Category : BBS Programs+Doors
Archive   : TG25.ZIP
Filename : NEW25.DOC

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---/ Telegard Bulletin Board System -- Version 2.5 Standard \---
---( Copyright 1988,89,90 by Eric Oman, Martin Pollard, )---
---\ and Todd Bolitho - All Rights Reserved /---
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**> Changes In Telegard v2.5 <**


________________________

** REQUIRED CHANGES **
________________________

--- Telegard's default video mode is now to display all output through
BIOS routines, to provide compatibility with systems that are less
than 100% IBM compatible. If your system is a 100% compatible (or
a true IBM), go into System Configuration: System Flagged Functions
and toggle option "W" to OFF. This switches Telegard's display
mode to direct screen writes (the old method, which is MUCH faster
on 100% compatibles).


______________

NEW FEATURES
______________

--- The Telegard message system has been enhanced to support FidoNet
standard EchoMail and GroupMail conferences. This was accomplished
through enhancements to the Message Base Editor (BOARDS.DAT) and
the message system itself. Yes, that's right; FidoNet conferences
are accessed through the standard Telegard message system. This
means that you (and your users) don't have to learn a whole new way
of posting and reading messages in order to become part of FidoNet!
(As FidoNet standard messages aren't compatible with Telegard, a
translator program is needed to put FidoNet messages into
Telegard's message files, and vice versa. TGMAIL is one such
program, and it will be released very shortly.)

The enhancements to the Message Base Editor include:

--- Option 3, which used to allow modification of the message path
(unused in version 2.4), now selects the message base type:
Local, EchoMail, or GroupMail. When configuring for EchoMail
and GroupMail, the message path is once again required, but
this time, it's only used as a holding area for converting
messages.
--- Option 9, which configured the message base depth, is no
longer available (the storage area for the message base depth
-- which was unused, anyway -- is now used to store the
message base type).
--- Option C selects the colors used to display standard text,
quoted text, tear, and origin lines.
--- Option M toggles flags that affect how FidoNet messages are
stored and retrieved.
--- Option O defines an origin line for the base.
--- Bases can now be flagged as "real names only". This means
that Telegard will store the user's real name in the FROM/TO
fields, even if the system allows handles (which are frowned



upon in most FidoNet conferences). Note that this option is
not restricted to EchoMail and GroupMail bases; it can be used
for Local bases, as well.
--- Bases can also be flagged to remove ANSI and 8-bit ASCII
codes, as they are not allowed on almost all FidoNet
conferences (to maintain compatibility with non-IBM systems).
This option, like "real names only", can be used on all
three message base types.

Other Message Base Editor enhancements are detailed later, as well
as in the documentation for version 2.5. A companion archive,
FIDO25.ZIP, includes sample configurations and instructions for
getting your Telegard system up and running with FidoNet.

--- A new System Configuration section, "FidoNet Configuration",
defines the default settings used for creating new message bases in
the Message Base Editor, as well as the FidoNet address assigned to
your system (zone:net/node.point). The FidoNet address is shown in
several places throughout the system, including the "WELCOME TO..."
message during logon. (If the net number is set to 0, however, the
address is not displayed. This is because there is no such thing
as net 0 in FidoNet. New system initialization, and old system
conversion, sets the address to 0:0/0.0, as most Standard sites
aren't in FidoNet.)

--- Telegard now supports the use of a FOSSIL (Fido/Opus/SEAdog
Standard Interface Layer) communications driver. A FOSSIL driver
not only provides more compatibility with systems that are not 100%
IBM compatible, but it provides stability and reliability to
communications, particularly with high-speed modems.

To use a FOSSIL driver, get one (a good one is X00.SYS), install
it, and set option "B" in System Configuration: System Flagged
Functions to ON. From then on, Telegard will communicate through
the FOSSIL driver. (More information is in the 2.5 documentation.)

--- Enhancements to the message system:

>>> Telegard will automatically add a tear line and an origin line
to the end of messages posted in EchoMail and GroupMail bases.
These lines will look something like this:

--- Telegard v2.5 Standard
* Origin: Yet Another Fine Telegard System! (1:999/999.0)

This feature can be suppressed by disabling the "add tear &
origin lines" flag in the Message Base Editor. Note that
EchoMail messages REQUIRE tear/origin lines, but they are
OPTIONAL for GroupMail messages.
>>> When reading EchoMail messages, the date that the message was
originally written is displayed in the message header under
the name of the board. Note that this is done only if the
external mail processing utility writes the information
properly to the *.BRD file. (The reason that the original
date isn't used as the message date is because EchoMail and
GroupMail messages are, more often than not, received out of
date-order. This would really screw up NewScanning, as
Telegard uses the date as the high-message pointer.)
>>> Messages that have been placed into Telegard's message bases
(or extracted from the bases) by the mail processing utility



are marked as "scanned" so that they are not sent out again
(causing duplicates to appear in the message stream). This
flag can be toggled on and off via the "&" command when
reading messages (available only to users with Co-SysOp access
or higher).

--- Telegard now provides BIOS display output and CGA snow detection
through System Configuration: System Flagged Functions options "V"
and "W", respectively. (BIOS output is slower, but provides
compatibility with systems that aren't 100% IBM compatible; thus,
BIOS output is now the default video mode.);

--- Enhancements to the overlay file (BBS.OVR):

>>> BBS.OVR can now be loaded into expanded memory (EMS). This is
accomplished through System Configuration: System Flagged
Functions, option "X". If enabled, Telegard will place the
overlay file into EMS for lightning-fast access. If disabled
-- or if the overlay manager could not place the overlay into
EMS -- BBS.OVR is accessed from disk as usual. (NOTE: This
option will *NOT* take effect until the next time you start up
Telegard. Thus, if you toggle this option, you must exist the
BBS and restart it to make the change.)
>>> Telegard now takes advantage of Turbo Pascal v5.5's enhanced
overlay functions to speed up overlay access from disk. Thus,
those of you who don't have EMS can still gain some additional
speed.

--- MiniTerm has been removed from the overlay file. It is now
available as a separate executable file, MINITERM.EXE, in the
MTERM25.ZIP archive. This was done to gain space in the overlay
file (which is already too damn big!); thus, the added features in

version 2.5 actually take up LESS space than the version 2.4 files!
The "T" option is still available from the WFC menu; however, it is
now restricted to executing the TERM.BAT file. Thus, if you create
TERM.BAT to call MiniTerm, the system will act almost exactly the
same as it did before.

Note that MiniTerm still operates exactly as it did under Telegard.
It uses Telegard's system and modem configuration, and will use a
FOSSIL driver if available. Thus, MINITERM.EXE can ONLY be
executed from the main BBS directory, as it requires STATUS.DAT to
operate.

--- Message base packing can now be accomplished via the "-P" command
line option. Thus, to pack the message bases during an external
event, use the command "BBS -P", which will pack the bases and
return to DOS. This is GREAT for FidoNet systems, as you don't
need to screw around with Telegard's and the front-end's events in
order to pack the bases.

--- Support for countries other than the United States has been added
as far as user information goes (city/state, zip code, phone
number, etc.). When changing selected information, the user is
asked where he/she is from: The US, Canada, or other foreign
country. If the US or Canada is selected, information is formatted
accordingly; if not, the information can be entered free-form.

--- A new video display mode, AVATAR, is available. AVATAR stands for
"Advanced Video Attribute Terminal Assembler and Recreator", and



was invented by Wynn Wagner III (the author of Opus). It replaces
ANSI sequences with much more efficient 2- and 3-byte code
sequences, which results in a remarkable increase in video output
speed. Telegard supports the "Basic AVATAR" mode, as defined in
the FidoNet Standards Committee document #25 (FSC-0025.TXT).

To support AVATAR, option 16 of the Cmdkeys OP command has been
enhanced. Instead of toggling ANSI on and off, it now allows you
to select which video mode you want (TTY, ANSI, or AVATAR). Quite
a few popular communication programs (including Telix v3.12 and
Qmodem v4.1b) support AVATAR. You should modify the description of
command "1" in your Personal Data menu to reflect this command's
change of purpose.

Some communication programs -- most notably, Telix v3.12 -- do not
interpret AVATAR colors correctly. To accommodate this, a new
command -- Cmdkeys OP, option 25 -- is available, which will toggle
AVATAR color adjustment on and off. This command may be placed in
your Personal Data menu as command "6".

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since AVATAR doesn't support ANSI graphics, ANSI
displays don't work properly. Therefore, when Telegard is told to
display a file, *.MSG files are displayed instead of *.ANS files if
AVATAR is enabled. However, all is not lost; since *.MSG files can
have Telegard MCI colors embedded in them, users can still see some
colors. Also, an ANSI to AVATAR translator will be in the next
release, so AVATAR users will be able to view ANSIs!

--- The area listing commands (Cmdkeys MA and FA) now offer a choice of
listing modes. The question "Display condensed listing?" is asked;
pressing "Y" will display the old-style two-column list of
message/file bases. Pressing "N" will display a detailed, multi-
column list that gives more information about each base than the
old-style list.

Also, when the message bases are listed using the old-style method,
Local message bases have the base number displayed via MCI color #5
(default of yellow) as usual; EchoMail and GroupMail bases,
however, have the base number displayed as MCI color #0 (default of
white). This helps differentiate the base types.

--- When downloading a file, Telegard will now display the size of the
file in bytes, as well as the size in blocks (128-byte and 1K).

--- Two new door MCI codes have been introduced: @D, which returns the
current file base's download path (i.e. "C:\FILES\TELEGARD\"), and
@I, which returns the current file base's *.DIR filename and path
(i.e. "C:\BBS\GFILES\TELEGARD.DIR").


___________

BUG FIXES
___________


--- New user logon bugs:

>>> When new users are asked for their real first and last names,
they could enter "=" if they were using their real name as



their user name. However, THEY NEVER KNEW IT, because there
was NO message indicating that this could be done! A message
is now printed that indicates that it can be done.
>>> New users could select different user and real names, even if
the system does not allow handles. Fixed. Now, when the user
enters his user name, it is copied to the real name field,
which CANNOT be changed by the user (it can only be changed
via the User Editor).

--- Door format file bugs:

>>> Telegard was writing the value "999" in the minutes field of
the DORINFO1.DEF file (Cmdkeys DD), NO MATTER NOW MUCH TIME
THE USER HAD LEFT! Fixed... with one exception:
>>> If the user had over 999 minutes left, some doors
(particularly SMLNET, a FidoNet interface door) would not
calculate the proper amount of time! This was usually caused
by the doors themselves (an overflow error when the number of
seconds left passes 65535). In an attempt to alleviate this
problem, Telegard will now write "999" in the minutes field
ONLY if the amount of time is greater than or equal to 999
minutes. (As this works out to 16 hours and 39 minutes, users
should have PLENTY of time.)
>>> In DORINFO1.DEF, the flag that indicated if a user had ANSI
was being reversed, so that non-ANSI users were getting ANSI
displays and vice versa! Fixed.
>>> Hopefully, any remaining problems with the other door format
files are solved. Let us know if there are still problems
with any of these formats.

--- Command line option bugs:

>>> Command line options were being ignored if they were not
specified in lower case. Fixed; options can now be specified
using any combination of upper and lower case characters.
>>> "-K" (local I/O only) would not let the SysOp enter anything
at the keyboard, forcing the SysOp to reboot the machine.
Fixed.
>>> "-Q" (quit after user hangup) would not hang up the phone if
the goodbye commands (Cmdkeys HC, HI, and HM) were used. This
affected at least one program adversely (the D'Bridge front-
end mailer would not initialize, as it requires the modem to
be hung up). Fixed. Thanks to Evan Dictor (Nathan Brazil)
for discovering this bug.
>>> Another problem with "-Q" was that Telegard would exit with an
ERRORLEVEL of 0 instead of 255 (or whatever was specified with
the "-EN" option). Fixed.

--- Message system bugs:

>>> At times, the linefeed displayed before each message (if the
clear screen flag is OFF) would be skipped. This was
noticeable during a NewScan (Cmdkeys MN) and while reading all
Email messages (Cmdkeys *3). Fixed.
>>> Very stupid bug where, when inserting, deleting, or
positioning message bases, the NewScan information and high-
message pointers would get all screwed up. This was a VERY
bad one, and it took a while to find.



--- Those short little messages that were displayed during logon ("You
were validated on...", "So-and-so read your letter...", etc.), in
versions prior to the 2.x series, are now displayed again. Be
warned that you and/or your users may suddenly receive a flood of
these messages, especially if you've been running a 2.x version of
Telegard for quite a while! (You may wish to delete SHORTMSG.DAT
to prevent this; Telegard will not "bomb" if it does not exist.)

--- Thanks to everyone who brought this to our attention; even *WE*
didn't know this was happening! (Apparently, the code was removed
at some point after version 1.8b, and never got put back in.)

--- When the BBS path names are modified in the system configuration, a
backslash ("\") is now automatically appended to the end of the
name if one does not exist. This bug has been in Telegard ever
since its inception, and it is *FINALLY* fixed!

--- During the initialization procedure, Telegard will now check to see
if the number of users recorded in STATUS.DAT, and the ACTUAL
number of users, match up; if they don't, Telegard fixes it. This
should cure the problems on those systems that report 150% or more
of their users voting on voting questions!

--- The voting booth would occasionally crash with a RT 200 (division
by zero) error. This would happen only on nights with a full moon,
on a prime-numbered day, in months with the letter "J" in them...
you get the point. Fixed.

--- When performing a batch upload, Telegard would hang up the user
after the transfer was completed, NO MATTER WHAT THE USER SPECIFIED
AT THE "ABORT/YES/NO/MAYBE" PROMPT! Fixed.

--- When you enter a long menu command ("//LONGCOMMAND"), you may now
hit [Ctrl-X] to backspace the cursor all the way back to "//" (the
way it USED to be). This is useful if the SysOp and a user are
chatting on the menu input line (we know LOTS of people that do
that!). If you want to back up even further -- to get rid of the
"//" -- just use the backspace key to do so.

--- Many, many more ANSI bugs have been fixed... unfortunately, we
can't guarantee that we got ALL of them. The C version will have a
newer, FASTER ANSI interpreter that will have no conflicts with
windows or ANYTHING. But, in the meanwhile, there will more than
likely be some more problems. We will just have to cope... sorry!

--- Shelling to DOS (executing doors, external protocols, etc.) would
set the video colors to some very interesting combinations. (The
most interesting was black-on-black... not too visible!) Fixed;
the colors are now properly reset to the normal grey-on-black.

--- The @V MCI, which shows all available commands for the current
menu, would include the LASTMSG and GTITLE special commands.
Fixed. Thanks to Evan Dictor (Nathan Brazil) for finding this bug.



____________

CONCLUSION
____________

If you do put up a Telegard system, please let us know. We keep an
updated list of Telegard boards, and frankly, we are also interested in
what people have done with our system.

Suggestions? By all means, contact us; we are ALWAYS interested in new
ideas! You may contact us at any of the Telegard systems below.

"We want to hear from ya!"

System Name Number Hours FidoNet Main SysOp
---------------------- ------------ ------ --------- --------------
Grosse Pointe Centrale 313-885-1779 24 hrs 1:120/188 Eric Oman
Warp Speed 313-544-0405 8p-8a 1:120/186 Todd Bolitho
The I/O Bus * 313-755-7786 10p-9a 1:120/187 Martin Pollard

* = Temporary phone number! It WILL be changing!

All systems support 1200 baud and 2400 baud only.


Thanks for trying Telegard!