The Liberator V2.32 Beta 4 08-08-90 Copyright (C) 1989-90 Liberation Enterprises All Rights Reserved. This archive contains a preliminary 'beta' release of The Liberator v2.32. 'Beta 4' means the system has been tested at Liberation Enterprises, and much of the same code by the users of 'Betas 0-3' (release info below). If you install the program, you'll get to use the new features before anyone else does... but you may run into a problem or two in the process. This is what 'beta testing' is all about... to help locate problems which may have slipped by the testing that was performed here. USE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK, as is usual with all releases, beta or otherwise. This beta was uploaded 'privately', which means it will not be displayed in any new files listings where uploaded. It would be appreciated if you do not distribute this beta release elsewhere, as I would like to limit any problem reports to the Liberator Support Conference on NorthAmeriNet (where you must have access or you would not have known the filename of this archive...). If you DO run into a problem, please post a message to Wayne Duff in the Liberator Conference outlining the problem, and providing as many details as possible. Check your Usage Log before reporting problems, as sometimes The Liberator stamps status/error messages there that do not show up on the screen. If you run into a problem in the Qmail v4 door, make sure you check MAIL.DOC (included) as well, since it outlines many common problems and their solutions. Thanks. INSTALLATION: Simply COPY the .SLC files to your Script directory, then run the program as usual. Make sure you back up your current release first, if you want to keep it handy. The format of Command/Configuration Files remains the same from previous v2.3x releases, and your older files will _load_ without errors... BUT the format of some default prompts has been changed, as well as a couple of new Mail Door Configuration options. If you run into any problems, try re-Creating the Configuration from scratch, using the new defaults. 08-08-90 Version 2.32 Beta 4. > Added support for PCBoard v14.5 batch protocol entry. If you have The Liberator set up for PCBoard 14.5/batch mode (file transfers using the UB/DB commands), and your 'default' PCBoard protocol on the BBS was set to 'None', PCBoard prompts for a protocol to use, just after The Liberator finishes entering filenames. Previously, The Liberator ignored this prompt, and simply sent a CR (PCBoard assumes 'N'one as the protocol if this is done). However, you may now enter specific protocol letters in your BBS Configurations (see CFG screen 1), to select specific PCBoard protocols at this prompt. This allows you to specify separate protocols for batch uploading and downloading, if necessary. The Liberator now supports online protocol selection for regular PCBoard (non-batch) transfers, ProDoor transfers, and PCBoard 14.5 batch transfers. > When uploading, periodically The Liberator would 'stutter' on the entry of the description, causing part of the description to be duplicated (the first word or so). I looked very closely at the description entry routine, and could not find any obvious solution to this problem, but did see a likely suspect and changed the routine a bit. Hopefully this will eliminate the problem. > Found and fixed a problem with RunMaster, which was causing the usual 'Master redial attempts' to be used on the LAST job. Normally, the Master redial attempts value is only used when there are other jobs in the queue, in order to allow cycling to other jobs if a number is busy. However, once the last job is reached, this cycling is no longer necessary and the last job should now carry out the remaining redials all at once. > Added a 'Send ESC' item to the Control Menu. The Control Menu is displayed if you hit ESC in the middle of a job, in order to pause or abort the Command File. If you actually need to send an ESC code to the BBS, select 'Send ESC' when the Control Menu is displayed. > I disabled the automatic enabling of auto-Zmodem in an earlier release, but have re-enabled this ONLY if the protocol you set up for is Zmodem (internal Telix). Thus, just before a transfer, The Liberator checks which protocol you have set up, and if it is internal Zmodem, the current status of auto-Zmodem is saved, auto-Zmodem is turned on, the transfer is carried out (by Telix automatically, as is the best way with internal Zmodem), then auto-Zmodem is restored to its original value. This means that you need not keep auto-Zmodem turned on all the time, for example, if you use DSZ's Zmodem for some types of transfers. The Liberator will turn it on when necessary. > Added support for the 'Is this correct?' prompt, which is displayed after entering your name on some (very few) boards. I have no idea why the world needs this prompt (Sysops must explicitly request that it be displayed), but added support in any case. The prompt is HARDCODED in, so if your Sysop not only enables the prompt, but also changes its format, The Liberator will not support the prompt. In this case, you could modify PCBOARD.SLT and use it as a 'Custom Logon Script' if necessary, but I feel it would be more useful to simply ask your Sysop to remove the prompt or change it back to its default format. I feel The Liberator supports too many different prompts and customizations of PCBoard already, and automated users should consider "getting the idea out there" that we are all better off getting used to the _standard_ PCBoard configuration, as provided by PCBoard's developer. Today's Sysops are slowly but surely building a hopeless mess out there, just for the sake of being different... (unintentionally, no doubt, but the end-result seems counter- productive to everyone). I cannot program a customized Liberator, nor add support for every possible configuration of PCBoard, nor do I even feel it is even helpful to _manual_ users to have to get used to different prompts and messages on every BBS they call. Certainly it is an unnecessary hassle to any script user, whether using The Liberator, a competitor, or a home-made script. Even the PCBOARD.SLT logon script provided by Exis with Telix will not work on many boards without major reprogramming, which not all users are able to do. SOLUTION: The ultimate solution lies with BBS Developers, who must start considering automated users when developing their products... Ultimately what we need is a (standard) way to turn on a script 'mode' which is geared to the idea that nobody is _watching_ at the other end. In this 'mode', menus, bulletins, fancy prompts/messages, etc., are only a waste of time which can confuse scripts/automators that must separate 'real' prompts and messages from the regular text. The automated 'mode' will display only the necessary text, and possibly even capture the results of any commands to a special file, then compress it and send the results at the end of the job (saving long- distance fees, and much online time, freeing up the board for more users). However, since this is likely to be a while coming, for time being, if using customized Sysop-configured prompts is important to manual users, the Sysop can set up a PCBoard 'Language' which uses the standard PCBoard prompts and messages. For example, a menu such as this can easily be displayed as the opening question on PCBoard, with very little work on the Sysop's part: Languages Available: 1 - 'Creative' prompts for manual users (default) 2 - Standard PCBoard Prompts for scripts Enter Language # to use (Enter)=no change? You, as an automated user, can then give language number '2' to The Liberator in your BBS Configuration, and it will be able to turn on the standard prompts (which is what The Liberator 'watches' for out of the box). This will save you much setup time and probably many headaches when trying to get ANY script or automator working on a non- standard PCBoard. Manual users can select the 'usual' (unusual) Sysop-configured prompts, by simply hitting , and be none the worse for it. I think BBS automation (esp. for PCBoard) is becoming popular enough for automated users to start _requesting_ (not demanding) some consideration on the BBS's. Please suggest this solution to your Sysop, if you are setting up for a non-standard PCBoard BBS. It makes more sense for one person to spend an hour accomodating his users, than for hundreds of people to spend countless hours trying to get all the proper prompts and messages 'plugged in' to a Liberator configuration, or into their own scripts. Aside from the time factor, some of the messages The Liberator and other scripts watch for are fairly obscure, and you may have a hard time getting the proper format of the message... until it's too late and the session fails one night while you are sleeping. If the standard prompts are being used, you can rest easy... as Liberation was intended. 07-27-90 Version 2.32 Beta 3. > Another attempt at fixing the problem in the Qmail v4 door. The program was hanging at the prompt, seemingly for everyone except myself. I cannot duplicate this problem no matter what I try. I Beta 2 I introduced a delay... in this beta I have removed the delay and introduced a timeout ('tinkering' in the true sense of the word). Now, if the prompt is not found in 5 seconds, when starting a Qmail session, a CR is sent in an attempt to get The Liberator to LOOK at what is staring it in the face... It's not a perfect solution, but I hope at least it will work. Still hoping to figure out the cause, and figure out why it cannot 'see' this prompt (on everyone's system other than mine...) when it does actually appear. *NOTE*: If it _still_ doesn't work for you, or even if the program has to send a CR before 'seeing' the prompt, please let me know ASAP. ALSO, this is _very_ important, please post the clip from your Usage Log from the session that failed, and if you have time, post your Configuration File in a private message. Without this information I cannot even hazard to guess a solution to this problem. > Most logon prompts are now 'freed up' (not tracked anymore) after they are encountered. For example, as soon as your name is entered, the 'Name' prompt will not be tracked further. This takes away some of the safeguarding, but was quite necessary. Many words show up in the opening bulletins, and if The Liberator is still tracking these prompts at that time, it will re-send the response, which will then be processed at the next prompt (whatever it happens to be). An example of this was seen on CRS the other day, when the word "password" showed up in the opening bulletins about 3 times. The Liberator was re- sending your password and a CR each time, resulting in (at least) a few extra CR's, or (at worst.. depending you your password) sending erroneous commands to PCBoard. If you had logon problems on CRS a couple of days ago, this was the reason. Now fixed. > Found the 'Bad Protocol Letter' problem, and it was due to a default prompt change I made in Beta 2. I changed the 'Enter Protocol' prompt (CFG screen 2) to simply the word "Protocol" in the hopes of getting it to work on a variety of systems... but the word "protocol" shows up just before a non-batch transfer starts, and unfortunatly The Liberator was interpreting this as the protocol menu and aborting the transfer. TO FIX THIS PROBLEM, you must either enter the 'old' Enter Protocol prompt on screen 2, which is "(N)=abort?", or if you prefer, simply re-create the Configuration from scratch, using the Beta 3 prompt defaults. > Beta 2 was not passing filenames to Telix properly in non-batch uploads, resulting in the Telix dialog box appearing, prompting for a filename. Now fixed. > Periods are no longer automatically appended to filenames without extensions, on File Lists. If you entered the filename "TEST" on a Download List, The Liberator would append a "." and send the request for "TEST.". This was to prevent the board from applying its default extension (usually .ZIP), but I feel it will be more useful to actually LET the default be applied. This means you needn't enter the .ZIP extension on your File Lists, if your BBS assumes .ZIP as the default extension. But it also means that if you actually WANT the file "TEST" (not TEST.ZIP) that you must append a period yourself on the list. This is the case for manual transfers as well though, so should be no surprise to anyone. 07-22-90 Version 2.32 Beta 2. > Added debugging messages in order to fix the problem in the Qmail v4 door. See Beta 3. > Various default prompt changes. 07-19-90 Version 2.32 Beta 1. > Handles a problem when using multiple Configurations for different Qmail SET commands. In Beta 0, the second SET command would not be entered, and the program would hang at the 'Qmail Command?' prompt. This was working fine before releasing the beta, but I made a change to the PROMPTS command shortly before the release, and something went afoul. Multiple SETs should work fine with this release. > Fixed a problem when transferring files in batch mode. On secondary batches, the first filename was entered twice. Fixed. > The default format of some prompts was changed, in order to support PCBoard 14.5 better. Most prompts should work on PCBoard 14.2 OR 14.5, which will hopefully get more people up and running without playing with prompts. The default prompts all work fine on CRS, or any board where the default PCBoard prompts are being used, or are available through a 'Language #' as on CRS's language 3 - Default PCB Prompts. > If no capture file was defined, the program attempted to open a capture file using the name of your usual capture directory (e.g. if your default capture was C:\TEMP\TELIX.CAP it would try to open C:\TELIX\). This has also been fixed. > If you had another problem, and it no longer exists... it was also fixed. Sorry, but a couple of other minor things were fixed and not taken down. 07-16-90 Version 2.32 Beta 0. > See NEW-FEAT.DOC for information.