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Text File | 1993-02-27 | 14.7 KB | 310 lines

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ │ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ├─────────┴┐▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ├──────────┐ │ │ │▒▒┌────┐▒▒ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │▒▒┌──────┬┘▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ │ │▒▒└────┘▒┌─┘▒┌─────┐▒ │▒▒│ │ ▒▒┌───────┘ │ │ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒└─┐▒└─────┘▒ │▒▒│ │ ▒▒└─────┐ │ │ │▒▒▒┌───┐▒▒ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │▒▒│ │ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ │ │▒▒▒│ │▒▒ │▒▒┌───┐▒▒ │▒▒└──────┴┐▒▒┌─────┘ │ │ │▒▒▒│ │▒▒ │▒▒│ │▒▒ │▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │▒▒└───────┐ │ │ └───┘ └──┬┘▒▒│ │▒▒ ├─────────┬┘▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ │ │ │ └───┘ └───┘ └───────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ RACE v2.00 - RemoteAccess Caller Editor │ │ Copyright Michael F. Janke 1989,1993. All Rights Reserved. │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Due to a severe bout of procrastination, the RACE documentation was not ready in time for the RA 2.0 release. Rather than hold up RACE, I felt it would be best to release it without documentation and follow up a short time later with proper documentation. RACE is not that difficult to use, even without documentation, and many are veteran RACE users and would probably prefer to have a version that works with RA 2.0 than have to wait for docs. Note that the info contained in this file is everything that is new since version 1.52. To get it done as quickly as possible, bug fixes are not listed. If you have been using the 1.60x beta versions of RACE, much of this info will be a repeat of what you already know. CONFIGURING RACE FOR RA 2.0 --------------------------- There are almost no configuration changes required. You can put the new RACE executable files over your old version and RACE 2.00 will use your current RACE.CFG with no difficulty. There are a few changes in RACECFG.EXE, but only in the removal of one miscellaneous configuration item and in the addition of the new user fields for report templates. Hiding the user password is no longer an option in RACECFG because RACE does not display (and cannot display) a user password. RA no longer stores a text password in the user file. Only a 32-bit CRC of the password is retained and this number would have little meaning to a user of RACE. Neither RA's RAMGR or RACE allow editing of the password field. You may only enter a NEW password. Make sure you have deleted the RA 1.11 USERON.BBS file. I'm sure the RA upgrade instruction will say the same thing, but in case you miss it... WHATS NEW IN RACE 2.00 ---------------------- Registration ------------ As of March 1, 1993, the licensing fee for RACE has gone up to $15 and now includes the registration of eRACEm. Neither program is available separately and you are required to pay the $15 registration fee even if you only use one of the two programs. New Fields ---------- All new fields in RA v2.0 are supported in RACE 2.00. Most need no explanation and will get none. Refer to the RA docs if you're not sure what a field represents. RACE has one extra field that is in the RA 2.0 structures but does not appear to be used by RA 2.0 at this time. RA calls this the "Organisation" field. RACE calls it the "Company" field and I have made it available in RACE. The only way data will get there at this time is if YOU manually put it there. Whether or not RA will use this field in the future is unknown. The field RA calls SEX is called GENDER in RACE. The GENDER field is changed by entering E)dit mode, cursoring over to the field and then using the spacebar, plus or minus keys to toggle to the desired setting (unknown, male, female). Field Movement -------------- RACE now allows moving about the user record in any direction while in edit mode. The <TAB> key will move to the field on the right. <SHIFT-TAB> will move to the left. The arrow keys will move up and down as always. Date fields ----------- Proper date format is now (once again) forced. You may only enter the date in MM-DD-YY format and an invalid date will not allow you to leave the field until you correct it. The jury is still out on this one. Some will like it, others will hate it. I personally haven't decided either way. Whatever the majority wants is ok by me. User Passwords -------------- As mentioned previously, RA no longer stores the user password in the user file. This is for security purposes. RACE no longer displays a password field in a user record. To give a user a password, press <CTRL-P>. You will be prompted for a =NEW= password. If a user forgets his/her password, he/she is out of luck and will have to provide you with a new one for entry in their record. Hot keys for attributes ----------------------- They're gone. The ALT-keys are no longer used to toggle attributes. RACE now refers to these attributes as TOGGLES. These keys have been replaced by ALT-T to pop up a window in which you may edit whichever toggle you wish. Do not mourn the loss of the ALT-D key to delete a user. Your <DEL> key performs the same function and it has been there all along. Mailing list ------------ RACE has a SUPER SIMPLE, ULTRA-NO FEATURE mailing label function built in. Pressing <CTRL-M> will cause RACE to create a file called RACEMAIL.DAT in the current directory. No prompt is provided, RACE just goes right ahead and creates the file. If it already exists, it is overwritten. This is a pure ascii file containing the following fields: Username Address1 Address2 Address3 Location Any capable word processor should be able to mangle this file into a usable mailing list with which you can print labels. Note that the Address fields are only placed in the file if they contain data. Adding new users ---------------- Adding a new user is now possible while another user is online. Also, the new user takes various bits of info from the user record that is currently on screen when you press <A> or <INS> to add a new user. You could create a 'template' user for this purpose or just move to any user that has standard access before using the add function. DON'T FORGET to use <CTRL-P> after the new user record is saved to install a password for the user. If you don't do this, the new user will have the password of the template user. This is useful in some situations but may be undesirable in others. Validation ---------- User toggles are no longer displayed in validate nor are the hot keys (Alt-keys) available to toggle the attributes. As in the main screen, ALT-T will bring up the toggle window. Templates will no longer LOWER the security level of a user. If the user already has a level higher than that provided by the template, it will remain. Changed the acceptable input for the "Send predefined message" from "Y/n" to "Y/n/i". Previously, if you answered "n" to this prompt, you were automatically prompted for "Text file to import." This no longer occurs. If you wish to import a text file for the message (other than the predefined message file), press "i" for import instead of "n". Upgrading users with predefined templates is now possible from the main screen without going into Validation. Press the number key coinciding with the template you want applied to the user currently on screen and the template prompt window will open up just as it does in Validation. At this point you may hit <enter> to apply that template or type the rest of the number if it is more than one digit. The number zero (0) has a special meaning. If 0 is pressed, the template list window will open up instead of the prompt window. This will allow you to scroll through the list. Once the appropriate template is highlighted, hit <enter> to apply that template to the current user. RACE now creates and constantly updates an index file for the answer file. This file will have the same filename as the answer file and an extension of .IDX and it will be created in the RA system directory. There will be one .IDX file for each answer file you view with validation. Each record in the .IDX file (one for each set of answers) consumes 9 bytes of disk space. Creation and updating of the index is done automatically. RACE parses the answer file and updates the index each time you go into validation or when you <P>ick a new answer file from within validation. RACE also does a simple test of the index before parsing. RACE reads the last index record and attempts to go to that position in the answer file. If that position does not exist (such as when you deleted the answer file but not the index) then RACE will rebuild the index from the start. The above test will not account for all possible problems. If, for example, you manually edit answers out of the file then allow RA to add new answers before ever running RACE, the test may past but the last old entries in the index may not actually point to the start of a set of answers. If in doubt, delete the .IDX file and allow RACE to rebuild it. It only takes a few seconds on average sized answer files. This index file contains a 'last read' pointer so that RACE knows where you left off on validating during your last use of CTRL-V type validation. You may now allow your answer file to constantly grow and not have to put up with RACE starting at the beginning each time you go into validation. Keep in mind that the 'last read' is wherever you were when you quit last time not the highest record number you viewed. If you jump to the first record then quit, RACE will start at the first record on your next entry to validation. You now move forward AND backward through the answer file using the right and left arrow keys. You may also use HOME and END to jump to the first and last set of answers respectively. RACE no longer uses <N>ext. Validation Mark Deleted ----------------------- M)ark will allow you to toggle a set of user answers DELETED in the index. This will not affect the status of the user, only the answers. The answers will only be removed after running eRACEm with the -A switch. Note that this feature of eRACEm only works in the registered version. Validation FIND --------------- F)ind will still allow you to find other answers the currently viewed user may have but you will now be prompted "Search Forward?". <Y> or <ENTER> to this prompt will search forward otherwise hit <N> to search backwards. Once the search has begun AND answers are found, you may move back and forth to the various answer sets of that user by using the arrow keys. Once you are at the last set of answers for that user (in either direction), RACE reports no more answers found and the find command is toggled off. Validation search ----------------- S)earch will allow you to search for a specific user's answers. Since RACE searches the index file for a CRC match and not the answer file, it will only find EXACT matches. Your input is converted to uppercase and then a CRC is calculated on the name. RACE then searches the index for a match. Because of this method, partial names will never score a match since the CRC will never be exactly the same. Validation Vip & Trash ---------------------- V)ip and T)rash have been added. These will insert the currently viewed user name into the VIP.CTL or TRASHCAN.CTL file as the command letter indicates. Removing the user names from those files is still done by the old manual method. Validation Answer file ---------------------- If you do not care to keep your answer file around, remove the index file when you remove the answer file. In other words, if you remove the NEWUSER.ASW, also remove the NEWUSER.IDX file. As mentioned above, RACE attempts to handle invalid indexes but it is possible to confuse it. The "Storage file" is no longer supported in RACE. Because of the indexing method and RACE's ability to start where you left off, it was felt that this was redundant. The actual answer file may now be used as storage. This makes it easy to review a particular user's answers at any time while in RACE. Global C)hanges -------------- New items have been added to the C)hanges menu. The items added are DATE FORMAT, SUBSCRIPTION DATE and LANGUAGE. Note that Language is set by number and that's the input RACE expects. It knows nothing about what you have named language #1 or whatever. So, you'll need to know the number before going into RACE to make this change. The first language in your language list is #1 and so on. The entry window that permits setting the parameters for the changes has one new item added: "Use Flags" When you get to this field, hit <ENTER> if you want to base the global changes on flags (in addition to security, group, all/equal to, etc.). When you hit <ENTER> a second window will open to allow you to mark the flags RACE should examine to determine whether or not to change the desired item in a user record. NOTE: RACE only makes a comparison for flags that are ON. For example, you cannot make changes on users that have flag A8 OFF. Go into Use Flags field, hit <ENTER> then place an X in the position(s) you want RACE to examine. If the user has that/those flags ON in his record AND all other parameters are met, the changes will apply. As with elsewhere in RACE, use CTRL-ENTER to save changes and exit the flag entry screen. <EOF>