BlueQWK 1.52 - BLUEQ152.ZIP - 12-August-1994
Copyright (C) 1992-94 Geoffrey Sy, All Rights Reserved

Residence: Geoffrey Sy
1322-14 Blevins Place
Toronto ON M5A 3M5
Canada

FidoNet: 1:250/814, 1:250/710

InterNet: [email protected]
[email protected]

Support BBS: CAP/CANADA (416) 287-0935 v32b/vFC
(416) 287-0234 v32b
Conference: CL_SimpleSoln #4

CAP/U.S.A. (708) 854-0255 v32b/vFC
Conference: CL_SimpleSoln

Latest versions of most QWK utilities, including BlueQWK, can
be found on The Lunatic Fringe BBS 214-235-5288 (1:124/2113).


BlueQWK converts BlueWave mail packets to a format readable
by QWK mail readers. It is designed to interface seamlessly
with most DOS-based QWK off-line mail readers.

INSTALLATION for 1stReader (as well as other OLMRs):

1. Copy BLUEQWK.EXE into your 1stReader directory. If
using 1stReader v1.10, unZIP 1ST11.RDR into your
1stReader directory. If using 1stReader v2.0 unZIP
1ST20.RDR into your 1stReader directory.

OPERATION:

1. This version of BlueQWK needs more memory than older
versions, so you might need to enable 1stReader's
SuperShell to free up some memory before executing
BlueQWK.

2. When you start 1stReader, append the switch /QWK:* to
the 1stReader command line. This switch can also go
into your SWITCHES.1ST file.

BlueQWK automatically copies BlueWave *.INF files into same
directory as itself. This allows for conversion of replies
without the need for a BlueWave packet to be present.

The reply packet for uploading to the BlueWave door still
have the .REP extension. 1st Reader doesn't have any hooks
to take care of this. The 1st Reader /REP: NEW switch won't
work in this case unless you want all your reply packets to
have the .NEW extension. This isn't a problem because the
replies packet is automatically renamed to .NEW when
the Bluewave door received it.

There is an internal hook that 1stReader provide for BW-QWK
conversion. It does not work when writing replies without
the presence of a mail packet. This hook causes DOS to issue
'Bad command or file name' when reading Bluewave packets. If
this DOS error annoys you, download DLXTEXT.EXE or QMTEXT.EXE
from Sparky to edit your 1STTEXT file. Place the word REM in
front of records #297, 298, and 299 in 1STTEXT will fix this.

That's all there's to it. You can now read BlueWave mail
packets with your QWK reader.


INSTALLATION for other readers:

1. Put BLUEQWK.EXE into your reader directory or
anywhere on your DOS PATH.

2. Replace the compression/decompression utilities with
batch files. Then do some simple batch programming.

Included in this package are several files with the
.RDR extension. These are .ZIP files containing
sample .CFG and .BAT files for use with other mail
readers. They also contain configuration files for
the mail reader, so becareful not to overwrite your
mail reader's configuration files. These files are:

DLX12.RDR - For use with Sparkware's Deluxe v1.2x
and probably older versions as well.
OLX22.RDR - For use with OLX v2.2. Will probably
work with SLMR and earlier OLX versions
OLX30.RDR - For use with OLX v3.1.52. May work with
prior release of OLX v3.xx

Unzip the appropriate .RDR into the same directory as
BLUEQWK.EXE. Then configure your reader to call the
appropriate PACKER/UNPACKER .BATch file. Please refer
to the README.TXT file inside the .RDR files for more
information.

3. You may need to change the extension of the BW mail
packets to *.QWK inorder for your mail reader to find
the mail packets.

If the above steps don't work for your OLMR, these
information may help:

The basic command line to run BlueQWK follows:

BLUEQWK BBS_ID conversion_method

- BBS_ID can be anything that contains the name of
the QWK/REP packet. This may include the mail
packet name as passed by your mail reader to the
compression/decompression utilities.

- conversion_method has 3 options:

1. BW-QWK converts BlueWave mail packet to QWK for
reading with your QWK reader.
2. BW-REP converts BlueWave replies to .REP for
re-editing them with your QWK reader.
3. REP-BW converts .REP to BlueWave for uploading
to the BlueWave door

The BLUEQWK.CFG needs the following info:

Line 1: Directory of QWK work directory. This is
where your mail reader decompress the mail
packet to. Most readers will change to this
directory before opening the mail packet,
so a ".\" (without the quotes) will work in
most cases.

Line 2: Directory of REP work directory. This is
where BlueQWK expects to find the reply
file created by your mail reader. BlueQWK
uses this directory to store the converted
Bluewave replies. Most readers don't use a
separate directory for this purpose. In
such case, create a work directory and copy
the reply file into it. Please refer to
OLX22.RDR for the solution to this problem.

Line 3: Optional switches for BlueQWK. Currently
these switches are supported:

/Quiet - Tells BlueQWK not to list the
header of messages it processed.
/NoNDX - Tells BlueQWK not to create the
QWK index (*.NDX) files.
/1stBM - Fix a problem with 1stReader v2's
"new" book-mark scheme. If BlueQWK
finds BOOKMARK.DAT in the QWK work
directory, it will not attempt to
convert the BW mail packet.

Damned it, Sparky! What's the deal with
this lousy book-mark that require mail
packets to be re-compressed after each
session?! It's bad enough that 1stReader
doesn't have a "Go immediately to DOS"
function, now it needs to re-compress the
mail packet to save the book mark.


REVISION HISTORY:

12-Aug-1994 - v1.52 - Updated to comply with the official
Bluewave specification.

- Included sample configuration files for
other mail readers.

- Added options /Quiet, /NoNDX, /1stBM

28-Feb-1994 - v1.51 - Updated contact information.

10-Nov-1993 - v1.50 - Updated for compatibility with other
versions of the Bluewave door. Previous
versions of BlueQWK only worked with
Remote Access and QuickBBS versions of
the Bluewave door.

- Beginning with this version, BlueQWK is
now Shareware. Please register if you
it regularly.

19-Jul-1993 - v1.31 - Minor cosmetic to the R2B module. If
you can read fast enough, you'll see
the messages being converted.

25-Jun-1993 - v1.30 - I've moved recently. Please note the
new address.
- More compatible with the BlueWave door.
- Added the 3rd conversion module BW-REP.
- Combined all 3 conversion modules into
a single .EXE.
- Command line options changed.

25-Feb-1993 - v1.20 - Added some speed
- Added some junk into the .UPI file to
cure some BlueWave door rejecting good
replies as duplicates.
? I still don't have a clue what some of
the junk in the .UPI file is. So don't
expect this to be 100% compatible with
all BlueWave doors. Anyone been able
to get the BlueWave structure from the
author?

10-Feb-1993 - v1.10 - Speeded up by at least 2 times
- R2B converts from .REP to BlueWave

15-Nov-1992 - v1.00 - Initial Release


REGISTRATION:

If you have questions, bugs, comments or suggestions, please
contact me. I may be reached on the 1stReader, Qmail, OffLine
conferences on Intelec (tm), and ILink (tm), the Offline and
other conferences on FidoNet(tm). I can also be reach on my
support BBSes or by mail to the above address. Registered
users of my other Shareware packages may contact me using the
voice number in the registration document.

Since BlueQWK is user supported software, I don't expect you
to register if you don't like it or if it doesn't meet your
needs. Just stop using it after a reasonable trial period.
BlueQWK is not crippled in any way, but some minor annoyance
features may be active in unregistered mode.

BlueQWK is an on-going project, it will be enhanced and
updated as long as I can financially afford to do so. If you
like the program and use it regularly, please register it.
The registration cost is a one-time fee of U$5.00. With the
registration you'll receive unlimited voice support and
upgrades. Your registration encourages further development,
enhancement and my continued support of the product. Please
send your registration in the form of a Money Order, Personal
cheque, or Cashier's cheque to the above address.


STANDARD DISCLAIMER:

This program is provided on an "AS IS" basis. No warranty of
any kind is expressed or implied. I take no responsibility
for any damage caused directly or indirectly from the use or
the inability to use this program. Only features in the
current .EXE, including bugs, critters and anything else that
might be pressent, are available to the users. Users are not
to expect future upgrades or additional features. The program
will not change to suit the needs of the users if such needs
change in the future. By using this program the user
automatically accepts these terms and conditions.


COPYRIGHTS:

Products mentioned in this documentation are Copyrighted or
Trademarks of their respective holders:

1stReader, Deluxe: Mark "Sparky" Herring of Sparkware.
The original creator of the popular
QWK mail standard.

BlueWave: George Hatchew of Cutting Edge
Computing. The original creator of
the BlueWave format.

OLX: Mustang Software Inc.