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Telegard Bulletin Board Software, v3.08
Revision History Documentation
Copyright (C) 1997 by Tim Strike
All Rights Reserved.
3.08 Beta 8 - September 9, 1997
Yes, we're now on beta-8. This shuold be one of the last betas
before a gamma comes out. The gamma will not have:
1) Lightbar menus
2) Scripting language
But I need to get a gamma out to put myself back on schedule, and
to give the public some much needed bug fixes. I will be releasing
the 3.09 file structures shortly. The 3.10 structures will be
released after the first few gammas are out, and after we've done
the lightbars and scripting language overhauls.
Would the TG/2 testers let me know if this fixes the problems.
Also, you can still run TG/DOS until the TG/2 stuff gets ironed
out; all the information is shared.
AREAS
* Telegard now stores the scan record id that it retrieved, so
that a store to a different id without first retreiving that
id will create an error. This hopefully will be the last of
the debugging code required to track the SysOp lost pointer
problem.
MESSAGES
TG/2 * Reading JAM areas should no longer cause run-time errors
(when reading Email, reading reverse, etc). Writing messages
should also no longer pose any problems (it was having
problems when it was trying to reload the old message). The
differences in file I/O b/w OS/2 and DOS are quite numerous.
* Replying to a message in netmail/another area after reading
several -new- messages, will now retain the lastread
information (i.e. where you've read to) instead of restoring
it to the previous value.
* Import filenames are persistent across the same message area
session (i.e. if you enter an input filename; it will store
that filename and used it until you leave and enter a
different message area).
* Deleting Squish messages should properly recycle the message
headers & text. Kevin, please let me know how this works
out.
* SmartQuote DISABLED should now be a little smarter (less of a
dumb-quote). It'll chop characters rather than words,
hopefully making it a little more understandable when
quoting.
* QuoteWarnings now default to "Save Anyway?" YES for Co-SysOps
and SysOps. QuoteOverThreshold will now also allow an
override.
FILES
TG/2 * Uploading files should no longer cause a duplicate file
upload request on HPFS drives (findfirst in DOS returns
all files in uppercase; OS/2 does not for obvious reasons).
OTHER
* Changing user accounts will now load the signatures for the
new account, in addition to saving the scan records, and
loading the new scan records. The scan records were
persistent across user changes before, and could result in
user Y (where *X was used to change to user Y from X)
duplicating the scan records of user X. I don't -think- this
caused the lost SysOp pointers, but anything is possible!
* Separate SysOp logs will not be separated by a blank line
inbetween teh sessions to try and keep the sessions a little
more clean.
TG/2 * Version information should now correctly determine Warp 3 or
Warp 4. I was using DOS-like comparison, and OS/2 is not
like DOS. :)
3.08 Beta 7 - July 22, 1997
MAKELANG
* Couple of quick patches:
1) Removed debug information from MAKELANG
2) Invalid ID's below ZERO will not cause errors
(and text like 0319`0b will be considered an invalid
ID...)
TELEGARD/2
* For those beginning to test Telegard/2, I have the following
notes that might be of interest:
0) I honestly suggest that you keep a copy of Telegard/DOS
just in case . . . the data files are identical.
1) SIO/VSIO must be installed. I haven't been able to get
the communications routines working with the OS/2 supplied
COM/VCOM drivers (even though they are *supposed* to be
identical). A fossil driver such as VX00 is not required
for the operation of TG/2, but may be required for some of
your doors . . .
2) Errors are reported with a longint value instead of a
segment:offset value. Please just report the errors with
this full address.
3) File I/O is not completely compatible with Telegard/DOS,
and thus I have been struggling to get some of the File
I/O working properly (because it is embedded throughout
the code). If you have problems, let me know...
4) To use a communications handle opened by another process
(such as your OS/2 Front End Mailer), use the -Hnnn
command line parameter. This will force Telegard to use
this handle instead. [this item is untested, please be
aware of this...]
To pass off the TG/2 communications handle to a door, use
the new MCI code ~2P. Of note, Telegard/DOS will return
N/A so that if you want to have some DOS protocols and
some OS/2 protocols depending on whether you have loaded
TG/Dos or TG/2, then I suggest that you parse ~2P in a
batch file, and load the correct protocol.
5) Not all memory statistics are available from OS/2 (at
least not with the dated programming information that I
own...). Presently Telegard will report 0 for some
values.
6) OS/2 will automatically determine whether or not to open
a DOS window or an OS/2 window for your doors by checking
the appropriate .EXE header file.
7) Telegard/DOS configuration items not used in TG/2 will be
"disabled" (i.e. dark grey), and vice versa. The only
important configuration item for your first run is the
OS/2 Command File Extension (=CMD) in the
SystemConfig.eXternal confguration menu.
8) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE report all other OS/2 specific TG/2
items that you can -- (i.e. have I missed anything that is
of real importance here? did anything else need to be
changed...). ALL OPERATIONAL ITEMS ARE IMPORTANT!
MESSAGES
+ Telegard will now use REPLYADDR from Internet Email if
it exists (the user will be given the option of which
address to use . . ., the FROM or REPLYADDR).
FILES
* If an area can not be opened, a subsequent call to open that
area will not accept the open (and then crash). The logic
has been improved so that areas that generate errors should
no longer cause problems.
OTHER
* Fixed up input routines:
1) Colour codes should now work for all fields that
normally accept colour codes.
2) Added DELETE key for input fields.
3) Fields default to INSERT mode instead of OVERWRITE
! Clarification: PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN now move between your
SysOp windows. CTRL-PAGEUP and CTRL-PAGEDOWN now toggle
+1 minute and -1 minute respectively. The other arrow keys
(LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN) are now processed for input routines,
menus and other prompts . . .
3.03 Beta 6 - June 22, 1997
While it doesn't seem like too much has been accomplished--that is
indeed quite true. With my machine being down for two months, it's
been hard to get any work done. Needless to say, with the new
machine, I have started working again.
1) Started work on Telegard/2--I hope to have preliminary
test versions shortly.
2) Continued work on the script compiler and/interpretter
Obviously neither of these items is in this beta. This beta (6)
has the new language stuff, and preliminary support for arrow keys
which will be used in the input fields and menus in the near
future. While I worked out the other two items, I thought I would
get this beta to you folks...
I have *all* the bug reports submitted since the last beta (5).
I have fixed a few (those that I did before my machine died), and
the rest will be dealt with for next weekend.
Questions? Email me... And if any of you have Quake and Team
Fortress, I occasionally drop by... Look for 'Meleagant [SO]', and
let me know you're alive. I am (usually).
ALREADY DONE
1) MSGREAD and NEWUSERV menus 3.03.b03
Bonus: WFCQFILE & WFCQMSG
1a) FILETAGP menus 3.03.b04
2) New scan indexing 3.03.b03
2a) INDEX LIMITS command 3.03.b05
3) File section update 3.03.b04
7) User-ID to 4 characters 3.03.b03
8) FrontDoor style logs 3.03.b03
11) Language swapping (>64K languages) 3.03.b06
TO BE DONE
4) Lightbar menus Started b05
5) Script compiler Started b01,6
6) Script interpretter Outstanding
9) Text fields to MM/DD/YYYY format Outstanding
10) Further multinode support (node-node chat?) Thinking
12) Re-sort bps rates (hardware.dat) Outstanding
PRIORITIES
5) Script compiler 3.03.b06
6) Script interpretter ?
4) Lightbars 3.03.b07
*) ...
UTILITIES
* MAKELANG was updated (2.00) with the new language file format.
Please keep a copy of your *old* MAKELANG; it is still needed
to compile languages for TCR (since I obviously haven't
updated it to use the new format). If you don't use TCR
2.00, you can nix MAKELANG 1.15...
LANGUAGES
+ Languages are now fully 'paged' -- since I'm not sure how
many of you know anything of operating system paging, I won't
go into *too* much detail here:
Your language file is divided into pages (sections) of up to
8K in size, with a maximum of 16 of these pages. Telegard
can store up to 8 of these pages in memory at any given time;
as it needs a page it will load that page into memory. Pages
that are used often are kept in memory, and those pages which
are infrequently used will be loaded and discarded as
necessary. I'm using some classic OS algorithms which are
well proven for OS, and should do nicely for Telegard.
NOTE 1: YOU MUST REMAKE YOUR LANGUAGES WITH THE NEW MAKELANG!
If you don't, you *will* have problems (lots of *strange*
things)... for quite a while I thought I had compiled all my
languages and couldn't figure out why the code was giving me
problems because it looked so good. Well...
NOTE 2: There are lines in the SysOp log which appear when
language pages are loaded. If you see more than 8 of these
in any given user session, I want to know. 8 would be a full
64K language file (the old limit). You may, more often than
not, only see 2 or 3 of these (depending on what the user
does online). These lines will eventually be removed (they
are for initial debugging purposes only).
NOTE 3: Yes, this means the 64K limit on these files is
broken. Infact, it's raised to 128K now, and theoretically
can go to whatever size I want (performance would take a
hit, but this new paged method is extendable to 2048K, or
2 megs of languages... like we'll *ever* need that!).
MESSAGES
* File attaches allowed attaching directories as exist()
returned true for directories too--I've changed the exist()
such that it does not recognize directories; I tried to
update all the places where exist() was used for this purpose
to use the proper direxist() instead . . . please let me know
if this causes problems somewhere where I forgot to check.
* MSGID fields should now be unique for multiple msgs/s, even
when posted via the QWK internal mail scan. If you were
previously having problems, please let me know...
OTHER
* I have added some code to log and ignore some errors when
saving scan records, either in an attempt to (a) fix the
problem, or (b) provide more diagnostic reports about the
problem...
* Forced password changes will no longer permit the current
user password to be input -- somewhere this logic was killed.
* Time adjustment commands have been changed to CTRL-PGUP
and CTRL-PGDN which add and subtract 1 minute respectively.
+ The local input routines accept left and right arrows to
move up and down the input line, and the insert key to toggle
b/w insert and overwrite mode. NOTE: Input fields which
accept pictures (i.e. phone, postal codes, dates) and colour
codes will -not- allow arrow keys. Please test this area
extensively, and let me know if things mess up to any
significant degree.
+ Menu editor now contains a (R)ename menu function.
* The default exit levels for Telegard have changed; errorlevel
0 is the default exit level (no errors), and errorlevel
1 is the default error level (w/errors). This is changed
*from* 255 and 254 respectively. You can still override with
the -EN, -EE command line options.
* Random files should be more evenly distributed between .ANS,
.AN1, etc... under the old system, it would choose the .ANS
file by FLUKE... (i.e. rarely).
* Input routines that don't accept colour by default will print
out the string in it's full form; backspacing over visible
colour codes will not affect the display.
* Changing the SL of the user while in ALT-E edit user denies
all further access to the account (edit lockout). Fixed.
* ALT-P to PRN, LPT1 or LPT2 will not ask if you want to append/
overwrite, etc. It will just do it...
3.03 Beta 5 - March 18, 1997
This is an interim beta--it does not have what I scheduled for
beta-05 (the script compiler). I have been sick (again), and
working on some academic work that consumed much of my spare time
(and was eventually responsible for my being sick); I think I'm now
in the clear, but rather than waiting another week to get these bug
fixes to you, I decided that I would do it now--there is nothing
new here, just bug cleanup.
I've made this request before, but I need to remind some of you
(again) of things I need when you're reporting bugs:
1) SysOp log *clips* at the time of the error
2) Error log *clips* of the error
3) Message Area Bugs: JAM or Squish, was it the first
message? last message? local posts? replies?
what type of scan? WFC or online user? Does the
user meet SysOp ACS? Msg SubOp ACS?
4) Operating system (I have no records)
5) Is it repeatable? If you haven't tried, TRY. If you
have, what sequence can *I* use to repeat it?
The following individuals are the only individuals who are
presently listed in my copy of the beta site BBS listing; if you
are not listed here, may I suggest you *reread* the installation
instructions provided with beta-04 (thank you) -- you don't
actually need to reinstall, just reread them...
Don Johnson Alpha #2 -- Saturday Knights 303-420-8927
Kevin Watkins Alpha #3 -- Light Speed ][ 617-925-8508
Ernest Evert Hacker's Inc. 219-531-2258
John Tabler ArcadiaVision 219-766-2378
Marshall Votta Soth's Domain 401-463-8889
Richard Ross kaOs 608-256-5680
OUTSTANDING BUGS
1) Scan indexing damaged-- can't duplicate:
a) Primary (Record #0) only?
b) Need *exact* process, fine->exact_changes->damaged
2) CD-ROM viewing causing RT #5's?
TO BE DONE
1) MSGREAD and NEWUSERV menus 3.03.b03
Bonus: WFCQFILE & WFCQMSG
1a) FILETAGP menus 3.03.b04
2) New scan indexing 3.03.b03
2a) INDEX LIMITS command 3.03.b05
3) File section update 3.03.b04
4) Lightbar menus Started b05
5) Script compiler Started b01
6) Script interpretter Outstanding
7) User-ID to 4 characters 3.03.b03
8) FrontDoor style logs 3.03.b03
9) Text fields to MM/DD/YYYY format Outstanding
10) Further multinode support (node-node chat?) Thinking
11) Language swapping (>64K languages) Thinking
12) Support internet friendly terminal types Thinking
PRIORITIES
5) Script compiler 3.03.b06
6) Script interpretter ?
4) Lightbars 3.03.b07
*) ...
UTILITIES
* New INDEX utility with the LIMITS function built in. PLEASE
backup your files before running this... it will attempt a
backup itself, but just in case... if you don't have a need
for this, don't run it.
* New FA2FB based on information relayed by Ernest Evert--I
was mislinking several files (files without extended desc)
because in the 'borrowed' code (from the old filesection).
The original code also had some zero counters, which this
borrowed code did not adopt (oops).
(Of note: This should stop problems with ALLFIX pulling the
wrong description, since it just *blindly* uses the extended
description without checking the associated filename to avoid
any cross-linked records (which incidently is the exact
reason that field exists ...now I admit that it was my
problem, however... ).
MESSAGES
* I don't understand the RT errors that are occuring in the
message bases as I am unable to duplicate the results. I
have added some local debugging code. If you get a RT#100
from the message bases (while deleting a message), please
report this debugging code. Of note: the debug code will
display on the local screen regardless of errors... it will
appear in your ERR.LOG as part of the screen capture.
It's apparently happening with both Squish and JAM areas,
so that has been of no help either, unfortunately. So, it
is a matter of finding the exact problem, and I hope to be
able to narrow the search with this debugging code. I
*think* that some of the problems may have been fixed when I
patched up the forward/backward code when deleting
messages... please let me know.
* If quote warnings are disabled, the save should now default
to YES instead of NO. See, it works like this; if quote
warnings are ON, it defaults to YES only if the user is below
the quote warning level--otherwise it defaults to NO (so the
user changes the message by default).
* After a message is deleted, it will attempt to move forward,
*then* backward. It makes no difference if users must delete
messages, but apparently this is what was wanted...
* Cross posted messages will create the semaphore files.
(they will also now receive log lines following the original
posted message statistics).
* Editing Squish message headers will now properly reload the
message text--it was not properly reloading the text before,
and the text buffer was used to parse the control buffer...
which is connected to the hipbone, which is connected to the
legbone, connected to the...
* Cross posted messages should now report the correct message
# for the cross posted messages to Squish areas. New global
variable doesn't need to be updated twice...
* Moving/Copying messages will remove the REPLY: kludge lines,
and remove the JAM/Squish reply linking...
OTHER
* I fiddled some more with the input routines; all appears to
work correctly. If you find/see something odd, let me know.
* Fixed language selection problem -- occured if there was only
one available language that the user had access too.
* Telegard will attempt to strip colours from user names when
completing a user name during a lookup (for sequential
searches *only* (i.e. mail and user list/editor)).
* Fixed sysop window spacing--also did a number of other
changes to the sysop window code. Please let me know if
there are any problems.
3.03 Beta 4 - March 2, 1997
INSTALLATION
If you have not previously installed beta-03, then I honestly
suggest you do that before this one -- nothing should screw
up, but the progression will be split and likely easier.
1) Make a backup of your configuration
2) Install TELEGARD.DIF and __UPDATE.ZIP per usual
3) Run INDEX BUILD FILES to update your file section index
to the new format.
4) Run UPDATE with Beta-03 as your option
5) Make sure you install FILETAGP menu! (or trouble...)
6) This WHATSNEW.B04 contains only changes since B03.
Please rename your WHATSNEW.303 from beta-03 to
WHATSNEW.B03. The next whatsnew file will again be
called WHATSNEW.303, but will only contain the changes
since beta-04.
7) Please take the time to check your entry in TG_BETA.BBS
(remember to copy the new version from __UPDATE). If
your entry is okay, I want to know this (email
1:249/100.2 and send it ROUTED mail). If your entry is
not okay, I want to know this as well (same address).
TO BE DONE
1) MSGREAD and NEWUSERV menus 3.03.b03
Bonus: WFCQFILE & WFCQMSG
1a) FILETAGP menus 3.03.b04
2) New scan indexing 3.03.b03
2a) INDEX LIMITS command Started b04
3) File section update 3.03.b04
4) Lightbar menus Outstanding
5) Script compiler Started b01
6) Script interpretter Outstanding
7) User-ID to 4 characters 3.03.b03
8) FrontDoor style logs 3.03.b03
9) Text fields to MM/DD/YYYY format Outstanding
10) Further multinode support (node-node chat?) Thinking
11) Language swapping (>64K languages) Thinking
12) Support internet friendly terminal types Thinking
PRIORITIES
2a) INDEX LIMITS 3.03.b05
5) Script compiler 3.03.b05
6) Script interpretter ?
4) Lightbars 3.03.b07
*) ...
UTILITIES
* New versions of INDEX and FB2FA have been included because
they use the new format QFILES.IDX. You *must* remember to
unpack these utilities from __UPDATE.ZIP and use them instead
of your old versions.
MESSAGES
* Fixed posting statistics for message replies. These were
not being correctly counted in either the system statistics,
or in the user statistics.
+ Added quote warnings, and quote maximum for messages posted
within the line editor (this feature will *not* enforce the
messages posted via a FSE!). There are two settings, which
you can set as you please:
1) Quote warnings: The user will still be able to save
the message. Use 0 to disable warnings.
2) Quote maximum: The user will not be able to save the
message if they exceed this % limit. Use 0 to
disable the maximum.
So you have several combinations:
1) Disable both: Acts like Telegard before 3.03.b04
2) Enable Warning: All messages will still be saved,
but messages exceeding the limit will be warned
and given the option to re-edit.
3) Enable Maximum: No warnings, but messages with
too much content will not be saved--no questions.
4) Enable both: Messages lower than the warning level
will save normally, messages between the warning
level and the maximum level will receive a warning,
and messages above will be denied.
* To and From addresses can now be edited with the header
editing feature. I had intended on doing this, then I came
up with a good reason not too, but I can't remember it now...
* Telegard will remove all trailing blank lines from a message
before saving it. This makes things look cleaner (and was
implemented to pave the way for the next item...)
+ Added auto-signature support for messages posted (again)
within the line editor (FSE support is *not* going to be made
available for this feature). The signature appended, short
or long, will depend on the message base setting. If the
area is set to SHORT, then the short signature will be sent
which consists of one line up to 75 characters of text. If
the area is set to LONG, then the long signature (240 chars
max, or 4 lines) will be sent -- if not set, the short will
be sent, if set. If the area is toggled to 'NoSigs', then
no signatures will be appended.
In addition, any name, anonymous or dear abby messages will
not have a signature automatically added.
FILES
* Fixed RT101 errors when tagging files--it only appeared to
happen for files with descriptions of certain lengths -- and
I don't think it had much to do with anything else. Ernest's
message led me along this path, and I was finally able to
replicate the problem. I've patched the problems I found...
+ Uploads should now be allowed (and not listed as CDROM).
* Finished the last of the file section changes per my outline
last week. The following are the consequences of those
changes:
1) Duplicate filenames are allowed, except that any
given directory can only have ONE file of any given
filename (pretty obvious). Otherwise, you should now
have free reign on the file section!
2) Archive conversion now checks for a duplicate of the
new filename (which it always SHOULD have, but never
did). Note: It does an index check, not a physical
file check! (if there is no index entry for that area,
but the file exists, the conversion *should* catch it
later...)
3) Downloads, Tagging, etc. will cycle through all
areas if globaldownload is ON, otherwise it'll only
check the current area. Of note: Specifying a
wildcard (* or ?) will cause Telegard to search all
files -- specifying a full filename will cause
Telegard to search the INDEX instead and only prompt
for matching files -- this is muchos faster!!
(Telegard previously did this, but I think in this
incarnation it is *much* better).
4) Files of the same name from different areas can now
be tagged for download. Of note however -- the users
terminal had better be able to handle that (by
renaming the second file to something else). It's
not a Telegard restriction anymore . . .
5) I had to make some minor changes to the QFILES.IDX
file. Those changes will affect those utilities
which use the old format. This should be the last
format change for the file... (the new field is a
status field--deleted records get the deleted bit
and all deleted records should be ignored).
6) The file section has one more slight change to do
with the structures, and then I've finalized it. As
soon as that is done, I will be sending the file
structures out to various developers -- so they can
begin updating file-section related code.
+ Finished FILETAGP menu support. This new menu is complimented
by the Sx menu series of commands -- which contain commands for
continue, next, toggle area, tag & view.
I do *not* suggest doing too much else from this menu, but
please play and let me know. I will be adding VALIDATE, EDIT
and DELETE commands specifically for this menu shortly . . .
* Fixed up validation routines so that RT103 problems would not
occur. I was errantly closing a file during the validation
process that was designed to be open.
* Fixed up local download code -- if the local download it
aborted, the file counter will not be incorrectly update.
* Fixed up download code which caused a RT103 when files are
not queued (but downloaded immediately) -- the same problem
here as with the validation routines.
OTHER
* Protocol editor has been repaired so you can safely modify
your protocols.
* Fixed up menu editing w.r.t. menu display type.
* Fixed Innnn command ACS parsing -- items like "I0001|I0002"
should now work properly . . . (oops!)
* I think I fixed (for the final time) the logon bps
restrictions for both general logons, and for node specific
logons. I moved the code to an ENTIRELY different library,
and that should fix the problem (I believe it was setting
hangup, and then incorrectly unsetting hangup in a subsequent
area of code, allowing the user to logon . . .)
* New menu flag -- no CR after prompt -- Telegard normally puts
a after the input, to start the cursor on a new line.
With the flag enabled, the cursor remains where it was. This
is especially helpful for the FILETAGP menu, which will erase
the prompt if it can.
--- Fringe BBS
* Origin: The Fringe BBS - Only the best >TG< - 904-733-1721 (1:112/91)SEEN-BY: 633/267 270 5030/786 @PATH: 112/91 123/500 379/1 633/267 |
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