WEATHER - Weather Report Generator for Your BBS!
A great program for Sysops to provide additional
functionality to their systems.

Downloads weather information and optionally places
Sysop-specified headers and footers in the text,
creating bulletins, newsletters, or online text files
for users to view.

Up-to-date and accurate too. WEATHER uses a 1-800
number to call out on, so it costs the system NOTHING
in phone charges.

Uses COM ports 1-4 and/or allows DIGIboard users to
use WEATHER on their systems.

Contact Blaine Schmidt at Moobasi Optics, Ink.
(704)541-9842 for information regarding the latest
version of WEATHER.

WEATHER - Weather Report Generator for Your BBS!
A great program for Sysops to provide additional
functionality to their systems.

Downloads weather information and optionally places
Sysop-specified headers and footers in the text,
creating bulletins, newsletters, or online text files
for users to view.

Up-to-date and accurate too. WEATHER uses a 1-800
number to call out on, so it costs the system NOTHING
in phone charges.

Uses COM ports 1-4 and/or allows DIGIboard users to
use WEATHER on their systems.

Contact Blaine Schmidt at Moobasi Optics, Ink.
(704)541-9842 for information regarding the latest
version of WEATHER.


WEATHER (a la Weather Information Download Service)

by Blaine William Schmidt
at Moobasi Optics, Ink. Software
Copyright (C) 1993-1994




IMPORTANT CHANGES!!!

This is WEATHER v1.16 - there have been some fairly major modifications
in this release that allow WEATHER to use several new features...please
reconfigure WEATHER before operation to take advantage of these new
features. Re-configuration is not necessary - but highly desirable.

WEATHER now uses WCONFIG.EXE to configure the WEATHER program. If
WEATHER is run with the CONFIG option which operated previously, you
are informed that you can reconfigure WEATHER by running WCONFIG.EXE.

WEATHER.CFG is a simple ASCII text file - you can edit WEATHER.CFG with
any editor capable of saving straight ASCII text. Do not use word
processing packages that save special characters in the text.

Also included with this version of WEATHER is a set of files - ANSI
and RIP screens which the System Operator of Atlanta Information
Exchange [404-957-3325] was kind enough to create and donate!

New changes to WEATHER include:

(Changes in 1.16)

* Added RECREATIONAL WEATHER REPORT. Due to user demand, this
report has been added to the functionality of WEATHER!

* Added MARINE WEATHER REPORT. Once again, users drive the
thrust of WEATHER! They get what they demand! :*)

* Capitalization of ALL REPORTS. A small note here: if the
routine that capitalizes the text does not work perfectly,
please drop off (or send) a copy of the non-cased text to
Blaine Schmidt at Moobasi Optics, Ink. - the capitalization
is quickly becoming a nightmare for all of the different
conditions WEATHER has to meet...but we still want to make
it work at 100% efficiency!

* Added BWI (Baltimore, MD) to the WEATHER.LOC file.

* Added the ability for users to add WEATHER AIRPORT CODES
in the WCONFIG program. Read the WEATHER documentation for
additional information.


(Changes in 1.15)

* Added SEVERE WEATHER REPORT. This report is not currently being
upper/lowercased - due to the fact that we have been unable to
obtain any severe weather reports as of this date. As soon as
they are available (in other words, when we have some bad weather
in Charlotte, NC), we will update the "aesthetics" of the
Severe Weather Report.

* Added ZONE WEATHER REPORT. Several users had been asking for both
the Severe Weather and the Zone Weather reports...so they are now
made available - just going to show you that we ARE responsive
to customer demand... 🙂

* Created WCONFIG.EXE - rather than configuring WEATHER through the
CONFIG option previously available to users of WEATHER, WCONFIG
allows WEATHER to take up less memory when running - a concern
with some BBSes. When WEATHER.EXE is run with the CONFIG option,
the user is prompted to run WCONFIG.EXE to configure WEATHER.

* Fixed occasional lockup users would encounter when processing
weather text.

(Changes in 1.14b)

* DIGIboard support. WEATHER supports 4, 8, and 16-port versions
of the DIGIboard. Testing has not been extensive...so if anyone
finds errors with the way WEATHER uses the DIGIboard - as always,
please let us know so that we may remedy the situation. WEATHER
has been tested exhaustively on a *4-port* version...so we assume
that it will work with the others. 🙂

* Seperate files for the HEADER and FOOTER. This allows people to
design their headers and footers in ANSI/RIP drawing packages...
The option to enter text is still available in the CONFIG option.

* Extended memory is now taken advantage of. Previously, all of
WEATHER's operations were conducted in CONVENTIONAL memory.
Memory requirements are also less. WEATHER can run in a 400k
window under Desqview, with absolutely no extended memory
allocated to the window.

* Option to hold DTR HIGH upon exit of WEATHER. Due to user
requests, we have added the ability to have WEATHER keep the
DTR signal on the modem HIGH during text processing and returning
to the calling program... This ensures that callers trying to
call in to the system while WEATHER is running *should* always
get a BUSY signal versus a NO ANSWER. This option *IS*
configurable.

* Raised the number of sites to download information about at
one time to 10 locations. Now fixed so that users actually
DOWNLOAD 10 sites after tagging 10 sites in the CONFIG option.

* GSO (Greensboro, NC) and AVP (Avoca, PA) was added to the
Airport Location file (WEATHER.LOC)...next release will
include a more comprehensive listing of valid airport codes.

* EWR (Newark, NJ) added - Newark users should appreciate this.

* New York City has been fixed so that it downloads weather
properly.

* Added a TIMER function that allows the user to specify a longer
period of time to stay online in case of downloading more
locations. Maximum time allowed is 30 minutes. NOTE: the
default of 10 minutes IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!


ORDERING INFORMATION

To order WEATHER, send a $10 payment to the author at:

Moobasi Optics, Ink.
ATTN: Blaine William Schmidt
10305-D Plum Creek Lane
Charlotte, NC 28210-8263

To report problems with WEATHER, or to suggest improvements, contact
the author at one of the following:

(704-541-9842) Data Line - Moobasi Optics, Ink. (data line)
(704-542-3725) Voice Line - Business
FIDOnet address: 1:379/50
WGAnet address: 40:113/50
Internet address: [email protected]


Ciao for now...