23 Nov 97 04:42, Chris Maddock (3:640/302) wrote to Kim Lykkegaard:

 > Are you stll here Andrew ??

Only just.  I've been neglecting the Fidoworld lately, but I'm pleased to
see the friendly user support in this echo hasn't disappeared.

It's been almost six months since I last did any real work on the Msged
code, mainly due to lack of any sufficient demand for me to do so, but also
due to other commitments, and the Internet monster.  But I haven't
forgotten about Msged, and I think it's time I geared myself towards
releasing a new version.  There are a few bugs to iron out, documentation
to write, and probably a few new features.

Just in the last week I've been following the goings-on in the ARTWARE
conference, concerning timEd.  After 1999, timEd users will begin
encountering problems with regards to exporting newly created messages. New
messages written after 1999 that are stored in FTS-1 *.MSG format will no
longer conform to FTS-1; the `DateTime' field becomes corrupted as timEd
tries to store the year field as `100' instead of `00'. Attempting to
export such a message will most likely result in an error from your mail
processor; and in the case of SquishMail, it  will refuse to export the
message knowing that the date field has been `grunged'. Similarly, timEd
will corrupt the `__ftsc_date' field in messages stored in Squish format
messagebases after 1999, once again causing the SquishMail processor to
(quite rightly) refuse to export those messages. timEd also appears to
generate invalid dates in messages stored in Hudson format messages after
1999.

timEd's author, Gerard van Essen, has said he is no longer supporting the
product, nor will he be releasing a patch to fix the bugs, and has
recommended timEd users to find a replacement mail reader before the Y2K
bugs kick in.  So, I am aware that there are users who have already
switched (or are willing to consider switching), from timEd to Msged, and
just thought I'd mention that I'm happy to respond to any questions,
comments or queries that timEd users would like to post here (or privately
to me via e-mail) regarding Msged migration.

I should also mention that Gerard's solution of finding a replacement mail
reader may not be the only solution to the Y2K bugs in timEd. Another
workaround may be to write a program to `fix' any corrupted dates in
messages created by timEd after 1999 before they're processed by the mail
processor during the export process.  This, while good in theory, may not
work well in practice, and may require a continual concious effort from the
user to run the `message fixer' before their mail processor tried to export
their messages, rather than putting a command in an automated batch file
and forgetting about it.  It depends on the configuration of the mail
system, and how different mail-handling programs interact with each other. 
For example, having FrontDoor running as one task, and sending a crash mail
FTS-1 message after 1999 using timEd, may cause FD to dial out immediately,
without giving the user a chance to run the date fixing software.  Or FD
might recognise the grunged date and refu    se to send the message,
perhaps marking it as bad, undeliverable, or some such, or FD might crash
altogether.  I wouldn't like to guess.  It's not an ideal nor particularly
elegant solution.

Anyway, following the Y2K concerns voiced in the ARTWARE conference, I've
been looking at Msged's own Y2K compliance.  A year ago I discovered a bug
in Msged 4.00's on-screen date display routine; messages written after 1999
would be shown as being written in 1970.  That was fixed in the 4.10
release.  More recently I've looked at the Hudson message base routines,
and it appears to share the same or a similar Y2K bug with timEd; messages
written to a Hudson messagebase using Msged 4.00, 4.10 and 4.20 beta 2
after 1999 end up with a corrupt date field.  I'm assuming this bug stems
from the Msged 2.0x QuickBBS code, before Paul Edwards brought QuickBBS
support back in Msged 4.00 (so Msged 2.0x users [are there any left?] may
also want to be aware of this problem).

Above, I mentioned demand for a new Msged release.  Unfortunately, I've not
come across any other developers working on the Msged code, but given the
nature of FidoNet today that's probably not surprising.  So I've not had
anybody wanting me to include their code in the main release.  If there are
any of you out there, please speak up now.

As it stands, end-user interest is the only thing that will motivate me to
release a new version of Msged.  As such, it's encouraging to see Msged
users still actively participating in this echo and supporting each other. 
I'd especially like to thank Chris Maddock for sticking by the echo,
providing support, and ensuring it remains listed on the Z1 backbone.

So, that's about it.  Providing the existing user support and interest in
Msged continues, I'll stay motivated and focus on releasing a new version.

-- randy{at}zws.com

--- Msged/2 4.20 beta 4