy alteration). editline color also #define'd in CONIO.C for
    easy customization.
18) F1 editor edits more fields, including banktime, ass_pts, msgs posted,
    upload k, etc. 60-char notes now handled properly.
19) Local posts and network posts tracked separately. Topscreen shows no. of
    local posts for the day.
20) Randomized ANSI logon screens (WELCOME.0, .1, etc). Maximum of 1000
    random screens, but no hard-coded maximum; code adjusts to the
    number automatically.
21) Control-Y toggles pause_on_screen on/off.
22) Form letters are now FILENAME.FRM or FORM####.MSG, allowing eight
    characters for more mnemonically easy form letter names. Also shows all
    available (*.frm) form letters.
23) LASTON.TXT/USER.LOG enhanced.
24) Funky colors don't look quite so funky.
25) Newuser colors are brown and cyan. No more flashing red.
26) [ and ] move down/up dirs subs (as well as +/- and </>).
27) Subname shown at read prompt.
28) Embedded colors in gfile/dir/sub/chain descriptions won't weird out
    the display in subedit/diredit, etc.
29) Some "express" commands for the longer // Sysop commands (//de for
    diredit, //be for boardedit, //ce for chainedit, //ge for gfileedit,
    //ue for uedit, //cu for chuser). The normal longer commands work
    the same as always.
30) Internal timebank for allowing users to store time for later use.
31) //resetf (reset_files()) now works at wfc with the '=' key.
32) FILE_IDZ.DIZ/DESC.SDI in archives supported for file descriptions.
33) Multiple-sysop feedback, shows sysops/cosysops with user numbers from
    1 to 9 at the feedback prompt. If only 1 sysop/cosysop found, the BBS
    works as normal (no menu selection).
34) User data written to disk for spawns, read back in upon return, for
    programs that might alter the online user's userrec data.
35) //BOARDEDIT, when editing the description, now allows deleting the
    sub description.
36) Several different dropfiles now created when CHAIN.TXT created, including
    DORINFO1.DEF, PCBOARD.SYS, DOOR.SYS, and CALLINFO.BBS.
37) All declared-but-unused vars deleted from the code.
38) International character support (Ñ, ñ, É, etc).
39) Network dialouts show BBS name and location of board being called.
40) Logon info enhanced a bit.
41) Msg/mail headers split up so that location data is shown on a separate
    line (prevents screen overrun).
42) Local windows (done with makewindow()) now "shadowized".
43) F10 (chat) key allows selecting name-string to "chat as". Also takes
    user number.
44) For 80-column people, the sub title-scan shows who posted each message,
    as well as the title itself of course.
45) editline(), etc. now use "unsigned char", thus allowing upper ASCII chars
    for user notes, "chat as" strings, etc.
46) Newuser event now allows external ASV/CBV programs to be plugged in, and
    if these change the SL/ARs, etc. this is automatically accounted for
    upon return to WWIV.
47) Dirs and subs may now be swapped around.
48) The following optional files may be used. If they do not exist, they will
    not be printed, else they will. Their locations (when printed) are
    obvious from the filenames:

         "CHAINS"
         "XFER"
         "DOWNLOAD"
         "UPLOAD"
         "DEFAULTS"
         "GFILES"

    If these files do not exist a "file not found" message will not be
    printed.
49) Enhanced extract abilities, but you can still use the old extract
    code if OPT_OLD_EXTRACT is #define'd.
50) Non-USA callers may use freeform phones, even if that is not defined in
    INIT (this is necessary since foreign callers do not use US phone no.
    conventions).
51) Can add net subscribers to subs from mail read prompt.
52) Callers are compensated for time spent posting.
53) Subs and dirs are now conferenced. The conferencing is user-definable
    in defaults, so it can be "hidden" if the user turns conferencing off.
54) Limited multi-instance chat and messaging ability.
55) A fast binary search for files when someone uploads is available. (This
    can speed things up on some systems from several minutes to about 1 sec.)
56) Chains are definable as multiline-capable or not.
57) Extra chain ability, for who sponsored a chain. (#define'able)
58) You can get rid of the chat screecher now, with a #define.
59) SSMs on mail-delete say which network now.
60) Sysop-selectable #defines moved to bottom of VARS.H for ease.
61) Mail-list shows originating address >and< title (as much as fits).
62) Backgrave (`) may now be used in menus.
63) Simple auto-sysop validation (#define'able). Uses the Alt-F10 key
    settings, and gives exemption of 9. Prints optional ASV.ANS/.MSG
    file.
64) Multiple phone lines/instances are now supported.
65) Files may be tagged for download


AUTHORIZED BUG FIXES TO WWIV v4.23:
───────────────────────────────────

As I hinted at above, there's a few bugs with 4.23 that slipped past even
our rather extensive beta testing. The officially recognized bugs and
fixes are as follows:

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

To fix hangup in timebank:

In misccmd.c, line # 841, change:

    c=onek("DWQ");
to:
    c=onek("QDW");


In misccmd.c, line # 881, change:

  } while (!done);
to:
  } while (!done && !hangup);

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

To fix hangup in //net:

In sysopf.c, line # 323, change:

  while (!done) {
to:
  while (!done && !hangup) {


In sysopf.c, line # 386, change:

    cmd=onek("123456789Q");
to:
    cmd=onek("Q123456789");

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

To fix possible post-out-of-order problem on gated subs:

In netsup.c, line # 1050, change:

      sprintf(fn,"%sPGATE%s",net_networks[nn].dir, nete);
to:
      sprintf(fn,"%sP1%s",net_networks[nn].dir, nete);

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

To fix removal from ALLOW.DAT (if using OPT_FAST_SEARCH):

In xfertmp.c, line #954, change:

              modify_database(s,0);
to:
              modify_database(u.filename, 0);


In xfertmp.c, line #959, change:

            modify_database(s,0);
to:
            modify_database(u.filename, 0);

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

MULTI-INSTANCE SKELETON.C?
──────────────────────────

Some people have been asking if SKELETON.C should still be the same for multi-
instance. Since it only reads the parameter file passed to it, so as long as
you pass it via "skeleton %1", everything is completely compatible. Any chains
which correctly read the file should not require any changes.


WWIV 4.24:
──────────

I have now installed a generic shrinking spawn, and have finally consolidated
all the numerous run-external-program functions and the like into one single
function, extern_prog(char *cmdline, unsigned short flags). As this is still
being debugged and expanded upon, I'm not exactly sure how much/what else
will finally be in there yet, but there are a number of things in the works.

There may or may not be some kind of Fidonet support for this next release.
I haven't really decided yet on the matter. However, if you're interested
in keeping up with the developments, you should contact Filo (1@2050) at
WWIV Software Services for the latest details.


SHAKE, RATTLE, & WWIV:
──────────────────────

For those concerned, the earthquake here in LA didn't affect me very much,
as I'm located in the southern portion of the earthquake zone. Los Angeles
county (area code 310) is just south of area code 213 (the epicenter) and
both area codes were blocked by Pacific Bell from incoming calls during the
major period of crisis.
So yes, I -was- cut off for a while, and I understand there were quite a
few of you wondering what would happen if something -bad- had happened to
me. I also understand Filo and H2O Doc were actually working on some sort
of contingency plan in the event @1 was "no longer in service." Maybe by
next column I'll find out what they came up with.

Oh, as for any damage, I had two flashlights fall off a shelf, and a picture
was tilted sideways slightly. However, my grandmother and someone I work
with, had a lot of cleaning up to do afterwards, but no real permanent
damage.


THE GREAT RENUMBERING:
──────────────────────

As Filo has announced on most of the Sysop subs, there will be a major node
renumbering going on in WWIVnet. Most of the details have been decided upon,
but I haven't yet specified a date for it. You will be hearing about it,
probably in a mail-to-all-sysops, and Filo has some comments about what's
going on later on in this issue of WWIVnews. Check out the new WWIV Software
Services column for more details.

For those curious about why the renumbering is a far more difficult matter
than it sounds, keep in mind that the WWIV/WWIVnet software is based upon
having an unsigned short to hold node numbers. Anything other than having a
1-65530 node number would require significant re-writing of a lot of conversion
software, and would cut off anyone who hadn't upgraded to the latest versions
of WWIV and WWIVnet.

Again, Filo will have more on the details, so stay tuned.

───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────
               │  Stac vs Microsoft: David & Goliath Redux?  │
               │       A Special Late-Breaking Report        │
               │       By Omega Man (WWIVnet 1@5282)         │
               └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

As WWIVnews was about to go to press last week, a Los Angeles federal court
jury hit Microsoft Corp. with $120 million in compensatory damages Wednesday
for infringement of patents for data compression products as held by Stac
Electronics. Stac, manufacturer of the on-the-fly compression utility Stacker,
filed the infringement in January 1993 over Microsoft's inclusion of the
competitive utility Doublespace in DOS 6.0. Microsoft added Doublespace to
MS-DOS after Microsoft broke off contract negotiations with Stac over royalty
rights in November 1992.

For those watching the trial, the verdict came as a welcome surprise in light
of the courts' previous sidings with the larger manufacturer in cases such as
these. The award was viewed by most industry experts as a stunning potential
reversal for Microsoft's dominance of the operating system market. For years,
Microsoft's rivals have complained bitterly that the company had used unfair
tactics to squeeze out rivals in the fiercely competitive market, but only
Stac had been able to make a case out of their claims.

The U.S. District Court jury, in the first patent infringement lawsuit against
Microsoft to ever reach trial, found Microsoft infringed two of Stac's many
patents. However, despite some evidence to the contrary, the jury did not find
that Microsoft had willfully infringed the patents, which could have resulted
in the awarded damages being quadrupled.

The jury made the decision following a four-week trial, which included
testimony from both Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Stac CEO Gary Clow.
While some important testimony - particularly those elements involving
efforts ordered by Gates to Microsoft's attorneys to "hammer" Stac into
submitting to Microsoft's terms -  by Clow was ruled inadmissable when Clow
inadvertantly stumbled into territory that the judge ruled off-limits
during that portion of the trial, it was Gates' own testimony that was
considered the key to Microsoft's loss.

The area of testimony that Clow stumbled into, ironically, was the actual
estimated worth of Microsoft. Clow brought this up in passing by accident
during a cross-examination by the Microsoft council on his impression of
just how important Doublespace was to MS-DOS 6.xx. At the start of the
trial, the judge presiding the case admonished both sides to avoid bringing
up Bill Gates' estimated value until the closing arguements per a request
by the Microsoft councils.

Gates, on the other hand, proved to be his own worst enemy on the witness
stand. He was repeatedly tripped up and embarassed by the Stac council
regarding his claims - and denial of such - of the success of MS-DOS in the
industry, as well as his denial of Doublespace as being of importance to the
success of MS-DOS. Virtually all of Gates' denials were disproven by tapes of
Gates' own admissions during several promotional press conferences following
the initial release of both MS-DOS 6.0 and 6.2.

In one example, Stac executives said Microsoft has shipped nearly 30 million
copies of MS-DOS 6.0. When Gates was questioned about this on the stand, he
denied that many copies had been sold, and denied any knowledge of just how
many had been sold. The Stac council asked the question again, receieved the
same answer, and then played Gates' taped annoucement for DOS 6.2, which
stated just how many estimated copies of DOS 6.0 had been sold.

The jury, in addition to the award, also found in favor of Stac on
Microsoft's counterclaims of patent infringement and breach of contract.
Following this, Stac attorneys indicated to the judge that the company would
file for a permanent injunction barring Microsoft from shipping and from
infringing upon Stac's data compression technology in any other manner.
Microsoft, in turn, announced that while it will cease selling copies of DOS
6.0 and 6.2 to retailers and individuals, it will not recall copies sold prior
to the verdict.

In a conference call partially carried on CNN, Stac CEO Gary Clow stated "This
is a landmark decision with respect to software patents...this case is
a prototype for small companies, showing that they can effectively compete
with Microsoft."

In a sort of eye-for-an-eye turnaround, though, the jury found in Microsoft's
favor on one of Microsoft's seven counterclaims for misappropriation of trade
secrets. The jury awarded Microsoft $13.6 million in damages for Stac's
attempts to "reverse-engineer" its products to make them work with the data
compression program in MS-DOS 6.0. While the newly-released Stacker 4.0 was
announced as "backwards-compatible" with Doublespace, at press time there
had been no requests for an injunction by Microsoft, nor were there any
announcements from Stac with regards to a voluntary recall of this product.

Word from Microsoft insiders claim that while Microsoft founder Bill Gates
was "fit to be tied" over the jury's decision, the effects of the decision
would probably not affect Microsoft financially. The general concern was
more along the lines of how to deal with the demand for DOS without being
able to produce new copies of release 6.2 for resale. Estimates are that as
many as 2 million copies of MS-DOS 6.2 are currently in warehouses or on
the shelves, and it is expected that these will quickly dry up from a panic
buying spree by retailers and redistributors as public demand increases.

Some action is reportedly being taken to solve this problem. As late as Friday,
February 25th, internal memos were reportedly being circulated announcing R&D
start on an interim release of MS-DOS 6.0 - referred to as "6.5" by number
and "Los Angeles" by code-name - to be released by the end of April. The new
version will, of course, lack any Doublespace support.

One insider, questioned by WWIVnews briefly on the matter, stated that "this
crash program to get a new, legal version out the door is going to take away
from getting 'Chicago' and DOS 7 up and running as well. If the beta results
on 'Chicago' don't get any better soon, the release date for both could
be pushed back a good three months...which would put the release data at
around October, November at the earliest!"

───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────
               │                Soft Servings                │
               │       News from WWIV Software Services      │
               │           By Filo (WWIVnet 1@2050)          │
               └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

[Editor's nOTE: Starting with this issue, WWIVnews will feature a column for
WWIV Software Services. As WSS has become an integral part of WWIV and
WWIVnetting, and has become one of the major motivating forces behind keeping
WWIV and WWIVnet in line with the demands of the sysops and users, a regular
column became as necessary as the one from Wayne Bell. Filo (WWIVnet 1@2050)
will be writing this column, and all questions regarding the material discussed
herein should be directed to Filo at that address.]

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Welcome to the first WWIV Software Services column! Quite a few things to
discuss this month, so let's start off with the most important one of all,
the "Great Renumbering".


THE GREAT RENUMBERING EXPLAINED
───────────────────────────────

I realize that to many of you, the idea of our renumbering the network comes
as a shock and you have to raise questions regarding "why" and "why now" and
"why this way?"  Those questions are all understandable.

We have known for almost 3 years (from the time that the telephone companies
originally made this decision and John Hardeman let us in on it) that this
change was coming. The knowledge was confirmed almost one year again when
Malbee posted the contents of a letter mailed to an area of New England that
notify telephone customers about it, and then more recently the Oregon area
has announced that it will use an area code with middle digit of 6 beginning
next January. Thus, the why is that the change is being "thrust" upon us from
outside and we have no control over that.

The "why now" is best answered by Wayne Bell. As I mentioned, the change has
been identified for a long time. It has been discussed at length on other
subs on at least two occassions. Wayne was adament about retaining unsigned
integers as node numbers. He did not (and does not) want to rewrite all of
the network software to support a different style of addressing. Thus, the
challenge was to develop a node numbering system that would suit our needs for
the foreseeable future, that would be relatively easy for everyone to use, and
that would permit sufficient growth in the network. There were many good
suggestions made during all of this discussion regarding what might be the
most appropriate numbering method to use within the framework of unsigned
integers and there were hundreds of suggestions that did not fit within that
framework. Anyway, the current method of numbering was finally chosen from
all of the alternatives. I think the "why now" is that "now" fits best into
Wayne's plans for the next year. If it is accomplished immediately before the
release of 4.24, then the improvements in that release will reinforce certain
changes that we are making.

The "method" of changing has been discussed much less than the renumbering
scheme itself. After some discussion, however, it was felt that running
parallel networks gave us the best opportunity to minimize problems and to
avoid losing people in the switchover.

I realize that "now" may not be the best time for each of you. I realize that
the process will be very inconvenient for all of you and that it will create
significant work on each of your parts. I am hopeful that we will all work
together to make this transition as "painless" as possible and as easy as
possible for everyone involved.


GOING FROM APPLES TO ORANGES
────────────────────────────

Since Wayne first announced his renumbering intentions, the WWIVnet GCs
began discussing the "how to's" of renumbering the network. The methods
decided upon were derived along these lines:

Rationale: As mentioned above, beginning in 1995 we will have USA telephone
numbers that do NOT have 0 or 1 as middle digit. Two states - Florida and
Oregon at last word - have announced new area codes with 6 as the middle
digit. Thus, for those area codes to participate some changes were obviously
necessary.

Because Wayne Bell wanted to keep the integer format that we use now, and
because in anticipation of this renumbering, he worked out a method to permit
each group to have up to 1000 nodes, the following numbering system was
developed:

4-DIGIT numbers
  Gxxx  -- where G = group number. Nodes 001 - 019 will be reserved for
           server systems. 000 will be reserved for GC.
5-DIGIT numbers
  GGxxx -- where GG = group number and same reservations as above apply.

As a consequence of this renumbering, you will NOT be able to tell area code
by looking at a node number; however, since the BBS software has the ability
to search by area code, node number, board name, etc., I do not think this