[*]    RAAE    [*]

                               Version  1.0 

                   (C) Copyright 1990, By Randall Edwards 









                               DISCLAIMER 
                               ----------

              The program RAAE.EXE and this documentation are the
         copyrighted property of Randall Edwards. All rights, except 
         those outlined in this document, are reserved. 

              By using this software you acknowledge that this 
         software may not suit your particular needs or be completely 
         trouble free.  Use this program at your own risk. 

              In no event will Randall Edwards be liable for any 
         damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other 
         incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of 
         or inability to use these programs, even if Randall Edwards 
         has been advised of the possibility of such damages. 

              In short, there's absolutely no guarantees with this 
         program.  Use it at your own risk.  If you break it, you can 
         have both pieces. 




                          CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE 
                          ---------------------------

              Thanks to Adam Hudson, who wrote the orignal QuickBBS 
         program which led to RemoteAccess.  Thanks also to the 
         RemoteAccess authors for their innovative work in BBS's. 

              Thanks to P.J. Muller who wrote a library for QuickBBS 
         which I arrogantly hacked apart and modified in order to come 
         up with routines to use in this program. 

              I give credit to the Taiwanese, who for near-slave wages 
         produced this computer that this program was written on.  By 
         allowing companies based in the United States to steal their 
         labor and the profits from their hard work, I have the wealth 
         and time to 'play' around with this machine and to write 
         programs like this.  They have only their near-slave wages, 
         terrible working conditions, and my appreciation and hope 
         that they can overcome obstacles in their way and achieve 
         full social justice. 
         



                             PURPOSE AND USAGE 
                             -----------------
          
              RAAE is a program to enter a message into
         RemoteAccess' message base.  RAAE will convert a text
         file into a message from the Sysop and to whoever the Sysop 
         specifies or optionally to "All" users.




              RAAE stands for "RemoteAccess Auto-Enter."  It is 
         pronounced like "ray" or "rae" as in "Norma Rae" that famous 
         union working lady played by Sally Field in the movie of the 
         same name.  Smart, cute AND a determined union member?!
         That's my kind of lady!  
         
              RAAE is dedicated to all the exploited workers of the 
         world and to all workers struggling to form unions to get a 
         fair share of the profits they themselves create. 
         

              RAAE uses the following command line parameters:
         
         RAAE <BoardNumber> <FileSpec> [FirstName] [LastName]
         
              "BoardNumber" is a number 1-200 which tells RAAE to
         put the message in a specific message area or "board" in 
         RemoteAccess' message base.
         
              "FileSpec" is the name of a text file that will be 
         converted into the message that RAAE generates.  This
         parameter can contain an option drive/path specification.  
         For instance, FILE.TXT and C:\TEMP\FILE.TXT are equally 
         valid.  This text file should be plain ASCII text with no 
         lines longer than 79 characters.
         
              "FirstName" and "LastName" are two optional parameters.  
         If one or both are given then the message is address to that 
         person.  If neither the "FirstName" or "LastName" parameters 
         are given, then the message will default as To: All.

              All messages generated by RAAE are listed as From:
         <Sysop Name> where the "Sysop Name" is the name listed in 
         RemoteAccess' CONFIG.RA file.  The Sysop's name is specified 
         in the RACONFIG program.  In my case this would read: 

         From: Randy Edwards 
         
              All messages have the subject set to "Auto-Enter Message 
         From <Sysop Name>".  Where Sysop Name is the name specified 
         in RACONFIG's CONFIG.RA file.  Again, in my case this would 
         look like: 

         Subj: Auto-Enter Message From Randy Edwards 
         

              To run the program just specify the proper parameters.  
         For example:
         
         RAAE 1 C:\RA\TEST.MSG John Doe
         
         would create a message in board number 1 with the text from 
         C:\RA\TEST.MSG and address it to John Doe. 



         RAAE 50 ECHO.RUL
         
         would create a message in board number 50 with the text from 
         the file ECHO.RUL in the default directory, and address it to 
         All. 

              RAAE will add a tear line to all messages it generates.  
         If the board that it is posting a message into is an echomail 
         board, as defined in the MESSAGES.RA file, then RAAE will 
         also add the correct * Origin: line and node address that is 
         specified for use with that message board. 

              There are many ways to use RAAE.  For instance, I 
         moderate the ANEWS echo, an echo of alternative news, and I 
         post the rules to ANEWS in the echo once a month on the first 
         day of the month.  I use RAAE like this: 
         
          ErrorLvl DOM        <-- This determines the day of the month
          IF ErrorLevel 2 GOTO START       <-- restarts the batch file
          RAAE 10 C:\MISC\ANEWS.RUL        <-- run RAAE
          IF ErrorLevel 1 TSUtil Index     <-- check for a RAAE error
         
              This sequence would create a message in ANEWS with the 
         rules to the echo on the 1st of every month.  The message 
         would be to "All" contain the text from C:\MISC\ANEWS.RUL.
         
              Another ingenious use of RAAE is to greet new users
         to your system.  For instance, the top lines of the file 
         NEWUSER2.ASC of my system contains the following:
         
          Please Wait ... 
          ^XC:\UTILS\RAAE.EXE 1 C:\MISC\NEWUSER.MSG *F *L|
         
              This sequence runs a shell from a text file (the 
         Control-X, ^X) which runs RAAE to generate a welcome
         message in board 1 (my local message area).  RemoteAccess 
         supplies the user's first and last names with the *F and *L 
         macros.  Then during RemoteAccess' sign-on mail check the 
         user will be told that he already has a message waiting (even 
         though it's his first call!).  This has surprised quite a few 
         users on my system.  See your RemoteAccess manual for more 
         information about doing shells from text files. 
         
              I'm sure you'll be able to think up many more uses for 
         RAAE.
         

         

         NOTES AND WARNINGS 
         ------------------
         
              RAAE was coded for use on a single-line RemoteAccess 
         system.  It contains no code for file-sharing or record-
         locking and it requires sole access to RemoteAccess' message 
         base files. 

 
          
              RAAE has been tested extensively, but of course no 
         guarantees are given.  If the program encounters an error it 
         will return an errorlevel of 1.  If the program runs 
         successfully it returns an errorlevel of 0. 

              I've never had the program corrupt a message base in 
         testing.  The most common errors are that the text input file 
         cannot be found, the board number is out of range (not 1 to 
         200) and minor things like that.
         
              Because of the potential of a severe error corrupting 
         RemoteAccess' message base, the program, if run from a batch 
         file, the program should be trapped to determine the 
         errorlevel it ends with.  If the program ends with an 
         errorlevel of 1 (an error occured) then you should run a 
         message base packing program to re-create the index files to 
         your message base.  While this is normally not necessary, it 
         is cheap insurance!
         
              For instance, in my batch file I run RAAE like this:
         
          RAAE 10 C:\MISC\ANEWS.RUL
          IF ErrorLevel 1 TSUtil Index
         
         or using QuickBBS' message pack program it'd look like:
         
          RAAE 10 C:\MISC\ANEWS.RUL
          IF ErrorLevel 1 MsgPack -I
         
         This batch file chunk would detect an error and then run the 
         appropriate program to create new index files.

              RAAE can be run from any directory.  It checks the
         default directory and the RemoteAccess environment variable 
         RA= to find the CONFIG.RA and MESSAGES.RA files.  Once it 
         finds CONFIG.RA it then reads info such as the directory to 
         where the message base is located, the Sysop's name, node 
         numbers, and things like that.  From MESSAGES.RA it reads the 
         type of board that it is to work on -- Local, Netmail or 
         Echomail -- and which node number and origin line to use. 
         Failure to find any of these files -- the message base files, 
         CONFIG.RA and MESSAGES.RA --will cause an error. 
         



          VERSION HISTORY 
          --------------- 
          
         1.0 - Initial public release. 




                                LICENSE 
                                -------
         
              It's free.  If you like it use it.  If you don't like it 
         then erase it from your disk(s) and forget all about it.  
         
              The only persons and/or organizations that are 
         specifically forbidden to use this program are anyone 
         employed by the Department of Defense and/or the National 
         Security Agency of the United States Government. 
         
              Please don't modify and then redistribute the program 
         and/or documentation.  
         
              Suggestions and bug reports may be sent to Randy Edwards 
         at the Socialism OnLine! BBS at 1-203-274-4639, 300-14400 bps
         HST, FidoNet 1:141/552.0 or Good Egg Net 99:9300/552.0. 

              Trademarks mentioned in this document are probably 
         registered to their respective owners.