| TGNEWS v2.20 Standard Documentation
|
| Telegard News Displayer And Manager.
|
| Copyright 1991,1992 by Tim Strike and
| Forbidden Knights [BBS] Software Systems and Programming.








____________

INTRODUCTION
____________

For use with Telegard 2.7. If used with any other versions of
TG, TGNEWS could cause unpredictable and unrepairable results.

Basically I wrote this program for hassle free news posting.
All the news utilities either required that maintain them by
deleting the old news, or always displayed the news to the user no
matter what date it was, even if the news had already been read.
Not only was this a problem, but it also made extra work for both
the users and and SysOp.

______________________

REQUIRED TO RUN TGNEWS
______________________

TGNEWS requires that STATUS.DAT be in the current directory.
From STATUS.DAT it derives the correct path for the userlist and
string data files.

TGNEWS also requires a fossil driver to be loaded. TGNEWS
might work without this fossil driver, but it's extremely unlikely,
and it's recommended that you run a fossil driver anyways.

TGNEWS was NOT written for a multinode environment. Please do
not attempt to run two copies of TGNEWS at any one time, or the
results could be disasterous.

_______________________

COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS
_______________________

TGNEWS requires at least 5 command line parameters in the form
of "TGNEWS.EXE USER# COM BAUD LBAUD TIME" and then optional
parameters can also be passed to control the various features TGNEWS
has built in.

USER# Refers to the user # of the user entering the door, this
will be used to fetch the username/alias and lastdate on.
COM Comport of modem
BAUD Current connection rate of modem
LBAUD Current locked connection rate of modem
TIME Time user has left

If you plan to logon to TGNEWS locally, the BAUD parameter
should be set to 0. If the BAUD parameter is set to anything above
0, it will assume a user is online and attempt to access the comport
(and crash if it's not available on occasion).

If you have a locked comport, insert your locked baudrate into
the LBAUD parameter, if you don't have a locked comport, just place
the normal BAUD setting into the LBAUD setting as well.

TGNEWS performs various functions, specified by you on the
command line. Available for processing by the program, are:


/A ADD NEWS BULLETIN w/ INTERNAL EDITOR:

This function will load up the TGNEWS internal editor and post
the news with the users name, and the current date, asking for the
other options as it goes along. This editor works almost identical
to the TG internal editor.


/D TOGGLE DISPLAY TYPE:

If included, this switch tells TGNEWS to display all the news
regardless of the date. Normally, the news is only displayed if the
message is permanent or if the news has a later posting date then
the users last login date.

This is good for an (O)ld news menu, where you can display all
the news for the system.


/E EDIT NEWS BULLETIN VARIABLES OF EXISTING NEWS:

If included, this switch tells TGNEWS to enter the internal
editor for existing news. By enabling this option, you will be able
to edit various variables of these bulletins (see ADVANCED FEATURES,
OLD NEWS EDITOR for further information on this editor).


/L:x LOAD AN ALTERNATE DATA FILE:

If included, this switch tells TGNEWS to load an alternate data
file instead of "TGNEWS.DAT" as it does now. By enabling this
option you will be able to segregate your news by ACS, or into
"sections (see ADVANCED FEATURES, ALTERNATE DATA FILE for further
information on this subject).


/Q RUN UNDER QUIKmode:

If included, this switch tells TGNEWS to run in QUIKmode. This
mode will load TGNEWS, count the news bulletins and display a simple
line telling how many news bulletins need to be read by the user in
the format of

"There is/are # news bulletin(s) that you have yet to read."

In QUIKmode, TGNEWS will still display the TGNEWS logo, and
then it'll count, display the string, and quickly exit. This might
be handy in some cases.


/S SHOW NEWS STATUS DURING DISPLAY:

If included, this switch tells TGNEWS to display the news
status. Normally, the user doesn't know whether or not the news is
toggled permanent, and in how many days the news is the be deleted.

When included, TGNEWS will display after the header, but before
the actual news these display strings:

-> Only Displayed Once, to be deleted in 5 day(s) ...
-> Always Displayed, to be deleted Manually by SysOp


____________

INSTALLATION
____________

Now, let's get some examples down so we can get TGNEWS
installed on your board, and running for your users.

|-| EXAMPLE 1 - LOGON.BAT Installation |---------------------------|

If you wish to have the news displayed at every logon, it will
be easier to modify LOGON.BAT to display the news, this is quick and
it requires no menu.

[--]
@ECHO OFF
:TOP

REM This batch file was designed to remove a bug (anomoly?) in
REM Telegard where depending on how many names the user had,
REM the the other information would be pushed over. Any
REM information from the 3rd parameter over, that should always
REM stay the same would vary depending on the users name. When
REM run this will shift the parameters left one, until the
REM parameters are in their correct places; however lost in the
REM shift will be whatever names the line begun with, for
REM instance:

REM "T. Strike 0 1 9 1 1" would stay the same.
REM "T. W. Strike 0 1 9 1 1" would become "W. Strike 0 1 9 1 1".

REM I understand this is a cheap fix, but it was needed for

REM programs like my TGNEWS that based it's info on the user
REM number passed, and with any user that more then two names,
REM TGNEWS would be incorrectly passed the time or ANSi info
REM instead of the corrext user #; which would severely mess up
REM TGNEWS when running.

REM If you plan on running any programs in here that need the
REM parameters left as they were passed, place them after the
REM :TOP label, and before the :CHECK label of this .BAT file
REM so that they get run before the parameters are changed. If
REM you don't any programs in this batch file, why have it?

:CHECK

REM Will remove any extra parameters so that programs run in
REM this LOGON.BAT file will be run with the intended
REM parameters. Once the 8th REM passed parameter is blank, it
REM will continue.

If %8!==! Goto Execute
Shift
Goto Check

:Execute

REM Will run the file with the correct parameters the way
REM Telegard should be running them. The following represent
REM the correct parameter setup:
REM
REM %1:Name %2:Last Name %3:Baud %4:ANSi (0=Off,1=On)
REM %5:Time Left %6:User # %7:Port?

TGNEWS %6 1 %3 %3 %5
[--]

In this example, the parameters passed to LOGON.BAT from
Telegard are re-passed along to TGNEWS. There was however (As it
has been explained above) a problem with running it this method.
This .BAT file was designed to remove those problems.

NOTE: If you have a locked comport, make sure you replace the
second %3 with your locked baudrate. You must also be sure to add
whatever programs you normally run, and if you use a comport other
then COM1, then change the 1 after the %6 to read your comport, ie
COM2 would read "TGNEWS %6 2 %3 %3 %5".
|------------------------------------------------------------------|


To run the LOGON.BAT example you must make sure you have the
"Run System batch Files" toggled to on in your system setup,
otherwise it won't even attempt to run it. An alternative to the
above method is to install the Menu Installation but to make the
(C)urrent News one a FIRSTCMD and run from your logon menu,
which would technically work around that LOGON.BAT so you can keep
it turned off (Security reasons).


|-| EXAMPLE 2 - Menu Installation |--------------------------------|

If you'd rather have the news displayed from a menu, all you
basically have to do is:

Long Description .. : (C)urrent News : Display new system news
Short Description . : (C)urrent News
Command Letters ... : C
ACS ............... : s5
Keys .............. : D-
MStr .............. : TGNEWS @R @P @B @B @T /S

Long Description .. : (O)ld News : Display all system news
Short Description . : (O)ld News
Command Letters ... : O
ACS ............... : s5
Command Keys ...... : D-
Mstring ........... : TGNEWS @R @P @B @B @T /D /S

As you can see by these examples, the setup is rather the
same, except for the old news option, where the addition of the /D
parameter allows users to see old news as well.

NOTE: If you have a locked comport, make sure you replace the
second @B with your locked baudrate.
|------------------------------------------------------------------|


Both of these types of installations are highly recommended.
The news, in the case you do install both types, will be displayed
right after the last callers listing in Telegard (with just the new,
unread news being displayed). Then if the user selects the Current
or Old news option, they will also be able to read the old news, and
both will display the status of the news message.

I know this may be slightly confusing, but if you have any
problems either understanding this document, or with the setup, just
give me a shout and I'll see what I can do.


|-| EXAMPLE 3 - Editor Installation |------------------------------|

To setup the editor to add a news bulletin, put this option on
your SysOp menu (You don't need to if you'd rather you enter it
from the DOS command line):

Long Description .. : (/U)pdate News: Add a News Bulletin
Short Description . : (/U)pdate News
Command Letters ... : /U
ACS ............... : s255
Keys .............. : D-
MStr .............. : TGNEWS @R @P @B @B @T /A /S

Long Description .. : (/E)dit News: Edit old News Bulletin
Short Description . : (/E)dit News
Command Letters ... : /E
ACS ............... : s255
Keys .............. : D-
MStr .............. : TGNEWS @R @P @B @B @T /E

As you can see by this example, the setup is rather the same,
except the addition of the /A and /E parameters which specify to
addition or editing of the news data file.

NOTE: If you have a locked comport, make sure you replace the
second @B with your locked baudrate.
|------------------------------------------------------------------|


When TGNEWS is first run, it will create a bulletin from me,
the author of TGNEWS. I ask that you LEAVE this here, it will auto-
delete in 7 days, so please do NOT delete or remove this opening
news bulletin. (It's toggled Non-permanent, so users will see it
once, and that's it; It's also toggled to delete in 7 days, so it'll
be gone soon enough)


_________________

ADVANCED FEATURES
_________________


NEW NEWS EDITOR EDITOR FUNCTIONS

I'm going to skip all the functions of the internal editor for
now, I plan on improving it more, but with the demand for this
program I thought I had better get it out right away, with a few
minor problems in the editor. It operates almost exactly like
Telegards with a few little exceptions.


COLOUR IN NEWS FILE

There is colour available, this part hasn't been cleaned up as
much as I would like, but it works right now, so if you press '^'
and then a letter, it'll insert a colour code. A-O are the correct
colour letters, with 'A' being Colour 1 (Dark Blue) and 'O' being
Colour 15 (Hi-White). Background colours are unsupported as of yet.


REPLACABLE MCI CODES

All instances of a @x where x is a letter from A-Z will be
updated with the users info, following almost exactly the MCI coding
for Telegard, at least as much as I could drum up. (For instance, a
@N will put the users name into the bulletin.

Forthe user "Tim Strike" with an alias of "Riim", the following
codes would be replaced with:

@F - First Name ..... Tim
@H - Handle ......... Riim
@L - Last Name ...... Strike
@N - Handle w/# ..... Riim #1
@R - Real Name ...... Tim Strike

You will find that there are others that can be used (Almost
everything that hasn't been listed here from the alphabet) but don't
provide anything that is really understandable. Right now, there is
no support for the various @I, @B, @J MCI codes that usually
represent conferences and bases; but be forewarned (forewarned?)
that in an upandcoming release I'm going to attempt to pickup this
info as well.


ADVANCED LINE EDITING

Any line beginning with a ';' character will br processed as an
internal command line by TGNEWS. Currently the only commands that
are available are:

;A - Agreement Question

Will ask the user if they agree with the news bulletin just
displayed. If they choose yes, the SysOp (User #1) is informed with
a SHORTMSG that the user as has read agreed to the news bulletin.

If the user selects NO, the answer will be double checked and
if they still don't agree, the SysOp (User #1) is informed, again
with a SHORTMSG.

It is highly suggested that you make this bulletin NON-
Abortable because if the user hits SPACE before it gets to the ;A
string, it will abort the message and the user won't be asked the
question.

;H - Agreement Question w/Hangup

Operates exactly like ;A and all warnings and suggestions also
apply, however there is one difference. If the user verifies that
they disagree with the bulletin, TGNEWS will attempt to drop DTR on
the user; effectivly hanging them up.

NOTE: You must have DTR dropping installed and working on your
system if you plan on using this command; else the user will be able
to continue even after it should have hungup (and told them it was
doing so).

;1 [STR] - Agreement String Replacement

Will replace the standard 'agree' string of "Have you read, and
agreed to this news bulletin?" with a string of your own. [STR] is
the replacement question, all colour codes and MCI codes are valid.

;2 [STR] - Disagreement String Replacement

Will replace the standard 'are you sure you do NOT agree'
string of "Are you sure you choose NOT to agree? with a strinf of
your own. [STR] is the replacement verify question, all colour
codes and MCI codes are valid.

;3 [STR] - Dissagreement w/Hangup String Replacement

Will repalce the standard 'disagree hangup' string of "[*]:
Sorry to say, but I guess this system isn't for you .. goodbye!"
with a string of your own. [STR] is the replacement hangup string,
all colour codes and MCI codes are valid.

(Used in conjunction with ;H)

;x - Comment Line

Any other line that begins with a ';' will be taken as a
comment line, use however you please. Future releases will include
support for other command lines, though suggestions are welcome.


REPLACABLE HEADER FILES

As some of you have probably noticed, included within the
archive are two .ANS and .MSG files, which contain a header for
TGNEWS. It finally happened; the header can now be replaced by you
to represent anything you want at all basically opening up the door
for further customization. The two files, named TGNEWS-H.ANS and
TGNEWS-H.MSG go into your text files directory and will be displayed
at the top of the news instead of the NEWS header that was there
before (Or if you don't put these files into the directory, TGNEWS
will still display that rather drab NEWS header).

Now, to display names, dates and status certain MCI codes can
be added into the file to display these various things you may wish
to include in the news header. TGNEWS will replace these MCI codes
and then pad them over (with spaces to the right) so that the header
will always look the same, since the length of the various strings
output will be different.

MCI Description Pad Example
--- ---------------------------:------:--------------------------
@1 - Date (Quick) ................[8]..: 01/26/92
@2 - Date (Long) ................[19]..: January 26, 1992
@3 - Date (Short Verbose) .......[16]..: Sat Jan 11, 1992
@4 - Date (Verbose) .............[28]..: Sunday January 26, 1992
@5 - New Marker (Short):
If the bulletin is new .....[1]..: N
If the bulletin is old .....[1]..: O
@6 - New Marker (Long):
If the bulletin is new .....[3]..: New
If the bulletin is old .....[3]..: Old
@7 - Author of News Bulletin ....[30]..: Tim Strike


OLD NEWS EDITOR

If the news has been toggled for DELETION you will see a line
containing "-> News has been manually *DELETED*". Otherwise you
will see no line at all. If you do see this line, make sure that
you really do wish to continue.

When the news gets to the bottom, instead of the normal prompt,
you will see a prompt like " (C)ontinue (E)dit []". At this
prompt, if you hit (C) you will move onto the next news bulletin, if
you hit (E) you will bring up the editor.

Status : Active

1. Abortable : Yes
2. Display Type : Only Displayed Once
3. Posted Date : Thursday February 27th, 1992
4. Days till delete : To be deleted manually by SysOp.
5. Posted By : Sample Bulletin
6. Access to read : s0

D. Delete News Bulletin
Q. Quit

By selecting one of these options, you can edit the various
components of the news bulletins as you see above. A couple that
should be addressed are the date routines;

NOTE: OPTIONS 1 TO 5 ARE FOR REGISTERED SYSOPS ONLY.

OPTION 3 - Posted Date

Will bring up a mm/dd/yy entry field. This was the date that
the original bulletin was posted. By modifying this date to
something more current, the users will have to reread the news
depending on how far you have moved it. This entry MUST include the
/ characters, as TGNEWS will check format and EXPECT it in the
mm/dd/yy format. 🙂

OPTION 4 - Days till delete

Will update the option of days to delete in.

If the news has been toggled for manual deletion, it will just
simply inform you that it is to be manually deleted. If however the
news has a toggled deletion date, you will see how many days from
the current date it is to be deleted, and from the posting date, as
seen in the follow example.

"4. Days till delete : 5 day(s) till automatic deletion.
(which is 46 day(s) from posting date)"

The number that was entered at posting time # from posting
date. If you change this date, you obviously change this value -
Rely more on the # of days to deletion rather then the # since
posting date, as I think you'll find it easier to use. If you enter
a value of 0 for this entry, you will toggle it for manual deletion.

OPTION 6 - Access to read

Will update the access the user is REQUIRED to have to read
this bulletin. TGNEWS will process this access string exactly as it
does in Telegard - however some of the variables won't work (most
notably Cx, Ox and Rx). I have attempted to make this as compatible
as possible, so try everything out.

If the user doesn't have access to the bulletin, they will not
see it and TGNEWS will operate for them like the news bulletin was
non-existant (unless in EDIT mode, in which case they will).

OPTION D - Delete News Bulletin

By hitting D that status of the news bulletin will switch from
"Active" to "*DELETED*". If the news is marked "*DELETED* already,
re-hitting D will toggle it back to "Active" (or effectively
untoggle the deletion). If you choose to (Q)uit and (C)ontinue the
news will be deleted.


ALTERNATE DATA FILES

Advanced data file manipulation. So you wanted to run TGNEWS
in different areas of the system? Well, here's your chance. You
can include the command line "/L:x" where x is a filename (6
characters in length, no extension!). TGNEWS will load this "x"
filename with a ".DAT" extension as the news file instead of the
normal TGNEWS.DAT file. TGNEWS will also use the "x" filename with
"x-H.ANS/MSG" as the news header (as explained above, TGNEWS-
H.ANS/MSG are normally used - Ie, the header displayed is the
+"-H.ANS/MSG".

For example, in your games section, you could setup TGNEWS to
run as setup in the menu examples in the documentation, but add the
line "/L:GAMES" and TGNEWS would display the news in GAMES.DAT and
the header GAMES-H.ANS/MSG.

Please note, the files of TGNEWS.ANS/MSG and TGNEWSx.ANS/MSG
are still displayed as they are.

________

VERSIONS
________

This will contain UPDATE info for future releases, as well as
some bugs fixes and a general summary of all the new features added.
Please read this section of the documentation on every update if you
don't plan on reading any of the other information.

+:New Feature *:Updated (Fixed) Feature $:Wide Beta Feature

v1.01

* Fixed up Colour coding

* Fixed some little errors in the editor, where lines would end up
off-centered or offline, and generally make the editor look
really buggy and unprofessional.

+ Added support of the pause string so that bulletins longer then
25 lines will be displayed with pauses so that the user or sysop
doesn't have to scroll back in the backscroll to read the news
(This uses your internal TG pause string)


v1.10

+ Added some of the internal Telegard functions (The function keys
et all) into the program. These SysOp functions are the same as
in Telegard. Unfortunatly, no chat yet (sorry!)

* Fixed the bottom 'program' line. On some, if not most terminal
programs the user has toggled the backspace as destructable,
which erases the 'program' line, and doesn't display like it
does locally, now it will.

* Fixed the //UPLOAD feature so that the user must have SL of 250+
to use it. Pressing F9 to toggle Temp SysOp access with a user
online will allow them to access the command as well, for those
special times when you need it.


v1.20

+ Added full MCI support, or atleast all I could manage to drum
up. TGNEWS will now correctly replace the '@x' MCI code. TGNEWS
uses the exact same syntax as TG, except it WON'T crash if it
encounters an invalid MCI code; it will just display it. Let me
know how this works, I'll update it if it doesn't work
perfectly.

+ Added a feature that will ask the user if they AGREE with the
news bulletin just posted. Basically, this allows you to post
valuable news, and you'll generally get feedback as to whom
agrees, and whom doesn't agree to the news. This also makes the
user aware that this news bulletin is important .. So ignorance
is then bliss.

Adding the line ;A (On a blank line, by itself, as the first
characters) will make the prompt come up. I plan on allowing the
prompt to be configurable, except that I couldn't make it so at this
time.

+ Added ANSi/ASCIi/40c support files. TGNEWS will now look for any
of the following files upon bootup and display them, with a
PAUSE after each one:

TGNEWS .ANS/MSG/40C
TGNEWSx.ANS/MSG/40C where x is a number from 1 to 9

Eventually there will be a feature to display these files only
when they are updated, thus allowing you to post ANSi screens as
news, and various other types of status screens, such as network
mail transfers et al.

* The TGNEWS.MSG file which _used_ to hold all your news has been
renamed to TGNEWS.DAT (This resides in the same directory as the
TGNEWS.EXE file) .. You MUST rename this file.

* A little status character has been added to the header of the
TGNEWS display. After the date, a little 3-character status flag
is shown:

November 19th, 1991 (O)
.. Meaning the news is Old, it's already been read by that user.

November 23rd, 1991 (N)
.. Meaning this news has been added since the users last call.


v1.21

* If when using the ;A parameter, any following blank lines
(completely blank) are also interpreted as ;A's, causing TGNEWS
to ask the question xx number of times. [Whoops]. Anyways, it's
been fixed.

$ ;H command was added into the coding for this minor update. The
;H will operate in the exact same was as the command ;A except
if the user verifies that they _disagree_ an attempt to hang the
user up will be made. To use the feature, you must have DTR
dropping. TGNEWS will attempt to drop the carrier, and if that
works, then the user will be gone, otherwise the will still be
online. Future versions will attempt to use +++ and/or ^A^A^A to
hangup.


v1.30

* FINALLY! I can yell joyously. I found, and hopefully squashed
the bug dealing with Runtime error 006 at xxxx:yyyy! It had to
do with SHARE, and since I didn't run SHARE on my system I was
unable to replicate the problem. I however loaded SHARE for a
test run and found the bug, and was able to rewrite the whole
file handling section and hopefully squash for a good long time
any file handling bugs. So now people who were having the
Runtime error 006 should have no more problems. (Keep your
fingers crossed at least).

$ Further commands added into the TGNEWS command section.
;1 allows the replacement of the 'agree' string
;2 allows the replacement of the 'are sure you do NOT agree'
string
;3 allows the replacment of the string shown to users when they
get hangup with the ;H option

All colour coding, and and MCI commands should work for these
strings. Refer to documentation for further usage on these
commands.

+ New users who are logging on to the system, will be shown EVERY
bit of news regardless of the date. I was finding that alot of
SysOps wanted new users to read all news, and when I thought
about the way TGNEWS was handling new users, it WAS kind of lame
as well. So now new users are shown all the news no matter of
the date it was posted (Only on their first call, else it should
operate like normal).


v2.00

This is just a maintenace release. THere are no new features
(yet) that can be used by you, except that this version of TGNEWS
was designed for use with Telegard v2.7.


v2.01

* Fixed a bug in colour coding, where if an internal TG colour was
set to either blinking or had a background colour higher then 3,
would crash the system with an run-time error 201 at xxxx:yyyy
when displaying the 'pause' string.

This bug took a while to find, but I found it so it should make
some SysOps rather happy. Anyways, I can GUARENTEE this is the
last release of TGNEWS before it becomes shareware.


v2.02

* Whoa. When I updated the above code to handle the different
colours, I inadvertently left in a bug that would cause non-ansi
users to get ANSi graphics sent to them, which was undesirable.
Anyways, it's been Squashed.

* Updated sample .BAT file in documentation. It now includes some
fancy Parameter switching that should eliminate all problems
encountered with users that have more then one name.


v2.10

+ REPLACABLE HEADER FILES

As some of you have probably noticed, included within the
archive are two .ANS and .MSG files, which contain a header
for TGNEWS. It finally happened; the header can now be
replaced be you to represent anything you want at all
basically opening up the door for further customization. The
two files, named TGNEWS-H.ANS and TGNEWS-H.MSG go into your
text files directory and will be displayed at the top of the
news instead of the NEWS header that was there before (Or if
you don't put these files into the directory, TGNEWS will
still display that rather drab NEWS header).

REGISTERED ONLY FEATURE.

* Normal "header" (NEWS as it was before) now contains the
updated date format, with the "st", "th" and "rd" additions as
the above strings have.

* Updated the "Non-Permanent" and "Permanent" strings to reflect
what they really mean, hence "Only Displayed Once" and "ALways
Displayed" are now the strings shown to users when the /S option
is used.

* By setting the deletion date to 0, TGNEWS is told that the SysOp
will be manually deleting the news and shouldn't touch it (Making
it permanent until you chose to delete it).

REGISTERED ONLY FEATURE.

* Updated the "strings" that are displayed to users before they
enter the actual news portion of the door; The strings now
include colour and various instructions (reminders) so the door
operates better. Also a "returning to board" string is sent
after all the news has been processed.

* Whoa; Status line update. Okay, well to be honest with you I was
getting sick of the puk green/bright green/cyan colours I had on
the status line, so I decided I would change it (Change is good;
change is healthy!). Some of you may not like the new colours,
personally I do and I think it takes away from the drabness that
used to be existant, it also IMHO makes it easier to read, and
looks cleaner.

* Another one related to the status line is the time displays.
Before the time used to be displayed as "50.45", meaning that
0.45*60 seconds were available (which is approximately 27).
This was cumbersome and well, hard to figure out at times. The
time is now displayed as "50:27" as it should be.

* The "keypressed" time won't update unless it reaches a value
above 10. This means that it won't bother wasting time
updating this little tidbit of info if typing on a regular
basis; like typing in a new NEWS bulletin via /A.

+ If there is no news displayed, TGNEWS will now display a string
telling the user that there is no news available for them that
they haven't already read. This will remove some confusion users
were having after getting instructions and then having nothing
happen.

+ Users can now reread the last news posted by hitting either A or
R at the END[] prompt. This will redisplay the header and the
news as it was just shown to them. Remind your users that they
can now do this (Although it is included in the instructions
upon loadup).

* The file display feature has now been updated - if the files
TGNEWSx.ANS/MSG exist (where x is a number from 1 to 9) they
will only be display if they are NEW, and won't be displayed if
they are OLD (as they had been before v2.10). Please note the
file TGNEWS.ANS/MSG will always be displayed, so it can be used
as a "title page", or an instruction file.

+ Included the NEWS2BW executable, which will convert the news
DATA file into a plain text file with {PAUSE} strings, so that
it may be used within Bluewave. This is good if you allow
users into the Bluewave Mail Door before you run TGNEWS (Such
as a QUIKmode logon menu for LD users, or something of the
sort).

+ FINALLY. Built in news editor for various portions of the news
variables. To invoke this feature, you have to include /E at
the command line (If you include /E, the options of /S and /D
are automatically added for ease of editing).

(See ADVANCED COMMANDS, OLD NEWS EDITOR for further
information). REGISTERED USERS ONLY.

+ New QUIK mode option for those of you who just don't wish to
force anything upon your users... Reasoning? Well, Bob Eden
actually asked for this, but I thought it a useful enough
feature to include; If you tag onto the commandline /Q TGNEWS
will operate in QUIK mode, which basically means it will
display the TGNEWS door information, then calculate how many
new bulletins the user WOULD have read. Specifically, TGNEWS
will display a string similar to "There are 2 news bulletin(s)
you have yet to read.". This is good for SysOps who think the
logon procedure should be short; though QUIK mode still has the
logo, it won't actually display the news to your users (If you
use this mode though, it WOULD be beneficial if you have a
place where they can, ie a MENU option. 🙂

+ Advanced data file manipulation. You can now load another news
data file in place of TGNEWS.DAT. (Refer to section ADVANCED
FEATURES, ALTERNATE DATA FILES for further information).

REGISTERED ONLY FEATURE.

* Updated "NEWS" header, as I was getting bored of the other one.
This one is a little better (IMHO) but others may diagree. I've
decided that the header will now take 5 lines rather then 3,
the reasoning is just that 3 was cramped for space (and often
scrolled around if things were too big). 'Sides, if people
don't like this one they can register and create their own
header :).

* Many other cosmetic fixes and bug fixes, too small to bother
mentioning but there anyways ('sides, most of those were
programemd 2-3 months ago.. So much for my release schedule).

+ As most of you have either guessed or read by now, TGNEWS
requires a small registration fee to use some of the features.
For more information on registering TGNEWS read the TGNEWS.REG
file found within the original archive. For only $5.50CDN
($5.00US) this has to be one of the better valued programs out
for Telegard (IMHO).

(Please note, I will NOT trade registration with any other
author unless the effort and value are deemed even - the reason
is that some authors are charging $5.00 for something that
would take me less then 5 mins to program like a key toggler;
that just isn't a fair tradeoff.)

+ Upon bootup, TGNEWS will now display the following header.
This is to let users know what software you are running, as
well as it serves a place to advertise registration of the
door.

" Forbidden Knights Software Presents


| TGNEWS v2.10 Standard
| Telegard News Manager and Display Door
| Copyright 1991, 1992 by Tim Strike.


Registered to Tim Strike for use on Forbidden Knights."

Now obviously if you are running an unregistered copy, the last
line won't be there. If you are running an unregistered copy,
TGNEWS will display that and then pause for a couple of
seconds. It will NOT beep at you, or anything similar. While
I agree with registeration, I almost hate annoyware that
involves the user, especially if its going to be run at night,
so the only thing that will happen is a 5 second pause.

Please consider registering, as for only $5.50CDN ($5.00US)
this has to be one of the better programs you can register for
that small sum of money.

v2.20

UPGRADING FROM VERSIONS PRIOR TO v2.20

The .DAT file used in TGNEWS needed to be updated to support
the new sections added to the coding. Enclosed is a program
called CONVNEWS which will convert the news bulletins to the new
format, and add the neccessary fields. YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST RUN
CONVNEWS ON EVERY .DAT FILE FOR TGNEWS VERSIONS PRIOR TO v2.20.

INSTALLING v2.20 FOR THE FIRST TIME

You don't need to do anything special, so worry not. I
however do suggest following the INSTALLATION instructions, since
others who haven't have had problems.


* Fixed (hopefully the LAST time) any Run-Time Error 201's that
were occuring. This was attributed to my modem timing routines
where numerical limits were being overwritten by accident. I
have hopefully removed any occurances of this. 😉

* Avatar is now fully supported in TGNEWS where it wasn't before.
The .ANS files are shown to any user who has Avatar enabled,
which may or may not be the standard, but from what I could
figure out it was.

* Changed the QUIKmode colours (oohhh....).

* Previously the "agree/disagree" notes were written to
SHORTMSG.DAT which some of you never bothered to look at
closely (nor could you keep these once read). TGNEWS now
writes the same information into the SysOp log along with some
other strings that should help you in figuring out where users
have read what.

* Changed the 'END []' prompt to '(R)eread (CR)Next []' so that
users wouldn't forget that they can reread the news (it totally
eluded some of them previously).

* The internal editor in which you enter messages has been
updated. Some of the main things are cleanup of the bad
coding, everything will be minor but will get rid of some of
the horrid displays (such as the list command) etc.

* Upon reaching the last line, the editor would automatically pop
up into command mode. However, if you didn't hit (S)ave here
the entire news bulletin would be lost (and if you'd just
written 50+ lines of text, it would piss you off too). This,
ofcourse, has been fixed. The editor now forces you to (A)bort
or (S)ave before leaving this prompt.

* When requesting help before with the /? command, it would
immediately exit back to the editor. It now sits back at the
Command prompt awaiting your input.

* Due to a bad initiallized variable, when you hit //C or //T to
do a title box or center the line, it would center or title
your input PLUS a slew of other garbage. This has, ofcourse,
been quickly fixed.

+ A new ruler line has been added so you can easily create
screens that required columns or whatnot. Hit /+ and it'll
display the ruler line for you.

+ CTRL-X and TAB now work in every input field. Instead of
hitting that spacebar, simply hit TAB which will emulate
hitting the space bar 5 times. If you wish to erase your
entire input for that field or line, hit CTRL-X and save
yourself that backspace key. 😉

+ If for some reason when reading the .DAT news file TGNEWS comes
across an error it will abort and let you know. Please note,
that these errors will most likely be caused by editing the
file. You _can_ edit the text, however it isn't suggested you
edit the from/access fields, or change the ^BEGIN^ or ^END^
lines which are pertinent to the file.

$ ACCESS ON BULLETINS. That's right, each of the news bulletins
now has it's own access security level that can be checked.
The access string is purged identical to Telegards with a few
minor exceptions (no support for Cx, Ox or Rx). If the user
doesn't pass the access string then the news bulletin isn't
sent to them (obvious eh? ;).

NOTE: BECAUSE TELEGARD HAS THE MOST VERSATILE SECURITY PURGING
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO FULLY REPLICATE IT WITHOUT SHORTCOMINGS. I
HAVE ATTEMPTED TO FULL INCORPORATE ALL FUNCTIONS, BUT SOME MAY
NOT WORK AS IN TELEGARD.

+ Because of the above, the editor now has a 6th option (6 from
the /E interface), which will allow you to change this access
on the bulletins. It is suggested that you review your old
(converted) bulletins with the editor to change the security
levels in here. This is, however, a registered feature.

+ Time is now being stored on each bulletin - this is a feature
that is to be implemented at a later date if (and when,
Telegard stores the last time on for each user).

__________

LEGALITIES
__________

WARRANTY

TGNEWS is provided as-is, without a warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied. It is only guaranteed to occupy
disk space, nothing more. Under no circumstances shall the
author be liable to you or anyone else for any damages, including
(but not limited to) any lost profits, lost savings or other
incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or
misuse of this program.

In other words; RUN THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK. You
yourself, and nobody else is responsible for the outcome of
choosing to run this program.

But NEVER the less, all care should be taken whenever
you run new programs on your system. Files opened by TGNEWS
include STATUS.DAT, USER.LST and STRING.DAT, files opened and
changed are TGNEWS.DAT and TGNEWS.$$$, both being external to
Telegard.

Make backups of these files, and continue to make backups of
all your files used with BBSs. Trust me; I've had way to many
crashes, and it's always good to have a backup.

Again, run this program at your own risk.


COPYRIGHT

The program, and all documents and files included in the
TGNEWS release package are copyrighted to Tim Strike and
Forbidden Knights [BBS] Software Systems. They are not to be
modified in any way, shape or form; However the distribution
archive may be changed from ARJ so long as no files are added nor
removed.

TGNEWS can not be included on any distribution diskette, nor
can it be included in any distribution archive without the prior
written consent of Tim Strike.

CREDITS

All brand and product names referenced in this document are
trademarks, registered trademarks, or copyrighted works of their
respective holders.


_____________

REGISTRATION?
_____________

TGNEWS IS NO LONGER FREEWARE! As of v2.10, released on
April 10th, 1992 TGNEWS has become fully shareware, requiring a
$5.50 CDN ($5.00 US) registration fee.

You are authorized to use TGNEWS for a 30 day trial period. If
after this trial period you still don't wish to register TGNEWS, you
are required to delete the executable files. TGNEWS is
shareware, and if you DO plan to continue use after the 30 day trial
period, requires registration.

TGNEWS is becoming a rather large task to upgrade, support and
maintain. It started off rather simple, and I didn't figure that it
would take as much of my time as it has. Any of you who have come
to me for support know very well I put my heart and soul into
support and trying to figure out your problems. It's come to the
point where I can no longer spend time to support TGNEWS via netmail
and even via my BBS. Money is getting rather tight, but as usual
I'd rather not give up either the support or programming of TGNEWS.

TGNEWS now requires a rather small $5.50 CDN ($5.00 US)
registration fee. This isn't a great amount considering the time
and effort I have put in, or even the time this program runs on your
system. When you register you will get access to the various
EDIT and DELETION commands, HEADER files commands, and other various
commands from TGNEWS, as well as the knoewledge that you have
supported the shareware concept. You will also be guaranteed free
updates as long as TGNEWS lives, or however long I live (Which
should be a while, considering...). When you register TGNEWS you
will be sent a registration code, which will do for any future
updates that are released. In case the code structure gets changed,
I'll mail direct to you the new code (So please keep me informed if
and when you move).

If you choose to register TGNEWS you will gain free
registration to the other version of this news program, which
include version for RA at this point. This code you receive is
portable from version to version of the NEWS program line.

If you're interested in registering what I consider a fine
program, then please refer to the file TGNEWS.REG, as it contains
more information and the forms that need to be filled out.


_____________________

CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
_____________________

I may be reached by sending netmail to TeleNet Canada Node
20:22/0 or FidoNet Node 1:259/423. You may also choose to post a
message to me through either the TeleNet Canada Telegard
Conference or the nationally distributed Telegard Conference
(available through Telegard Beta sites) or through.

I may also be reached via my own board, Forbidden Knights at
(416)820-7273. 2400-14,400 HST. Before 4:00am, after 6:00am.

Any changes or updates that need to be made to TGNEWS v2.20
will be made a new version will be released. Further suggestions,
comments and/or bug reports can be directed through one of the above
methods.

Anyways, I hope you will enjoy the use of TGNEWS. It has
taken a while to produce and test, and hopefully you'll be
pleasantly surprised with this program.

Enjoy fully.

Sincerely,
Tim Strike, Forbidden Knights [BBS] Software Systems and Programming.


PS: I would like to thank Kort Pearson for his constant
testing of TGNEWS and for most of the bug reports, else there

wouldn't have been as many bugs fixed ;>