Programmer 7500/MAX_PROGRAMMERS.iso/PASCAL/BVOTE.ZIP/BVOTE.DOC

Text File | 1989-08-28 | 9.1 KB | 231 lines

BVote 0.1
(c) 1989 Bogusware & Chris Rowley, all rights reserved

Chris Rowley
11808 Canfield Rd
Potomac, MD  20854
[phone] home voice
[phone] school voice
[phone] home data (Random Factor II)

Disclaimer & Use
----------------
BVote was written because I downloaded some other putz's voting booth program
and the weasel wanted twenty-five bucks to register it and get utilities
to alter booths.  Big schmeal!  Twenty-five bucks!  And the stinker would
kick out ANSi crap all the time whether I wanted it or not.  So I said, "In
keeping with the fine Bogusware tradition of my past utilities FileUtil
and more, I'll write something that's FREE, that comes with source code,
and has every feature that anyone could want except for that guy in
Rhode Island who needed it to sort punctuation but that's another story."
So here it is, in pure, undiluted form, messy source code and all.  The
major feature of 0.2 will be new, improved, partially-documented code!
Woo!  Won't that be spiffy?

So, of course, you are free to use this program any way you want.  Want to
change all the obnoxious text messages to random profanity?  Feel free.
Want to add new bugs and blame me for them?  Fine.  I don't care.  Because
that's our attitude here at Bogusware.  In case you didn't know it,
at Bogusware we say, "Man, if I had to pay for that, that'd be bogus!"
Communications are for fun-loving guys!  Monetary masochists!  Running
a BBS is a social thing.  As Judd Nelson said, "Demented and sad... but
social."  Such is BVote.

So, the only disclaimer I can say is that we can only pray that running
BVote doesn't cause yer computer to smoke, burst into flames, become
possesed by the demon from the ninth level of hell or randomly dial
976 numbers.  BVote, like me, is as innocent as a new-born lamb.  So
don't blame it.  BVote doesn't crash computers, people do.

Features
--------
BVote is a multi-use voting booth designed to be all things to all people.
It is designed for use with QuickBBS, but it'll work with anything that
creates the DORINFO1.DEF file which has the users name on line 6 and 7 and
their security level on line 10.  It will also run in local mode with
no DORINFO1.DEF which allows the user to enter a name and get instant
sysop access.  This allows easy local testing, debugging, and maintenance.
BVote needs some sorta driver, I use DOORWAY, an EXCELLENT shareware
package that tracks time, carrier, and even intercepts direct-screen writes.
If you want to write doors and don't want to touch your COM ports, buy
this excellent package.

BVote uses no fixed files, allowing you to have as many different "polling
places" as you like.  Each polling place can have up to 99 booths (if
Messy-DOS were a real operating system like AmigaDOS we wouldn't have this
filename length problem), and each booth can have up to 20 responses.
The sysop can be the only one who can create booths if ya want, but it
is much more fun to let users add booths.  You can view results, and vote
in two different ways, including the preferred 'scan' mode that goes
from most recent to oldest question.  You may prevent users from voting
more than once.  There is a complete log kept.  All aspects of every booth
can be modifed by the sysop.

Getting Started
---------------
Just type 'bvote [filename]' where fileame is the 1-8 character polling
place name.  If you don't include this, BVote will report that there
is nothing to do.

If [filename] is new, you will be asked whether or not you really want
to create a new polling place.  If you say yes, you will be asked the
following questions:

Only allow people to vote once?
     If you enable this option, BVote will allow creators of booths to set
     whether or not usres can vote more than once in their booth.

Allow users to add responses?
     If enabled, creators of booths can determine whether the responses
     to their booths are fixed or not.

Allow multi-line choices?
     Enabled means questions and responses can be 1 to 3 lines instead of
     only one.

Minimum security to create a booth?
     Just what it says, the security required to add a booth.

Minimum sysop security?
     Security level required to access 'Revise Booths' and 'Log' commands.

Once these parameters are set, a few files are created:
     [filename].pp  -- info on the polling place
     [filename].vb  -- questions, responses, results
     [filename].log -- log of recent user activity

When new booths are added, if the tracking option is enabled a file
called [filename].Uxx will be created where 'xx' is the number of the
booth.  This file tracks each name to prevent duplicate voters.

You may optionally create a [filename].wel file that will be displayed
to users with pertinent info, etc.

The Menu
--------
To the sysop, the menu appears as:

[L] List booths and results                [V] Vote in booths
[S] Scan booths newest to oldest           [G] Goodbye
[E] Enter a new booth                      [R] Revise a booth
[1] View booth logs                        [2] Kill booth logs

The commands are summarized below.  Options L, V, S and G are shown
to all security levels, option E to those of ADDSEC or above, and
options R, 1 and 2 to those of SYSSEC or above.

List Booths
-----------
This option automatically displays a list of all booths, first to last.
An option line appears as follows:

Which One? [1-xx,L=list]

The user may type the booth number to review the results of, or L to
re-list the booths.

Vote in Booths
--------------
This option displays a list of all booths, first to last, then offers
the same option line as in List Booths.  After choosing a valid booth,
the following option line is displayed:

Your choice? [1-xx,99,L=list,K=kill,R=reply,0=quit]

Option 99 is displayed only if the user may add a response.  Option K
only appears if a sysop is on or the user who created the booth is on.

The choice is possible response 1 to however many.  99 allows the user
to add a new response and add one vote to its count.  L re-lists the
possible responses.  K marks the booth for deletion.  R allows the
user to create a new booth that references the previous question.  For
example, the booth that asked "How many sheep was Melvin with last
night?" might get someone to ask "Was that group of sheep Melvin's
family?"  0 quits out of the response mode.

Scan Booths
-----------
This option starts with the most recent questions, pauses with the
above option line, and moves on the next oldest question

Goodbye
-------
Confirms that the user wants to log off, allows optional one-line to
next caller.

Enter New Booth
---------------
Allows user to create a new booth.

First the user is allowed to enter the question.  If multi-line is
allowed, this question may be 1 to 3 75 character lines otherwise
one line.

The user is then prompted for some stats about the booth.  First, the
user specifies whether or not his or her name should appear above the
question.  Next, if add-on responses are allowed in the polling place,
the user can specify whether they are allowed for this booth.  Similar
questions for user tracking and multiple-lines follow.

Next, up to 20 responses may be entered, a minimum of 2 required.

Revise a Booth
--------------
This sysop maintenance tool allows every aspect of every booth to be
altered.  It's not too friendly at the moment.  The following record
is displayed:

Record #x of of y
[1] question line 1
    question line 2
    question line 3
[2] created by: name (date)
[3] Response to question: z
[4] Track: T/F [5] Killed: T/F [6] Addons: T/F
[7] Titleit: T/F [8] Multi: T/F
[9] Alter votes (m total) [0] Alter responses (n available)
[Q] Quit [+] Next record [-] Previous record [J] Jump

Options are 0-9, Q, J, + and -.  Q quits to the main menu.  + and -
increment and decrement x respectively.  J allows you to jump to record
x.  Option 4 to 8 are toggles.  1 allows you to change the question, 2
changes the creator's name.

9 allows you to change the number of votes recorded for each response.

0 allows you to change the actual text of the different responses.

List log
--------
Display useage log.

Kill log
--------
Deletes active log.

Theory
------
There is none.  Other than that voting booths are fun.  Have fun with
BVote.

Conclusion
----------
This is release 0.1.  It was written in less than 20 hours spread over
two weeks (I was in Ocean City for a week, eh?).  I'm sure there are
bugs, missing features, etc.  Drop me a line by mail, phone, or message.

BVote, (c) 1989 Bogusware, All Rights Reserved.
All contents are freely redistributable.  If you muck up the code,
please don't reupload it and screw someone over, eh?  If you have
problems, I'll search my code, but if someone has tampered, what am I
to do?

Bogusware.
"Man, if I had to pay for this, that'd be bogus."

Any contributions for this program (which are not requested, but if ya
send 'em in, I gotta do sumpin' with 'em) will be donated to your
choice of (a) The Get Steve Laid Fund or (b) Gamma Omnicron Delta beer
fund.