Hello Sean!

28.02.04 at 17:24, Sean Dennis wrote to Andreas Proske:

 SD> On 28 Feb 04 at 17:21, Andreas Proske wrote to Alle:

 AP>> n„heres  ber das Programm "unisched" heraus zu
bekommen, und suche

 SD> What does this program do, exactly?

An extract from the Unisched documentation:

---------- 8< ----------

1. WHAT IS UNISCHED?
--------------------

Unisched  is  a  fully  year  2000  compliant scheduler software that has been
designed with special consideration of the needs of a Fidonet node system.  To
cut it short:  Unisched  can  react  to  various  kinds of events with various
actions.  Possible events are:

- time controlled events (for example:  every day at 15:00, every 1. each
  month at 10:00, every 30 minutes, ...)
- the creation of sempahore files / flag files by other programs
- new mail has been received in the mailer's inbound directory
- a function key has been pressed at the Unisched console

Possible actions are:

- An external program, batch file, script, Workplace Shell object can be
  startet.
- Unisched can exit with a certian error level.
- Unisched can modify a Binkley style static outbound (create a poll,
  change the flavour of a mail packet, ...)
- Others (like playing music, creating flag files, deleting flag files, ...)

Unisched is intended to be a powerful program built around a simple and easily
intelligible concept.  In order  to  fully understand the event-action concept
of Unisched, I suggest that you carefully read the documentation, but at least
you should read section 3.3.  Unisched is not like other  schedulers,  so  you
will surely profit from reading the docs :-).

Unisched  is available as a 16 bit DOS executable (which is multitasking aware
and has  been  successfully  tested  unter  plain  DOS,  DESQview, Windows 95,
Windows NT  and  OS/2)  and  of  course  as  32  bit  native  OS/2  executable
(UNISCHE2.EXE).  If you use the DOS executable, SHARE.EXE or a similar support
for file locking MUST be active!


2. WHAT DO I NEED UNISCHED FOR?
-------------------------------

The  possible fields of application of Unisched are diverse, and it surely can
be useful even for  non-Fidonet  specific  purpose.  However, I have primarily
written it to be a frontend for a seperate  tosser  task  of  a  Fidonet  node
system, and this is where Unisched's strengths play at their best.

Instead  of  having  to  fiddle  around in mailer batch files and mailer event
files, the node can have  a  separate  independent  tosser  task (be it a task
under a multi tasking operating systems, or a separate DOS computer in a local
area network).  Unisched is being active 24/7.  At certain times it starts the
tosser to let it export mail that has been written  locally  or  in  the  BBS.
Every  time  the  mailer  receives  mail, Unisched sees it (either because the
mailer has created a semaphore  file  indicating that mails has been received,
or because Unisched has poked directly in the inbound  directory)  and  starts
the  tosser  to  let  it import the mail.  If the sysop ever feels the need to
manually start the tosser, he simply  presses a function key in Unisched which
is associated to the same action as the event that  automatically  starts  the
tosser.  Every morning at seven o'clock, Unisched plays a little wake-up tune,
and, and, and ....

The  advantage  of this approach is obvious:  If you start the tosser directly
from the mailer batch, on a  multiline  system,  you always must take the risk
that two tossers are running parallel.  Also, if you start the tosser from the
mailer batch, the result is that the mailer is not  available  while  you  are
tossing.   These are two strong reasons why you want to have a separate tosser
task.

Unisched separates what should have been separated in  the  first  place:  The
mailer  exclusively  serves  the  modems,  and Unisched does the rest.  In the
mailer event file, you only  need  to  define  two events, namedly ZMH and the
rest of the day, so that the mailer does not have to do enything  except  what
it has been designed for: to exchange mail. :-)
---------- 8< ----------

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Martin

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