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NETWORK QUOTABLES Version 2.01 2/15/93 UN-REGISTERED VERSION Written by Greg Bixby _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Copyright 1992 Gregory R. Bixby TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 INSTALLATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 HOW NETWORK QUOTABLES WORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 USING NETWORK QUOTABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 BROWSE QUOTES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 ADD QUOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 CHANGE MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 CHANGE PASSWORD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 PACK DATABASE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 UNTAG ALL QUOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 PRINT QUOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 SCREEN COLORS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 SETUP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 QUIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 COMMAND LINE SWITCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 POSSIBLE ENHANCEMENTS FOR FUTURE VERSIONS . . . . . . . . . 15 INTRODUCTION NETWORK QUOTABLES is a program that randomly picks a Quote of the Day from a database and displays it to standalone or network users. The same quote is displayed for all network users on a particular day. An optional message can be displayed below the quote. Quotes can be Added, Edited, Deleted, or Printed. NETWORK QUOTABLES can also be used as a non-TSR screen saver with a user added message displayed under the quote. This program was written to make the network interesting and fun for the users that I support. It has helped to get stuburn, disinterested or scared users to turn on their PCs. The users have really gotten into the Quote of the Day, and many of the quotes provided have come from those users. Because the program is written for a business environment, I have tried to provide quotes that would not be offensive to anyone. However, you should review the quotes for yourself and make sure that they are appropriate for your environment. NETWORK QUOTABLES has been tested on Standalone PCs, Lantastic, Novell 2.15 and Novell 3.11. The program doesn't do anything tricky and should work on any DOS based network. I'd be interested in hearing if someone tries it on a Lan Manager or Banyan Vines network. Files included with the Un-Registered version of NETWORK QUOTABLES: QUOTES.EXE Network Quotables Program QUOTES.DBF Network Quotables Data File QUOTES.DOC Network Quotables Documentation (This File!) QUOTES.REG Network Quotables Registration Form README.DOC Short Introduction and Installation Instructions WHATSNEW.DOC List of all the new features added to the newest version VENDOR.DOC Vendor Distribution File FILE_ID.DIZ BBS Distribution Description File To print this documentation, the readme.doc file and the quotes.reg file, retrieve into your favorite text editor or at the DOS Prompt, type TYPE QUOTES.DOC >LPT1 TYPE QUOTES.REG >LPT1 TYPE README.DOC >LPT1 TYPE WHATSNEW.DOC >LPT1 DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT Users of NETWORK QUOTABLES must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "NETWORK QUOTABLES is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of NETWORK QUOTABLES." NETWORK QUOTABLES is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you find this program useful and find that you are using NETWORK QUOTABLES and continue to use NETWORK QUOTABLES after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment. The registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Commercial users of NETWORK QUOTABLES must register and pay for their copies of NETWORK QUOTABLES within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made by contacting GREG BIXBY. Anyone distributing NETWORK QUOTABLES for any kind of remuneration must first contact GREG BIXBY at the address below for authorization. This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering NETWORK QUOTABLES immediately (However GREG BIXBY must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of NETWORK QUOTABLES.). You are encouraged to pass a copy of NETWORK QUOTABLES along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of the NETWORK QUOTABLES system. Please use the registration form located in QUOTES.REG to place your order. Registration Fees: Standalone PC $25 Network $75 These licenses are for one PC or one file server. Please contact the author for pricing on additional copies or a site license. As a registered user of NETWORK QUOTABLES you will receive a disk containing the latest version of the program with a database of over 580 quotes that I have collected. It also includes a conversion utility for users of version 1.3. Future upgrades will be made available to you for the cost of a diskette and shipping and handling. Included in the price is technical support for the program, including bug fixes and answering any questions. The author can be reached at the address and telephone number listed below. Requested enhancements and special needs are welcome. Please make registration payments payable to: Greg Bixby 29550 Highmeadow Farmington Hills, MI 48334 (313) 737-9406 CompuServe ID: [71674,731] Thank you in advance for registering this program. A lot of time has gone into this program to make sure it works well and is easy to use. Enjoy! This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details -- some request registration while others require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue using the software to an updated program with printed manual. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. INSTALLATION NETWORK QUOTABLES can be installed on a standalone PC or on a network. To install NETWORK QUOTABLES on a standalone PC, simply copy the program and associated files into a separate directory. In the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, change to the quotes directory and then run the QUOTES.EXE program. SAMPLE AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE: C: where C is the drive the program was installed on CD\QUOTES where QUOTES is the directory the program was installed in QUOTES To install NETWORK QUOTABLES on a Novell network, copy the program and associated files into a shared directory on the file server. Run the QUOTES.EXE program from the login script using the EXIT command and a batch file or when you start the network menuing system. You can try running the QUOTES.EXE program directly from the login script using the DOS execute command (#), but I have always run into memory problems because of all the TSR's and drivers that are loaded. To install NETWORK QUOTABLES on a Lantastic network, copy the program and associated files into a shared directory on the server. Setup a drive to the server in the startnet.bat file. In the autoexec.bat file, after the startnet.bat file, change to the network drive and NETWORK QUOTABLES directory and run the QUOTES.EXE program. On any of the installations, the program must be run from the directory that it was installed in. SAMPLE AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE: Load Network Drivers, call startnet.bat for Lantastic X: where X is the network drive CD\QUOTES where QUOTES is the directory the program was installed in QUOTES The first time the program is run it will automatically create the indexes and other files it needs to run. If at any time these files get deleted, they will automatically be recreated using default values. The only files that need to exist before execution are QUOTES.EXE and QUOTES.DBF. HOW NETWORK QUOTABLES WORKS NETWORK QUOTABLES starts out by checking a file, QUOTE.DBF to see if a quote has already been displayed on this workstation for this day. If the workstation date is the same as the date in the QUOTE.DBF file, the quote has already been displayed for that day. This was done so that if you have to reboot the workstation several times during the day, the quote is only displayed the first time. If you want NETWORK QUOTABLES to display the quote each time it is run, the file QUOTE.DBF must be deleted from the root directory before the program is run or the /F switch must be used. Next, the program compares the workstation date with the date the current quote was generated. If the dates are the same, it displays the current quote. If the dates are different, the program selects a new quote to display. Basically the first person to login to the network in the morning will generate the quote for that day. To select a new quote, NETWORK QUOTABLES generates a random number that corresponds to a record number in the quotes database, QUOTES.DBF. It then checks to see if the quote has been displayed before. If so, it generates a new number and starts over. The program will loop 30 times before it will select a quote whether it has been displayed before or not (this was done so that when the database is 90% displayed it doesn't continuously search for a quote and slow the system down). If the quote has not been displayed before, it is selected as the Quote of the Day. The program also checks to see if there is a message to be displayed in the MESSAGES.DBF file. After all of this is done, the quote and optional message are displayed. NETWORK QUOTABLES checks for the existence of all files and will create them (except for QUOTES.DBF) using default values if they are missing. Quotes and messages are limited to 254 characters. This is due to the implementation that I chose for character strings. USING NETWORK QUOTABLES As far as the average user on a network is concerned, the only options they have are to press ESCape to exit the NETWORK QUOTABLES program, press SHIFT-F7 to print the Quote of the Day, or press F4 to activate the screen saver with a message. Individual quotes printed with SHIFT-F7 will be printed to LPT1. The screen saver allows the user to have NETWORK QUOTABLES move vertically on the screen so that the image does not burn into the screen. Pressing F4 will prompt the user for a message to display (on this workstation only) under the quote. Pressing Enter without a message will leave the message off. NETWORK QUOTABLES will move every 15 seconds. If there is a system message, it will only be displayed when NETWORK QUOTABLES first runs, once the screen save is started, the system message will be removed. For the network administrator or on a standalone system, the Maintenance Menu can be accessed by pressing F10. A password prompt will appear. The default password is MAINT, but can be changed within the program. While typing the password, no cursor will be displayed and asterisks (*) will be displayed in place of the letters typed. Once the password is entered the following menu appears: ╔══════════════════╗ ║ BROWSE QUOTES ║ ║ ADD QUOTES ║ ║ CHANGE MESSAGE ║ ║ CHANGE PASSWORD ║ ║ PACK DATABASE ║ ║ UNTAG ALL QUOTES ║ ║ PRINT QUOTES ║ ║ SCREEN COLORS ║ ║ SETUP ║ ║ QUIT ║ ╚══════════════════╝ Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the option you want, press enter to select. Pressing ESC will return to the displayed quote. BROWSE QUOTES Browse Quotes gives a column display of the Quotes database, which consists of three fields, the quote itself, whether it has been tagged as used, and if it is a user added quote. A "T" (stands for the logical True) is placed in the Used and User Added fields to indicate that the quote has been used or that it was user added. A blank field indicates that it has not been used or that it was not user added. An "N" in the User Added field indicates a new quote that has been added to your database during an upgrade from an earlier version of Network Quotables. Use the left and right arrow keys to move between the three fields. Use the up and down arrow keys to move between records. Use PageUp and PageDown to Page between records. CTRL-PageUp and CTRL-PageDown will take you to the beginning and end of the database, respectively. The Quotes database can be viewed in several different ways, alphabetical, by whether it has been tagged as used, or a search for up to seven words using AND and OR logic can be performed. Select the option that indicates what order you would like to see the database in from the menu presented. If you select alphabetical or tagged, you will be taken to the browse screen. If you selected search, you will be presented with an input screen for the search criteria. A prompt for a word or phrase of up to 20 characters is presented. Next, a menu for a logical connector (AND, OR) or Done is presented. If you want to add additional words to your search, select AND or OR. Selecting DONE will start the search using the criteria entered. The Browse screen is presented with the selected records. If you do not want the word you type to be contained within another word(search for TIME, quote found with SOMETIMES), type the word with a space in front of it. This technique works unless the word is the first word in the quote. EXAMPLE OF A SEARCH: HUMAN MIND .AND. WORLD .OR. RACE Once in the Browse mode, pressing ENTER will allow you to edit the field that is currently highlighted. Once in edit mode, a cursor will appear that can be moved using the left and right arrow keys. To go to the end of the quote, press END, to the beginning of the quote, press HOME. Pressing ESC will return the quote to its original state. Pressing ENTER again will make any changes permanent. Edit mode defaults to typeover. Press INSERT to insert characters between existing text. F2 will pop the currently highlighted quote into an Edit box the same size as when it is displayed. This allows you to see how the quote will be displayed and make changes. F7 saves the quote, ESCape exits without saving. While Browsing alphabetically or within a search, pressing a letter will pop up a quick search box. Enter your search string and press Enter. This will allow you to move to a quote by searching for up to the first 15 characters of the quote. Typing "TIME" will take you to the first quote that starts with "TIME". If an exact match is not found, it will take you to the closest match. Note that this feature is deactivated when Browsing the quotes database in tagged order. While highlighting a particular quote, F1 can be pressed to make it the current Quote of the Day. The quote can be made the Quote of the Day Immediately or Tomorrow. This is handy when someone submits a quote. If you just add the quote to the database, it may not randomly come up for two years. You can go in and make it the current quote so that it comes up the next day. Pressing DELETE will mark a quote as deleted and will not allow it to be displayed. Use PACK DATABASE to permanently delete the marked quotes. ADD QUOTES Choosing Add Quotes displays a blank box where a quote can be entered. Pressing F7 will save the quote and append it to the Quotes database. Pressing ESC will exit without saving the Quote. The Quote can be a maximum of 254 characters long. If you type a quote longer than 254 characters, a message will be displayed to that effect and you will be given a chance to shorten the quote. Do not use the return key to add blank lines within a quote. Hard returns are replaced with spaces when the quote is saved. This is done so that control characters do not show up when the quotes are browsed. To place a blank line in the quote, press the down arrow key twice to move down two lines, then press home to move to the beginning of the line and enter any additional text. The Add Quotes and Change Message Editor use WordStar Compatible Commands, some of the most useful are: CTRL-Y = Delete Line CTRL-B = Reformat Text DELETE = Delete Character at Cursor BACKSPACE = Delete Character to Left of Cursor CTRL-T = Delete Word to Right INSERT = Toggle Insert/Typeover mode CHANGE MESSAGE Choosing Change Message displays a blank box where a message can be entered. Pressing F7 will save the message into the Messages database. Pressing ESC will exit without saving the message. The Message can be a maximum of 254 characters long. If you type a message longer than 254 characters, a message will be displayed to that effect and you will be given a chance to shorten the message. To delete a message, press F2. This will cause the message area below the Quote of the Day to be removed. CHANGE PASSWORD Choosing Change Password will allow you to change the password that allows access to the Maintenance Menu. A prompt for the existing password will be displayed. No cursor will be displayed and asterisks (*) will be displayed in place of the letters typed. Type in the Old Password, then the New Password, and finally verify the New Password. Pressing ESC anywhere during the process and prior to pressing ENTER on Verified Password will abort the whole process. PACK DATABASE Packing the Database will permanently delete all quotes marked for deletion. It will also recreate the index files needed to run the program. Re-Building the indexes can also be accomplished by deleting the existing *.NTX files. The program will automatically recreate them. UNTAG ALL QUOTES This option will go through the Quotes database and mark all of the quotes as unused. This allows any of the quotes in the Quotes database to be selected as the random Quote of the Day. If you would like to selectively mark quotes as unused, use BROWSE QUOTES, move to the quote you want to untag, display the Quote Has Been Used field by using the left and right arrow keys, and empty the field by placing a space in it. PRINT QUOTES This option will print out all of the quotes, quotes tagged as used, quotes tagged as user added, or the results of a search. Select the option you would like from the menu. If you select Search you will be taken to the search criteria screen to enter your search. When printing, the device it will be printed to and the orientation (landscape or portrait) will be displayed. If either of these are incorrect, exit printing by pressing "N" to continue and change these setting in Setup. SCREEN COLORS Allows user to change the colors for the Quote of the Day display as well as the menu colors. The colors can be changed for the Border, Text, Company Name, Menu Border, or the Menu Highlight Bar. To change the colors, select the area to change from the menu. A color chart will be displayed that gives all possible color combinations. An X appears on the selected color. The X can be moved using all of the arrow keys. A sample of what the color combination would look like in text form is shown at the bottom of the chart. Select the color combination desired by placing the X on the combination and press enter. Next time the program is loaded, the new colors will be displayed. The default colors can be restored by choosing the Reset Default option from the menu. The default colors are: Blue and Yellow for the Border, Blue and Yellow for the Text, Black and Yellow for the Company Name, Black and Red for the Menu Border, and Green and White for the Menu Bar Highlight, Blue and Cyan for Menu Options. No matter what colors you choose, it is recommended that you keep the background color the same for both the Border and the Text for the Quote of the Day. Also, the color choices are for all network users with color monitors, not an individual workstation. Monochrome monitors automatically default to an appropriate color choice. SETUP Setup allows you to set several system options including company name, printer device and orientation, and the location of the QUOTE.DBF file. Remember that changing these options effects every user. Printing supports LPT1, LPT2, LPT3 and to a file, Capture.prn. Select the port you want from the menu. Note that Shift-F7 from the main screen only uses LPT1. Quotes can be printed in either Portrait or Landscape. Portrait is setup so that it will print to most standard printers including dot-matrix and laser printers. Landscape requires an HP Laserjet compatible laser printer. The page length and the top margin can also be set. The default for the location of the QUOTE.DBF file is the root (\) directory of drive C:. The file can be stored in a specific directory or on another drive, such as a network drive. However, changing this option will change the location of the file for all users. Enter the Drive letter including a colon (:) and a existing directory name. The program will not create the specified directory. If you specify a non-existent directory, the program will bomb the next time you try to run it. If this occurs, erase the SYSTEM.DBF file, rerun the program and the default will be restored. To store the file on the network, a unique directory must be setup for each user, such as a directory using the login name, and that directory must be mapped to the same drive for all users. Specify the mapped drive for the drive location and then leave the directory completely blank. If more than one person has the same location for this file, only the first person will have the quote displayed unless the /F switch is specified. This option could be useful for installations that run diskless workstations, that restrict write access to the local hard drive, or for the plain picky administrator (myself included) that likes as few files in the root directory as possible. ***Do not*** use the program directory as the location of this file or set the drive to the program drive and leave the directory blank. A file with the same name is located in the program directory and conflicts will arise. QUIT Quit will return you to the Quote of the Day display. Pressing the ESC key performs the same function. COMMAND LINE SWITCHES /H, /? or ? - Displays a help screen listing all of the command line switches. /F - allows the user to bypass the date check of the QUOTE.DBF file and force the program to load. The user still gets same quote as everyone else. The QUOTE.DBF file will not be created. /T#S - where # is time specified in seconds, allows the user to set the time that NETWORK QUOTABLES is active, assuming the ESCape is not pressed first. The default is 0, which keeps the program active forever. I would suggest a fairly large number, like 300 to 600, since many people turn their PCs on an then walk away to get a cup of coffee. Note that the time must be followed by the letter S. /S#M - where # is time specified in seconds (ranging between 1 and 86400), loads the program as a screen saver, moving every # seconds. Note that the time must be followed by the letter M. /R - generates a new random quote everytime the program is run. Ignores the fact that the quote may have been displayed before. If this parameter is used, each network user will see a different quote. Note that using this for one user has no impact on the other network users. It does not change the network quote or mark any quotes as used. Parameters can be used in combination with each other. Do not separate them with spaces or other delimiters. If /T and /S are specified together, the screen saver will take precedence and stays on until ESCape is pressed. EXAMPLES: QUOTES /F Will ignore the date stored in QUOTE.DBF and will automatically load the program. QUOTES /T300S Keeps the program active for 300 seconds (5 minutes). QUOTES /R Generates a new random quote each time the program is run. QUOTES /S30M Loads the program as a screen saver moving every 30 seconds QUOTES /F/T60S/R Forces the program to run, keeps the quote displayed for 60 seconds and picks a new random quote. QUOTES /F/S10M/R Forces the program to run as a screen saver, moving every 10 seconds and generates a new random quote. POSSIBLE ENHANCEMENTS FOR FUTURE VERSIONS - Individual User selectable options, including color and printer - Ability to tag quotes in browse mode to perform an action on, such as printing, deleting or untagging - Support for quotes and messages larger than 254 characters - User changable pathing so the program can be run without being in the program directory - Add Quotes in a box from within Browse - View database in user added order - User defined timing for the screen saver with message - Multiple user access and security to the maintenance menu - As always, more, more and more quotes I am very interested in hearing comments, questions, suggestions and complaints about this program. In addition, I am always looking for new witty, humorous or thought provoking quotes that can be included with the program. Please feel free to contact me.