====================================== QuickBBS Version 2.00 Changes Document ====================================== Version 2.00 of QuickBBS has been compiled under the new Turbo Pascal 4.0 compiler. It requires a quite a bit more memory then previous versions of QuickBBS, but I think you will find it worth it. Be sure to run the CONVERT program to convert your 1.02 data files to Version 2.00. There is a new structures document enclosed with the normal QuickBBS Sysop documentation archive (QDOC_200.ARC) along with a beta testers list and registered users list. Changes Made to QuickBBS 2.00 over 1.02 --------------------------------------- * QuickBBS now supports up to 200 individual message boards. QCONFIG and all the utilities have been updated to support this. * Two new user bits were allocated: 1) Individual users can be marked as "No-Kill" which means that the user is exempt from being deleted by USERPACK, this is useful for special users and/or the Sysop so they cannot be deleted. To enable/disable this use the ALT-N key in USEREDIT. 2) Individual users can be marked as "Ignore Hours" which means that they can download anytime out of the download window which is defined in QCONFIG. The Ignore hours security level in QCONFIG is no longer present. To enable/disable this flag you need to use the ALT-I key in USEREDIT. * The combined mode selection command (Type 28) was been rewritten to accomodate the expansion of up to 200 message boards. * Full last message read pointers are now kept for each user on each message board. This is completely optional and is selectable from QCONFIG. An additional file called LASTREAD.BBS contains these pointers for each user and is initialized automatically when activated. * If a user has Sysop-Access to a message board, he/she can hit a ! to view all IFNA ^A kludge lines for the current message. * The orward command option when reading messages is now only available to people with Sysop access on the specified message board. * Exiting with ERRORLEVEL's 3, 4, and 5 is now optional, set this in QCONFIG. The default is on. * The kludge command line option -1 for one word names has been moved into the QCONFIG program. To use a one word name the user must enter the name and a semi-colon after it. * The modem initialize command string and the modem busy command string now have special command characters which enable more control over sending these command strings. The following characters do special functions: | Sends a Carrige Return ^ Turns DTR on v Turns DTR off ~ Pauses for 1/2 Seconds * The cursor is no longer changed to a solid block. * All the known event problems have been fixed, this includeds the problem with QuickBBS not adjusting the time limit properly. * The SEAlink code has been changed even more so, hoping to solve all of the problems with GT PowerComm. * Two new variables have been added to the Type 7 command: *C Inserts Full Path to COMMAND.COM (retrieved from the COMSPEC environment variable) *H Tells QuickBBS to Shell with the FOSSIL open (or hot) * When a type 7 or type 15 command is executed, a flat text file called DORINFO1.DEF is created. The following information is contained in this file: Origin Line (in QCONFIG) Sysop's First Name Sysop's Last Name Communications Port (Example: COM1) Baud Rate and Parity (Example: 1200 BAUD,N,8,1) 0 (Just a plain old 0 on the line) User's First Name User's Last Name City and State Graphics Mode (1=on 0=off) Security Level (1 to 32000) Time Remaining for Call (in minutes) An example of this file might look like this: -------------------------- THE STATELINE RBBS BOB WESTCOTT COM1 1200 BAUD,N,8,1 0 TIM ALEXANDER JEFFERSON CITY,MO. 1 80 59 -------------------------- This feature is immplemented for compatibilty with Bob Westcott's door programs. * You can now optionally have a different origin line for each EchoMail conference. Create a file with your text editor named ECHOORIG.CTL, it has the following format: The is the message board number (1 to 200) and the is text for the Origin line. Here is an example: 34 QuickBBS Support Board, (303)423-3114, 1200 Only 45 Quicker than WOC'n!! QuickBBS Support Board If a message board is not found in this file then the default origin line is used which is specified in QCONFIG on the third configuration screen. The can ONLY be up to 60 characters long, if longer then QuickBBS will truncate it. * The menu editor (MENUEDIT) will now read the QuickBBS configuration file to find where your menus are stored. This means MENUEDIT.EXE can reside in the directory you run QuickBBS from, unlike previous versions of MENUEDIT. * QuickBBS now supports higher baud rates than 2400 when loading from the -B command line option. New baud rates supported are 4800, 9600 and 19200. When any baud rate higher than 2400 is used, QuickBBS will buffer the output. * Direct screen writes are now used to update the status window at the bottom of the screen, you can optionally change this in QCONFIG. This permits faster operation of the system. Being that direct screen writes can generate "snow" on some systems, there is now a snow checking option also added to QCONFIG. * A Type 7 shell command will now create a EXITINFO.BBS just like a Type 15 errorlevel exit. The format of this file is contained in the STRUCT.200 file packaged with the QuickBBS 2.00 documentation archive. * The bug with QuickBBS not exiting with the correct errorlevel when entering Net/Echo mail has been fixed. * When using the forward command on net-mail from another system, the outgoing message addressed from the original node instead of from your system. * A new command type 40 has been added. This command works the same way as command type 5, but allows the user to press menu hot keys while the file is being displayed. When used in combination with the Ctrl-A auto execute menu command it will allow the Sysop to build menus and display them in ASC/ANS form and still have hot keys available. * Computing the file transfer times has been rewritten and improved drastically. Xmodem, Ymodem, WXModem, SEAlink, and Zmodem all have there own file transfer time formulas. * There is now a monochrome option in QCONFIG, this causes QuickBBS to set the text mode to monochrome when it loads up. * The combined mode is no longer accessed through message board #51, it has been changed to message board #0. Please change all of your menu files to accomodate this. * A new QCONFIG option of allowing QuickBBS to output a ^E auto-logon character at the "What is your first and last name?" prompt has been added. * Another new QCONFIG option has been added allowing fast-logon, if this is enabled then the system will automatically logon the system with the data in first user record when in local mode. * A new option has been added to MSGUTILS which allows killing messages on selected boards by count instead of age. Please refer to the QuickBBS documentation for more details. * Upper/Lower case conversion is no longer forced on input of the calling from field for new users. * MENUEDIT now displays the menu entry before allowing you to delete it. * When QuickBBS is waiting for calls it will now display the name of the last caller on the system. * A new QCONFIG option enables/disables the clearing of the screen when waiting for calls. * The message text generated by QuickBBS now follows the FidoNet message format specifications. This means that it no longer only contains "hard" carriage returns, but instead contains both "soft" and "hard" carriage returns where appropriate. * The bug when you had the "Check For Mail at Logon" option off has been fixed. * The bug with the "Seconds Till Disconnect" has been fixed, it finally works! * The DEL code (ASCII 127) will now backspace appropriately when entering messages. * The ECHOSCAN utility has been merged into EchoGen. To perform what ECHOSCAN did, simply append a -E command line option to EchoGen. NOTE: The -E option disables any forwarding and unpacking of mail, this means you will still need to run EchoGen a seperate time to process inbound mail. * Both MAILSCAN and MAILTOSS now support QuickBBS's 2.00 Zone support by generating and inputing ^aINTL lines in messages, it is now possible to send net mail messages to different zones. * MAILSCAN will no longer crash when it goes to balance a users credit. * QuickBBS will now take advantage of full Zone support, your Zone can be set in QCONFIG. The Zone setting defaults to 1 (USA). * A full screen editor interface is now provided in QuickBBS version 2.00. It is described in the 2.00 documentation and in a separate reference file named QEDITOR.DOC. * A new command type 41 has been added which allows the user to toggle the use of the full screen message editor, there is no optional data for this command. * Two special files are now written when a Net/Echo message is entered for MAILSCAN and ECHOGEN to quickly retreive the mail to be exported from the QuickBBS message base. * I have included a small new utility program called SETNUM, this program will alter your caller counter contained in the SYSINFO.BBS file. The usage for this program is: SETNUM * The EchoGen program now has several new command line features: -E Performs what ECHOSCAN did, overrides -U -N This tells EchoGen to ignore any EchoMail in your net area -G Security: Disables generating any mail for conferences in which the sender is not listed in your AREAS.BBS file * The USERSORT utility will now backup your user file while sorting, to go along with this there is a -B command line option that will delete this backup file when finished. * The MSGUTILS program bugs have been fixed, the program was not updating the counter settings correctly for active messages and low/high message pointers. * The FOSSIL interface code has been completely redone in assembly language. Should be a faster throughput on 4.77 mhz machines. * QuickBBS no longer requires ANSI.SYS, it now has its own built in ANSI driver and is MUCH, MUCH faster than DOS's. * MEDIT has been renamed to MENUEDIT. * UEDIT has been renamed to USEREDIT. * The new files command has been implemented, it is command type 37 and works the same way as command types 35 and 36 by using the file search data file (FLSEARCH.CTL). * QuickBBS will now take the modem Off-Hook when logging on in local mode or exiting when running the system in the stand alone fasion (no mailer). To disable this, blank out the off-hook command string in QCONFIG. * A two second delay has been added at connect time to give the modems time to get with it. * If you change the users security level on-line, his/her time limit is changed according to the LIMITS.CTL file. * If flags and/or security is changed, the window at the bottom is updated properly. * The status window at the bottom has been changed quite a bit, the [PgDn] extra stats now displays the phone numbers and flags, the normal window now includes other things. * If the user hits chat, the status window will indicate the user would like to chat. * When a board is marked as "Aliases Allowed" in QCONFIG, it will now ask for the alias when replying to mail on that message board. * Printer logging support has been added. To activate it, place a -P on the DOS command line to run QuickBBS. You can also toggle the printer on/off with the Alt-P key. The status window will reflect this. The system will automatically turn off the printer logging if it detects a problem with printing. * The delete message command (Type 26) will now work properly, Version 1.02 caused the system to trash when this was used. * MENUEDIT's imulate menu function will now remember the last security level entered. * A new control file has been added to QuickBBS, this control file permits the Sysop to disallow certain phone numbers to be entered. The file is named PHONENUM.CTL and is contained in your QuickBBS sub-directory. The control file is simple to build, each line is a full phone number or the beginning of a phone number to lock out. Example: ----------------------------- 303-976 303-555-1212 714-555-1212 ----------------------------- This would deny any user to enter a phone number starting with 303-976, and would deny any user of entering the phone number of 303-555-1212 and 714-555-1212. * The nodelist structures have been completely redone, the new structures are contained in the STRUCT.200 file (in your QuickBBS documentation archive).