Category : BBS Programs+Doors
Archive   : NEWRANK.ZIP
Filename : READ.ME

EXCERPTS FROM THE "GLOBAL WAR STRATEGY HINTS & PRODUCT SUPPORT" ECHO
WWIVnet SUB TYPE 2600, HOSTED BY WWIVnet NODE 2600
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Joel Bergen #1 @2600
Tue Oct 24 18:57:32 1989
->Michael Brunk #149 @2600
->Tue Oct 24 12:57:30 1989
->Hmmm... how about adding in the ability to generate an ASCII (or ANSI)
->bulletin that could be used OUTSIDE of the game... so that players could
->see the rankings without entering the game... or it could be used as a new
->bulletin for a REALLY serious GW-running board... whatcha think Joel?

This would be very easy to do. The ranks are stored in a file called
WINNERS.WAR, which is a simple ASCII file that has each player's name and
number of games won on seperate lines. It would be pretty easy to write a
program to read this file and generate any kind of bulletin or report you
wanted. Presumably this program would run during your nightly maintenance
(if you have one). The problem is there'd have to be different versions
of it for every kind of BBS out there. I could write one for WWIV, but
I wouldn't want to tackle the rest of them.
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Scott Lockwood #1 @5906
Wed Oct 25 05:34:27 1989
MESSAGE REGARDING: Bulletin
WHICH WAS WRITTEN BY: Joel Bergen #1 @2600

-*-Originating from The Spokane Hints. Our Number is: 509-244-2872-*-

for that would be simple for WWIV, all a person would have to do is create a
batch file that copies the current screen to the gfiles. Once it is in there
the system does the work. Matter of fact, I am going to do that right now!
THanks for the idea. Also, on the ASCII screen, it would also be nice, (but
tough) for it to be used by people that can not display ANSI. It would make it
possible to be played by other people!
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Joel Bergen #1 @2600
Thu Oct 26 17:21:57 1989
RE: Bulletin

Mike, your ANSI bulletin for winners would be super simple to do. I can
write one up for you, but can you give me an idea of what you'd like it to
look like?
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Michael Brunk #149 @2600
Fri Oct 27 07:24:26 1989
RE: ANSI Bulletin

Heck I'm totally flexible on that Joel... if you're gonna write it make it
something you think would be useful to EVERYONE! I'd mainly like to see
rankings but anything else you care for would be greatly appreciated!
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Joel Bergen #1 @2600
Sun Oct 29 22:27:33 1989
Here's a first cut at an external program to print up a rankings report. It
doesn't use any colors or anything, and the format is exactly the same as in
Global War. Take a look at it and let me know what you'd like changed, or
feel free to change it yourself if you have Turbo Pascal. It uses IO
redirection, so call it like this: MAKERANK > OUTFILE.TXT
Where OUTFILE is a file to send the output to, if desired. It will output to
the screen if you don't specify a file. Also, since the filename WINNERS.WAR
is hardcoded in there without a path, you'll have to run this program from
same subdirectory that WINNERS.WAR is in. I will compile this program and
make it available on ProVision for those of you without Turbo.
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NOTE:
This is a newer version of MAKERANK and will read your WAR.CFG file to
get your number of points to advance a rank value. It must be executed
from your global war directory. So, if you have a maintenance batch file
add something like this to it:

CD \GLOBLWAR
MAKERANK > C:\BBS\OUTFILE.TXT

Note, you can also append the rank to an existing text file like this;

MAKERANK >> EXISTING.TXT


- Joel