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YY YY MM MM SSSSS YY YY MMM MMM SS YY YY MMMM MMMM SS YYYYYY MM MMMM MM SSSSS YY MM MM MM SS YY MM MM SS YY MM MM SSSSS Your Mail, Sir... v2.00 A state-of-the-art mail-checking utility for Opus-CBCS v1.1x Opus-CBCS v1.7x Maximus-CBCS v1.02 Released July 29th, 1991 User's Guide (C) 1990,1991 by Angelo Besani, All rights reserved <[ AmnésiA ]> Gallarate, VA, Italy (2:331/101@FidoNet.Org) Documentation (C) 1990 by Alberto Morosi, All rights reserved Documentation (C) 1991 by Angelo Besani, All rights reserved <[ AmnésiA ]> Gallarate, VA, Italy (2:331/101@FidoNet.Org) ... open your soul to friends, ever ... TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= Page Section 1 - GENERAL INFORMATIONS............................2 1.1 HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENTATION....................2 1.2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................2 1.3 CREDITS..........................................2 1.4 SOFTWARE LICENSE.................................4 1.5 NO WARRANTY......................................4 1.6 HOW TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR........................4 Section 2 - INTRODUCTION TO THE PROGRAM.....................5 2.1 WHAT IT IS.......................................5 2.2 GENERAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS......................5 Section 3 - INSTALLATION....................................6 3.1 THE MAIN FILES...................................6 3.2 EDITING THE CONTROL FILE.........................6 3.3 EDITING THE LANGUAGE FILES......................22 3.4 USING THE LANGUAGE COMPILER.....................31 3.5 INSTALLING THE MAIL SEARCH MODULE (BBS SEARCH)..32 3.6 INSTALLING THE MAIL SEARCH MODULE (IMMEDIATE SEARCH)..............................34 3.7 INSTALLING THE ON-LINE SEARCH MODULE............36 3.8 COMPILING THE MESSAGE BASE......................40 Section 4 - HOW TO USE THE UPDATE FUNCTION.................41 4.1 COMMAND LINE SWITCHES...........................41 4.2 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MULTITASKING..................42 Section 5 - MORE ABOUT THE MAIN PROGRAM....................43 5.1 MODIFYING THE CONTROL FILE......................43 5.2 CHANGING THE MESSAGE AREAS......................43 Section 6 - TROUBLESHOOTING................................44 6.1 CORRECT USE OF THE "-D" SWITCH..................44 6.2 CORRECT USE OF THE "SentAsReceived" OPTION......44 6.3 INVISIBLE NEW MESSAGES?.........................44 6.4 YMS_MS DOES NOT SHOW NETMAIL MESSAGES...........44 6.5 YMS_OS DOES NOT CHANGE THE LASTREAD POINTER TO THE SYSOP....................................44 CONCLUSION.................................................45 THE FUTURE.................................................45 YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 1 Section 1 - GENERAL INFORMATIONS ================================ 1.1 HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENTATION Writing these docs I took inspiration from the idea used by Alan Applegate in BinkleyTerm's manual. In the archive you have found two .DOC files, named YMS_USER.DOC and YMS_REF.DOC: the user's guide explains (or, well, tries to explain) how to correctly install YMS to fit your system; the reference guide provides a glossary of all the commands and statements involved in the operation of YMS, divided into sections and listed alphabetically. 1.2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following names are (C)opyrighted trademarks and/or result of the efforts of the people or companies named: A.V.A.T.A.R. - George A. Stanislav BinkleyTerm - Bit Bucket Software Co. DiskManager - Ontrack Computer Systems Inc. ECHOmail - Jeff Rush FidoNet - Tom Jennings & Fido Software FLAGS - Chris Irwin and Joaquim Homrighausen HST - US Robotics Inc. KramMail - Jaap Kramer Mailbase - Lincoln Dale Mailchek - Marc Ache` Matrix - Wynn Wagner III Maximus-CBCS - Scott Dudley MS-C Compiler 6.0 - Microsoft Corp. MS-DOS - " " MS-MASM 5.1 - " " MSGID - Jim Nutt Opus-CBCS - Wynn Wagner III, George A. Stanislav, Doug Boone PC-DOS - International Business Machines Corp. SpeedStore - Hexis Design V.32 - C.C.I.T.T. 1.3 CREDITS I guess we have to thank a very big lot of people, who have been, directly or indirectly, involved in inspiring, developing or testing the product: Tom Jennings for inventing FidoNet; Wynn Wagner for starting a new era in FidoNet, which began with Opus-CBCS v0.00; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 2 George-Adam Stanislav for the further developement of the Opus project and the implementation of the AVT/0 standard; Vince Perriello for coordinating the last efforts made for Opus 1.10; Doug Boone, current Opus LCD, for the hours he spends for our fun; Marc Ache` (who is no longer in FidoNet, I guess...) for providing Mailchek for Opus 1.03, program that we used for a very long time; Lincoln Dale and Jaap Kramer for MailBase and KramMail, two other well-known mailcheckers; Microsoft Corporation for producing the C Compiler 6.0 and the Macro Assembler 5.1, without which power YMS wouldn't probably exist at all; The Beta-Team, for the precious help they gave us: Enrico Cima (2:331/201) for testing on his lightning-speed 386 with 320Megs ESDI disk; Luca Croci (2:331/108) for finding the time to read my DOCs (grrrrrrrr...RTFM!); Alberto Enna (2:335/12) for the hours he spent hacking his system's configuration trying to break some of YMS' features; Beppe Malinverni (2:331/104) for testing the product with DiskManager's large partitions; Alberto Pasquale (2:332/500) for his hints and suggestions that helped implementing LowLevel support for DOS 4.01; Bruno Grampa (2:331/105) for Maximus alpha testing and his precious advices; Vertigo (2:331/301) for Maximus and multiline testing <[ AmnesiA ]> (2:331/101) for SpeedStore testing and for the tremendous AlphaTesting ;-). The Translators: Soren Ager (2:231/12) for DANSK; Peter Janssens (2:512/1) for DUTCH; Dieter Soltau (2:507/1) for DEUTSCH. Thank you very much indeed guys: we owe you much more than a beer! Without you YMS would have not been a real multilingual program! If your language isn't included in this YMS release, feel free to send your translation to <[ Amnesia ]> to be included in future releases!! YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 3 1.4 SOFTWARE LICENSE YMS (Your Mail, Sir...) (C) 1990,1991 Angelo Besani, Gallarate, VA, Italy. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION AND/OR USE PROHIBITED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. Non-Commercial distribution and/or use is permitted under the following terms: You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of YMS executables and complementary files, providing not to change them with any text or byte editor; provide unmodified copies of the documentation as provided with the program. You may charge a fee for transferring the copy, but no more than is necessary to cover your actual costs. Under no circumstances is YMS to be distributed on CD-rom's, PD-software libraries or anything similar. 1.5 NO WARRANTY Are you kidding? Keeping with the spirit of Opus-CBCS by WW3<tm>, YMS is provided completely free of charge, and therefore no warranty is also provided. Let's say that YMS is guaranteed for the space that will eat up on your disk. The entire risk as to quality and performance of YMS is with you. Should it cause any kind of damage to your hardware or software system configuration, you assume all the costs or the efforts to repair it. 1.6 HOW TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR You can easily contact me using FidoNet E-Mail. Please feel free to contact us for comments, impressions, hints or suggestions about the software and its documentation. Angelo Besani via Novara 12 I-21013 Gallarate VA ITALY (2:331/101@FidoNet.Org) Data phone # +39-331-772362 [HST/DS] YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 4 Section 2 - INTRODUCTION TO THE PROGRAM ======================================= 2.1 WHAT IT IS YMS (which stands for "Your Mail, Sir...") is a state-of-the-art mail checking utility for use along with Opus-CBCS v1.1x, Opus- CBCS v1.7x and Maximus-CBCS v1.02. It is primarily designed for providing a real-time possibility for users to check for their own mail in a very fast and reliable way. But this is only the main feature: in fact, YMS endeavors to provide you with the widest possibility of advanced features a mailchecker can have, combined with a _very solid_ and _very fast_ operation on a wide range of hardware and software configurations. For example, YMS will provide a multi-level Opus/Maximus-style logfile, a flexible selection of areas, a possibility to create broadcast messages, an intelligent way of processing the netmail and your echomail areas and, finally, support for up to twelve different languages (according to the user's profile), lowlevel routines for reading messages and a multitasker-proof environment. Its "Intelligent echomail processing" will simplify you points' life, allowing them to link and unlink echomail areas without losing messages directed to them in unlinked areas. This feature has to be considered the most important one for Maximus SysOp, since Maximus provides an internal (but slow!!!) mailchecker. 2.2 GENERAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS - A personal computer running MS-DOS or PC-DOS, with at least 180Kb of available RAM. It is advisable to have 512Kb installed and 640Kb will provide the maximum performance in any condition. - MS-DOS or PC-DOS, Version 3.00 or higher. Versions lower than 3.00 won't work. The program has been fully tested under 3.20, 3.30, 3.31 and 4.01, optionally along with SpeedStore and DiskManager. - Opus-CBCS v1.1x, or however a version compatible with the structures published in OKIT_110.*, Opus-CBCS v1.7x or Maximus v1.02 or however a version compatible with 1.02 structures YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 5 Section 3 - INSTALLATION ======================== 3.1 THE MAIN FILES Unpack the archive YMS_200.ZIP in a directory where you want YMS to run (it will run fine also in Opus/Maximus' root). You have many files in it. Let's have a look to the main ones: YMS.EXE Main executable program. YMS.CTL Example of configuration file. YMS_MS.EXE The mail-search module. YMS_OS.EXE The on-line search module. ????????.ZIP Archives containing language files, as explained below (YMS supports up to 12 different languages, as Opus-CBCS). YMS_LC.EXE Language compiler, for compiling customized language font files (included in the ZIPfiles). 3.2 EDITING THE CONTROL FILE You will now have to edit the YMS.CTL control file to fit your current system needs. Let's walk through it, and analyze every single function. YMS is very powerful and, therefore, may be a little bit more complicated than other similar products, so please read the following pages carefully. It is better if you print the documentation and read it while editing and customizing YMS files. ; The ; ; YY YY MM MM SSSSS ; YY YY MMM MMM SS ; YY YY MMMM MMMM SS ; YYYYYY MM MMMM MM SSSSS ; YY MM MM MM SS ; YY MM MM SS ; YY MM MM SSSSS ; ; v2.00 ; Control File ; ; (C) 1990,1991 by Angelo Besani, All Rights Reserved ; ; <[ AmnesiA ]> CBCS (2:331/101@FidoNet) ; +39-331-772362 [HST/V.32] ; ; Bbs <bbs_type> ; -------------- ; The BBS software you are operating. Currently YMS supports OPUS ; 1.1x, OPUS 1.7x and MAXIMUS 1.02. ; Use Bbs Opus11x for OPUS 1.10 to OPUS 1.14, Bbs Opus17x for OPUS ; 1.70 and Bbs Max102 for Maximus 1.02. YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 6 ; ; Bbs Opus11x ; OPUS 1.10, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, 1.14 Bbs Opus17x ; OPUS 1.70 ; Bbs Max102 ; MAXIMUS 1.02 ; ; ; Address <[zone:]net/node[@domain]> ; ---------------------------------- ; Your Network address. Do not specify any point, Zone is not ; mandatory and if not specified defaults to 1 (maybe the Yankees ; would not like an European software defaulting to 2 <grin>). If ; you want to operate in a DOMAIN-aware environment, you can ; specify a domain too. If you specify a domain, YMS works using ; 5D, so you will be able to use domain in MatrixForwards too. ; Address 2:331/101@fidonet.org ; ; ; PointNet <Net> ; -------------- ; Your Point Network, if you have any. It is necessary for the ; particular way YMS processes netmail messages and only if you ; include your matrix area for forwarding. ; PointNet 21101 ; ; ; DomainGate <domain> <address_of_domaingate> ; ------------------------------------------- ; Since lots of people are still using domain-unaware mail ; processors, it is necessary that YMS takes care of domaingating. ; This means that YMS has to route a message destinated to another ; domain to a particular node of the current domain acting as a ; domain gate. With this statement you can define up to 16 ; domaingates. ; Here in Europe we have: ; DomainGate GreenNet 2:2/501 DomainGate EuroNet 2:2/502 DomainGate RBBSNet 2:2/508 DomainGate SIGNet 2:2/527 DomainGate ChatNet 2:2/544 DomainGate LIF-Net 2:2/701 DomainGate EarthNet 2:2/702 ; ; ; Log <PathName> ; -------------- ; YMS produces an Opus/Maximus-style logfile. The pathname stated ; here will generate the log of the COMPILE option, which must be ; run generally once a day, and, if you have a multitasker, in ONE ; TASK ONLY. ; For multiline environments, later you will have a chance to ; setup different logs for different tasks. ; Leaving it blank or commented will force YMS not to generate a YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 7 ; COMPILE Logfile. ; Log D:\Opus\Opus.Log ; ; ; LogLevel <number> ; ----------------- ; Selects between one of the 5 different Opus-like log levels. ; YMS uses the following symbols for convention and compatibility ; with Opus-CBCS: ; ! = Error Messages ; * = NetMail Forwarding Messages ; # = Trace Activity and Warning Messages ; + = Normal Operations ; : = Unimportant Messages ; The different LogLevels include the following symbols: ; LogLevel 1 = ! ; Loglevel 2 = ! * ; Loglevel 3 = ! * # ; Loglevel 4 = ! * # + ; Loglevel 5 = ! * # + : ; If commented, LogLevel will default to 5. ; LogLevel 3 ; ; ; NoVideoWrap ; ----------- ; If not commented, YMS will truncate all log lines sent to the ; screen to 75 characters, ending them with '...'. Disk log lines ; will be left unchanged. ; NoVideoWrap ; ; ; AreaInclude <number[,...]> ; -------------------------- ; This statement specifies which areas YMS must process. ; You can specify every single area using "," as a separator, or ; define areas in a range using "-" as a separator. ; You can specify multiple AreaInclude lines, if you like. ; Valid area numbers are: ; For OPUS 1.1x: 0 to 254 ; For OPUS 1.7x: 0 to 2047 ; For MAXIMUS 1.02: 0 to 1295 ; Note for MAXIMUS users: since Maximus doesn't use area numbers ; but a 2-character 'name' (even these characters are normally ; digits), YMS assumes as area number the record each area is ; listed in the AREA.DAT file. So the first area in AREA.DAT is ; assumed to be area 0, the following one area 1 and so on. ; Limit is 65500 lines (!!). ; Examples: ; If you want to include areas 2, 5, 12, 13, 14, 15, 27 and 60 you ; can use ; AreaInclude 2,5,12,13,14,15,27,60 YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 8 ; but also ; AreaInclude 2,5,12-15,27,30 ; On our system we have a plain... ; AreaInclude 1-70 ; ; ; UseExternMailCheck ; ------------------ ; OPUS 1.70 only. Don't include an area for message waiting if it ; hasn't the 'EXTERN MAILCHECK' flag in your OPUS control file. ; You can therefore decide which areas include for mail checking ; in OPUS control file (and not in YMS) by uncommenting ; UseExternMailCheck and selecting an 'AreaInclude 0-2047'. ; ; UseExternMailCheck ; ; ; LowLevel. ; --------- ; Enables lowlevel reading routines during COMPILE and UPDATE ; functions. ; This function is definitely VERY fast and absolutely NOT ; dangerous, as it does not perform any kind of write. ; It has been fully tested under DOS 3.20, 3.30, 3.31 and 4.01, ; SpeedStore and DiskManager with partitions of ANY size. ; In case that lowlevel would fail, YMS error detection logic ; would immediately switch to HIGH level and continue the COMPILE ; or UPDATE process, without hanging but simply issueing a warning ; message in the logfile. ; Implementing this routines took quite a big effort and is one of ; the main reasons that inspired the creation of YMS. Not to say ; that I definitely encourage you to use it, unless you are ; running a Local Area Network or have your message areas on ; JOINed drives. ; LowLevel ; ; ; SentAsReceived. ; --------------- ; Tells YMS to consider Sent messages as if they were already ; Received. ; If you believe in FidoNet Mail, do not uncomment it ;-) ; SentAsReceived ; ; ; IncludeReceived. ; ---------------- ; Got GigaBytes of RAM? Got WORM disks? Got just a few messages? ; Let's keep in the base Received messages too, so that we can ; show them to the users, if we like... ; ; IncludeReceived YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 9 ; ; ; BbsDirectory <Pathname> ; ----------------------- ; For OPUS 1.1x, the path where the SYSTEM??.DAT and USER.IDX ; files are stored. ; For OPUS 1.7x, the path where the SYSMSG.DAT, NUMBER.MDX and ; USER.DAT files are stored. ; For Maximus 1.02 the path where you have the AREA.DAT and ; USER.BBS files. ; If these files are in different paths or (Maximus only) have ; different names than AREA.DAT or USER.BBS, use SystemDirectory ; and UserlistDirectory. See below. ; This entry is MANDATORY and you must specify it even if it is ; your current DOS directory, unless you use both SystemDirectory ; and UserlistDirectory. ; BbsDirectory D:\Opus\ ; ; ; SystemDirectory <Path/Filename> ; ------------------------------- ; If you can't use BbsDirectory (see above why), you must use ; SystemDirectory. ; For OPUS 1.1x: the path where you have the SYSTEM??.DAT files. ; For OPUS 1.7x: the path where you have both the SYSMGS.DAT and ; the NUMBER.MDX files. ; For Maximus 1.02: the actual FILENAME (not the pathname only!!) ; for you area list. ; ; SystemDirectory C:\MAX\MAXAREAS.DAT ; ; ; UserlistDirectory <Path/Filename> ; --------------------------------- ; Along with SystemDirectory, you must use Userlist directory. ; For OPUS 1.1x: the path where you have the USER.IDX file. ; For OPUS 1.7x: the path where you have the USER.DAT file. ; For Maximus 1.02: the actual FILENAME (not the pathname only!!) ; for you userlist. ; ; UserlistDirectory C:\MAXUSER\USER.BBS ; ; ; IncludeAlias ; ------------ ; Opus 1.70 only. Include aliases in the YMS userlist so you can ; show not only the mail waiting to the user's name, but to ; his/her alias too. See also TaskSearchShowAlias and ; TaskOnlineShowAlias below. ; ; IncludeAlias ; ; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 10 ; RamDisk <pathname> ; ------------------ ; The path used by YMS to store its temporary files. ; If you have a RamDisk, of course let it point there. If you do ; not have one, a normal DOS path will work. ; RamDisk L:\ ; ; ; YmsDirectory <Pathname> ; ----------------------- ; YmsDirectory, or: Where to store YMS' files? In Opus/Maximus' ; root?? ; Maybe, and it would be easier for SysOps that are keen on ; forgetting command line switches (see -D below...), but I'm not ; an easy man and I've placed them somewehere else... ; If left commented, it will default to the current directory. ; YmsDirectory D:\Opus\Yms ; ; ; NoAnonAreas ; ----------- ; If not commented, YMS will ignore broadcasts messages in ; Anonimous areas, preventing users not allowed to enter broadcast ; message from using an ALIAS to write such messages. ; NoAnonAreas ; ; ; EnableToAll <name> ; ------------------ ; This is the list of the persons that are allowed to create ; messages marked as BroadCast. Typically they will be the SysOp ; and the Co-SysOps. ; If this option is commented out it will default to "any user". ; It means that every single user will generate BroadCast messages ; if they are addressed to the name specified in AllUser (see ; below). ; Is it useful?? Mmmmmm....maybe in some cases. I personally ; prefer an automatic bulletin <grin>. ; The list may be up to 16 names, with one name per line. ; EnableToAll Angelo Besani ; ; ; AllUser <name> ; -------------- ; The name contained in the To: field of messages that have to be ; considered as BroadCast messages. Do not choose a very common ; name.... ; We use "**|ALL|**" instead of "All" so that we can create ; BroadCast messages just in case. ; On the contrary, if you have commented EnableToAll out, you will ; prefer to specify YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 11 ; ; AllUser All ; ; so that every single message sent To: All will be shown as ; "BroadCast Message" to every user that searches his/her mail ; using YMS. ; Leaving AllUser commented out means that there will be NO ; BroadCast messages. ; If you like, you can have up to 16 AllUser lines. ; AllUser **|ALL|** ; ; ; Notify "Name1" to "Name2" ; ------------------------- ; Note that the quotes and the 'to' keyword are MANDATORY. ; Show to "Name2" the mail waiting for "Name1". "Name2" MUST be in ; the YMS userlist, while "Name1" can be or can be not. If "Name1" ; is in the userlist, then his/her mail can be shown searching ; either for "Name1" mail or "Name2" mail. In this second case, ; the messages to "Name1" are shown together with ones to "Name2", ; but have an attribute of ALIASED, which can be shown. See the ; description about YMS_MAIL files. ; You can have up to 32 Notify lines. ; Notify "Sysop" to "Angelo Besani" ; ; ; MatrixFwdAreaInclude ; -------------------- ; The list of areas to be processed with the MatrixForward logic. ; They can be LOCAL or ECHO areas, and the NETMAIL area can be ; included too, if you want YMS to forward netmail messages to ; different addresses. ; The separators work in the same way as for AreaInclude. ; Note that (differently from YMS 1.00), these areas are valid ; ONLY for the MatrixForward lines (see below) which FOLLOWS this ; MatrixFwdAreaInclude, and a new MatrixFwdAreaInclude cancels the ; previous one. To cancel ALL areas, use MatrixFwdAreaInclude ; without listed areas, or MatrixFwdAreaInclude None. ; MatrixFwdAreaInclude 1-74 ; ; ; ForcedFwdAreaInclude ; -------------------- ; Virtually (and sintactically) the same as MatrixFwdAreaInclude, ; but these areas cannot be excluded by the IEP (see below). This ; can be useful if one of your point/nodes wants to receive ; forward of messages in areas he is linked to. See the ; documentation for more details. ; ; ForcedFwdAreaInclude ; ; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 12 ; MatrixForward <[zone:]net/node[.point][@domain] name> ; ----------------------------------------------------- ; You can have YMS forwarding to nodes or points local messages ; addressed to them, or you can have it remapping wrongly ; addressed netmail messages. ; I once had many points, and they enjoyed very much reading ; ECHOmail on their PC's, but they were annoyed not to receive ; local mail addressed to them. Specifying their name and point ; here will do so. ; But the problems did not finish: these points grew up and became ; SysOps. But many people knew their addresses as points of my ; node, and a lot of netmail lied unread in my Matrix area. YMS ; will also forward netmail arrived on your system to the persons ; listed here, at the address that you specify. ; This function is both Point and Zone aware and if YMS is working ; in 5D (see description of 'Address' above) you can specify a ; domain too. ; You can have up to 256 MatrixForward lines, with one address and ; one name per line. ; MatrixForward 2:331/101.3 Luigi Callegari MatrixForward 2:331/101.6 Paolo Zibetti ; MatrixFwdAreaInclude 1-4 ;The following MatrixForward are active ; on areas 1-4 only. ; MatrixForward 2:331/103 Massimo Vallo' MatrixForward 2:331/104 Beppe Malinverni MatrixForward 2:331/105 Bruno Grampa MatrixForward 2:331/106 Luca Spada MatrixForward 2:331/108 Luca Croci MatrixForward 2:331/109 Alberto Bassani ; ; ; MatrixFwdPublic ; MatrixFwdPrivate ; ---------------- ; You can choose to forward only private messages, only public ; messages or both. ; On <[ AmnesiA ]> I find very useful to have YMS forwarding ; private messages only because of this reason: I have a few local ; areas setup as pseudo-echos for my points only. These areas are ; public+private, and I didn't want to have my points reading ; private messages directed to other people, so I setup QM not to ; echo private messages. ; Result: private messages for my point users lied in my local ; areas, unread. This option of YMS solves the problem (and my ; points enjoy it!). ; The Netmail area is not affected by this logic: if the Matrix ; area is included in MatrixFwdAreaInclude the forwarding will ; work on ANY message, regardless of its public/private privilege. ; Netmail messages generated by this function of YMS will contain: ; FMPT/TOPT line (if necessary) ; INTL line (if necessary) ; MSGID line YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 13 ; FLAGS/PID informations are stripped ; "Forwarded...." line ; Message Text ; In ECHOmail messages "* Origin" is changed to "MsgOrigin" to ; avoid letting any mail processor run into confusion; SEEN-BY and ; ^APATH are stripped. ; ; MatrixFwdPublic MatrixFwdPrivate ; ; ; IEPAreasBbs <filename> ; IEPEchoCtl <filename> ; IEPSysMsgDat (OPUS 1.70 only) ; ----------------------------- ; Intelligent ECHOmail Processing. ; YMS can now forward messages to point/nodes from any of your ; message areas. While this can be useful, it is quite annoying to ; have messages forwarded from an echomail area which is already ; received via a regular echomail feed. To avoid this you should ; keep your MatrixFwdAreaInclude(s) accurate and change them ; everytime one of your nodes/points changes the areas he/she is ; linked to. But YMS can do this work itself by reading your ; echomail informations. YMS can read ECHO.CTL format files (using ; IEPEchoCtl <filename>) or AREAS.BBS format files (using ; IEPAreasBbs <filename>) or internal OPUS 1.70 informations ; (using IEPSysMsgDat). You can obviously use more than one format ; at the same time. On <[ Amnesia ]> I have my echomail ; informations divided in two files, so I have to specify both: ; IEPAreasBbs D:\Opus\Confarea.bbs IEPAreasBbs D:\Opus\Locareas.bbs ; IEPEchoCtl <filename> ; IEPSysMsgDat ; ; ; IEPNotFwdedMsgs <Option> ; ------------------------ ; Where <Option> can be either Show, Hide or Mark. ; This verb indicates how to handle messages which hasn't been ; forwarded because the IEP has excluded the area. You can have: ; Show: (default option). Show them when the user logs in. This ; could not be the best thing since these message should ; have already been read by the user on his/her node/point. ; Hide: Simply not show these message to the user. I don't ; recommend this option since it has a high overhead during ; the YMS COMPILE phase although it works as expected. ; Mark: Mark these message as "received", as they have been really ; read by the user. ; ; IEPNotFwdedMsgs Show ; IEPNotFwdedMsgs Hide IEPNotFwdedMsgs Mark ; ; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 14 ; UseUTCTime ; ---------- ; Tells YMS to use UTC time when marking forwarded messages with ; its own kludge (and specify it adding UTC as a suffix). ; You must have the TZ environment set correctly to have this ; function work properly. ; UseUTCTime ; ; ; RecordsPerUser <number> ; ----------------------- ; This defines the maximum number of messages that YMS can ; remember for each user. The maximum is 8000. Consider that ; increasing this number will have YMS eating up more memory and ; more disk space, so choose a number that fits your current ; users' needs. ; On my system I have it set to 128, and has no problems, except ; for some occasional users that read their messages on other ; systems and have this limit exceeded. ; Exceeding this limit will generate a message in the logfile and ; the messages for that user, beginning from [n+1] will not be ; recorded in the base. No other problem occurs. ; RecordsPerUser 128 ; ; ; ExcludeMr <name> ; ExcludeMrs <name> ; ExcludeMiss <name> ; ------------------ ; Mmmmmm....you seem not to like seeing all those RecordsPerUser ; limits exceed?? Would you like to exclude some of your users ; from the mail-search base? You can specify multiple lines of ; this statement, followed by the user's name, placed as it is in ; the USER.DAT file. ; Which is the difference between Mr, Mrs and Miss? Technically ; none, of course, but, ya know, Italians *LOVE* to be courteous ; with women...:-) ; ; ExcludeMr Angelo Besani ; ExcludeMr Giampaolo Muraro ; ExcludeMrs Feliciana Antolini ; ExcludeMiss Mara Bruni ; ExcludeMr Lincoln Dale ;......mph...who chose these names?? <grin> ; ; ; IncludeMr <name> ; IncludeMrs <name> ; IncludeMiss <name> ; ------------------ ; Since YMS has now the possibility to search for a specified ; user's mail (YMS_MS "username", see documentation for details) ; it can be useful to search for names who aren't in your BBS YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 15 ; userlist. It is then necessary to add them to your BBS userlist. ; When this cannot be done, since it's useless or for security ; reasons, you can include these names in the mail-search base ; only. ; ; IncludeMr Jaap Kramer ; ; ; NetMail <pathname> ; ------------------ ; I bet some of you have decided not to search for mail in the ; NetMail area but, of course, would like MatrixForward to ; work.... ; No problem! If you did not include the Matrix area using ; AreaInclude, but you have MatrixFwdAreaInclude and MatrixForward ; enabled, place your NetMail area path here, and YMS will work ; and forward messages via NetMail. ; I suggest you to use this option even if you have AreaInclude-d ; the Matrix. It will be redundant but, as YMS will not bother ; about it, you will be sure that the forward functions will work ; even if for some kind of problem, the Matrix area would be ; disabled from the message waiting base. ; Note that if you leave this verb uncommented, YMS will consider ; your MATRIX area the area which has both the MATRIX flag AND ; this path. ; NetMail d:\opus\msg\fidomail\ ; ; ; Task <number> ; ------------- ; The show goes on: you are entering the YMS multitasking ; environment. With this statement you tell YMS how to behave in ; each of you system's tasks. If you are not using different ; tasks, say here: ; Task 0 ; You can have up to 256 tasks (I guess they are enough!) ; This statement is in DECIMAL numbers. YMS will provide ; hexadecimal conversion in YMS_PRM.D?? ; This entry must be the first when defining a task and it acts as ; a separator: when YMS COMPILE/CTLCOMPILE encounters another Task ; argument, it will assume you are beginning to setup the ; environment of another task. ; Task 1 ; ; ; TaskLastUser <[drive:pathname\]filename.ext> ; -------------------------------------------- ; Tells YMS which lastuser file to read for task one. If you are ; not using tasks, the file will be [drive:\path\]lastus00.dat or ; [drive:\path\]lastuser.bbs if you are using Maximus. ; Remember that if you have more than 9 tasks, you will have to ; use hexadecimal suffixes for your LASTUS??.DAT or .BBS file ; (i.e. Task 10 will have LASTUS0A.DAT, task 99 will have YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 16 ; LASTUS63.DAT) ; If left commented out, it will default to ; [BbsDirectory\Lastus(task#).DAT] for OPUS systems or ; [BbsDirectory\Lastus(task#).BBS] for Maximus systems so there ; are good chances that YMS will look for the right lastuser file. ; TaskLastUser D:\opus\lastus01.dat ; ; ; TaskUpdateLog <[drive:pathname\]filename.ext> ; --------------------------------------------- ; You cannot have YMS running in two different tasks and writing ; in the same LOGfile, in the same way as you cannot do it with ; Opus/Maximus. ; If you have an Opus/Maximus' logfile for Task 1, place it here; ; if you do not have multiple tasks, specify your sole logfile ; here. ; Leaving it blank will cause YMS to default to the log file ; specified for YMS COMPILE; if commented will force YMS not to ; generate an Update LogFile. ; TaskUpdateLog D:\Opus\Opus.log ; ; ; TaskSearchLog <[drive:pathname\]filename.ext> ; --------------------------------------------- ; If you like, you can have YMS generating a Search Logfile too. ; The main reason why UpdateLog and SearchLog can be configured ; separately is because earlier versions of Opus (up to 1.12) did ; not allow writing to Opus' logfile from a ^OC embedded command. ; Opus 1.13 flushes the log each time writes to it, and therefore ; you can put everything in the same file, if you like. ; Leaving it blank will cause YMS to default to the log file ; specified for YMS COMPILE; if commented will force YMS not to ; generate a Search LogFile. ; TaskSearchLog D:\Opus\Opus.Log ; ; ; TaskUpdateLogLevel <number> ; --------------------------- ; You can specify a different LogLevel for each logfile you have. ; The LogLevels are the same specified for the Log function (see ; above). If commented, it will default to the value specified for ; LogLevel. ; TaskUpdateLogLevel 4 ; ; ; TaskSearchLogLevel <number> ; --------------------------- ; Ditto, as for TaskUpdateLogLevel. ; TaskSearchLogLevel 5 ; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 17 ; ; TaskUpdateConflict <option> ; --------------------------- ; In multitasking environments it may happen that YMS is invoked ; at the same time in two different tasks. In this case, you can ; choose how to let it manage the conflict. <Option> can be: ; Exit: Exit will cause the UPDATE function to exit without ; doing anything, if another UPDATE is being performed at ; the same time. It may save time, as there is really no ; need of two concurrent UPDATEs (one will take care of ; the changes made by both tasks). ; Wait: With this option you can tell YMS to wait for the other ; task(s) to finish their update function before starting ; UPDATE in the current task. In this way, you will always ; have your message waiting base updated in real time. On ; the contrary, as it will hang two or more tasks, it is ; advisable not to use it on computers with slow CPUs and ; slow disks. ; Ignore: Useful only in a monotask environment. I recommend the ; use of this option in such environments because YMS will ; not use its "busy" flag, which can be left high due (for ; example) to a power failure (it happened!!). ; TaskUpdateConflict Exit ; TaskUpdateConflict Wait ; TaskUpdateConflict Ignore ; ; ; TaskUpdateWaitTime <number> ; --------------------------- ; NOTE!! The behaviour of this verb is slightly changed from YMS ; 1.00. Read on!! ; If not commented, TaskUpdateWaitTime will specify how much time ; YMS has to wait before taking the action specified with ; TaskUpdateConflict. So if you specify (for example) ; TaskUpdateConflict Exit and TaskUpdateWaitTime 5, YMS (in case ; of update conflict) will wait 5 seconds to see if the "busy" ; flag is lowered. If this happens, YMS will start updating; if ; the specified time ends, YMS will exit without doing nothing. ; With TaskUpdateWaitTime Ignore, YMS at the end of the 5 seconds ; would have started updating anyway. Wait is similar to Ignore, ; but clears the "busy" flag too. ; WARNING: if TaskUpdateWaitTime rolls over (and you have ; specified either Ignore or Wait for TaskUpdateConflict) while ; the other task is not hung, and is performing an UPDATE too, you ; will have the two tasks conflicting and you will completely lose ; your message waiting base, requiring a new compile. Therefore, ; in these cases, please choose a reasonably high time. ; In my humble opinion, you can have one task with ; TaskUpdateConflict Wait and a high TaskUpdateWaitTime and all ; other tasks with Exit and no TaskUpdateWaitTime. In this way the ; Exit tasks will be faster, and the Wait task will avoid that, if ; the other task crashed running YMS and leaving YMS' "busy" flag ; high, UPDATE would no longer take place. ; This is the main reason why Wait has been concepted: to create YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 18 ; this kind of security and not to have a buch of tasks waiting ; for each other to have their own turn to run an UPDATE. ; Simply think about this: there is merely never the need of two ; UPDATEs to be run on different tasks at the same time (on ; <[ AmnesiA ]> (386/33) YMS updates 97 areas in 13 seconds, and ; it's hard to see a user in another task entering an area and ; writing a message in the same amount of time...). ; ; TaskUpdateWaitTime 120 ; ; ; TaskSearchConflict <option> ; --------------------------- ; There may also be YMS_MS.EXE (the mail-search module) accessing ; the base while another YMS function is being performed in ; another task (and this may definitely be more frequent than the ; above case). Also in this case, YMS can manage the conflict. ; <Option> can be: ; Notify: With this option you will see YMS notifying the conflict ; to the user, so he/she can try to search for his/her ; mail later. This option is very useful, and I encourage ; you to use it if you're running a m'tasker. ; Ignore: The mail-search module will simply Ignore the conflict ; and read the message waiting base regardless of other ; tasks. I suggest you not to use it, and use Notify ; instead, since it can produce inaccurate results. ; Wait: The mail-search module will wait for the other task(s) ; to finish their UPDATE function before performing mail ; search. This option will probably be used only by SysOps ; in local mode, as it would be definitely annoying for a ; user standing on line without knowing if the system is ; hung or not. ; TaskSearchConflict Notify ; TaskSearchConflict Ignore ; TaskSearchConflict Wait ; ; ; TaskSearchWaitTime <number> ; --------------------------- ; NOTE!! Like TaskUpdateWaitTime also this verb has a slightly ; changed behaviour than YMS 1.00. Read on!! ; If not commented, TaskUpdateWaitTime will specify how much time ; YMS has to wait (in case of conflict) before taking the action ; specified with TaskSearchConflict. So if you specify (for ; example) TaskSearchConflict Notify and TaskSearchWaitTime 5, YMS ; (in case of conflict) will wait 5 seconds to see if the "busy" ; flag is lowered. If this happens, YMS will search and show the ; mail to the user. If the specified time ends, YMS will notify ; the user. ; TaskSearchWaitTime 5 ; ; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 19 ; TaskOutFile <[drive:\pathname\]filename> ; ---------------------------------------- ; This is the file shown to the user after a mail search. It ; contains either the list of the messages, either other messages, ; if he has no mail waiting or if there is a serach conflict. You ; must, of course, specify different filenames for different ; tasks. ; No extension is required, and is specified will be ignored. It ; defaults to .BBS and cannot be changed (Opus/Maximus cannot ; display anything else than .BBS and .GBS files!) ; If commented, it will default to {BbsDirectory}Mail_{task#} ; (with extension .BBS). ; TaskOutFile l:\Opus\mail ; ; ; TaskSearchShowAlias ; ------------------- ; Opus 1.70 only. If you did include users' aliases in the base ; (see IncludeAlias above), you can now selectively choose either ; to show to your users or not. This option can be overridden with ; the switch '-a' in YMS_MS. ; ;TaskSearchShowAlias ; ; ; TaskShowReceived ; ---------------- ; If you did include received messages in the base (see above) you ; can now selectively choose either to show them to your users or ; not, depending on the task number. ; In fact, this option has been concepted much more for use by ; SysOps than by users (i.e. you may want to see how many RECV ; messages you have there for you, but do not want the users to ; read several pages of message listings). ; This option can be overridden with the switch '-s' in YMS_MS. ; ; TaskShowReceived ; ; ; TaskSearchSectOnly ; ------------------ ; For OPUS 1.70 only. If not commented, YMS_MS will search for ; mail ONLY in the section(s) the user is in. If commented, YMS_MS ; will search in all areas (checking for privileges and keys, ; obviously..) ; ; TaskSearchSectOnly ; ; ; TaskAllNotToEnabled ; ------------------- ; If not commented, YMS will NOT show broadcast messages to people ; listed in the EnableToAll list. Can be usefule for SysOps who ; doesn't want to be notified of messages they write!! This option YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 20 ; can be overridden woth the switch '-b' in YMS_MS. ; ; TaskAllNotToEnabled ; ; ; TaskOnlineLog <filename> ; ------------------------ ; Same as TaskSearchLog, but for YMS_OS. See TaskSearchLog (above) ; for more details. ; TaskOnlineLog D:\Opus\Opus.log ; ; ; TaskOnlineLogLevel <number> ; --------------------------- ; Same as TaskSearchLogLevel, but for YMS_OS. See ; TaskSearchLogLevel (above) for more details. ; TaskOnlineLogLevel 4 ; ; ; TaskOnlineConflict <option> ; --------------------------- ; Same as TaskSearchConflict, but for YMS_OS. <Option> can be ; either Notify, or Wait or Ignore. See TaskSearchConflict (above) ; for more details. ; TaskOnlineConflict Notify ; ; ; TaskOnlineWaitTime <number> ; --------------------------- ; Same as TaskSearchWaitTime but for YMS_OS. See ; TaskSearchWaitTime (above) for more details. ; TaskOnlineWaitTime 5 ; ; ; TaskOnlineChangeSect ; -------------------- ; OPUS 1.70 only. If the user has messages in a sections he/she ; isn't in, let YMS_OS add the required section to the user's ones ; to allow him to read his/her message. If commented, the message ; isn't show to the user. Personally, I prefer to show all the ; mail to the user (with YMS_MS and without using ; 'TaskSearchSectOnly'), but let him/her read only messages in ; his/her current section(s) only. ; ; TaskOnlineChangeSect ; ; Task 2 ; ; Here begins the second task. No further explanations should be ; necessary, as nothing changes, except for the task number, and YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 21 ; you can have up to 256 tasks (in a range from 0 to 255). ; However, a couple of words may be spent about the way I use this ; second task, and is checking for MY mail waiting, from my ; message reader, without using Opus. ; TaskLastUser D:\opus\Thatsme.Dat ; ; Almost everything is ok, except that I have logged into my ; system and then I have renamed the LASTUS01.DAT file created ; into THATSME.DAT, and everything works fine. ; In this way I search for mail, view the file, and enter the ; editor (msged)... ; TaskUpdateLog c:\yms\yms.log ; TaskSearchLog ; TaskUpdateLogLevel ; TaskSearchLogLevel TaskUpdateConflict Exit ; TaskUpdateWaitTime 120 ; TaskSearchConflict Notify TaskSearchWaitTime 120 ; TaskOutFile l:\opus\mail2 ; ; TaskShowReceived ; 3.3 EDITING THE LANGUAGE FILES YMS provides a multilingual environment which is totally compatible with the features provided by Opus-CBCS v1.1x/Opus-CBCS v1.7x. It means that you can have YMS using up to twelve different languages, which are automatically selected according to the user's profile (Opus systems) or SysOp selection (Maximus systems). Opus-CBCS, mainly for security reasons, does not provide sources and compiler for .USL and .SYL files; on the contrary, YMS gives you total control over the output language files, giving you the sources and the language compiler. This capabilities have definitely been inspired by Opus. Being Opus Gamma Testers and having to work on the ITALIANO.??L files for Opus let us begin to think about how could external programs be as multilingual as Opus is. Basically, what you will have to do now is: 1) Apply minor or major changes to the language source files and/or YMS_OS OEC or MECCA files; 2) Run the language compiler to generate compiled files, for direct use by YMS. Unpacking YMS archive you have found on your disk seven files, named ENGLISH.ZIP, ITALIANO.ZIP, DANSK.ZIP, DUTCH.ZIP, DEUTSCH.ZIP. Choose your default language (language #1) as specified in your YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 22 system's .CTL file (I bet it will be English in almost 90% of cases). Unpack the ZIPfile. You will now have three files on your disk: YMS_MAIL.F$$, YMS_OS$.BBS and YMS_OS$.MEC. Rename the first into YMS_MAIL.F01 then, if you are using OPUS, rename the second into YMS_OS1.BBS or, if you are using Maximus, rename the third into YMS_OS1.MEC and compile it. The renaming of the language files is the only way to allow YMS users to enjoy maximum flexibility in the selection of languages (for language #2 you will have to create YMS_MAIL.F02 and YMS_OS2.BBS renaming another YMS_MAIL.F0$ and YMS_OS$.BBS or YMS_OS$.MEC, and so on...). We will now approach the language source file (YMS_MAIL.F$$) directly. For a description of YMS_OS$.BBS/.MEC files see section 3.7, below. WARNING: YMS and its language compiler program will let you do ANYTHING you want of YMS' user interface, but the lower level you want to modify the files, the more difficult it will be. If you know C language programming, you will probably consider my explanation boring and useless, but if you are not very skilled you will probably not be able to understand everything. The average SysOps will probably have no need to modify their language files, and will only have to change a few filenames, so, do *NOT* bother if you will not understand every single word. YMS language files provide many arguments (HDR, FTR, YMS, NMS MLS etc...) which contain the various pieces of the OutFile (header, footer, mail-waiting message etc..). Each of these arguments is suffixed by a ;#B or ;#G where # is a number in a range from 0 to 9. These suffixes define an OPTION. When searching for mail, you can have the mail-search module generating up to 10 different OutFile, according to your current needs. In this way, you can link another .BBS/.GBS file using option 0 or exit directly with option 1 or do anything else with option 2 and so on up to option 9. This capability is definitely one of the most powerful features in YMS, as it affects every single part of the OutFile, and therefore you can force the mail-search module to give you different behaviors using only one language file. If you have only need to change one or few parts for your alternate options, please consider that only option ;0B is mandatory. The mail-search module, if invoked i.e. with option 2, will default to option ;0 in all the arguments for which does not exist a ;2 suffix. The letter (B or G) which follows the OPTION gives you the possibilty to include animations in your OutFiles. Animations, even when made with avatar control codes, cannot be sent to TTY- type terminals, since the filtering of the cursor movement codes makes these animation useless. But YMS gives you the possibility to create differents OutFiles depending on the user's terminal capabilities. YMS_MS will use option ;#B if the user is in TTY mode, or ;#G if the user has cursor control capabilities, that is an AVATAR or ANSI-BBS terminal. As above, options ;#G aren't mandatory, and if for a specified option X a ;XG isn't defined, YMS_MS will use the corresponding ;XB option. For backward YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 23 compatibility, if you don't put any letter after the option, YMS_LC will default to 'B'. Since it is difficult to create animations or long header/footer/yms/nms/mls lines and include them directly in the language file using escape commands, YMS_LC will allow you to import them directly from an external file. Use the language- compile directive '#include' followed by the argument and the filename you want included. Examples: - HDR:000;1 is the same as HDR:000;1B and is used with option 1 (-O1) if the user's terminal mode is TTY. - You choose option 3 (-O3) and the user has an AVATAR terminal. YMS_MS will try to use first xxx:yyy;3G; if it isn't defined YMS_MS will try xxx:yyy;3B and if this isn't defined too it will default to xxx:yyy;0B which must exist. - ; #include YMS:000;0G c:\ansi\mailbox.ans ; YMS:000;0G isn't directly defined in the fontfile but the file 'c:\ansi\mailbox.ans' is included instead (at compile time by YMS_LC, not by YMS_MS) ;+--------------------------------------------------------------+ ;| Escape commands translated by YMS_LC.EXE: | ;+--------------------------------------------------------------+ ;| | ;| \\ A single BackSlash \ | ;| \# Space, ASCII 32, to better show it | ;| \' Single quote, ', ASCII 39 | ;| \" Double quotes, ", ASCII 34 | ;| \a Bell, Ctrl-G, ASCII 7 | ;| \b BackSpace, Ctrl-H, ASCII 8 | ;| \f FormFeed, ClearScreen, Ctrl-L, ASCII 12 | ;| \n LineFeed, Ctrl-J, ASCII 10 | ;| \r Carriage Return, Ctrl-M, Enter, ASCII 13 | ;| \t Tab, Ctrl-I, ASCII 9 | ;| \v Vertical Tab, Ctrl-K, ASCII 11 | ;| \d### Decimal number ###, 3 digits or up to the first | ;| non-digit character (\d012 or \d12\r) | ;| \x### Hexadecimal number ### (base 16) (as for \d###) | ;| \### Octal number ### (base 8) (as for \d and \x) | ;| | ;+--------------------------------------------------------------+ ; ; ; Let's first of all give an overview to the three main different ; formats of the show-file, depending on the results of the mail- ; search. ; ; Structure of the OutFile when the user has NO mail waiting ; (Header, No_Mail_Sir, YMS_(C)opyright, Footer1): YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 24 ; HDR:000 ; NMS:000 ; YMS (C) message ; FTR:001 ; ; ; Structure of the OutFile when the user HAS mail waiting (Header, ; Your_Mail_Sir, Waiting_Messages, Footer0, YMS_(C)opyright, ; Footer1): ; HDR:000 ; YMS:000 ; MSG000:yyy ; FTR:000 ; YMS (C) message ; FTR:001 ; ; ; Structure of the OutFile when the user hits a TaskSearchConflict ; (Header, MailMan_is_Late_Sir, YMS_(C)opyright, Footer1): ; HDR:000 ; MLS:000 ; YMS (C) message ; FTR:001 ; ; ; Let's now analyze the single arguments that form the ; YMS_MAIL.F0$ files: ; ; ; ; HDR:000 (Header) is ALWAYS used as the first line of the output ; show-file, either if the user has mail waiting, either if it has ; not, or if there is a SearchConflict. ; Examples: ; HDR:000;0B \1\x0c\5\r\n\d15FD:\\Opus\\Misc\\News\r\n ; ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^^^^-- CR/LF ; || | | | | +- ^OFD:\Opus\Misc\News (link a file on ; || | | | | exit) ; || | | | +- CR/LF ; || | | +- ^E (turn auto-more ON) ; || | +- ^L (clearscreen, could also be \d012 or \f) ; || +- ^A (Press ENTER to continue.) ; || ; |+- TTY mode users (see explanation above) ; Header for Option 0 (see explanation of -O switch for ; (the default) YMS_MS.EXE, below) ; ; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 25 HDR:000;1B \x0c\5\r\n ; ^^ ^ ^ ^^^^- CR/LF ; || | +- ^E (turn auto-more ON) ; || +- ^L (clearscreen, could also be \d012 or \f) ; |+- TTY mode users ; Header for Option 1 ; (invoked from YMS_MS.EXE command line) ; ; HDR:000;2B \r\n ; ^^ ^^^^- CR/LF ; |+- TTY mode users ; Header for Option 2 ; (invoked from YMS_MS.EXE command line) ; ; ; The previous examples, provided in the YMS_MAIL.F0$ files ; included in the package, fit three different requirements: ; Option 0 will clear the screen, turn auto-more on (if the ; message waiting list is fairly long, it is advisable to be ; prompted for a More [Y,n,=]?) and, on exit, link file ; D:\Opus\Misc\News.Bbs/.Gbs. This is the default option, which I ; use on <[ AmnesiA ]> in my Welcome files. ; Option 1 will clear the screen, turn auto-more on and send a ; CR/LF. Definitely very useful for a menu mail-search (and I use ; it for such a purpose!). ; Option 2 will simply send a CR/LF, and I use it for the mail- ; search outside Opus, before running the message editor, and ; therefore I simply have the need to TYPE the show-file, without ; any Opus Embedded Command/Mecca command. ; ; ; ; NMS:000 (No_Mail_Sir) Shown to the user if he/she has NO mail ; waiting ; NMS:000;0B \d22\d1\d139Sorry, there are no messages for you ... ; ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ; |+---+ + Avatar Colour Codes Line is truncated ; Option 0 | (Bright Cyan on Black) for readability. ; | See YMS_MAIL.F0$ ; TTY mode users files for the ; complete line. ; ; YMS:000 (Your_Mail,_Sir) Shown to the user after HDR if he/she ; HAS mail waiting. ; YMS:000;0B \d22\d1\d11\d22\d2Your Mail, Sir...\d22\d1\d3 ; ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ |^^^^^^^^^ ; || | | Avatar Colour Codes ; |+---+ | | (Normal Cyan on Black) ; Option 0 | | + Avatar Colour Codes ; | | (Flash ON) ; TTY mode -+ + Avatar Colour Codes ; users (Bright Cyan on Black) YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 26 ; ; For Escape Commands translations of Opus Embedded Commands and ; Avatar Colour Codes see YMS Reference Guide. ; ; ; ; MLS:000 (MailMan is Late, Sir) Shown to the user if another task ; is performing an UPDATE ; MLS:000;0B \d22\d1\d137Mail search is currently being ... ; ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ; || + Avatar Colour Code | ; || (Bright Blue on Black) Line is truncated for ; |+- TTY mode users readability. ; Option 0 See YMS_MAIL.F0$ files ; for the complete line. ; ; FTR:000 is placed at the end of the file. It is followed by YMS ; (C)opyright message and FTR:001. It is shown to the user ONLY if ; he/she HAS mail waiting. ; FTR:000;0B \r\n\r\n\d22\d1\d139NOTE: \d22\d1\d137Messages ... ; ^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ; || + CR/LF/CR/LF | ; |+- TTY mode users | ; +- Option 0 Line is truncated for readability. ; See YMS_MAIL.F0$ files for the ; complete line. ; ; FTR:001 is the last line of the OutFile. It is placed AFTER the ; YMS (C)opyright message, and it is ALWAYS present in the ; OutFile. ; It may be a good place for a ^OS embedded command. ; FTR:001;0B \1\xc ; ^ ^^ ; | + ClearScreen, ^L ; + ^A (Press ENTER to continue) ; ; ; ; ; The following are the components of the message list (the body ; of the OutFile when the user HAS mail waiting). It is definitely ; complex to understand it, but the distribution files provide a ; working version. If you are skilled and interested in creating a ; new style of OutFile, we welcome you to do this, and encourage ; you to send us the file(s) for eventual inclusion in the next ; version of YMS. ; ; ; ; PVT:xxx is the %p in MSG000 ; PVT:000 is used if the message is private; PVT:001 is used if ; the message is public YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 27 ; PVT:000;0B \d22\d1\d78[pvt]\d22\d1\d3 ; ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ; || | | | Avatar Colour Codes ; |+---+ | | + (Cyan on Black) ; Option 0 | | + Text Shown Right of the Message Number ; TTY mode + | ; users + Avatar Colour Codes (Bright Yellow on Red) ; ; PVT:001;0B ; ^^- TTY mode users ; + Option 0 ; ; In the distribution files nothing is placed here, as I currently ; see no need to state that a message is public. However, if you ; think that saying it could me in some way useful, build your own ; PVT:001 line. ; ; ; ; RCD:xxx is the %r in MSG000 ; RCD:000 is used if the message is received and you have both ; IncludeReceived and TaskShowReceived; RCD:001 is used in all the ; other cases. ; RCD:000;0B [rec] ; ^^ ^^^^- Text Shown Right of Message Number ; |+- TTY mode users ; + Option 0 ; ; RCD:001;0B ; ^^- TTY mode users ; +- Option 0 ; The considerations made about PVT:001 are also valid here. ; ; ; ; ; BRD:xxx is the %b in MSG000 ; BRD:000 is used if the message is BroadCast; BRD:001 is used in ; all the other cases. ; BRD:000;0B \d22\d1\d30[broadcast]\d22\d1\d3 ; ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ; |+---+ | | + Avatar (Cyan on Black) ; Option 0 | | + Text Shown ; TTY mode + + Avatar (Bright Yellow on Blue) ; user ; BRD:001;0B ; ^^- TTY mode users ; +- Option 0 ; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 28 ; This option shows nothing, for the same reasons explained for ; PVT and RCD ; ; ; NTF:xxx is the %n in MSG000 ; NTF:000 is used if the message is Notified; NTF:001 is used in ; all the other cases. ; NTF:000;0B \d22\d1\d11[ntfy]\d22\d1\d3 ; ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ; |+---+ | | + Avatar (Cyan on Black) ; Option 0 | | + Text Shown ; TTY mode + + Avatar (Bright Cyan on Blue) ; user ; NTF:001;0B ; ^^- TTY mode users ; +- Option 0 ; ; This option shows nothing, for the same reasons explained for ; PVT and RCD ; ; ; ALS:xxx is the %h in MSG000 ; ALS:000 is used with OPUS 1.7x only and if the message is to the ; user's handle (alias); ALS:001 is used in all the other cases. ; ALS:000;0B \d22\d1\d11[alias]\d22\d1\d3 ; ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ; |+---+ | | + Avatar (Cyan on Black) ; Option 0 | | + Text Shown ; TTY mode + + Avatar (Bright Cyan on Blue) ; users ; ALS:001;0B ; ^^- TTY mode users ; +- Option 0 ; ; This option shows nothing, for the same reasons explained for ; PVT and RCD ; ; ; ; TYP:xxx is the %t in MSG000 ; TYP:000 or TYP:001 or TYP:002 are used depending on the area ; type: Local, Matrix or Echomail, in order. ; TYP:000;0B Local area ... TYP:001;0B MATRIX area .. TYP:002;0B ECHO area .... ; ^^- TTY mode users ; +- Option 0 ; ; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 29 ; MSG000:xxx Message Numbers. ; Meaning (different argument numbers, as MSG000:001 or :002 are ; included between curly brackets with the proper number). ; ;{000 ; Msg Area 2: "Messages to the SYSOP" ;}{001 Message Number(s):}{ 249} <- 005 ; ; Msg Area 6: "NetMail Messages" ; Message Number(s): 17, 18, 20, 26, 29{,} <-006 ;{003 } 40, 44, 49, 50, 55 ; ; MSG000:002 and MSG000:004 replace MSG000:001 and MSG000:003 if ; they are too long to fit in one line only on the user's screen ; (according to his/her screen width, as found in the LASTUS??.DAT ; or LASTUS??.BBS file). Therefore, they must be kept (if ; possible) of real NUL length (it means that they should be made ; of CR, LF, Avatar Colour codes, etc ONLY!). ; ; There are 10 format specifiers available everywhere in the ; MSG000:xxx lines. They start with a percent sign and have a 'C' ; like sintax. See the Reference guide (section 3.3) for a ; complete reference. Their meaning is as follow: ; ; +------------ Format specifier ; | +------- Type (Numeric or String) ; | | +--- Description ; | | | ; %a Num Area number. For MAXIMUS, this is the number used by ; YMS to select the area; ; %b Str BRD:000 if the message is BROADCAST, BRD:001 if the msg ; is not; ; %d Str Area Title; ; %m Num Number of the message to show; ; %n Str NTF:000 if the message is Notified or NTF:001 if the ; message is to the name used for this search. ; %h Str ALS:000 if the message is to the user's handle (alias), ; ALS:001 if the message is to the user real name (OPUS ; 1.70 only). ; %p Str PVT:000 if the message is PRIVATE, PVT:001 if the msg ; is not; ; %r Str RCD:000 if the message is flagged RECEIVED, RCD:001 if ; not; ; %t Str TYP:000 or TYP:001 or TYP:002 depending on the area ; type: Local, Matrix or Echo, in order; ; %x Str Area Name for OPUS 1.70; Use this instead of %a if you ; are using MAXIMUS; For OPUS 1.1x %x is an empty string. ; %% --- The percent sign itself. ; ; ; This is one of the five formats included in the distribution ; files. Avatar Colour Codes have been removed to shorten the ; lines and let them be more readable. See the distribution files ; for the complete lines and choose your favorite format. ; YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 30 ; MSG000:000;0B \r\n\r\n Msg area #%3a: "%d" ; ^^^^^^^ ^ ^^^ ^- Message Area Name ; | | | ; | Normal Text + Message Area Number ; CR/LF/CR/LF ; MSG000:001;0B \r\n\#\#\# Message number(s): ; ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ; | | |+ Normal Text ; CR/LF + Spaces ; MSG000:002;0B \r\n ; ^^^^- CR/LF ; MSG000:003;0B \r\n\# \# ; ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ; Spaces (first and last in Escape Commands, ; to highlight the beginning and the ; end) ; MSG000:004;0B \r\n ; MSG000:005;0B \#%3m%p%r%b%n%h ; ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^- ALS:xxx ; | | | | | + NTF:xxx ; | | | | + BRD:xxx ; | | | + RCD:xxx ; Space + | + PVT:xxx ; + Message Number ; MSG000:006;0B , ; ^- Separator between message numbers. ; ; ; 3.4 USING THE LANGUAGE COMPILER YMS' language compiler (YMS_LC.EXE) reads the font files YMS_MAIL.F0? and generates the compiled files YMS_MAIL.C0? It is definitely very easy to use it. Usage: YMS_LC language#... [-d{fontfile_path}] YMS_LC * [-d{fontfile_path}] Where 'language#' is the language number. Issueing YMS_LC 1 <enter> from the DOS command line will let YMS_LC compile YMS_MAIL.F01 and generate YMS_MAIL.C01. Issueing YMS_LC 2 <enter> will let YMS_LC compile YMS_MAIL.F02 and generate YMS_MAIL.C02. And so on, up to language 12. You can even compile more than one language file. Issueing YMS_LC YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 31 1 2 4 <enter>, for example, will let YMS_LC compile YMS_MAIL.F01, YMS_MAIL.F02 and YMS_MAIL.F04 generating the corresponding compiled files. You can compile ALL your language files too issueing YMS_LC * <enter>. You can optionally specify as command line argument the path were YMS_LC must look for YMS_MAIL.F0? files, if they're not in the current directory, using -d{drive:\path}. YMS language compiler may generate warning or errors if the font file does not match the valid specifications. Please refer to the reference guide (YMS_REF.DOC) for error messages explanation. Let's say that now you have edited your default language file and you have generated YMS_MAIL.C01 using the language compiler. You can now do the same with other languages, up to twelve. Simply repeat the procedure explained before: 1) Unpack the language ZIPfile 2) Rename the brand new YMS_MAIL.F0$ file into .F02/.F03 etc according to your needs (language file 11 and 12 has extension .F11 and .F12) 3) Edit the language font file 4) Run the language compiler to obtain the .C0? file It is not mandatory to install in YMS as many languages as you have in Opus. During the beta testing we had only English and Italian files. If you do not have a YMS_MAIL.C0? file that matches the one in Opus, YMS will default to use the first. If a user with language set to 4 will run YMS to search for mail, and there is no YMS_MAIL.C04 file in the YMS directory, the program will default to use YMS_MAIL.C01. In this way you can choose to use only a few, or even only one language on YMS, if you do not want to bother editing those strange font files. 3.5 INSTALLING THE MAIL SEARCH MODULE (BBS SEARCH) YMS' mail search module (YMS_MS.EXE) may be invoked either automatically from a WELCOME.BBS/.GBS file (or whatever you want to call it) either from a menu option. This is not a problem because, as stated before at point 3.4, you can choose between 10 different headers, footers etc. for your output file simply issueing a different command line switch, to fit your current use (and so link other files, request a "Press ENTER" etc etc). As you have probably noticed, the maximum flexibility provided by the language compiler (YMS_LC.EXE) will not allow me to give standardized instructions about "how to use" the mail search module and its showfiles, as every user may totally modify it, but I guess that a couple of words about three examples (which are already in the YMS_MAIL.F0$ files you have) may be helpful. YMS mail search module usage: [drive:\pathname\]YMS_MS [-T{n}] [-O{n}] [-L{n}] [-S] [-B] [-C] [-A] [-Ddrive:\pathname\] YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 32 YMS_MS may be invoked from the Opus/Maximus' root dir, if it's there. Otherwise, unless you have put your YMS-directory in the PATH, you must provide a complete pathname. Command line switches: -T{n} Example: -T2 Purpose: Search mail using the parameters of Task number {n} Default: 0 (No multitasking) Range: 0 to 255 Notes: Not necessary if you are not using the multitasking options in YMS, but absolutely mandatory is you _are_ using them. -O{n} Example: -O1 Purpose: build OutFile/Show mail using data in options number {n} Default: 0 (HDR:000;0 FTR:000;0 etc, all with a ;0 suffix) Range: 0 to 9 Notes: Use of this switch is closely connected to the way you have configured your file arguments' options. You will probably use the default in the most frequent use and call the other options just in case. -L{n} Example: -L2 Purpose: build OutFile/Show mail using language {n} Default: 1 Range: 1 to 12 Notes: This switch is ignored with if BbsType is either OPUS11x or OPUS17x: the current user's language is used. -S Example: -S Purpose: Toggle the current TaskShowReceived status -B Example: -B Purpose: Toggle the current TaskAllNotToEnabled status. -C Example: -C Purpose: Toggle the current TaskSearchSectOnly status. -A Example: -A Purpose: Toggle the current TaskShowAlias status. -D[drive:\pathname\] Example: -DC:\Opus\Yms\ Purpose: Tell YMS_MS.EXE where the YMS files are stored (YMS directory). Default: Current directory (in most cases Opus/Maximus' root dir) Notes: Use this switch if you have placed the YMS files in a YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 33 subdir different than the Opus/Maximus' dir (as I do). If you have installed YMS in the Opus/Maximus root directory you will probably never need to use this switch. You will probably wish to have YMS searching for your users' mail when they log on to your system, and optionally give them a chance to run YMS_MS.EXE again from a menu choice. In a nutshell, all you have to do is simply call YMS_MS.EXE to look for mail waiting, have it generating the showfile and immediately after tell Opus/Maximus to show the file to the user. What you barely have to do in an OEC file is: ^OC{drive:\pathname\}YMS_MS {switches} ^OS{drive:\pathname\}SHOWFILE or, in a MECCA file: [xtern_run]{drive:\pathname\}YMS_OS {switches} [display]{drive:\pathname\}SHOWFILE Where {switches} are the switches you choose to use (see above). Normally there will be a -T to specify your current task number, a -O to select the option you want to use (at the logon you will probably use the default, and therefore the switch will not be required) and a -D pointing to the YMS directory, if different than the current one. If you want to call YMS_MS.EXE from a menu option, build another OEC/MECCA file containing just two lines, similar as the above, and use a different option, if with the default you use an OEC/MECCA in the showfile to link another file. I use -O1 which, instead of showing the file NEWS.BBS/.GBS (see the example) after the showfile, simply ends it and goes back to the menu. I think that this part does not require much more exemplifications, as every Opus/Maximus' SysOp is supposed to have a sufficient knowledge of Embedded Commands. Perhaps you'll want to search for mail before and show the file later, in your sequence of welcome files, but the idea is the same. 3.6 INSTALLING THE MAIL SEARCH MODULE (IMMEDIATE SEARCH) YMS' mail search program can be used also outside the BBS environment. You can use YMS_MS to search for the mail waiting for a specified name without using the lastuser file created by you BBS program. This can be useful to SysOps for a mail search of their own mail when running their favorite message editor, such as Msged, GoldEd or others. Command line switches will give the possibility to choose the privilege and the keys to use for an immediate search. YMS_MS will not use the default TaskOutfile for an immediate mail search. It will send the output generated to the standard output, YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 34 so it can be redirected when needed. YMS_MS will not create any log file too, but log style messages will be sent to screen if the output has been redirected to a disk file. As for a task-based search (see above) it is impossible to give standardized instructions about "how to use" the mail search module and its showfiles for an immediate mail search, but I guess that a couple of words about one example could be useful. YMS mail search module: usage for an immediate mail search. [drive:\pathname\]YMS_MS "user name" [-O{n}] [-L{n}] [-S] [-B] [-G] [-V{priv}] [-K{keys}] [-Ddrive:\pathname\] Command line switches: -O{n} Example: -O1 Purpose: build OutFile/Show mail using data in options number {n} Default: 0 (HDR:000;0 FTR:000;0 etc, all with a ;0 suffix) Range: 0 to 9 Notes: Use of this switch is closely connected to the way you have configured your file arguments' options. You will probably use the default in the most frequent use and call the other options just in case. -L{n} Example: -L2 Purpose: build OutFile/Show mail using language {n} Default: 1 Range: 1 to 12 -S Example: -S Purpose: Toggle the current TaskShowReceived status Notes: The default status for immediate mail search is not to show received messages. Use this switch if you want them shown. -B Example: -B Purpose: Toggle the current TaskAllNotToEnabled status. Notes: The default status for immediate mail search is to show broadcast messages to people listed in the EnableToAll list. -G Example: -G Purpose: Enables graphics options (HDR:000;0G, FTR:000;0G all with a G suffix). Notes: The default for YMS_MS is not to use graphics options during an immediate mail search. YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 35 -V{priv} Example: -VF Default: -Vn (Normal) Range: {priv} can be: t (twit), d (disgrace), l (limited), n (normal), w (worthy), p (privil), f (favored), e (extra), c (clerk), a (asstsysop), s (sysop). Purpose: the privilege to use in an immediate mail search. -K{keys} Example: -K45 Default: Normally no keys, but all keys if privilege is Sysop Range: 1-8 if BbsType is Max102; A-Z, 0-5 if BbsType is OPUS11x or OPUS 17x. Purpose: the keys to use in an immediate mail search. -D[drive:\pathname\] Example: -DC:\Opus\Yms\ Purpose: Tell YMS_MS.EXE where the YMS files are stored (YMS directory). Default: Current directory (in most cases Opus/Maximus' root dir) Notes: Use this switch if you have placed the YMS files in a subdir different than the Opus/Maximus' dir (as I do). If you have installed YMS in the Opus/Maximus root directory you will probably never need to use this switch. The line in the batch file I use to execute my message editor looks like: YMS_MS "Angelo Besani" -O2 -L2 -G -Vs | MORE YMS_MS will search for the mail waiting for "Angelo Besani" (myself) and create the outfile using options 2, language 2, graphic options and SysOp privilege (and all keys, the default for SysOp privilege). The output is redirected to the DOS utility 'more' in case the output is longer than 25 lines. A particular device driver will take care of AVATAR sequences. 3.7 INSTALLING THE ON-LINE SEARCH MODULE Some people prefer mailcheckers which not only show the messages waiting to the users, but which also give the possibility to read and optionally replay to these messages. But there is a problem: the message section of OPUS or MAXIMUS is such a rich environment that makes it difficult to create a similar thing inside the mailchecher, and a limited environment could miss that exactly thing you consider mandatory. YMS_OS.EXE gives you the best of both things: it will not only allow your users to read and optionally replay to their own mail but it will do this from INSIDE the OPUS/MAXIMUS message section. How does YMS_OS obtain this?? Every time it is executed it will change the area the user is in and his/her lastread pointer so that they will point exactly to the area/message the user has to read. So, what the user has to do is simply read the message. YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 36 YMS on-line search module usage: [drive:\pathname\]YMS_OS [-T{n}] [-K{key1}{key2}] [-P] [-B] [-N] [-1] [-C] [-A] [-Ddrive:\pathname\] Command line switches: -T{n} Example: -T2 Purpose: Search mail using the parameters of Task number {n} Default: 0 (No multitasking) Range: 0 to 255 Notes: Not necessary if you are not using the multitasking options in YMS, but absolutely mandatory is you _are_ using them. -K{key1}{key2} Example: -K45 Purpose: Select the keys YMS_OS uses to return informations after an on-line search. YMS_OS will set {key1} only if the user hasn't mail waiting, {key2} only if the user has read all his/her mail during this session, both {key1} and {key2} if there is a TaskOnlineConflict (and you choose notify), and will clear both keys if it has successfully set user's lastread pointer and current area. Default: If you don't use -K at all, no key will be changed, else the default for {key1} is 4 for OPUS and 7 for Maximus, for {key2} is 5 for OPUS and 8 for Maximus. Range: A-Z, 0-5 for OPUS, 1-8 for Maximus. Notes: You can use the errorlevel returned by YMS_OS instead of the keys if your BBS supports it. See the reference manual for a complete list of the errorlevels returned by YMS_OS. -P Example: -P Purpose: Select personal mail only to be shown by YMS_OS. Notes: Normally YMS_OS shows all mail to the user. If one of '-P', '-B' and '-N' switch is present, then YMS_OS will show only selected mail. -B Example: -B Purpose: Select broadcast messages only to be shown by YMS_OS. Notes: Normally YMS_OS shows all mail to the user. If one of '-P', '-B' and '-N' switch is present, then YMS_OS will show only selected mail. -N Example: -N Purpose: Select "Notify"ed messages only to be shown by YMS_OS. Notes: Normally YMS_OS shows all mail to the user. If one of '-P', '-B' and '-N' switch is present, then YMS_OS will YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 37 show only selected mail. Beware private messages!! -1 Example: -1 Purpose: Change the lastread pointer to point to the message before the one to be shown, in order to use a "show next" command. Notes: Normally YMS_OS changes the lastread pointer to point to the message to be shown. This requires a "show current message" command. -C Example: -C Purpose: Toggles the current TaskAllowChangeSect status. -A Example: -A Purpose: Toggles the current TashOnlineShowAlias status. -D[drive:\pathname\] Example: -DC:\Opus\Yms\ Purpose: Tell YMS_OS.EXE where the YMS files are stored (YMS directory). Default: Current directory (in most cases Opus/Maximus' root dir) Notes: Use this switch if you have placed the YMS files in a subdir different than the Opus/Maximus' dir (as I do). If you have installed YMS in the Opus/Maximus root directory you will probably never need to use this switch. Now you have to create a command in the message menu to execute an OEC/MECCA file to run YMS_OS. Let's see the three BBS programs separatly: OPUS 1.14: YMS_OS works, but there is the problem that the user must enter the command to read the message by him/herself since this cannot be obtained using embedded commands. Due to this problem the use of YMS_OS with OPUS 1.14 isn't recommended. OPUS 1.70: YMS_OS works wonderfully with OPUS 1.70, even if OPUS has the problem to be somewhat confused if an external program changes the area the user is in. But this problem has a simple workaround so it can be considered not a problem at all. You must have 'Secure 3' in your control file and create a command in your message menu to show to the user an OEC file. The command could be like: _SHOW Disgrace "S perSonal Mail" = C:\Opus\Misc\Yms_Os~ The skeleton of the OEC file to use YMS_OS could be: ^K^OCYMS_OS -T1 -K45 ^P4 ^P5 Mail search is currently being performed on another task. ^P4 ^P5 ^OQ ^P4 You have NO mail waiting ^P4 ^OQ YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 38 ^P5 You have no more mail waiting ^P5 ^OQ ^OG <ESC>10F1 <ESC>10F4 <ESC>300A The first line executes YMS_OS. If it sets both keys 4 and 5 (the ones chosen with the -K switch) it means that there is a On- Line/Update conflict to notify to the user, so we send a "Mail search is currently..." message to the user (line 2) and quit the OEC file (line 3). If there is key 4 set only, it means that the user has no mail waiting, so we tell it to the user (line 4) and quit the file (line 5). The same happens if the user has read all his/her own mail and so YMS_OS set key 5 (line 6 and 7). Finally, if no keys are set, we have to show the message to the user: we use a ^OG embedded command (line 8) to execute a '<ESC>10F1' (Main Menu), '<ESC>10F4' (Message Menu) and '<ESC>300A' (Read Current Message). As said above, this is only a skeleton. You will find complete OEC files in the distribution language archives (ENGLISH.ZIP, ITALIANO.ZIP and so on) as YMS_OS$.BBS. What you should normally do is only change the ^OC line to adjust the path where YMS_OS.EXE is. Maximus 1.02: YMS_OS works well with Maximus, so you can easily install it. Like OPUS 1.70, you should create a command in your control file to show a MECCA file to the user. This command could be like: Display_File C:\Max\Misc\Yms_Os1 Disgrace "S perSonal Mail" The skeleton of the MECCA file to use YMS_OS could be: [xtern_run]@YMS_OS.EXE -T1 -K45 -1 [4equal][5equal] Mail search is currently being performed on [4equal][5equal] another task. Please try later... [4equal][5equal][enter][quit] [4equal] Sorry, there are no messages for you at this moment. [4equal][enter][quit] [5equal] There are no more messages for you at this moment. [5equal][enter][quit] [cls][key_poke]| For the decription about how this MECCA file works see the description for OPUS 1.70 above. It is the same, the only difference being the command executed by Maximus: instead of returning to the main menu, go to the msg menu and show the current message, the Maximus version shows only the following message by "poking" an <ENTER> in the user buffer. This is why YMS_OS is executed with a '-1' switch. As said above, this is only a skeleton. You will find complete MECCA files in the distribution language archives (ENGLISH.ZIP, ITALIANO.ZIP and so on) as YMS_OS$.MEC. What you should normally do is only change the [xtern_run] line to adjust the path where YMS_OS.EXE is and compile the MECCA file. YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 39 3.8 COMPILING THE MESSAGE BASE Your system is now supposed to be ready to see YMS working. All you have to do now is setup a daily event to perform the complete message base compiling. This function does not affect the performances of YMS, as it will always be up-to-date, recording new messages and skipping received ones, but it is necessary when you add new users or delete the older, or renumber your message base. Running it once per day immediately after RENUM is the best chance. COMPILE function usage: YMS COMPILE {drive:\pathname\ctlfile.ext} It will cause YMS to compile the control file (drive:\pathname\ctlfile.ext or the default of Yms.Ctl if not specified) and immediately start to scan your message base. All the statements of the control file, as explained above, will be executed, and the netmail area will be compiled last, to be sure that also NetMailForward-ed messages are included. It will take a very few minutes if you have specified LowLevel in the control file (on my system it compiles 15400 messages in 5 minutes and 35 seconds), but even without it YMS will not be slow. **WARNING**: During the COMPILE process it is absolutely forbidden to use YMS in other tasks. When COMPILE is done, YMS is ready. Test your configuration entering Opus/Maximus in keyboard mode. YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 40 Section 4 - HOW TO USE THE UPDATE FUNCTION ========================================== 4.1 COMMAND LINE SWITCHES YMS.EXE provides a very flexible UPDATE function, that will take care of your message waiting base to let is always be up-to-date. It also provides command line switches that will help you to save time performing only the updates you need (they are very useful especially if you are not using YMS in LowLevel mode). UPDATE function usage: {drive:\path\}YMS UPDATE -T{n} -L -N -f/-F{echotoss.log} -D[path] -T{n} Example: -T1 Purpose: Specify the task number in which you are performing UPDATE. Default: -T0 Range: 0 to 255 -L Purpose: Perform update in LOCAL areas only. No other areas will be affected by UPDATE. Can be used in conjunction with -L, -f/F and -E. -N Purpose: Perform update in the MATRIX (NetMail) area only. No ther areas will be affected by UPDATE. It can be used in conjunction with -L, -f/F and -E. -f[drive:\pathname\filename.ext] Purpose: Perform UPDATE in the areas which tagname is listed in the specified file. It can be used in conjunction with -L, -N and -E. -F[drive:\pathname\filename.ext] Purpose: Ditto, as -f except that it kills the specified file after processing it. -E Purpose: Perform UPDATE in all echomail area. It can be used in conjunction with '-L', '-N-, '-f/F'. -D[drive:\pathname\] Purpose: Tell YMS where to find its support files (YMS directory). Default: Current directory (generally Opus/Maximus' root dir). You can use the various command line switches taking advantage from the capability that Opus and Maximus have of generating different exit errorlevels according to the user's actions, and optionally writing an ECHOTOSS.LOG containing the tagnames of the YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 41 echomail areas the users wrote messages into. You can use -L as the default and place -N and -f/-F when the user writes matrix/echomail messages, by trapping different errorlevels and checking for the existance of ECHOTOSS.LOG (or CONFMAIL.OUT or whatever else) in your batchfile, and addressing to different labels where you run YMS UPDATE using different command line switches. Remeber, anyway, that YMS will not process anything but the areas you specified and so changes in other areas (such as a message just received from the user) will not be noticed. If none of -L, -N, -E and -F/-f switches are specified, YMS will update ALL areas, so, on the other side, you will probably use -T{n} only, if you are running YMS in LowLevel mode, as it will take only a few seconds to update all your areas. Please consider that some cache memory programs, if not properly configured, may cause UPDATE to slow down in LowLevel mode. YMS UPDATE provides real-time updating of your message waiting base: it will add new messages and skip received ones; it will perform netmail forwarding if necessary and completely rescan single areas where it is advisable to do it. 4.2 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MULTITASKING YMS UPDATE provides two different kinds of behavior in case of conflict with other tasks in a multitasking environment. YMS_MS.EXE does more or less the same (in fact it also gives a chance to advise the user about it, and i LOVE that third option!), and I guess that the explanation given about this matter in the control file is exhaustive enough. The different behaviors (Exit and Wait) will not affect anything else that the time your tasks will be involved in the UPDATE function. If you specify Wait, YMS UPDATE will stay there waiting for the other task to finish its job until the WaitTime specified rolls over. After this time it will assume that something got wrong in the other task and will start updating by itself. Using Wait in all the tasks is merely a waste of time. Wait was concepted as a kind of security against errors that could occur during YMS processing: if all the tasks would exit if one task claims to be on duty at the moment, and if that task was instead crashed during YMS process, you'd probably see all the tasks exiting and UPDATE would no longer take place. So, it is advisable to have ONLY ONE task with Wait enabled. That task will ensure that UPDATE takes place always, even if a task crashes during YMS and leaving the m'task key used by YMS there. All the other tasks, using Exit, will be faster and let the other task(s) concurrently update the message base. YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 42 Section 5 - MORE ABOUT THE MAIN PROGRAM ======================================= YMS is smarter than other mailcheckers also if you want to change your system configuration but have no time to entirely COMPILE the message base again. 5.1 MODIFYING THE CONTROL FILE You may wish to modify your YMS control file (YMS.CTL or different, if specified) and would like to see the changes work NOW, instead of waiting for the next COMPILE. To do this, simply edit your control file to match your new need and then issue the following command from the DOS command line: YMS CTLCOMPILE {drive:\pathname\ctlfile.ext} It will cause YMS to re-compile the control file (drive:\pathname\ctlfile.ext or the default of Yms.Ctl if nothing is specified) and build again its own support files. All the changes you made will immediately have effect, but consider that some, as MatrixForward are not retroactive (will begin to work with the messages that will be processed starting from NOW, but not with the messages already processed by YMS) and some others may be ignored until the next full COMPILE (i.e. RecordsPerUser). 5.2 CHANGING YOUR MESSAGE AREAS You may also need to delete, add, modify a message area, or switch areas by number (i.e. let area 2 become number 10 and number 10 become area 2), or again change privileges or locks. After compiling the message base YMS does not anymore look at the SYSTEM??.DAT files (OPUS 1.14) or SYSMSG.DAT file (OPUS 1.70) or AREA.DAT file (Maximus), and therefore you will have to tell it to look for the changes in some way. AREAUPDATE function usage: YMS AREAUPDATE <enter> YMS AREAUPDATE will scan your SYSTEM??.DAT files or SYSMSG.DAT file or AREA.DAT file and check for new privileges and locks and it will see if there are new areas, if any area has been deleted and if areas have been switched. New privileges and locks will be respected when showing mail to users with YMS_MS or YMS_OS; new areas, if any, will not be included until the next COMPILE; deleted areas will be disabled and switched areas will be correctly renumbered. If you are using OPUS 1.14, AREAUPDATE will scan all SYSTEM??.DAT until it reaches the 255th, looking for every single one, even if there are "holes" in between. Otherwise, if you want AREAUPDATE to stop after the first "hole" in the SYSTEM??.DAT sequence, simply hit any key just after the program has started. YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 43 Section 6 - TROUBLESHOOTING =========================== During the Beta-testing period, some common configuration problems came out, and therefore I think it is useful to report them here, to help the fellow SysOps. 6.1 CORRECT USE OF THE '-D' SWITCH After installing YMS, you keep getting error messages as "Y1104: Can't find task file..." and you seem not to find where is the problem. Maybe you have installed YMS in a directory different than BbsDirectory and you are now invoking YMS_MS.EXE or YMS UPDATE without using the proper -D switch to specify the YmsDirectory. 6.2 CORRECT USE OF THE "SentAsReceived" OPTION YMS seems to correctly remember messages in any area except the Matrix, where it shows only some messages. You probably have a software that marks some of the messages you have waiting in your netmail area as "Sent" and you have specified "SentAsReceived" in the control file. Comment that option out and the problem will disappear. 6.3 INVISIBLE NEW MESSAGES? You have entered new messages in an area but YMS UPDATE did not report "New messages in area...". In fact it will have correctly updated the base. This is probably what happened: you entered an area and killed n messages; then you replied to some messages and generated m messages. If m <= n YMS will not issue "New messages..." but will correctly update informations about that area. 6.4 YMS_MS DOES NOT SHOW NETMAIL MESSAGES This may happen if you have exceeded your recordsperuser (i.e. you have more messages than you recordsperuser value). Since the netmail area is compiled/update last, if you have exceeded you recordsperuser value it's quite likely that the netmail messages are among those not processed. 6.5 YMS_OS DOES NOT CHANGE THE LASTREAD POINTER TO THE SYSOP This may happen since the SysOp has generally a different Lastread pointer than the users. YMS_OS changes only the pointer contained in the LREAD.DAT file (Opus 1.70) or LASTREAD.BBS file (Maximus 1.02). But if you as SysOp are using the lastread pointer contained in the LASTREAD file YMS_OS seems not to work. YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 44 CONCLUSION ========== In the end of this User's Guide, I think that you'll agree with me that YMS is not just a mailchecker. I prefer to define YMS as a project, which ends will be affected by the impact it will have on the World Opus Consortium and on the suggestions that the fellow SysOps will send. However, I have some ideas for YMS v2.10.... THE FUTURE ========== What we are planning to implement in YMS v2.10 is: - An OMAN like Control-file and Language-file local/remote full screen setup program - Support for Maximus 2.00 If you have something to add to this wishlist, please send netmail messages to the addresses listed in Section 1 or join the MEADOW conference, which I guess will be the right place to discuss about Opus & YMS. For MAXIMUS support, please contact Bruno Grampa (2:331/105) in matrix or in the MUFFIN conference. YMS v2.00 User's Guide Page 45