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1988-09-08
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QUICK NEWS EDITOR v3.0
Scott M. Pazur
PO Box 582
Englishtown, NJ 07726
Quick News Editor (QNExx.EXE) is just that, a simple and fast way to update
your PC-Board NEWS and NEWSG, or any other BBS System intro files, to bring
the latest news to your users. QNE's editor functions similiar to that
provided in PC-Board software, but now adds major enhancements to make your
news file creation easier and faster than ever.
I no longer run a public BBS system, but can be reached on either of the
following PC-Board systems:
The Right Choice BBS Spring Lake Hts, NJ 201-974-8317 1200/2400
The Jersey Shore BBS Sayreville, NJ 201-613-7350 HST
A CGA (at least) graphic card is REQUIRED for QNE 3.0!
Version 3.0 Release Notes - September 8, 1988
As the release notes for v2.1 promised, this is a MAJOR revision from that
version. The changes/additions are outlined here, with more detail provided
later in this document.
- Completely rewritten with a new user interface
- No longer free-ware. This version IS a fully-functional, un-crippled,
unrestricted release, but please consider registering your copy. I am
no longer a Sysop, so your registrations will keep me writing these
Sysop utilities. A registration form is provided at the end of this
file.
- Maximum number of lines in output upped to 99
- Optional configuration file replaces the dozens of possible command
line switches of previous releases
- On-line help screen available
- DOS shell hotkey available
- On-the-fly output color configuration screen available
- Text justification added to editor
- Item-Deletion module added (previously released separately as QNE-IDxx)
- Foreground AND background colors now configurable
More detail on these revisions can be found later in this documentation.
Starting QNE:
QNE30 [/D:filename]
The /D option loads the Item Deletion module rather than the editor.
Follow the /D with a colon (:) and the QNE produced filename to
process. This Item Deletion module lets you easily remove past news
items without having to interpret the ansi codes in your favorite
text editor.
QNE.CFG - The Configurataion File and optional environment variable
QNE v3.0 now uses an optional configuration file to set up its
variable options. If used, this configuration file MUST be named
QNE.CFG. QNE 3.0 will first scan your environment variables for
one named QNE to determine the location of this QNE.CFG file.
(i.e. SET QNE=C:\PCB\MISC would force QNE30 to look in the
directory named "c:\pcb\misc" for the QNE.CFG file). If this variable
is not set, then QNE30 will look in the current directory for the
QNE.CFG file. If it is still not found, the default values outlined
below will be used.
The QNE.CFG file is st up as follows:
LINE 1
Line 1 tells QNE about the non-graphic version of the output
(commonly known as NEWS). There are 5 possible values that can be
present on this line:
[0/1][,NewsFileName,][0/1][,HeaderFileName][,NOUPPER]
The first item tells QNE whether or not to create the non-graphic
file. If this first entry is "0", then there is no need for
anything else on this line. If you want the non-graphic version
(usually yes), you must then follow the "1" with a comma, then the
name of the file you wish to create/update, then another comma,
then a "0" or "1" to indicate the desire for a header file. If you
do want the header file, this "1" must be followed by another
comma, then the name of the header file to use with the non-graphic
version. If you do not want the upper-ascii "box" characters in
this version of the output, also add ",NOUPPER" to the end of this
line.
LINE 2
Line 2 tells QNE about the graphic version of the output (commonly
known as NEWSG). This line is set up exactly the same as line 1
above, with the exception of the ",NOUPPER" option, which is not
supported on this line.
LINES 3 through 6
These lines are for color selections, and must all be present.
Each line has two entries separated by a comma. They indicate the
foreground and background colors for the following items:
Line 3: Line (news item seperator) Color
Line 4: Date Color
Line 5: Title Color
Line 6: News Text Color
The values that can be included here are:
0 - Black
1 - Blue
2 - Green
3 - Cyan
4 - Red
5 - Magnta
6 - Yellow
7 - White
Sample QNE.CFG file (my explanations are usually not understandable)
1,C:\PCB\GEN\NEWS,1,C:\PCB\MISC\HEADER
1,C:\PCB\GEN\NEWSG,1,C:\PCB\MISC\HEADERG
6,1
3,1
7,1
6,0
Will update a non-graphic version, named NEWS in "C:\PCB\GEN". The
header file HEADER in "C:\PCB\MISC" will be used at the top of the
NEWS file. The "box" characters WILL be used in this output.
WILL update a graphic version, named NEWSG in "C:\PCB\GEN".
QNE will also use the header file HEADERG in "C:\PCB\MISC" in the
output.
The colors will be:
Line: Yellow on Blue
Date: Cyan on Blue
Title: White on Blue
Text: Yellow on Black
Default Values used if no QNE.CFG file found
QNE v3.0 will use the following default values if no configuration
file is found:
- Line (news item separator) Color: Blue on Black
- Date Color: Yellow on Black
- Title Color: Green on Black
- Text Color: Cyan on Black
- Non-graphic news file: YES, named NEWS in current directory
- Graphic news file: YES, named NEWSG in current directory
- Header files: NO
- Upper Ascii characters in non-graphic file: YES
QNE's Edit Mode:
Upon starting QNE, you will be prompted for an optional title for this
session's news text. Hitting [Enter] with no text at this time will
leave the title out of the QNE output.
After the title prompt, you will be put into Edit Mode. Enter your text
as you would enter a message on any PC-Board system. Text will wrap as
you type.
Hot-keys available in Edit Mode are:
Alt-Q loads a DOS command shell. "EXIT" will return to QNE.
Home displays a help screen of the QNE options
F10 loads the color configuration module
By entering a blank line, you leave Edit Mode and enter Command Mode.
QNE's Command Mode:
After leaving Edit Mode, you will be presented a selection bar of
possible Command Mode options:
Up/Down/PgUp/PgDn/End/Home - Scrolls through text
A - Abort editing session - you will be asked to verify your selection
C - Continue editing session at last line
D - Delete line of text - line selected will be displayed on line 25
and you will be asked for verification before deletion
E - Edit line of text. Enhanced to full line edit. No more
"oldtext;newtext" style.
I - Insert line(s) of text - you will be put back into Edit Mode at
the line number you desire and text will be inserted at this point.
J - Justify text - see notes below
M - Merge text file into editing session - see notes below
S - Save session and exit - again, you will be asked for verification
Justification Notes:
This was a tricky one, and the results may not be exactly what you
expect. I've done my best to emulate as close as possible true text
justification with the following two restrictions:
- Any line of text beginning with a space will not be affected.
This is to allow "bullet items" to retain their emphasis.
- Any line less than 60 characters in length will not be affected.
This is to prevent too many extra spaces in the text.
Merge Notes:
- Just as you are limited to 74 characters per line in the editor, the
merge file is also limited to 74 characters per line. Any lines
longer than 74 characters (including ansi codes) will be truncated.
- Will import a text file into the news text. Eventhough ANSI codes
for color etc. will be read in correctly, due to the way QNE output
is formatted, it will probably not end up as you want it to.
Therefore, it is recommended that any merge file be straight ASCII
text.
Notes on output:
The "NOUPPER" flag restricts the use of the upper ascii, or "box"
characters, from the non-graphic NEWS file. This has the following
effect on the output:
Without "NOUPPER"
╔══════════════════════════╗
════╣ September 8: Title line ╠═══...
╚══════════════════════════╝
With "NOUPPER"
====[ September 8: Title line ]===...
Revision History
============================================================================
Version 3.0 - September 8, 1988
As the release notes for v2.1 promised, this is a MAJOR revision from that
version. The changes/additions are outlined here, with more detail provided
later in this document.
- Completely rewritten with a new user interface
- No longer free-ware. This version IS a fully-functional, un-crippled,
unrestricted release, but please consider registering your copy. I am
no longer a Sysop, so your registrations will keep me writing these
Sysop utilities. A registration form is provided at the end of this
file.
- Maximum number of lines in output upped to 99
- Optional configuration file replaces the dozens of possible command
line switches of previous releases
- On-line help screen available
- DOS shell hotkey available
- On-the-fly output color configuration screen available
- Text justification added to editor
- Item-Deletion module added (previously released separately as QNE-IDxx)
- Foreground AND background colors now configurable
============================================================================
Version 2.1 - November 16, 1987
Nothing major (YET!). I had intended on this being a major update, but free
time suddenly became a thing of the past again. Look for v3.0 to drasticly
change QNE. As for this version:
Fixed: 1. The problem with backspacing going past the line number.
2. The problem with line wrap not working when [I]nserting
Changed: 1. Output! New title line looks like:
╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
════╣ November 11: Test #1 of Beta version 3 ╠════════...
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝
I didn't want any lawsuits from the PCBNEWS author who says
that "the look and feel of PCBNEWS is copyright...", but
whose output is exactly the same as QNE v2.0 and below (grin)
Added: 1. New options (like it really needs more!) to allow
customization of the output colors. See the section titled
"Starting QNE" for more info.
============================================================================
Version 2.0 - August 26, 1987
Yes, line wrap is finally here! This is the biggest addition to this
version. The other biggie is the optional title on the news item being
edited. You will always be prompted for a title, and if you do not want
one, simply hit enter to skip the title. Some little additions are removal
of the /I option (if you haven't upgraded to 1.7 or 1.8 yet, you'll have to
start all over to get the /H option to work properly). I've added a /?
option for help with the command line options (for those of us that hate
docs). Finally, the news text is indented for a more symmetric-type
display, and the local misalignment in versions 1.7 and 1.8 is fixed.
============================================================================
Version 1.8 - July 3, 1987
Added option (/M:filename) for merge file facility. This will take a text
file and merge it into your news text. See notes below.
Also added a check for a graphics version of the header file.
============================================================================
Version 1.7 - June 14, 1987
Added option (/H:filename) for header file to be included in NEWS/NEWSG.
Also, an option (/I) has been added to initialize old output of QNE for the
use of the header files. This initialization MUST be done once on output
produced by QNE versions 1.6 and below in order for the header option to
work correctly. See the info below on /I for more information.
============================================================================
Version 1.6 - June 2, 1987
Minor fix/addition release to allow upper ASCII characters to be used when
editing a NEWS file. Had to recompile with QuickBasic instead of Turbo Basic
to accomplish this. Another strike against Turbo Basic.
============================================================================
Version 1.5 - May 29, 1987
Thanx to Gary Thurlow for pointing out a bug in version 1.4 that didn't
allow the use of path\filename. It worked fine when editing a file in the
current directory, but blew up when a path longer than 8 characters was
used. I'm happy to report that all is now well, enjoy...
============================================================================
Version 1.4 - May 27, 1987
By request, added an option (/G) to eliminate ASCII graphics characters from
the non-graphic output file if so desired.
============================================================================
Version 1.3 - April 30, 1987
Initial release, fully functional, open for suggestions for future releases!
============================================================================
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Quick News Editor v3.0 Registration Form |
| |
| Suggested Contribution is $15.00 |
| |
| Please Send To |
| -------------- |
| Scott M. Pazur |
| PO Box 582 |
| Englishtown NJ 07726 |
| |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| |
| Name: _____________________________________________ Date: _____________ |
| |
| Mailing Address: _______________________________________________________ |
| |
| City: _______________________________________________________ |
| |
| State, Zip: _______________________________________________________ |
| |
| |
| Voice Phone Number (days): _____________________________________________ |
| |
| Voice Phone Number (eves): _____________________________________________ |
| |
| |
| BBS System Name: _______________________________________________________ |
| |
| BBS Software (and version): ____________________________________________ |
| |
| BBS Phone Number(s): ___________________________________________________ |
| ___________________________________________________ |
| |
| Baud Rates (if 9600+, modem used): _____________________________________ |
| |
| Suggestions for future releases: |
| ________________________________________________________________________ |
| ________________________________________________________________________ |
| ________________________________________________________________________ |
| ________________________________________________________________________ |
| ________________________________________________________________________ |
| ________________________________________________________________________ |
| ________________________________________________________________________ |
| |
| |
| Thank You for your support. For questions, I can be reached on either |
| of the following PC-Board systems: |
| |
| |
| The Right Choice BBS Spring Lake Hts NJ 201-974-8317 Public Node |
| 1200/2400 |
| |
| The Jersey Shore BBS Sayreville NJ 201-613-7350 9600 w/HST |
| |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------