DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 By Daniel Traczynski July 13, 1996. Copyright (C) 1995, 1996 Dan Traczynski. All rights reserved. ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º Table of Contents º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 1 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ 1..Table of Contents 2..Introduction 3..Installation & Requirements 4..General Program Usage 5..Creating Custom Bulletin Styles 6..Support 7..Registration 8..Credits/Acknowledgments 9..Distribution and Disclaimer 10..History 11..Troubleshooting ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º Introduction º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 2 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The DCT Bulletin Generator is a powerful program which has the ability to create AVATAR, ANSI, and ASCII bulletins to display to your users upon logging into your BBS. The generator allows complete customization over every aspect of its output and contains a customization tool which can be used to design your own bulletin styles. You could also use one of the various sample designs included with this package. One of the better features includes the built-in editor designed much like TheDraw (tm) that allows colour changing within the bulletin, among other things. Of course, if you don't like the internal editor, you may use an external editor of your choice. ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º Installation & Requirements º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 3 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ If you are upgrading from v1.12, simply run DCTNEWS.EXE and the files will be converted to the new format. If you are upgrading from v1.10, you must first obtain a copy of DCTNews v1.12 and upgrade to that version. Be sure to re-compile the bulletins into NEWS.ANS/ASC/AVT for the changes in this version to take effect. The program has been tested with RemoteAccess, SuperBBS, Concord, and Renegade, but should work with any type of software. It should also work with other BBS packages as the control code to have the BBS wait for the user to press a key is configurable. To install the program, run DCTNEWS.EXE, and you will be brought into the setup menu. Simply configure all of the options to how you would like DCTNews to be set up and hit [ESC] to save your changes. The option to disable aborting was added in to force users to read the bulletins. It only disables aborting for the newest bulletin by adding the ^B character to the beginning of the file, which is the character that many BBS packages use to disable aborting with the key. I would recommend that you allow your users to be able to abort reading the bulletins, unless you write new bulletins very frequently. This option may not work on all BBS programs. If you would like to disable the creation of certain files, such as the AVATAR file, simply change the filename field so that it is empty. A possibility is to name the output files ONCEONLY.A??, and the bulletin will only be shown once to each user until it is updated again. Please keep in mind that this only works on RemoteAccess boards. If you would like to use an external editor, its file name must be entered in the "external editor" field. When entering a bulletin, you will be prompted for a subject, and the editor will then load. If there is an error loading the editor, please refer to the troubleshooting section to fix the problem. Leave this configuration field blank to use the internal editor (preferred method). If the external editor is used, any lines after line 22 will be ignored, and each line will be trimmed to 76 characters if it is longer than that. ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º General Program Usage º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 4 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Type DCTNEWS to start the program, and make sure that the configuration file is in the current directory. To add a new bulletin, press 1. Enter the subject that it is about, and you will then have 22 lines for your bulletin. Pressing will bring up a summary of the available commands, so there is really no need to list them here. If you wish to edit a previously entered bulletin or delete one from the news file, press 2. To preview the bulletin style, press 3 when in the main menu. If you would like to shell to DOS quickly to do something, hit Alt-D from either the main menu or the bulletin editing screen. Once you have finished using the program, hit 6 or to quit. If the file DCTNEWS.HDR exists in the DCTNews directory, it will be added to the beginning of the news file that is created. This allows you to design some sort of BBS logo or such and it will be displayed at the top of the bulletin. You could even turn off the information bar that is created at the top of the bulletin and replace it with your own design using the header file. DCTNEWS.HDR can be created from within any ANSI editor; just make sure not to include any cursor relocation codes (ESC[##;##H or ESC[##;##f). The ANSI codes will be stripped out when adding the header to the ASCII bulletin. ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º Creating Custom Bulletin Styles º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 5 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ To design a bulletin style, simply run EDITDTN.EXE. The style editor is much like the bulletin editor within DCTNews, so there should be no problems using it. The following imbedded codes may be used when designing a style, which will be converted into new strings. |V Displays the version of the Bulletin Generator. |B Displays the BBS name. It is always 24 characters long. |L This expands to show the subject of the bulletin. The subject text is left-justified, and it is always the length specified as the maximum length. |R Same as above, except that the subject text is right-justified. |S Also expands to the subject, but does not include the extra spacebar padding that make the above functions always the same length. |D This is converted to the date of the bulletin. It is always of a fixed length, depending on what the date format is configured as. |Fnn Moves the cursor forward "nn" spaces. !x Displays the character "x" as long as the length of the subject; so if the subject were ten characters long, it would be expanded to 10 x's. @x This shows the character "x" as long as the maximum subject length minus the actual length of the subject. Therefore, if the maximum subject length was 62 characters, and the subject was 30 characters long, "x" would be displayed 42 times. For examples of the above information, please run EDITDTN on the various sample styles that came with this program. The sample styles are kept in the DTNFILES.ZIP archive. When configuring the date format, the following strings will be converted to the appropriate day, month, year, etc. Mmm Month (Aug) MM Month (08) DD Day (31) Ddd Day (Wed) YY Year (96) YYYY Year (1996) Here are a few examples to help you out (the date is always of a fixed length). MmmDD-YY Aug31-96 DD-MM-YY 31-08-96 Ddd, Mmm DD Wed, Aug 31 Mmm DD, YYYY Aug 31, 1996 The list goes on... ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º Support º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 6 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The latest version of DCTNews can always be FREQed from 1:153/757 using the magic name "DCTBG". See OTHER.DCT for a more complete list of distribution sites. I can be contacted in three ways: E-Mail : dan.traczynski@als.dudd.uniserve.com NetMail : Dan Traczynski at 1:153/757. FidoNet : Write to me in the RA_Util echo. ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º Registration º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 7 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The program is freeware, however, it will support an "enhanced" mode. This basically means that if you send me a "donation" for my work in making this program, I will send you a code that will enable the enhanced mode. Registration is not required, though, and there are no unregistered delays, beeps, or messages telling you to pay. You simply get a few bonus features by supporting the software. The following bonus features will only work in the enhanced mode. -Forcing users to read the bulletin. -Turning off the "Today's date is..." option. -The maximum subject length and date format may be changed. -The BBS name is displayed at the top of NEWS.ANS/ASC instead of "[FREEWARE]". -The colour of the title bar at the top of NEWS.ANS/ASC can be changed or the bar can be removed altogether. -Shell to DOS is enabled. -The header file may be used. -Any other option denoted with a "{+}". -And any more new features that I add in the next version. ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º Credits/Acknowledgments º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 8 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ -Alan Ianson of Al's Place BBS (604-251-1817) for his support of my programs and for hatching them into RADist. -Terry Mah of Neural Meltdown BBS (604-255-5198) for all of his testing. -Kevin Boldt of Expressions BBS, because I got the sample style "Zebra" from him. Unfortunately, his BBS was shut down. :( ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º Distribution & Disclaimer º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 9 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ DCTNews is copyright (C) 1995, 1996 by Daniel Traczynski. All rights reserved. I encourage you to distribute it, but DO NOT change any of the files within the original archive. No fees are to be charged to people who wish to obtain a copy of this program, except for general access fees to the system. The archive should also be named DCTBG120.ZIP, preferably kept in its ZIP format. The author, Daniel Traczynski, will take no responsibility to anything that this program may or may not do to your system. Although the program has been tested thoroughly, no guarantee can be given that it will do what it was made to do. Nevertheless, if anything should happen, the user is totally responsible, and the author will be under no obligations whatsoever. By using this program you agree to this disclaimer. ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º History º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 10 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The DCTNews project began in early February of 1995. The first public release was on December 16, 1995. + Added a new feature/Something was improved. - Removed something. * General comment. > Bug fix. Version 1.20 -=- July 13, 1996. * I have completely re-written this version from all previous ones. This means that there may be new bugs that never existed before, but it also means that the program is a lot FASTER (and smaller in size). It also explains the long delay from the last release. :) - The BigFont is not supported in this version. I will add it back in a future version. + The configuration file may now be modified from within DCTNews instead of having to worry about messy text configuration files. + Bulletins can now be up to 22 lines instead of 19, for those of you who like to write and write and write and write ... :) + Added word wrap to the internal editor. + If you want to beep the user when displaying the bulletin, you can now press Ctrl-G in the internal editor. It's not documented anywhere except here though as users aren't going to appreciate this new option. + Added AVATAR support. + Added Wacky!, Random, and Fading colour schemes. + You may now edit/delete bulletins from within the program. + Added an optional reading delay for each bulletin. + The date format may now be configured. + Removed the blue box that is appended to the end of the bulletin when DCTNews is registered. + Added more imbedded codes that may be used within bulletin styles. + The "Today's date" string may now be placed above or below the header or not displayed at all. + Added linedraw mode to the internal editor. + Added the easy-to-use bulletin style editor. + The header file is now a plain ANSI file and no longer uses the archaic `XX colour codes in v1.12. Version 1.12 -=- January 13, 1996. > Fixed the runtime errors that were resulting when there was no BBS name, Sysop name, or signature defined in DCTNEWS.CFG. > DCTNews will now allow you to disable the signature that's appended at the end of each bulletin. This was actually an option in v1.10, but the above bug wouldn't allow it to be turned off. + The colour of the title bar at the top of NEWS.ANS/ASC may be now be changed or the bar can be removed altogether. > Fixed the runtime error you would get if DCTNEWS.CFG was a 0 byte file (why would this ever happen anyway?). + Added an option to have the BBS prompt the user to press Enter after each bulletin is displayed. Version 1.10 -=- December 16, 1995. * First public release. > Fixed a bug where if a line was 80 characters long, the cursor would move back to the beginning of the line on some terminal programs instead of advancing to the next one. * Moved the "Press Enter" prompt string into DCTNEWS.STL, as it made more sense to have it there. + Re-wrote the main menu, so that it looks really cool and has a lightbar selector as well as hotkeys. + Completely re-wrote the internal editor, so that the Home, End, Ins, Del, etc. keys may also be used. Also added a "BigFont", though it hasn't been fully implemented yet. + The maximum subject length can be changed, to allow more diversity in the bulletin styles. + Colour codes can now be used in all parts of the bulletin except the subject. + Colour codes have been completely re-written, so that they are easier to understand, and so that the background colour can be changed too. + The compiled ANSI file is a little smaller now, as I've optimised the ANSI routines so that they no longer add repetetive colour changing commands. + Shell to DOS added. + Added ASCII support (why?). + Improved the installation process a bit. Anything before v1.10 is ancient history. ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ º Troubleshooting º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ Part 11 ³ ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ If you choose to use the external editor, you may get an error if it is not set up properly. This section was added so that fixing it is easy and fast. Error 1 þ Invalid function number. - A call was made to a non-existent DOS function. Error 2 þ File not found - Make sure that you have specified a .EXE or .COM extension in the configuration. Error 3 þ Path not found - This error will occur if an invalid path has been specified. Error 5 þ Access denied - There is a network sharing violation or no file name is specified. Error 6 þ Invalid handle - This error occurs if an invalid file handle is passed to a DOS system call. Error 8 þ Not enough memory - There is not enough memory available to execute the external editor. Remove some TSRs that are not required or use the internal editor. ÖÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ·ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ º End of DCTNEWS.TXT º³ DCT Bulletin Generator v1.20 ³³ - EOF - ³ ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;