Category : BBS Programs+Doors
Archive   : AED244A.ZIP
Filename : AEDMRG.DOC

ANSIED Documentation
| Version 2.44a
by Tom Collins
| 02-16-91

| Changes from the ANSIED v2.44 DOCs are marked with a vertical bar in
| the leftmost column.

What
----

ANSIED is a merge for RBBS-PC that adds a full-screen editor for
entering messages. The editor supports a wide range of commands, is
compact in size, and installs easily in to RBBS. All that you need is
| this file, the RBBS-PC source code (v17.3B recommended), Ken Goosens'
BLED utility, and a QuickBASIC compiler (v3.0 or v4.5).

What's in this ZIP
------------------

AEDMRG.DOC - What you're reading now.

AED244.BAS - Standalone version of ANSIED.BAS. Can be loaded into
the QuickBASIC v4.5 environment and run. I use this
version to figure out bugs.

ANSIED.HLP - Editor help file. Put this in the directory that all
of your other RBBS help files are, and ANSIED will
display this for it's internal help command.

ANSIED.BAS - The full-screen editor program source.

ANSIED-3.BAS - The full-screen editor program source, compilable with
QuickBASIC v3.0.

FINDWORD.* - Find word left/right subroutine.

MOVCSTR.* - Move cursor string subroutine.

ANSIED.QLB - Quick library for AED244.BAS

UPGRADE4.BAT - RBBS recompile batch file. Uses QB v4.5.

UPGRADE3.BAT - RBBS recompile batch file. Uses QB v3.0.

*.MRG - Merges to the RBBS-PC source code for the editor.

VARMOD.* - C program to create RBBS-VAR.MOD (used by ANSIED.BAS)
from RBBS-VAR.BAS. Used in the UPGRADEx.BAT batch
files.

| What's new in v2.44a
| --------------------

| o When deleting a block, VT-100ish arrow keys now work. No, really
| this time...

| o Under certain circumstances, ANSIED would R)eflow or J)ustify a
| paragraph of text out of existance, and it couldn't be recovered.
| Fixed.

| o The UPGRADE3 batch file was misssing a goto.

What's new in v2.44
-------------------

o When deleting a block, VT-100ish arrow keys now work.

o When typing into existing text, lines are wrapped more
intelligently.

o Highlighted subjects won't crash the editor.

o Local cursor keys never bring up RBBS functions now (i.e. Repeated
PgUp's sometimes caused the local user's profile to come up).

o Saving messages containing no text no longer saves 99 blank lines.

o The RBBS help entension is used for the help file.

o Importing a message can now be done from ANSIED.

o You can change the message subject from within ANSIED.

o Ctrl-T now deletes word right.

o Code completely rewritten, with assembly-language routines used in
a few places.

With all of these changes, ANSIED v2.44 is still about 1K smaller in
EXE size than v2.43. Amazing, isn't it?

About Merges
------------

When modifications or fixes are made to the main RBBS program, rather
than releasing an entire new set of source code, changes are released
as "merges" - files that contain the DIFFERENCE between the original
RBBS version and the new RBBS version. Ken Goosens' BLED program is
used to merge the new changes into the old version. This new "merged"
RBBS-PC is then recompiled. The ANSIED merges follow in this
tradition.

Included in this archive are:

R???EDIT.MRG
R???ETOG.MRG

What's the difference? Both merges include ANSIED in the final
RBBS-PC, but the EDIT merge prompts the user for each message as to
whether to use ANSIED ("Use the Screen Editor (Y,[N])?") while the
ETOG merges install ANSIED as a T)oggle in RBBS' utilities section.

Now, why would you NOT want to use the ETOG merges? Well, these
merges use a previously unused bit field in the RBBS users record to
record whether the fullscreen editor is turned on or not for a given
user. In theory, future RBBS versions could use this bit for
something else. So, be forewarned... if you use the ETOG merges, they
*may* not work with future RBBS versions.

| Merging ANSIED into RBBS v17.3B
-------------------------------

| To merge ANSIED into RBBS v17.3B, using QuickBASIC v4.5, follow these
steps:

a) Figure out which set of merges you want to use (ETOG or EDIT).

b) Put all of the R*.BAS files in a work directory, along with the
.OBJ version of all of the assembler routines. The R*.BAS files
usually come from a file called RBBS-BAS.ZIP. The .OBJs are
usually in RBBS-ASM.ZIP. Also make sure that ANSIED.BAS and the
*.OBJ files from this ZIP (MOVCSTR.OBJ and FINDWORD.OBJ) are in
this directory. Also, make sure that VARMOD.EXE is in this
directory.

c) Edit UPGRADE4.BAT to reflect your paths. UPGRADE4 assumes the
following paths:

BC.EXE (QuickBASIC v4.5 compiler) - C:\QB45
BLED.EXE (Goosen's merge program) - C:\QB45
BCOM45.LIB (QuickBASIC library) - C:\QB45\LIB
LINK.EXE (Microsoft linker) - In the PATH
R*.BAS (RBBS .BAS files) - Current Directory
*.OBJ (RBBS and ANSIED .OBJ files) - Current Directory
ANSIED.BAS (Screen editor source) - Current Directory
VARMOD.EXE (RBBS-VAR.BAS converter) - Current Directory

d) Run UPGRADE4 as follows:

upgrade4 edit y

-or-

upgrade4 etog y

Note:

The generic form of the UPGRADE4 command line is:

upgrade4 xxxx
^ ^
| |
| +-- compile after merging?
|
+-- merges name ... R-PCxxxx.MRG or RSB2xxxx.MRG
will be merged. (4 chars)

So, UPGRADE4 can be used for RBBS version/fix upgrades, as well as
for merging ANSIED. Here's a command line for RBBS v17.3 -> v17.3A:

upgrade4 173a y

To just compile RBBS, without merging anything, specify a merge
name that doesn't exist. Like this:

upgrade4 junk y

e) If all goes correctly, you should have a new RBBS-PC.EXE in your
current directory. Copy this version on top of your old version,
(You backed it up first, right?) and copy ANSIED.HLP to your RBBS
help directory.

You should be up and running with ANSIED!

The "UGLY" Merges
-----------------

Available in another ZIP file are my so-called "UGLY" merges, which
change the way that RBBS looks, and fix some problems with the PUI
code. If you'd like to use the "UGLY" merges with ANSIED, extract the
R???UGLY.MRG files into the work directory (as above), and run
UPGRADE4 like this:

upgrade4 ugly edit y

- or -

upgrade4 ugly etog y

Note that if you use the EDIT or ETOG merges, the name has to be the
LAST one on the UPGRADE4 command line.

Guarantees
----------

ANSIED is absolutely guaranteed to work exactly as you expect it to
all of the time. It has no bugs and it's completely compatible with
all existing computers and their related software. If ANSIED does not
in any way meet your expectations of it, simply return it with a
proof-of-purchase seal and we'll refund double your money. Thank you
for purchasing ANSIED!

Bugs
----

If you find any bugs, keep them to yourself!

Getting the Latest Version
--------------------------

ANSIED is not really a "product," so no effort is being undertaken to
distribute it widely. In general, the latest version is available to
any FidoNet sysop who cares to request it. To File request ANSIED,
send a file request to the MSFA BBS, Catonsville, MD, FidoNet node
1:261/1047, and request the magic name "ANSIED" (without the quotes).
If you're not a FidoNet sysop, and would like to obtain the latest
version, try the MSFA BBS (1-301-536-1935), under the P)ersonal
downloads.

Reaching the Author
-------------------

To reach the author, enter a message in the FidoNet RBBS-PC echomail
conference, or leave a message on the MSFA BBS.

New RBBS Versions
-----------------

When a new RBBS version is released, there's an excellent chance that
ANSIED can be recompiled with the new RBBS version. Start off by
merging the "EDIT" merges, and if that works, try the "ETOG" merges.

Other Compilers
---------------

ANSIED can be used with QuickBASIC v3.0, but you'll have to use
ANSIED-3.BAS. The easiest way to use ANSIED-3.BAS is to use the
UPGRADE3 batch file, which works just like UPGRADE4.BAT.

You can't use ANSIED with QuickBASIC v2.01 or BASCOM v1.00, because it
uses some of the v3.0+ statements. ANSIED should be compilable with
some of the newer MicroSoft BASIC compilers, though I won't swear to
it.

| Other Merges
| ------------

| ANSIED may or may not work in conjunction with other merges to
| RBBS-PC. To determine if ANSIED's merges interfere with other .MRG
| files, examine similar files with a text editor. If two similar merge
| files (files that affect the same RBBS-PC module) contain the same
| line numbers, then the merges are incompatible, and you'll have to
| look at the merges and merge the merges together, before merging the
| result into RBBS (!).

-- Tom Collins, ANSIED author