On the 03-23-95, John Poltorak was chatting with Ian Timms:

Hi John,

[deletia]

JP> IT> The BBS I connect to uses Bink and RxAsync in just this way but to
JP> IT> control BGFAX,
JP>
JP>This seems a little pointless since Binkley has its own 
JP>built-in fax receive facility which works pretty well...

It was being used to check carrier status at one stage, but
I've since been informed that it's no longer useded, ah well
it served its purpose.

JP> IT> if Max gets the handle from Bink then I can't see
JP> IT> any problem in doing what you want.
JP>
JP>I just tried running the little program from the previous 
JP>msg from Maximus using the following line in my menus.ctl:-
JP>
JP>  Xtern_DOS j:\rxasync3.CMD_-xabc_-p%P_-t%k   Sysop "RXasync"
JP>
JP>...and it worked just fine.

Great news. I found out only yesterday that there are two -p
parameters possible, '%P' as you have which is the file handle
of the port and '%p' which I believe is a logical port number
or somesuch. 

I guess Jerry McBride has been using '%p', hence his troubles.

JP>I suppose one problem which people may have, if they want 
JP>to write doors using RXASYNC, is that output is not echoed 
JP>to the local screen. This may not be the case, as I haven't 
JP>had a proper look through the docs yet, but if you had to 
JP>duplicate each line of code for remote and local output, it 
JP>could become a little tedious.

I leave the writing of output up to the script writer, I just
use 'say' myself. I suppose I could add yet another switch
to RxAsyncRead to have it echo to stdout, if enough people
want it then it shouldn't be too much trouble. The problem
will be when you want to 'say' something in the middle of
what's been read.

JP>RXASYNC does look like a really useful program, I hope I 
JP>manage to make some use of it. I suppose, with a few extra 
JP>Fidonet-type functions, you build your own Binkley in REXX 
JP>:-).

What 'Fidonet-type' functions would you be after?  I'm strictly
a Fidonet newbie (ie. user only) so am interested to hear
from anyone who can think of extra functions that could be 
added which would improve my DLLs usefulness.

 Cheers, Ian.

 Internet:itimms{at}ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au   CIS:100236,1404   [Team OS/2]
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 * MR/2 2.1 #141 * OS/2 v2, a 32 bit OS today... Your window to tommorow.

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