-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONFLIST v1.2 - PCBoard Conference list processor May 92 Release -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (c)1991,92 Key Research and Development. Written by Chris Lautenbach NEW IN THIS VERSION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A couple of little bugs have been fixed with color processing, and one where an odd number of conferences would end up having itself truncated to an even number. In addition, a new specification type has been added; SINGLE. This is for when you have one conference that needs to be different from the rest. Some people tried using RANGE for this, but specifying RANGE 60-60 for example, would cause CONFLIST to produce some pretty strange results. So to avoid any problems, I've added this new type. Also, the following switches have been added: /? - shows help on available switches /n - negates adding of PCB @X codes. Leaves output file pure ASCII. /v - verbose. Gives all sorts of internal info, to help you find out what's wrong with your config file if something odd is happening. The next version will support a couple of new styles, including multi-page, color-coded, four-column color-coded, and multi-page four-column color-coded. INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I wrote this utility, because on my BBS, we were constantly adding new nets, new local conferences, changing conference names, etc etc. I didn't want to have to waste time in an ANSI editor all the time making new menus. I decided to sit down and write this program. The program, in a nutshell, reads your CNAMES file, and produces a file called CNFN. CONFIGURING CONFLIST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your config file (CONFLIST.CFG) should look something like this: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bordercolor =@X1F numcolor =@X1E netcolor =@X13 namecolor =@X1B undefined = N-,front =(NANet) S-,front =(ShadowNET) -DV,inside =(DevNet) 1-20,range =(Local) 41,single =Private! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first five lines are static - meaning you should leave them there, in the order they are in. The fields are as follows: Bordercolor - the color for the border of the conference menu. Numcolor - the color for the conference numbers on the menu. Netcolor - the color for the 'net' that the conference belongs to. Namecolor - the color for the conference name itself. Undefined - this is the text that will be put beside conferences that have no definition below. (ie. Local conferences) If you want this to be blank, merely put "" in that field. NOTE: The colors come predefined, as close to what PCB menus,etc would normally look like. Feel free to change them, just refer to the PCBoard manual for actual @X?? color codes. Theoretically, you should be able to put ANSI codes in here instead of the PCB codes, but I've never tried it. If you do - let me know if it works. DEFINING CONFERENCES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On our BBS, we've set up all the netmailed conferences, so that they are either suffixed or prefixed by a distinctive network 'id' so-to-speak. For example; the NANet administration conference would be "N-NETADMIN", and sysops would be "N-SYSOPS" and so-on and so-forth. This is what the first method of indexing conferences is for: N-,front=(NANet) ^ ^ ^ | | | | | +------ This specifies the name of the network, how you'd like it | | to appear in your CNFN file beside the conference name. | | | +------------- This tells CONFLIST, to look for the conference identifier | at the beginning of the conference name. The other method | similar to this one is, "inside", which will look for the | identifier ANYWHERE in the conference name. (This can | cause problems if your naming conventions are too simply | chosen.) | +----------------- And this - is the conference identifer. Therefore, this whole line - would trap any conferences, that BEGIN with "N-" The second: -DV,inside =(DevNet) ^ ^ ^ | | | | | +--- Again, the name of the network. | | | | | +------------- This tells CONFLIST that the conference identifier could | could be located anywhere within the string. (ie. BA-DV, | -DVBAD, L-DV-RT) | +----------------- See above. The third: 0-20,range=(Local) ^ ^ ^ | | | | | +---- Again, the name of the network. | | | +---------- This tells CONFLIST to to include all conferences within | a specified range under this network name. | +---------------- This is the range of conferences to include. Just make sure there are no spaces in here. And the final and newest: 5,single =(DevNet) ^ ^ ^ | | | | | +--- Again, the name of the network. | | | | | +------------- CONFLIST will only give this identifier to ONE conference, | and that's the one specified in the number at the beginning | of this statement. | +----------------- The number of the conference this identifier belongs to. THE WRAP-UP ~~~~~~~~~~~ CONFLIST is small and fast. It's well under 20k in size, and on my 386-25, does over 200 conferences per second in non-verbose mode. There is no limit to the maximum number of conferences, and a limit of 500 defined networks. The only important thing to know, is that CONFLIST.EXE, CONFLIST.CFG and your CNAMES file must all be in the same directory. In addition, I have only tested CONFLIST with PCBoard v14.5a/E3. I doubt it makes any difference what /XX version you're running, but I wouldn't try it with anything less than PCB v14.5. If you find this program useful, registration is only $15US. Registration entitles you to download the registered version of CONFLIST, which allows you to specify the path of your CNAMES file, and the output path/filename for your CNFN file, and free upgrades forever. Please, cheques and money orders only, do not send cash. Mail registrations to: Key Research and Development 17 Annapearl Crt, Willowdale, Ontario M2N 4H6 CANADA Make cheques payable to "Key Research and Development". Also, call our support BBS: Toronto Twilight Communications (416) 733-9012 5 nodes, 3.2gb online, two HST's, one Dual v.32bis! Online role-playing games, RoseMail, Qmail, many online games! NANet, ShadowNet, DevNet, EchoNet, BahNet, City2City mail networks online, more coming soon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other fantastic Key Research and Development products 8-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENius v1.5 - Complete personal communications system. Includes; internal X/Y/Zmodem, full color EMS/XMS/RAM/DISK backscroll, up to 65,000 lines, full-featured script language, amazing macro capabilities and much much more! You have to see it to believe it! PCMail Elite v1.0 - A great little .QWK mail reader, from the people who brought you GEnius. Features are too many to list. Beats all the others by far. MiniDOS v1.2 - A fantastic miniature DOS shell. Refers to files by numbers, not names. This shortens most commands to a single letter, plus the number of the file to apply it to. Standard DOS syntax is greatly relaxed as well, permitting use of / instead of \ in most cases. File tagging (batch deletion/copying/etc) fully supported, internal support for shareware editors, list programs, and archivers. Uses only 12k of RAM when running your applications. TexTils v1.0 - Text file manipulation utilites, remove lines from files, save them to other files. Change all the occurances of one string in one or many files. Fully command-line driven. Easy to use. Comes with Turbo Pascal v6.0 source code. ------------------------------------------------------------------- GEnius is a trademark of Key Research and Development. PC Mail Elite is a trademark of Key Research and Development. ITCS is a trademark of Key Research and Development. PCBoard is a trademark of Clark Development Corporation -------------------------------------------------------------------