HI Paul,

On Thu 2036-Dec-18 15:20, Paul Quinn (3:640/384) wrote to Richard Webb:

PQ> On 16 Dec 08 16:31, you wrote to me:

PQ> (A neat job for the PSIS util, BTW... "PSIS /VMMDDHHNN" sets the
PQ> %PSIS% envar, for use later.  Unless you have a similar tool
PQ> already...)

Yah I was thinking of something like htat, but it needs to
survive a reboot.  Your original solution with the directory and nset works
quite nicely .

 RW> We're nuking the entry on line 5 of our dir output, as you
 RW> are.
 RW> Just about a drop-in solution!!!  thanks!!!

PQ> Kewl!

PQ> First off, I had in mind that the whole whing could be better served
PQ> by using your messagebase and associated (maintnenance/post-ing)
PQ> utils.  But, after discarding that idea, I've been looking at an old
PQ> Fidonet application called Infomail.  It's a document 'server'. 
PQ> Kind of like a file request 'bot but instead of, or as well as,
PQ> file-attaches, it serves up documents as text in netmail replies. 
PQ> It might be ideal for dealing directly with your whatever
PQ> netmailemail gateway.  I.e., no one directly accesses your
PQ> Infomail doo-hickey other than your gateway (software).

YEp, doing much the same with netmgr masks and its bounce
feature, and others.  Have modified slightly your nodelist
search batch to do the same for me via netmail when I"m away at a
point.  Usually if I need to search a nodelist entry
it's for somewhat later use, so if I"m away from home and
accessing as a point, I can let the machine just sitting
here do the crunching while my traveling machine isn't tied
up, results get netmailed back to me .

 RW> BOy m$ sure shot themselves in the foot with later
 RW> iterations of windows by not allowing the use of environment
 RW> variables.  I couldn't live without them.

PQ> Mate, you've just got to try to get a Win9x installation working
PQ> sometime, just to have a play with its DOS.  At the risk of
PQ> repeating myself: it's the last best DOS MS released. Any later
PQ> NT-based DOS emulation is crap. 

YEp, wife's machine has, but it doesn't have speech for this old blind man,
and it's usually busy with her tasks .
sUre got to cussing it though when trying to devise a friend a batch
soltuion for a problem a couple weeks ago.  HE's
using a later windows version, so no environment variables.
We worked around it with semaphore files .

PQ> For starters, Win9x's DOS 7.xx will evaluate %envars% on the
PQ> command-line.  For lazy batch writers like me, typing (actually,
PQ> copy/pasting from a batch file) something like this at the
PQ> command-line:

PQ> LOGECHO $W $D-$N-$Y $h:$m:$s UTIL %0 node %NODE% %MACHINE%
PQ> >%SEMA4DIR%\TOSSER0%NODE%.SEM
PQ> (Warning: line-wrap.  It's one line.)

PQ> And getting an intelligent response is simply 'hog heaven'.  Need I
PQ> mention that the command-line length is somewhat increased as well. 
PQ> :-)  There's a few minor annoyances but DOS 7.xx is the best.

YEp, which was why you had to do a bit of extra coding to
get your nodelist search bat to play nice with 6.22.

I've got a compaq laptop I should be getting a speech synth
for soon, which will be traveling with me.  IT has 95 on it
as well, so causing it to boot to command line only should
give me its advantages .


Again, thanks for the pointers.

Regards,
           Richard
... Secret of electronics:  Keep the smoke in the wires.
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+