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- GHOST BBS is a shareware mini-BBS replacement for the Datastorm
- provided Host script in Procomm Plus for Windows. For a history of the
- various releases of GHOST BBS, see the file HISTORY.TXT.
-
- For those of you familiar with GHOST BBS in one of it's earlier
- versions, perhaps a word of warning about GHOST 3.00 is in order...
-
- IT'S DIFFERENT!! <GG>
-
- Although the basic concepts remain, in some ways GHOST BBS 3.00 is a
- radical departure from earlier versions, with menus and prompts which
- the sysop may edit, support for multiple languages and multiple
- download "libraries", many new support files, and much more.
-
- However, perhaps the two most important changes are these...
-
- 1) The documentation for GHOST is now on line and contained in the
- Windows Help format file, GHOST3.HLP.
-
- 2) GHOST BBS 3.00 includes an installation utility, which will either
- install a new copy of GHOST, or update an older version to version
- 3.00.
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Whether you are upgrading GHOST from an earlier version, installing a
- new copy of GHOST, or merely want to look at the documentation for
- GHOST before deciding to install it, the procedure for getting started
- with GHOST BBS 3.00 is the same.....
-
- 1) The GHOST 3.00 files should be contained in a self-extracting ZIP
- format file (GHOST3.EXE). Copy this file to either a floppy drive
- (high density) or to a working directory of your hard drive. Then run
- the GHOST3.EXE file to extract the contents to that directory.
-
- 2) Copy the file INSTALLG.WAX from the source file location to your
- PCP/Win default Aspect sub directory.
-
- 3) Load PCP/Win, and, using the drop down script listing in the tool
- bar, select INSTALLG to run it.
-
- 4) The first thing this script will do is ask you where the GHOST 3.00
- source files are located (which, of course, is the drive/directory
- where you extracted the files from GHOST3.EXE). Type the name of that
- drive and/or directory into the dialog box.
-
- 5) The installation utility will copy the GHOST3.HLP file into the
- default PCP/Win executable directory. It will then minimize Procomm,
- and load the GHOST 3.00 Help file. Be patient as this takes a few
- seconds to finish.
-
- 6) Once the Help file is loaded, you may see a momentary flash of the
- Procomm icon and a dialog box over top of the GHOST Help file display.
- Don't worry about this. What has happened is that, once the Help file
- is loaded, the script will restore the focus in Windows to Procomm.
- The installation script then immediately transfers it back to the Help
- file, so that you can browse through it.
-
- 7) At this point, you may browse through the GHOST 3.00 help file
- before deciding to continue with the installation. You may want to
- look at the Installation section of the Help file for more information
- before deciding. In any case, you may look at as much, or as little of
- the Help file as you wish before deciding to continue the installation.
-
- 8) When you are ready to go on with the installation script, simply
- close or minimize the Help file. You will then, on the screen, see the
- minimized Procomm icon, along with a dialog box asking if you want to
- continue with the installation.
-
- 9) If, at this point, you decide not to continue, select NO in the
- dialog. The installation utility will then ask if you want to delete
- the Help file for GHOST (just in case you want to continu browsing it
- and do the installation later). The install utility will then delete
- the Help file (if you told it to) and finally, delete itself from your
- drive.
-
- 10) If you decide to continue with the install, select the Yes button.
- Answer any dialogs which appear. When completed, the INSTALLG file
- will delete itself from your ASPECT subdirectory.
-
- The GHOST Help file is available in GHOST or the GHOST Utilities, from
- any dialog box which has a Help button in it, or by pressing the
- standard Windows help key, F1, or by selecting Help from the GHOST
- Sysop menu when it is on screen (i.e. a user, remote or local, is on
- line with GHOST). It may also be run without running GHOST itself,
- either from the command line in FileManager, or by double clicking on
- the file GHOST3.HLP (located in your default \PROWIN directory).
-
- Once the installion or upgrade is completed, you should run the GHOST
- utilities (in the script drop down box, it will be GHSTUTIL) to
- configure the various settings in GHOST for operation. Once that is
- done, selecting GHOST in the script drop down will load GHOST for your
- first "session" with it, and allow you to do the final configuration
- (if you wish) for various run times, and so on.
-
- There is a file in the release ZIP which is not necessary for the
- installation, but which might interest you. This is SCREENS.EXE, which
- is a self-extracting ZIP containing quite a few different examples of
- ANSI screens and menus.
-
- Vlad Balak, a GHOST 3.00 beta site in Brisbane, Australia, spent over
- a month working on various sample screens, and uploading them to my
- system so that we would have some samples of alternative ANSI displays
- to include for you. If you want, these can be used to replace the
- various screens and menus in the default GHOST installation, or they
- can be used as starting points in TheDraw or similar, for designing
- your own variations for GHOST.
-
- Have fun, and as always, if you have any questions, please feel free
- to contact me.
-
- Gregg Hommel
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- (SPECIAL NOTES FOR BETA SITES - Because you have been using variations
- of the release version, there are a couple of special considerations
- for you.
-
- If you are running anything previous to GHOST 3.00 beta, build 1 (e.g.
- GHOST 2.14 or 2.20 betas), use the INSTALLG utility to upgrade to
- GHOST 3.00. It will upgrade these versions to 3.00, but will not run
- if you already have a GHOST 3.00 beta installed.
-
- If you are running GHOST 3.00 beta, build 1 through build 6, you will
- need to....
-
- A) Use the release version WAX files to replace your older beta WAX
- files.
-
- B) replace your LANG1.PMT file with the release version, in order to
- get the newer prompts (which now include the entire prompt, plus the
- new GHOST @variables) Of course, if you had multiple languages set up,
- you may also need to edit your other PMT files to match the newer
- format for prompts.
-
- C) log on to Gregg's Place BBS and get the file UPTOREL.ZIP which
- contains a utility (USRTOREL.WAX) to convert your USR files to the
- final GHOST 3.00 USR/REC format.
-
- Those sites already running beta build 7, simply copy the WAX files
- from the release version to the appropriate directories. There are a
- couple of "tweaks" for speed, some changes re: the HLP file access,
- and one minor bug fix in the release version of these WAX files.
-
- One last item.... if you have an older copy of the GHOST3.HLP file
- installed in your \PROWIN directory, don't forget to replace it with
- the final version in the release files.)
-
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-
-