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__ __ ___ ___
/\ __ |__|____|__|_ ___________ _____\ \ / /
/ \| \ \ _ _ /| \ ____ \ __ \\ \/ /
/ \ \|\ // \\ /_| |\/___/ // \ \\ /
__ / /\ \ \// \\/ _ | _ _// DW \ \ \
/ \__/__\ \|\ | \ | | | / \ \ \____/ / /\ \_
\___________/| \__|______\| |__|/ \__\_______/ / \__/
/__/ |__| |__| /__/ /__/
Presents:
Another AmiExpress Utility By Thrash! << NOTE!
FIRSTLY A CHANGE OF NAME... THIS UTIL WAS ORIGINALLY CALLED TBAR
HOWEVER DUE TO SOME AMUSING PEOPLE ASKING QUESTION TO THE WRONG
PEOPLE IT IS NOW RENAMED TO:
THRASH/ATX FUCKIN CODED THIS - BAR V1.01
(OR TBAR FOR SHORT HEHE!)
THIS UTILITY CANNOT BE SOLD IN ANY FORM
BY PUBLIC DOMAIN LIBRARIES!
WHAT IS TBAR?
=============
Basically, Tbar is a multiple chart displayer for use with ANY
Version of Ami-Express. Use it to compile upto 6 different types of chart,
(ansi or non-ansi), which display information on any amount of users on your
bulletin board in a bar-chart format that is easy to read. Noteable features
built into it are:
o 100% Assembly Language. (Each Chart only takes about 1 sec. to compile)
o Top Byte Uploaders Chart.
o Top Byte DownLoaders Chart.
o Top File Uploaders Chart.
o Top File DownLoaders Chart.
o Top Message Writers Chart.
o Top Callers Chart.
o Overall status of bulletin board users.
o Configurable Ratios for calculation of elite/normal/leech guys.
Optional Features:
o Ansi mode on/off (yes - you can still see the bars in non-ansi!).
o Individual logos/headertexts for each chart.
o Excluded users file (for people you dont want shown in charts). This
will handle security levels as well as names.
o One of upto 255 random lines will appear underneath your chart.
WHY RUN TBAR?
=============
Before you throw this util into the bottomless pile of crap utils
that get released for Ami-Express, or even goto the trouble of setting it
all up only to find you dont like the bloody thing. Stop! Included in this
archive are example outputs for you to view. They are ansi versions so make
sure you use an 8 colour CLI window to look at them if you want to see them
in their full glory! If you're happy after that then continue reading. If
not then stick to that lame "C" version you're currently using that takes
about 30 seconds to execute! (unless you already use TTOP that is hehe).
Lets face it, the main problem about Ami-Express utils is that there
are so bloody many of them! Some are really great but I'd say that about
80% arent worth shit. Even those that are really good, sometimes fall down
on the fact that they LOOK crap. This is one thing I hope to have eliminated
from my /Xpress utilities. The original ansi design was done by Pot-Noodle
and most sysops seem to agree that it is one of the best and easiest to look
at. I hope you agree!
If there IS something you think is missing from this utility, then
for fuck sake lemme know! I cant do shit without being told about it. (A
few bbs's I'm on are listed at the bottom of this file). This also goes for
if you dont like the LOOK of TBar. Draw up a design and gimme!. Most of
my utilities are constantly being updated because people ASK me to do some-
thing and I (being a nice kinda guy?) do it.
Ok, enough shit... on with the show.
HOW TO INSTALL TBAR:
====================
In its very simplest form, Tbar requires NO setting up at all.
However, if you spend the time to study these documents fully, I'm sure
you'll find all the options that most sysops require nowadays.
To see a basic output from Tbar simply type the following into
an 8 colour CLI window:
TBAR UPLD BBS:USER.DATA 010 5
where "UPLD" is the chart you want to be compiled (see later in this docu-
ment under "WHICH CHART TO OUTPUT") and "BBS:USER.DATA" is the FULL path
and name of your Ami-Express UserData file.
(A few people reading this will know that if I had wanted to, I could
have discovered the name of the userdata file by loading up the ACP.STARTUP
file. The problem with this is that so many people DONT know how to use the
ACP file correctly and just use it for starting the nodes. Maybe in a future
version of /Xpress, when people HAVE to use the ACP correctly, I will add
this simple feature).
RE-DIRECTION:
=============
TBar itself, will NOT create a file of the text displayed. Why write
the routines when Commodore have done it already? Yeah, you guessed it. You
yourself will have to re-direct the file to the appropriate bulletin text.
This redirection will obviously have to come BEFORE any of the commandline
options of TBar itself. In case you haven't done this before (your kidding
me?), I'll quickly explain. Here is a command line to try going on from the
first example.
TBAR >Ram:TBarOutput UPLD BBS:USER.DATA 010 5
This will force TBar to send all text displayed to a file created
in "ram:" which is called "TBarOutput" instead of the normal CLI window.
There - need I say more? If more information is required on Bulletin texts
and how they work within ami-express please refer to your ami-express
documentation.
Here are the the commandline options IN ORDER
WHICH CHART YOU WANT:
=====================
The chart option must ALWAYS be the first command in the command-
line. There are six charts to choose from and simply changing the four
letters at the beginning will tell TBar what chart you require. Those
available to you are:
UPLD - Top byte uploaders
DNLD - Top byte downloaders
UPFL - Top file uploaders
DNFL - Top file downloaders
MESG - Top message writers
CALL - Top callers chart
YOUR USERDATA:
==============
The FULL path and name of your userdata file must ALWAYS be set
after the TBar has been told which chart you want. If you are a person
who has changed the userdata filename to something like "USER DATA" for
safety reasons, then you will have to make a copy of it into ram: or some
where as TBar will not (at this time) handle filenames with spaces in them.
Maybe in the next version eh!
HOW MANY USERS TO DISPLAY:
==========================
Tbar determines the amount of users to display in the chart by the
three (T*H*R*E*E,3) digit figure that must ALWAYS follow the userdata file
in the command line. If the amount of users to be displayed is less than
100 then padding zeros MUST be used. Going from the first example, here are
a few more of the same type but with different amount of users.
TBAR UPLD BBS:USER.DATA 010 5 Display top 10 byte uploaders
TBAR MESG BBS:USER.DATA 025 5 Display top 25 message writers
TBAR UPFL BBS:USER.DATA ALL 5 Display ALL users sorted in files
Uploaded format.
RATIO CALCULATION:
==================
The Ratio is used in a quick calculation to determine if that
particular user has leeched or benefitted the bbs. It works exactly the
same way as the ratio in the users statistics. The ratio number must
ALWAYS be a number between 2 and 9 and must ALWAYS follow straight after
the amount of users to be displayed. IE
TBAR UPLD BBS:USER.DATA 010 3 Top 10, ratio 3/1 calculation
TBAR UPLD BBS:USER.DATA 010 7 Top 10, ratio 7/1 calculation
NOTE: The calculation is always performed on the uploaded and downloaded
BYTES. Ie if you choose UPFL (uploaded files chart), then the ratio
calcualtion WILL NOT be performed on the FILES uploaded.
NON-ANSI MODE:
==============
Some sysops may want this utility to be displayed to ALL users
when they logon. The problem is that they may logon to the bbs in non-ansi
mode and if the normal chart is displayed in non-ansi there are just a load
of blank spaces where the bars are normally displayed. As far as I know, most
other (if not all) barchart displayers haven't taken this into account and
so sysops just dont bother to run barcharts. This all stops from NOW!
If, at the end of your command line, you place a "-A", all coloured
spaces within the barchart section will be replaced with a "#" so that
ANYBODY can see the chart. You would obviously need to run TBar twice in your
logff script. Once for ansi ON and another time with Ansi OFF. Here's an
example of a logoff script:
TBAR >BBS:CONF1/BULL100.TXT UPLD BBS:USER.DATA 010 3 -A (Ansi-OFF)
TBAR >BBS:CONF1/BULL100.TXT.GR UPLD BBS:USER.DATA 010 3 (Ansi-ON)
Right, that's all the commandline finished with but what about your
logos, random line selection bits and excluded users file? All of these
are OPTIONAL and if they dont exist, TBar will carry on as normal.
DISPLAYING LOGO/HEADERTEXTS:
============================
Tbar will simply use the four-letter chart option to get a logo or
headerfile from your S: directory. If the file isn't found - it wont get
displayed!
CHART TBAR SEARCHES FOR
===== =================
UPLD S:TBARUPLD.HEADER <- UpLoaded Bytes Logo
DNLD S:TBARDNLD.HEADER <- DownLoaded bytes Logo
UPFL S:TBARUPFL.HEADER <- UpLoaded files Logo
DNFL S:TBARDNFL.HEADER <- DownLoaded Files Logo
MESG S:TBARMESG.HEADER <- Top MessageWriters Logo
CALL S:TBARCALL.HEADER <- Top Callers Logo
It doesn't matter if the texts are ansi-coloured as Ami-Express has
a built in stripper if the user is in non-ansi. If you find this method of
logo detection too restricting then please feel free to let me know and in
a future release I will possibly change it.
RANDOM LINES:
=============
This is a nice feature that I first saw used in Amilog coded by
Retaliator/Anthrox so cheers to him and Pot-noodle for being so inventive!
After TBar has displayed both the logo/headertext and the main chart
itself, it will search for a file called "S:TBAR.LINES". An example file is
included in this archive so check it out! The file is simply a text file of
upto 255 one liners. TBar will randomly select one of these and place it
underneath the chart. Simple but effective. Each line MUST NOT be longer
then 76 characters and MUST end in a return (otherwise TBar wont find the
required line!). If you put more than 255 lines these will be ignored. Once
again, if TBar fails to find the file it DOESN'T MATTER. It simply wont use
a random line.
EXCLUDED USERS FILE:
====================
This is where I've heard some people felt that TTOP fell down. TTOP
version 2 will be released in the first 3 months on '93 so look out for it!
The file Tbar searches for is called "S:TBAR.EXCLUDES". This is simply a file
of people you DO NOT want included in the following charts:
UPLD - Top byte uploaders
DNLD - Top byte downloaders
UPFL - Top file uploaders
DNFL - Top file downloaders
The names in the file must be EXACTLY as they are written in the userdata
file and each one MUST end with a return.
These people are not actually excluded from the chart altogether.
All TBar does is zero their uploaded bytes/files and their downloaded
bytes/files. If you use the "ALL" option they WILL get displayed but
obviously they will be at the bottom of the chart. It is upto the sysop
to place the correct number in the commandline so that these people do
not get show on the wrong chart!
NOTE: These peoples up/downloads WILL NOT be included in any chart in
the OVERALL stats line that appears at the bottom.
============================================================================
UPDATE ON EXCLUDED USERS FILE:
=============================-
Thanks to the suggestion of Sigma7/Abandon, you can now also
exclude people by their SECURITY LEVEL. Simply use the following line
in the file "S:TBAR.EXCLUDES".
Sec_Level XXX
Note that as in the main command line, the XXX must be a THREE
digit figure corresponding to the security levels you want excluded. If
the security level is less than 100 then PADDING ZEROS MUST BE USED!
Sec_Level 010 - exclude people whose security level is 10.
============================================================================
FINAL WORDS:
============
Well, thats about it!.. All thats left is to leave you with a list
of bulletin boards whose sysops have been a great help during production.
Remember you can reach me on these boards, so if there's sommit you wanna
see in a future release or get off your chest, then leave a message to
either me or the sysop.
C.A.L +44(0)81-3466842 Sysop - Pot-Noodle/ATX!
BurgerBar +44(0)983-741324 Sysop - Ice D/Indy
Synergy +49-5731-41982 Sysop - Sigma7/Abandon
HyperSpace +49-5916-4755 Sysop - Thargoid/ATX!
Bad Dreams +44(0)81-6795693 Sysop - DreamWarrior/Indy
Arcadia +44(0)923-893593 Sysop - Beast/Qtx
EnterPrise +01-4122332611 Sysop - Picard/ATX!
============================================================================
VERSION 1.01 UPDATE:
====================
Sorry but there was a hanging bug if you selected UPFL,DNFL,MESG
or CALL and the top user had less then 43 as the answer. The hanging has
now been fixed however TBar will NOT show a true representation until the
top user has MORE than 43 as the answer. (ie 44 messages,calls etc depending
on the chart selected). Thanks to the people who reported this - it was
not quickly discovered because sysops with numbers below 43 in the user data
must have only just started there bbs and all of my bug-testers have been
going for years! I will update to show true represention soon!
Also to keep up with TTop, the ansi part depicting bytes up/down-
loaded has now been extended to handle 10 characters instead of 12. Only
needed by a few boards but needed nevertheless!
HISTORY:
========
V0.05 08/11/92 (▀eta) First ▀eta version to testers.
V0.08 25/11/92 (▀eta) Added logo selection,random lines
and excluded file to options
V0.09 1/12/92 (▀eta) Exclusion file will now handle
security levels.
V1.00 15/01/93 First public release.
V1.01 12/04/93 Hanging Loop bug fixed. Characters extended.