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- 'Quick Chat' Version 1.0
- Written by: Joe Hochstuhl
- Associated Professional's Connection
-
-
- Forward:
-
- For months, I looked in vain for a decent, down to earth
- little chat program. My requirements were simply,
- something easy and quick to set-up, useful in drop to DOS
- applications, and reasonably decent looking.
-
- Instead I found only complicated routines requiring much
- set-up. Dependant upon running in certain environments,
- basically nothing in which I would have been interested
- in.
-
- So, tossing in the towel on my search, I got carried away
- and wrote the code for Quick Chat. Quick Chat is
- everything I needed. Simple, looks good, requires little
- to no set-up, and very flexible in a "Drop to DOS"
- situation. As most SysOp's use Doorway for their drop to
- DOS, I made Quick Chat so that it runs under DoorWay,
- Marshall Dudley's little miracle of a program that no
- SysOp should be without.
-
-
- Shareware Notice:
-
- Quick Chat is shareware. I do not cripple my programs,
- never have, never will. Instead, I added an annoying
- little beginning screen that exists in the unregistered
- version. This 10 second registration screen goes away
- with registration of Quick Chat. I do not ask much. A
- small contribution of $10.00 will get you a registration
- key for 'Quick Chat'. Other than that, the program is
- 100% operational.
-
- PLEASE!! Support the shareware concept. Over the years,
- the shareware marketing strategy has enabled end users to
- buy programs at reasonable rates as opposed to the
- commercial market. In fact, the impact of Shareware has
- forced prices on commercial software lower than they would
- have been without shareware competition.
-
- APC Software's is almost a religious believer in the
- shareware concept. Our entire operation is driven by
- shareware, with not one piece of commercial software to
- be found.
-
-
- Legal Stuff:
-
- I do not warranty anything about this program save for
- the fact that it WILL take up space on your Hard Drive.
- APC Softwares, or the author Joe Hochstuhl, will in no
- way assume any responsibility for non-operation or loss
- of Data.
-
-
- System Requirements:
-
- 1) A computer, any computer.
- 2) A registered copy of Marshall Dudley's Doorway. (if
- you need a copy of Doorway, you probably haven't been
- a sysop that long. I have the shareware version here
- at APC (513) 288-2420 V.32bis...
-
-
- Installation:
-
- Piece of cake. Copy the file QC.EXE into a Pathed directory.
- Any Pathed directory will do. And that's about it.
-
- To start Quick Chat, you Several modes. The basic formats
- are outlined below.
-
- For chat mode: (filename CHAT.BAT)
- @ECHO OFF
- CLS
- DOORWAY SYS /O:T /B:XZ /V:D /P:(path)QC.EXE -mchat (options)
-
- And for Page Mode: (filename PAGE.BAT)
- @ECHO OFF
- CLS
- DOORWAY SYS /O:T /B:XZ /V:D /P:(path)QC.EXE -mpage (options)
-
- For most BBSes that allow external chat programs, you are
- permitted the two batch files. One for chat and the other
- for page. Some BBS software will only allow one file, and
- then to distinquish between chat and page they pass a
- parameter to the batch file. If this is you case try:
-
- @echo off
- cls
- IF %1 == PAGE GOTO PAGE
- IF %1 == CHAT GOTO CHAT
- GOTO END
-
- :PAGE
- DOORWAY SYS /O:T /B:XZ /V:D /P:(path)QC.EXE -mpage (options)
- GOTO END
-
- :CHAT
- DOORWAY SYS /O:T /B:XZ /V:D /P:(path)QC.EXE -mchat (options)
- GOTO END
-
- :END
-
- NOTE: If you in a drop to DOS useing DOORWAY. keep in
- mind DOORWAY is already active so to call these batch
- files from a drop to DOS simply omit the beginning
- doorway commands.
-
- Support files (Operation)
-
- As stated before Quick Chat is a very flexible program.
- And it all programs that lend themselves to variable
- enviroments, one must deal with the dreaded command line
- switches. Below is a description of the command line
- switches that are provided with Quick Chat.
-
- -I[?] - SYNTAX: -i[drive\path\dorinfo1.def]
- -i[Sysop name & BBS]
-
- EXAMPLE: -ic:\telix\dorinfo1.def
- EXAMPLE: -iJohn SmithInlow BBS
- (Note: The above----^^-- is not a typo. the BBS
- name must be back to back with the SysOp's Last
- name. A requirement for the registration number)
-
- This is the variable from which Quick Chat draws
- it's information from. This command is only
- required if you are running a registered version
- of Quick Chat. It can hold two types of
- information. The first type is the FULL path to
- the dorinfo1.def file for your BBS. The second
- type is the SysOp's Name and BBS name. For
- Maximum preformance of Quick Chat, you'll want to
- indicate your dorinfo1.def file in this field,
- otherwise you can run with your registration
- number in the second method. The program will,
- however, run without this field in unregistered
- format.
-
- -k[12345 - SYNTAX: -k012345
- This switch is where you will need to enter your
- registration key number. If you are running a
- registered version of quick chat, this field and
- the Info field (above) are REQUIRED.
-
- -m(?) - SYNTAX: -mpage
- -mchat
- A REQUIRED field. If you run nothing else. This
- field MUST be present. Pretty much self
- explanatory. the Mode switch(-m) tells quick chat
- to open in either the Page or Chat format.
-
- -l[?] - SYNTAX: -l([drive]\[path]\[filename])
- This field when present tells Quick Chat to
- record it's operations into a log file that you
- specify. Simply type the full path and name of
- the log file you wish to write to.
-
-
- Command line examples:
-
- The following command line tells Quick Chat to do the
- following items. Reference dorinfo1.def in the Phantom
- directory for it's variables. Start up in Page Mode.
- Gives registration Key. and writes it's operations to the
- file qc.log in the root directory of C.
-
- (path)qc.exe -ic:\phantom\dorinfo1.def -mpage -k12345 -lc:\qc.log
-
- The following command line tells Quick Chat to not use a
- dorinfo1.def file, but supplies the information for
- registered mode. Start up in chat mode. And supplies
- registration key. Since the -l option is missing, there
- will be no log written.
-
- (path)qc.exe -iJohn SmithInlow BBS -mchat -k12345
-
- The following command line tells Quick Chat to reference
- the dorinfo1.def file for variables. Start in chat mode.
- Since the -k is missing, it will start up in unregistered
- mode.
-
- (path)qc.exe -ic:\telix\dorinfo1.def -mchat
-
- The simpliest command line of all: Start up in
- unregistered mode. Use no information file. Run in
- complete no frills mode. Start up in page mode.
-
- (path)qc.exe -mpage
-
- Finally, A drop to DOS application might go like this. I
- created a batch file in my \TOOLS directory (\tools is a
- pathed directory). The file name I called CHAT.BAT. And
- in this file I had one line like this:
- qc -ic:\phantom\dorinfo1.def -k12345 -mchat
- This implementation of Quick Chat gave me the ability to
- bring any user into chat while we were operating in DOS.
- I simply type CHAT at the command line and up it comes.
- (Keeping in mind that I am useing DOORWAY to drop to dos
- in the first place so it was not needed to use the doorway
- command line as in the BBS batch file examples.) This
- loaded a fully operational registered version of Quick
- Chat, while not useing a log.
-
- Well those should give you the basic idea. If you have
- further questions log onto my BBS, I will be happy to
- help. Registered or Unregistered.
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- That's about it. APC Software's is one of the leading
- developers of Doors, BBS packages, and utilities designed
- for use with DOORWAY. Feel free to log onto our bulletin
- Board any time you like to see what other Programs are
- available and written by us.
-
- Registration for any APC Software's program can be done
- by mail to:
-
- ATT: Program registration
- APC Softwares
- 215 South High Street
- Hillsboro, Ohio 45133
-
- APC Voice daytime number is: (513) 393-3499
- APC Support BBS is: (513) 288-2420 v.32bis
-
- Quick Chat is copyrighted work and the Author reserves
- all rights to it. Registration for Quick Chat is $10.00.
-