CLOCK.EXE- Notes to the SYStem OPerator (SYSOP) and programmer.

original version: 12/15/89- Stephen Balbach- Beta

*-Files:

Clock.exe creates and uses 5 diffrent files. They are:
1)'users.' Binary data file of user information.
2)'*.log' Binary data file of weekly times. New one
created every thursday.
3)'temp.' Used in keeping track of user currently logged in.
4)'bull.' Binary data-all messages in message base.
5)'parms.' Password file.
6)'hist.dat' ASCII text of 'This day in history' quotes

*-Boundries:

1) Clock currently supports up to 50 users. This number was
picked on the basis of memory usage solely and there is ample
room for exspansion in a typical system. The number of users
can be increased by changing the MAXUSERS macro in defines.h

2) Clock can handle up to 100 .log files in the same
directory. Again, this is an arbitrary number and if nessecary
can be incresed by changing the MAXLOGFILES macro in defines.h
However, read notes on backing up .log files to other
directories first.

3) Other boundries- By looking at defines.h it can be seen
other boundries can be changed. Max size of bulletin text,
fore, back and high colors for example. If you get a stack
overflow, increase the stack size in clock.mak

*-Saving '.log' files:

When you move .log files to backup (.ie not in same
directory as 'clock.exe') you must also save the 'users' file
those .log files were created with. Otherwise times will be keyed
on the wrong user file.
It is suggested that all files ('users.','*.log','bull.') be
backed up periodically in one place and the clock directory
purged. To review them simply use clock.exe in a clean directory.

*-Passwords:

There are two passwords- one is hard-coded and the other
kept in a file called 'parms'. The hardcoded password may be
changed with the WEEKDAT macro in defines.h There are facilities
in the SYSOP functions to change the other 'soft' password.

*-SYSOP functions:

These can be accessed by typeing F10 from the login menu.
The hot-key can be changed- CSCAPE has an include file called
pcscan.h In it are a complete listing of the scan code macros
used. Choose a macro. 'cscp2.c' has a function called
password_sed(). Replace your macro w/the F10 macro found there.


*-HIST.DAT

The hist.dat file is editable. If you would like to add new
entries follow this format- Each history quote has two parts 1) the
actuall quote and 2) a header. the header is broken into 10 parts.
An example header S06041776- The first character can be S,B,or R if
you would like the quote listed as an event, birthday or reminder,
respectivly. Next, 4 digits representing the date the quote is to
appear (the above example is June 4). Finally, the year the quote
is from (1776). If the quote is longer than one line, the 10th
position is reserved for a 'C'. Read the data file for examples.
The originall database was taken from a program called TODAYxx.EXE

*-Other stuff:

If you ever have doubts about the integrety of a .log files
information, I have created a small program called 'dum.c' which
will dump the contents to the screen. This is an accurate
description of the file. to run type 'C>dum 11-02-89.log'
There is also a utility for dumping the contents of the 'bull.'
file. For each message it will give the following information:
ID: This is the ID code of the user leaving the message. The sysop
ID is MAXUSERS + 1 (NOT 0!). So, unless you've changed the max number
of users, it will default to 51. TYPE: 8=private mail, 7=public
TO: if the 7th position in the array of 0's is a 1, the user
w/id of 6 (not 7) gets the mail.


*- Recompiling:

Any changes made in the source require a recompilation.
Clock.exe was compiled under MSC 5.1 command line. The files
you will need:
clock.c -Program skeleton
time.c -Time and misc utilities
init.c -Program initialization (open files, screen,etc)
messg.c -The message base functions
user.c -User functions
sysop.c -SYSOP functions
fields.c -CSCAPE source code. Nessecary to handle
inter-field movement in SYSOP function
'edit_log' (I made a minor change).
Ignore this file and its header for most
purpouses. Nessecary for compiling only.
defines.h-Defines for the program
types.h -Type (structure) definitions
fields.h -Again, pure CSCAPE source nessecary for
some of my customizations. Ignore
clock.mak-The MSC .mak file used to build the program
clock.lnk-File needed by clock.mak

In addition you will need to install cscape. clock.mak and
clock.lnk have path specifications relevant to the location of
the cscape headers and lib's.
Once you have MSC 5.x and CSCAPE 3.x installed and all
appropiate files together, simply type 'make clock.mak'.
Clock.exe was compiled under the large memory model.