From : Marc Lewis 05-Sep-96 23:36:21 1:396/45 To : All 86:2250/24 Subj : PPoint under Win95 PART 1 of 2 Several folks have mentioned their interest in my setup of PPoint under Windows 95. Well, here is a gist of how to do it. Mind you that, although not very difficult, attention to details will pay off with proper operation. Please follow the modification steps in order. What you will need: 1) About an hour of uninterrupted time to devote to this modification. 2) A working PPoint setup. If you don't have one or don't know what I'm talking about here, leave me a message here on in Netmail. 3) A copy of each of the following: BW32_260.ZIP**232259 04-07-96 File BW32_260.ZIP Desc BinkleyTerm SEE NOTE v2.60 Executables (Win32 Version) BAT2EXEC.ZIP 35287 08-10-91 BAT2EXEC--From PC Magazine-Volume 9, #14-August 1990 Purpose: Compile your batch files for added speed. D4GW_197.ZIP 151678 09-22-94 DOS4GW DOS 32 bit extender version 1.97. Used by many games and programs requiring 32 bit memory access. GUS_180.ZIP 35624 02-05-94 General Unpack Shell (GUS) v1.80 handles 14 archive types and their self-extractors. (ARC ARC+ ARJ DWC HA HAP HPK HYP LZH PAK SQZ UC2 ZIP ZOO & SFXs). PSORT.ZIP 117209 04-07-94 PSRT - Packet filter & sorter. Requires 386sx or greater - Requires 1 meg of extended/ems/dpmi/vcpi/whatever memory (more memory provides better sorting, ideally, 3-3.5 megs. Requires DOS4GW.EXE SLEEP_45.ZIP 32679 06-04-94 Variable program execution delay with menu. **NOTE: Some copies of the BinkleyTerm archive contain a binkley.cfg and a binkley.evt file, NEITHER OF WHICH ARE FUNCTIONAL AS WRITTEN. If you didn't obtain the Binkley archive from me, check it's contents before extracting it into your Point directory. IF IT CONTAINS a .cfg and an .evt file extract it to a temporary directory and rename the .cfg and .evt to something like .cf! and .ev! and then copy everything to your POINT directory. YOU MUST HAVE version matched binkley.lng, btlng.exe and english.txt files for BinkleyTerm to function. All files listed above are FreeWare. What to do: 1) MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR PPOINT MAIN DIRECTORY. 2) Use a text editor and edit your existing BINKLEY.CFG commenting out with a semicolon (;) at the left margin the following verbs: ;SLOWMODEM ;NOCOLLIDE ;TopView ;Answer ;Busy ;BBS ;Suffix If your BinkleyTerm has been running in the "black and white" mode you can add color to it with the following 2 verbs: Colors Mark_Kromm If you are running a modem that is faster than 14,400bps and wish to increase the port speed beyond Binkley's normal max. of 38400 add AS THE FIRST LINE in Binkley.cfg the verb: ExtBaudRates You can then set the "BAUD" line in Binkley.cfg to 57600 or 115200; no commas in the numbers! Remember the ExtBaudRates verb _must_ be the FIRST line in the configuration file. When finished set the READ ONLY attribute on the file by issuing the command (at the dos prompt) ATTRIB +R BINKLEY.CFG. . 3) Use a text editor to edit your MAILER.BAT file in the PPoint directory so that it looks like this. ASSUMPTIONS: Your PPoint directory is called POINT on drive C:.(You will have to adjust the drive letters and/or directory names to suit your own system.) ======================CUT======================= @ECHO OFF :: THIS BATCH FILE IS USED INTERNALLY BY PPOINT :: Customized by Marc Lewis (1:396/45) 12JUL96 CLS :START BT32 IF ERRORLEVEL 40 GOTO QUIT IF ERRORLEVEL 30 GOTO UNPACK IF ERRORLEVEL 20 GOTO UNPACK IF ERRORLEVEL 10 GOTO QUIT :UNPACK IF EXIST C:\POINT\IN\*.* GUS .\IN\ /M IF EXIST C:\POINT\IN\*.PKT CD .\IN IF NOT EXIST C:\POINT\IN\*.PKT GOTO CHECK PSRT :CHECK CD\ CD \POINT\IN FOR %%A IN (ARJ ARC EXE LZH TXT ZIP) DO IF EXIST *.%%A GOTO REMIND CD.. GOTO QUIT :REMIND ECHO. ECHO. ECHO. ECHO. ECHO. ECHO. ECHO. ECHO You have incoming files other than ECHO mail waiting in the C:\POINT\IN directory. SLEEP FOR 3 >NUL :QUIT ======================CUT======================= NOTE!: You can use your PPoint program to save this message to a text file by using the Ctrl E key combination. Edit the saved message text file to strip out everything but the batch file above and save it as MAILER.BAT, replacing your original PPoint generated mailer.bat. When finished editing the MAILER.BAT set the READ ONLY attribute: ATTRIB +R MAILER.BAT 4) UnZip the BAT2EXEC, SLEEP, PSRT and GUS archives into your Point directory. Use the command line at the DOS prompt: PKUNZIP x:\dir\filename.zip c:\point Where x:\dir is the drive and directory where the desired archive is located. c:\point is your Point directory; adjust the drive and directory name as required for your system. 5) We will now construct and compile the batch file to load PPoint and set certain environment variables for Win95. With your text editor (or by the method I outlined in step 3) either write the following batch file or capture it from this message... Remember to adjust the drive and directory names to suit your system! ======================CUT======================== :: rem PP.BAT @ECHO OFF C: CD \POINT PATH >IT.BAT PATH=%PATH%;C:\POINT PPOINT CALL IT.BAT DEL IT.BAT EXIT ======================CUT======================== .6)..We will now compile the PP.BAT into a .com file which Win95 will like. In your Point directory at the DOS prompt type the following command: BAT2EXEC PP.BAT The compiler will go to work and finish in just a second or two. You will now have a PP.BAT and a PP.COM file in your Point directory. When completed RENAME the PP.BAT file to PP.BA! (At the DOS prompt use the command: REN PP.BAT PP.BA! =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= This completes the preliminaries. We will now produce a "Shortcut" on the Windows 95 desktop and we're done! On your Win95 desktop, open the "My Computer" icon. Change to the drive and directory where PPoint and the PP.COM file reside. With the _right_ mouse button click on PP.COM and select "Create Shortcut" from the pop-up menu. Win95 will have created a shortcut file in your Point directory called "Shortcut to PP.COM" and it will have the MSDOS icon in front of it. Drag the shortcut file with your left mouse button to the Desktop. Click on it with the right mouse button and rename it to whatever you wish, usually PPOINT. At that time you can also change its icon to whatever you like, either from the Microsoft default Icon Library or from your own third party icon library... We're finished! Here's what happens when you click on PPOINT from your desktop: Windows calls the PP.COM file into action. PP.COM captures your path statement into a file called IT.BAT. Then it modifies the path statement and adds your point directory to it. THIS IS THE ONLY TIME YOUR POINT DIRECTORY SHOULD EVER BE IN YOUR PATH!!!. Then it calls PPoint into action. When you've finished with PPoint, make absolutely certain to exit properly via the pull down menu or with the escape key. This is Very Important. When PPoint closes the program resets your path to its original configuration, deletes the little batch file it created and exits back to Windows. The MAILER.BAT does the following for you... First off it calls BinkleyTerm into action with the BT32 command. You'll notice that there is NO fossil nor video fossil loaded like with the DOS version of Binkley. They are no longer needed and just get in the way. Binkley exits after receiving your mail or files; if you didn't receive anything you can either press F1 or F4 to immediately exit back to PPoint. When Binkley does exit with incoming mail/files the program looks to see what's in your incoming directory. It then calls a special unarchiver (GUS) that unpacks ONLY the mail files. If mail exists it calls a special Packet Sorter that checks the mail, sorts it by area, date, time, subject and ALSO checks the validity of the packets. It will "re-synchronize" any "grunged" packets automatically. When that's finished the program will check and see if any non-mail files were received. If so, it will post a 3 second reminder for you on screen. The program then exits to PPoint which will toss the incoming mail. AND IT'S ALL FREEWARE! I hope you'll find this system as useful and stable as I have. If you've got questions, I'll do my best to give you an answer! Happy PPointing!