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After Hours BBS Program


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2 minutes ago, wolhess said:
I'm just a newbie to assembly.

But I think I'll try!

The information is in the message files and the routines are available in the current program, so I can usually copy and paste and test the result.
 

Don't worry, no expectations one way or the other.

 

Beery

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Wolfgang/Greg,
 
Let me ask a question.  Do either or both of you have Microsoft Excel?
 
I was already going to write an importer using VB.Excel to process a lot of files to bring them into use for AfterHours for an initial phase.  With a slightly different approach, I can use Excel for managing the file lists and write code that would generate nice formatting files for 40, 64, and 80 columns for all the areas at the press of a button.
 
If you both do, then I may be able to create a quite versatile tool.  I would have considered Multiplan, however it doesn't have the capability to do what I need it to do.
 
As I sit here thinking about it, it could probably also be done with an External command for MyWord, however I know for Wolfgang that would require the use of MAME/Geneve.  Even with a Geneve, that would still involve a number of extra steps.  If you all have Excel, that would make things much easier. 
 
Another approach is that I generate an initial "large" download library available to everyone formatted for 40/64/80 columns, and it would be a slow trickle of new files that may be easier to manage with only "hands on" when new files are uploaded.
 
Feedback is more than welcome.
 
Beery
 
I prefer Google sheets..

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

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45 minutes ago, arcadeshopper said:

I prefer Google sheets..

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk
 

 

I'm not sure what the capability of Google Sheets is.  I am able to program in VB.NET for Excel to create some custom programming is why I use Excel.  Does Google Sheets have that capability to use VB.NET macros from Excel?

 

Beery

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OK, here is the update for the AfterHours BBS.

 

Please see the notes in the text file.  Several new files will need to be copied to the AFTER subfolder.

 

Also, the batch files for the assembly and linking process have been changed as I had to move code around.

 

Beery

 

20200607 AFTERHOURS.zip

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1 hour ago, wolhess said:
I'm just a newbie to assembly.

But I think I'll try!

The information is in the message files and the routines are available in the current program, so I can usually copy and paste and test the result.
 

Wolfgang,

 

If you missed it, look at message 175 on page 7 of this thread.  As I was writing a message, you posted, and then it flipped to page 8 with my post trailing on page 7.  Depending upon how well you go back and check for potential missed messages, you may have missed my question.

 

Beery

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1 hour ago, BeeryMiller said:

Wolfgang/Greg,

 

Let me ask a question.  Do either or both of you have Microsoft Excel?

 

I was already going to write an importer using VB.Excel to process a lot of files to bring them into use for AfterHours for an initial phase.  With a slightly different approach, I can use Excel for managing the file lists and write code that would generate nice formatting files for 40, 64, and 80 columns for all the areas at the press of a button.

 

If you both do, then I may be able to create a quite versatile tool.  I would have considered Multiplan, however it doesn't have the capability to do what I need it to do.

 

As I sit here thinking about it, it could probably also be done with an External command for MyWord, however I know for Wolfgang that would require the use of MAME/Geneve.  Even with a Geneve, that would still involve a number of extra steps.  If you all have Excel, that would make things much easier. 

 

Another approach is that I generate an initial "large" download library available to everyone formatted for 40/64/80 columns, and it would be a slow trickle of new files that may be easier to manage with only "hands on" when new files are uploaded.

 

Feedback is more than welcome.

 

Beery

 

Oh, yes, I have overseen this message and your question too.

 

Yes, I have Excel on my PC and I can use it. I also have Multiplan on my TI, but with 40 characters only it is a little bit tedious to use.

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Hi Beery,

wow, you did an amazing work with the expanded download library.

It is very useful to split the download categories.

 

Today I tested some functions and started to correct my text files to display the library files for the download in the correct category.

 

During testing I also select the help file and tested the ^C function to abort the text display.

I displayed the first two screens and then I pressed ^C.

On the first ^C the program shoes a second “Press any key - °C to abort” message.

If I then press any key (not the ^C) the system shows the main menu.

On the second ^C a fatal *DSR* error occur. See the screenshot:

 

image.png.0cd147fc9c2309aa869d81b419141150.png

 

If I press the ^C after the first screen display of the help file it works fine.

 

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If a user is leaving a message for the sysop from the message base menu the BBS system crashes.

 

First I tested in your BBS 9640NEWS:9918

 

I tested also the private and sysop message base.

I cannot select “Z” for a private message. The system tells me this is not on the menu.

 

I can select “S” for sysop messages. There I can read all messages like a normal message base.

But the messages 1 to 4 has garbage text for mesg #, From, To, Subject e.t.c.

The messages itself is correct and I can read it.

I leaved a new message and the new message has the correct mesg # To, From Subject etc.

 

Then I selected the Sysop message from the main menu. I leaved a message there, but this is maybe another type of message base, because this message is not readable from the sysop message select in the message base menu.

 

SYSOP messages is different on the TBOX BBS!

I loged in as a user:

Here I cannot read the sysop message from the Message Base Select “S” Sysop message.

If I select the “S” and “R”ead the a fatal *DSR* error occur.

 

If I select “L”eaved a message, I can write the message but after I press “S” for save, the

Fatal *dsr* error occur and the program is running to the desert.
In this case I had to restart the BBS program!

 

If I login with my user wolhess #2, and select the sysop message from the main menu, then I can write a message to the sysop and I can save it without an error.

I think we need a separate sysop menu with the sysop message base selection and a user message base menu without the sysop message selection.

 

Then I logged in as SYSOP

When I log in with my Sysop #1 account then I can read and write messages in the message base with the sysop selection.  I can also write message to the sysop as sysop.

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OK, got your notes, and going to print things out and look things over.  The Fatal DSR error generally means the file is not present in the MSG directory.  Did you copy the extra files over that were BASEFILE0U, BASEFIL0Z, POINTFILEU, and POINTFILEZ?

 

Reading Sysop messages is only allowed if you are User #1.

 

I haven't fully digested your notes, so going to test things out on the version on my BBS at 9918.

 

Beery

 

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5 hours ago, wolhess said:

Hi Beery,

wow, you did an amazing work with the expanded download library.

It is very useful to split the download categories.

 

Today I tested some functions and started to correct my text files to display the library files for the download in the correct category.

 

During testing I also select the help file and tested the ^C function to abort the text display.

I displayed the first two screens and then I pressed ^C.

On the first ^C the program shoes a second “Press any key - °C to abort” message.

If I then press any key (not the ^C) the system shows the main menu.

On the second ^C a fatal *DSR* error occur. See the screenshot:

 

image.png.0cd147fc9c2309aa869d81b419141150.png

 

If I press the ^C after the first screen display of the help file it works fine.

 

I commented out lines 79 through 81 (3 lines) in BBSSUBS

 

*    MOV  @LINECOUNT3,@LINECOUNT3

*    JEQ    PAUSEFILE3

*    BL     @PAUSEFILE

 

That fixes the above issue.


Beery

 

 

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6 hours ago, wolhess said:

If a user is leaving a message for the sysop from the message base menu the BBS system crashes.

 

First I tested in your BBS 9640NEWS:9918

 

I tested also the private and sysop message base.

I cannot select “Z” for a private message. The system tells me this is not on the menu.

 

 

Remove the line with the Z option from the TEXTMB menu.  Private messages were removed until I can figure out why the system is not deleting the message.

 

Beery

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3 hours ago, BeeryMiller said:

OK, got your notes, and going to print things out and look things over.  The Fatal DSR error generally means the file is not present in the MSG directory.  Did you copy the extra files over that were BASEFILE0U, BASEFIL0Z, POINTFILEU, and POINTFILEZ?

 

Reading Sysop messages is only allowed if you are User #1.

 

I haven't fully digested your notes, so going to test things out on the version on my BBS at 9918.

 

Beery

 

Yes I copied the additional Base and Point-files.

 

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56 minutes ago, wolhess said:

Yes I copied the additional Base and Point-files.

 

I think I have all the issues addressed with this updated file.  You will need to delete some files, and then copy new copies of the BASEFILE0Z and POINTFILEZ over to the MESG folder.  Two source file updates were completed, one with fixing the ^C issue and the other with the still viewable Sysop message base

20200608AfterHours.zip

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Wolfgang,

 

I just about have a filename/filesize/description processor written in Excel that I am using to process the files I had on the original 9640News CD.  It will generate a set of files for 40, 64, and 80 columns with wordwrap for each area.  

 

What I have is a list of 48 file categories that came from GEnie back in the day.  I've got to figure out how I want to incorporate that into the BBSFILES source file area.  That's likely going to mean Categories with subcategories.

 

When I get it setup the way I think will work, I will distribute the package of files as a separate download.

 

Beery

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Hi Beery, the new version has solved the problems I had yesterday.

 

For your next version I have two suggestions:

 

1.       When you are in the message menu, you can go back to the main menu with [CR] or [E].
          When you are in the Data library menu, you can go back to the main menu with [CR] or [Z].

I think better is we can go back to the main menu with the same key-pressing.
Maybe with "[CR] or [X] to Exit to the main menu".

 

 

2.       When you select a sub data library from the data library menu the sub library is displayed on the screen. This is OK.
          But if the last page is displayed the system clears the screen and shows immediately the data library menu again.
          No chance to read the last page.

After the last page is displayed, the system should ask for "any key..." and then return to the data library menu.

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Just an update on the Data File library.

 

Upon processing the 9640News CD, I had 48 categories on the CD.  At the last update on the AfterHours BBS, I had 14 categories.  I'm going to need to create a "tree" function with main categories dropping to sub categories.

 

Right now, I have to figure out the main categories, two being TI-99/4A and the other Geneve.  Because of JMP instructions, I would really like to keep it at 14 subcategories per main category to minimize some memory usage.  Minimally, would need 4 categories, but could be more if needed.  Think future expansion as needed.

 

Here are the categories and description, so any feedback would be appreciated.  If you want to mark the attached TXT file up and post it back, I am all ears trying to get something suitable for everyone.

 

The "file processor" I think is going to be a one time deal on my end to create the files.  If someone else had a batch of files, I could process it for them, however general usage would be I think too complex.  I had hoped for something more robust, however that would require something custom to be written on the python side of the PI as TXT files are handled just a bit different from DIS/VAR 80 files even after Matt's import routine he coded to not work with AfterHours.

 

Beery

 

LIST.TXT

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12 hours ago, BeeryMiller said:

Just an update on the Data File library.

 

Upon processing the 9640News CD, I had 48 categories on the CD.  At the last update on the AfterHours BBS, I had 14 categories.  I'm going to need to create a "tree" function with main categories dropping to sub categories.

 

Right now, I have to figure out the main categories, two being TI-99/4A and the other Geneve.  Because of JMP instructions, I would really like to keep it at 14 subcategories per main category to minimize some memory usage.  Minimally, would need 4 categories, but could be more if needed.  Think future expansion as needed.

 

Here are the categories and description, so any feedback would be appreciated.  If you want to mark the attached TXT file up and post it back, I am all ears trying to get something suitable for everyone.

 

The "file processor" I think is going to be a one time deal on my end to create the files.  If someone else had a batch of files, I could process it for them, however general usage would be I think too complex.  I had hoped for something more robust, however that would require something custom to be written on the python side of the PI as TXT files are handled just a bit different from DIS/VAR 80 files even after Matt's import routine he coded to not work with AfterHours.

 

Beery

 

LIST.TXT 2.12 kB · 2 downloads

Hi, 

 

My thoughts on the data file library for the BBS file download.

 

BBS_Download_File_Library_Tree.zip

 

In the excel file I have 6 selections in the main data File Base.

 

Then there are a first sub library with currently 5 items and a second sub library with maximum 8 selections.

 

You can add or delete points as desired so that all file contents are addressed if possible.

 

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1 hour ago, wolhess said:

Hi, 

 

My thoughts on the data file library for the BBS file download.

 

BBS_Download_File_Library_Tree.zip 9.28 kB · 1 download

 

In the excel file I have 6 selections in the main data File Base.

 

Then there are a first sub library with currently 5 items and a second sub library with maximum 8 selections.

 

You can add or delete points as desired so that all file contents are addressed if possible.

 

 

That's a pretty decent model.  Unless I see/hear something otherwise, I will try that model.  I like the way you have it setup.

 

I do have 40, 64, and 80 column text files being generated properly now with my tool.  My next step is that I am going to have to rename the files from the 8.3 filenaming architecture to a straight up to 12 character filename.  I am trying to avoid the individual downloading the file having to mentally rename the file from BBSFILES.ARK to BBSFILES/ARK.  Rather, I will likely rename the files, transposing the "." to a "-" character.  I don't think that is an issue for the TIPI filenaming, need to double check.

 

After some sleep last night, I think I have finally come  up with a solution to continue to allow my Excel tool to be compatible with the files it creates to be TI-Writer compatible.  I've got to write a TIFILES header.  Need to verify yet that VBA Excel can handle a > 15K text string as I know some of the text files it writes are over that size limit at least for now.

 

Beery

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Hi, I always change the filenames on my tipi system to have names without a „/“ or a „.“. Mostly I changed these characters with a „-„ too.

 

There are some characters, tidir can‘t understand and will not show the folder with souch file names.

These characters I change too mostly to „-„, or „_“.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, wolhess said:

Hi, I always change the filenames on my tipi system to have names without a „/“ or a „.“. Mostly I changed these characters with a „-„ too.

 

There are some characters, tidir can‘t understand and will not show the folder with souch file names.

These characters I change too mostly to „-„, or „_“.

 

 

I was studying the TIFILES header for files, and then comparing it to the original File Descriptor record.  The layout is a bit different than I expected, so I am needing to dig a bit deeper in the Xmodem code to see how that is constructed from the File Descriptor Record.  Not sure I have ever seen anywhere else which bytes in the FDR match to the TIFILES header.  Come to think of it, I bet Matt has that defined somewhere in his python code.

 

The simplest approach is that once the TIFILES header is constructed, to write three x 80 max lines of text with the length byte preceeding each line per 256 byte block with each sector after the third line with a trailing >FF00000000000000000000000..... to complete the sector.  That means a 1000 line source file, whether it had one character or 80 characters, would be 334 sectors in length.  Otherwise, I would have to calculate how much could fit in a 256 byte record with the termination characters to make it smaller.  That would make my loops significantly more complicated, especially since the "big" loop is writing three files at a time, one at 40 character length, one at 64 length, and the other at 80 character length.

 

The nice thing, on my Windows computer, it only takes about 10 seconds to read the file descriptions of almost 3000 files and write 144 files out for proper display from Excel.

 

If a user loaded a file in TI-Writer, or MyWord and then were to save it out because they updated the file, things would be saved "normally" with no issue.  At least I think so.

 

I want to solve the above issue, before I do the file renaming.  I'm pretty sure I can do a rename without much effort.   After I get this piece squared away, I will lay out the necessary File Database menu to your specification.  From the 9640News CD, I will need to map the category names to your file categories so things line up appropriately.  

 

Doubtful I will get it complete this weekend, but my intent is to have the Excel side of things completed and the other half should fall into place quite easily since I already have the base part of it completed.

 

Beery

 

 

 

 

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25 minutes ago, BeeryMiller said:

I was studying the TIFILES header for files, and then comparing it to the original File Descriptor record.  The layout is a bit different than I expected, so I am needing to dig a bit deeper in the Xmodem code to see how that is constructed from the File Descriptor Record.  Not sure I have ever seen anywhere else which bytes in the FDR match to the TIFILES header.  Come to think of it, I bet Matt has that defined somewhere in his python code.

Isn't this is all explained on Ninerpedia?

 

https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/TIFILES_format

https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/File_systems

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2 hours ago, mizapf said:

Not sure who the maintainer is for ninerpedia.  I have Microsoft Word documents for details on all the XOP's for the MDOS programming section if someone is interested in adding those details.


Beery

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Beery, if you have an account on Ninerpedia, you are of course invited to put this information on this - our - Wiki. :)

 

I can create an account for you if desired. I am the administrator of Ninerpedia, but currently I can't afford the time to put the XOP information there. I know we already have some XOP descriptions; some years ago I started with them, but did not finish.

 

We do have some more people with accounts, so maybe someone else would like to help out.

Edited by mizapf
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20 minutes ago, BeeryMiller said:

Not sure who the maintainer is for ninerpedia.  I have Microsoft Word documents for details on all the XOP's for the MDOS programming section if someone is interested in adding those details.


Beery

Pretty sure you can make an account and edit away once he approves it

 

Greg

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