Acorn RISC PD-CD 1

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Acorn RISC PD-CD 1 / Acorn RISC PD-CD 1.iso / utilities / _comms / comms / _transarc / _help < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1992-05-07 | 24.1 KB | 542 lines

>!Help TransArc - BBS Mail exchange editor This is version 3.07, see below for a list of changes since V2.06. If you're a pre-3.07-user, just read the changes below, and if everything screws up, read the whole text... :-) (Probably does... Quite a few changes) ***************************** * * * TransArc, instructions. * * * ***************************** The TransArc packet. -------------------- The TransArc packet is of the following structure: !TransArc (Dir) !Boot !Help (This file) !Run !RunImage !Sprites Sprites Templates TransTable Boards (Dir) Cryton (Dir) Areas Strings Quercus (Dir) Areas Strings The application should be placed at a convenient position in your directory structure, eg. in your comms dir. If you've got a single floppydrive, try to fit TransArc on the disc containing your comms program. It will enable you to automate certain trivial tasks nice and easy. How to get started without having to read all the boring text. -------------------------------------------------------------- * Download a message packet from an ArcBBS board and place the de-arc'ed file in the !Incoming.Mail dir. * Start TransArc. * If the file is from Quercus or Cryton, the board has been prepared for you, so skip all the lines preceeded by '#', after doing this: Pop up the iconbar menu and move to the Board submenu. Enter 'Cryton' or 'Quercus' as appropriate. Press Return. ..Disc access..Menu disappears... * Pop up the iconbar menu and click on Preferences. # A window opens... Find the box containing '<Untitled>', click the caret into it, and enter the name of the board (from which you downloaded the file). # If you've typed 'Quercus' or 'Cryton' you should be skipping this! * Now goto User name. If you're not called 'Me', you'll have to change this as well. * We'll leave the other 3 boxes 'till later. # You can't click Save until you've set some areas, so: * Locate your downloaded file, and drag it onto the box, saying 'Drag file here to add areas'... * If it's a legal ArcBBS file, the Total number will show you how many areas it contained, and the Save box will become active. * Grab the chance and click on it. # Your new board will be created... * Preferences disappears. Now drag the file onto the TransArc icon. * The file will load, and it will be recognised as coming from the board you just made (or altered). * If everything goes right, the first message in the file will be displayed, and you will now be able to use TransArc with this board. * If you wish to prepare for other boards, repeat from the top. (But don't start TransArc each time!) TransArc. ========= If you get an error (you will), clicking Cancel will kill TransArc, clicking OK will try to continue... If it's an error from TransArc, you'll be able to continue most of the time, but if it's from Basic (with a line number)... Well, if you HAVE to continue, try it. But be warned. My Filer died once. (About HAVING to continue... Remember, that all you can lose is the letter you are editing. If you've written other letters, they will be safe away in the NewMail file, so you can't lose them (unless you delete it of course)). The iconbar menu. ----------------- The iconbar menu has 6 entries; 'Edit' and 'Empty' is shaded when no board has been set up as current. * Info displays the (almost) usual info-box. * Board will display the name of the current board. You can enter a board name, and when you click or press Return, the board will be set as 'current', thus enabling the outgoing mail for that board to be edited. * Edit does the same as in the Outgoing menu, see below. * Empty destroys all outgoing mail for the current board. * Preferences will open the Preferences window (nice, eh?), also described below. * Unfortunately, I can't remember what Quit does, you'll have to find that out yourself. The Incoming window. -------------------- This window consists of some header boxes, a main text area, and a tools box. When first opened, it will display the first message in the first area. By clicking the Msg-down arrow you can diplay the next message. When you have reached the last message in the current area, the first message in the next area will be displayed and so on. When you reach the last, clicking will just beeb. You can move to the next area by clicking the Area-down arrow, which reacts in the same manner. As you may have expected, the up-arrows move backwards. As you may also have expected, using adjust gives the opposite effect. What you shouldn't have expected, is that arrow up/down on the keyboard can be used for msg-up/down. But other things can be done in this window: * Clicking on the 'number of replies' box will jump to the reply if the message ends with '.... reply #xxxxx'. * Clicking Adjust on the same box will jump back to the original message. (This will not look in the text for the number, and only works after jumping to a reply.) * Clicking inside the 'Message # xxxxx' box will allow you to write a new number, and when you press Return, this message will be displayed. (Only if it is located in the dloaded file, of course) * Clicking in the 'Message xx' box will do the same, but this number applies to the loaded file only (Going from 1 to number_of_messages_in_file). * Dragging inside the text will mark some lines. Other functions (currently only quote and save) will only act on these lines. * Dragging from inside a marked area to your outgoing mail (see below) will quote these lines. * Clicking Menu produces a menu (Surprise!), which will enable you to: Save : This will save the message you are viewing as a text file. If you have marked an area, it will only save this. A header is saved at the top, containing a brief reminder of when, who and how you got it. (Useful if you're developing a PD program (who isn't) and lots of people are mailing you bugs, suggestions etc.) Search : You'll be allowed to enter some text, and TransArc will search through the messages for it. Click GO to search from the first message or NEXT to continue from where you are now. (Hint: This can currently be a VERY slow process if it's a long file, so if you're sure about the case, switch case- sensitivity on... It's faster.) Lock to -> Area : This will unable you to step into another area with the msg- down/up arrows. Subject : This will unable you to step to other subjects, than the one currently on display. Sender : This will unable you to step to a message, sent by someone who isn't the one who sent the message you were seeing when you turned this on. (Still reading?) Reciever: This will enable you to see all messages except the ones addressed to those who shouldn't have recieved the message you were reading (and hadn't) by the time you clicked this option on. (Argh) Date : This will ... You'll find out. Unlock : This will enable you to see all messages again (very useful). When clicking the Reply button, the outgoing-window will be opened with the header-boxes set up. Oh, now I'm at it: The Outgoing window. -------------------- The outgoing window is used for writing your own messages and adding them to the mail-file ('NewMail') you will eventually upload. The header-boxes at the top of the window looks very much like the ones in the incoming window, the only difference being the ability to alter the contents of some of them. The way you will most often use this window follows. Check the Area-box. This is where you message will end on the board. You can use select & adjust to change the area. If this isn't a reply, enter the subject. You click on the box and type. If not replying, enter the reciever's name. Again click & type. Select the status by clicking on the box. 'Public' and 'Private' are possible. Write the text after clicking below the boxes. When in this mode, you can do the following: * Most keys work as in Twin. If you don't know these, it's a pity. No, honestly there's a 'Help' entry in the menu, and clicking on that will open a window containing the proper descriptions. I will describe only the differences here. * You are always in 'insert' mode. When you reach the right edge, just keep on typing... If you are in the middle of a word, you and the word will be moved to the next line. * Page Up/Down moves up/down 16 lines. * The text is always 99 lines. The last unused lines will be stripped when you save the text. * You can quote from one or more incoming messages. This is done by selecting the lines to quote (see above) and dragging from inside the selected area to the position in the outgoing text, where you want the quoting to start. The quotes will be inserted, pushing the rest of the text downwards. * Like quoting, you can drag a text-file from a directory or an editor to your text, where you want it to be placed. Note, that the text from the file will overwrite your text for as many lines as it needs. You can't drag the textfile icon from the incoming save-window to the outgoing text; if you want to do this, use an intermediate storage place (the ram disc). * As in the incoming window, you can drag across the text, causing it to be selected. Selected lines can be copied, moved etc. as stated below. The Outgoing menu. ------------------ When you have finished your message, press the menu button. This will pop up the Outgoing-menu which contains 5 entries: 'Save', 'Edit', 'Delete', 'Selection' and 'Help'. Now click 'Save' and your text will be saved in the mail-file. The Mail-file always contains all your written messages, and you can select and edit any of them as you like. Note, that before saving the first message for the day, you should delete or empty the Mail-file, or you would be uploading the yesterday messages too. This can easily be done by clicking 'Empty' from the iconbar-menu, but you may be able to persuade your terminal program to automatically delete the file after a succesful upload. *++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++* >\------------------------------------------------------------------------/< >/\ Do _NOT_ tamper with the 'NewMail'-file while TransArc is running! /\< >|| ~~~~~ ||< >I[}--------------------------------------------------------------------{]I< >|| ||< >|| TransArc maintains pointers to the messages, and if you alter the ||< >|| file, these will be wrong. You'll end up with no messages and an ||< >|| error, or, if you're lucky, most messages shuffled into each other. ||< >|| ||< >|| If you HAVE to mess with the file, quit TransArc first and restart ||< >|| it afterwards. (Actually, just click on the Board submenu, but this ||< >|| is INSIDE info, how did it get here!? Anyway it's NOT documented!) ||< >\/ \/< >/------------------------------------------------------------------------\< *++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++* (That box is still ART!) The 'Edit' menu is used to select a message to edit. You will see a list of your messages in a window, and you can select one by clicking on it. If you were editing a message that has been altered, you will be prompted to save it. If you don't, the message will remain unaltered in the Mail-file, provided it is there at all. The only message which isn't is the 'New Mail' one. It will be lost, if you don't save it. The 'Delete' menu allows you to delete a message from the Mail-file. You can't recover a deleted message at all, so be careful. In the 'Selection' menu you have the choice of 4 functions: Clear : Deselects the selected lines. Copy : Copies the lines to another place, starting at the line containing the caret. Move : As Copy followed by Delete. Delete: Deletes the selected lines. The normal key-equivalents (Ctrl-z,c,v,x) works here too. If you move to 'Help', a window containing brief descriptions of the editing- keys will pop up. If you click on Help, the window will remain on the screen until closed. The Preferences window. ----------------------- When you want to read mail from a new board, or you want to alter the texts for an existing one, use Preferences. You can use it in one of two ways: To create a new board, delete the Board name in the iconbar menu. To edit an existing one, enter the Board name in the iconbar menu. Then click Preferences. The window has a number of icons: Board name: This is the filename of the directory, in which the data for the board will be stored. All references to a board goes through this name. You'll be able to edit it if you're creating a new board. If you want to rename an existing board, I suggest you open <TransArc$Dir>.Boards and rename the dir using the filer. There's a VERY good reason for not being able to do this from within TransArc... But you don't want to know :-) User name: This should be name you are known under at the board in question. Message header, Message footer, Quote header: These are lines, called autotexts, that will be inserted into your outgoing mail like this: Mail-> <Message header> Mail-> <Extra line if Message header is present> Mail-> Hi, Fred. Mail-> Mail-> <Quote header> Mail-> <Extra line if Quote header is present> Mail-> FS> sender.. Isn't it wonderful? When I first saw this great Mail-> Mail-> No, I don't think so! Mail-> <Extra line if Message footer is present> Mail-> <Message footer> If you want to exclude an autotext, just delete the text in the box. No extra lines will be inserted. There are some important 'features' to note when altering an existing board. If you already have written some mail, the autotexts will have been stored in the NewMail file. When you want to edit one of these letters, the header and footer will be stripped off your letter, if they are present. This gives us the problem of telling when they are present, solved by looking at their current values. So, if you write some mail while having a footer, changes the board setup to have no footer, and edit that mail, your footer will not have been stripped. If you do the opposite, two lines will be stripped off your letter. So, in short, it's ok to change the header/footer while mail has been written, but DON'T change them from nothing to something or vice versa. The Quote header is inserted once into the text, so no problems with that. Use: This box will only be selectable when editing an existing board. It simply means, that the values will be used now, but next time the board-data is needed, the old values will be fetched from the disc. Save: This one will be shaded until everything is ok. Currently that means until some areas have been set. When clicked, the settings will be saved as permanent for that board. Areas: You'll need to know some things about areas... Inside each board-dir is a textfile called 'Areas'. It contains the names and numbers of the various areas you've joined on that BBS. There is a limit of 31 joined areas for each board, and if this becomes a problem, increase the variable MaxArea% at the start of !RunImage. (You may have to change WimpSlot in the !Run file too.) Whenever you load a message-file, the first area is checked against the ones in all the 'Areas'-files in your board-dirs. To prepare for all possibilities, it should of course check on all the areas, but this would take a long time, especially when using floppy. So, you'll need to setup the areas for that particular BBS. Ideally, the Areas- file should contain all the numbers and names, but you may not have joined them on the board, so this is not possible. But whenever you join or resign from an area on the board, you must be prepared to see something unusual, because TransArc will not know yet. When you've joined some extra areas: If one of the new areas has a lower number than any of the others: This one will be placed first in the file, so when checking for the board, your file will not be recognised. You'll get the error 'This file is from an unknown board', so you do this: Pop up the iconbar menu and enter the name of the board into 'Board'. Click on Preferences. Drag the offending file ont the icon saying 'Drag file here to SET areas'. Notice the Total number has increased, and click Save. Now you'll be able to read the file (and subsequent ones from that board until you change areas and a new area becomes the lowest...) Else: Pop up the iconbar menu and enter the name of the board into 'Board'. Click on Preferences. Drag the offending file ont the icon saying 'Drag file here to ADD areas'. Notice the Total number has increased by the amount added, and click Save. Now you'll be able to read the file. Endif. When you've resigned from some areas: If one of the missing areas was the lowest numbered one, you'll get the same error as above, and for the same reason. So you do the same. (Simple innit?) Else Nothing happens. The areas will just contain no messages. It's upto you, whether you want to set the new areas (to forget the superflous ones) or not. If you don't have space problems in the Areas-file, it's generally better to leave it unaltered. You may join one of the missing areas later on, and this will then work without changing anything. Endif. When you've joined AND resigned some areas: The best way is to SET the areas as above, unless you have a reason for wanting to keep some of the resigned ones (eg. to still be able to read old mail files). If you do, you'll have to ADD the areas, then use a texteditor to put the lowest one on top. This may be implemented later... Whatever you do, remember to click Save after changing the areas... Strange things can happen if the Outgoing mail areas and the file-ones gets 'out of sync'. Btw. the close-icon on the window acts as a 'Cancel'. Nothing will be altered if you click on it. Good luck! Have fun! Thomas. ******************************************************************************* This is PD, spread at will. Please report any problems or comments through Echo-Mail to Thomas Olsson. All this software is provided "as is"; Thomas Olsson makes no warranty, express or implied, of the merchantability of this software or its fitness for any particular purpose. In no circumstances shall Thomas Olsson be liable for any damage, loss of profits, or any indirect or consequential loss arising out of the use of this software or inability to use this software, even if Thomas Olsson has been advised of the possibility of such loss. Thanks to: Modem-Master-Morten for testing all the buggy versions. If he cannot crash it, nobody can. (Or, as he said himself, if he can use it, anyone can.) ThCh (SysOp) for thinking this crap is good. Sorry you'll have no use for it. Hugo for making the 'Upload messages' at all. And for promising an even more extensive transfer protocol in ArcBBS II. Just can't wait... Lee Calcraft for making the Wimp Debugging Utility... This one finally made the RAMtransfer debugable, thus causing it to work! Tim Gladding for extensive promoting of this sh*t on INT-Archimedes.. ;-) More users => more features => more bug reports => better program.. Steve Sims, Jens Ovesen & Keith Sloan for good suggestions and bug reports. My coffee-machine for not breaking down. (Well, actually, it did, but it deserves a thank for working after I fixed it :-) ******************************************************************************* List of changes: ---------------- V2.06: Close-icon on help-window. Memory-claiming reduced to 250K. Inc.msg step bug fixed. Editing keys made as in Twin. Areas moved to a file. V2.10: 'Empty' item added. Msgs per area inc'd to 127 (Due to INT - Arch. 25/11-90...!) Needs 300K now (sigh) Last-msg-in-packet-bug fixed. V2.20: IconMenu appears at right height. When clicking 'Next' at last message, continue into next area. And backwards. !Run in !Inc.- & !Outgoing dirs made universal. (Thanks Steve!) No longer claims double-clicked textfiles. V3.03: Dynamic memory allocation (at last!). WimpSlot therefore decreased to 176K 'File to big to view'-error replaced by 'Can't claim enough' etc. Import through <Wimp$Scrap> supported (ie !Spark). Incoming-save as proper save-window. And dragging it to other apps supported. (Through WimpScrap) Multiple BBS's... Recognised by first area. As a result, no msg-writing before having loaded some inc.-msgs. <'board'$Dir> defined for outgoing mail destination. !Outgoing eventually dumped. SetPref improved. Just decided to keep it. This !Help rewritten. Take a look. V3.04: Stupid bug from 3.03 removed. V3.05: Screenflicker almost gone now. Adjust on arrows searches for personal mail. Incoming window rearranged Toolbox thrown to the other side of inc. window Goto Reply by clicking on the 'number of replies' box. And return to original msg by using Adjust. Drag limits altered and works in any mode. Displays ! icon instead of changing bgcolour for personal msgs. The board's message number is displayed. And one may change it to jump. Dragging a file to outg. mail is now believed to change the text. RAM Transfer to and from Spark finally works. An arc'ed file always has length 0. Nice. Internal message number + jump to it added. Minor changes in SetPref. 'Board' added to iconbar menu. Quoting algorithm rewritten and improved. Line selection and functions added to outgoing window. Cryton board setup added to packet. V3.06: Dragsave bug with window scrolled removed. V3.07: Removes the '(reply to #xxxxx)' text from subjects. Much could be said about this. ProcessKey not called correctly. Now it is. Irritating redraw-bug (occasionally missed a line) cured. Hotkeys for stepping through messages added. Header added when saving incoming messages. Incoming-menu added: Save moved (3rd time I think), Search (for words), Lock to (Area, Subject, Sender, Reciever and Date), and Unlock. Adjust on msg-move no longer searches for user-mail (Provided by Lock to Reciever). Moves in opposite direction instead. New sprites again. 'Preferences' added. SetPref eventually dropped. :-) Might be buggy though, it takes AGES to try everything now. Keep good ol' SetPref for a while; nothing has happened to the format. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Planned improvements: 1. Universal (all dloaded files) search for message number. 98. This help text. 99. Any suggestions...?