After Hours BBS Program

[+InsaneMultitasker]

3 hours ago, BeeryMiller said:

That's the information I was looking for.  I did not know it was documented on Ninerpedia.

 

Together with the ninerpedia info @mizapf linked you to, review the Additional Info Block.  The file transfer routines will be coded to copy bytes between the TIFILES header record and the AIB during level 2 IO.  The last 4 bytes of the AIB are extensions used by the hard drive devices for larger files/record sizes. I don't believe that any terminal programs transfer these last 4 bytes, with possible exception of PORT and MyTerm.

 

Fred's site is a great reference beyond the earlier TI and Myarc docs, as @jedimatt42 reminded me not too long ago.    http://www.ti99-geek.nl/  [documentation->level 2 -> additional info] 

 

[+9640News]

Whew, I got the Excel tool to properly write a TIFILES header and a DV80 file out properly for 40, 64, and 80 column screen displays.  Major accomplishment for the day.  I also got all the files renamed to remove the "." extension, so that will not be an issue either.

 

Next step is to break things down into the categories Wolfgang specified, then lay out created filenames to that organization.

 

Time for dinner now.

Beery

[+9640News]

Wolfgang and/or Greg,

 

I had to go back and do some editing on the spreadsheet as I discovered an issue with some longer files.  Then, got it prepared for distribution to others.

 

I've got an Excel spreadsheet that creates the files to be used for the next upgrade of AfterHours BBS.  It will provide 2800 files for downloading capability from a master and submenu system.

 

I've got the spreadsheet broken down into 71 categories according to Wolfgang's menu layout.

 

The spreadsheet generates TIFILES formatted DIS/VAR 80 files for 40, 64, and 80 column viewing with the future upgrade to AfterHours.

 

Only about half the file categories have been populated, and some of the files in some of the categories could be copied and pasted into the other categories to clean it up a bit.  If someone wants to clean it up a bit before, that would be great.  

 

If someone adds files (character length 13 max), then I would suggest keeping a separated file addition listing directory so we can all benefit.

 

Anyways, this is the first part with the included files.  See the txt file in the zip folder.

 

Beery

 

FileCreator1.zip

[wolhess]

On 6/16/2020 at 4:00 AM, BeeryMiller said:

Only about half the file categories have been populated, and some of the files in some of the categories could be copied and pasted into the other categories to clean it up a bit.  If someone wants to clean it up a bit before, that would be great.  

Hi Beery,

 

I will clean up the complete file library, but I need a few day's to do this, I think.

 

I will also add some more files (<10) to the library with actual versions of programs. For this I will provide an extra list.

 

The DV80 file creation works very well, you had  a very good idea to use Excel for this. Thank you.

 

[+9640News]

2 hours ago, wolhess said:

Hi Beery,

 

I will clean up the complete file library, but I need a few day's to do this, I think.

 

I will also add some more files (<10) to the library with actual versions of programs. For this I will provide an extra list.

 

The DV80 file creation works very well, you had  a very good idea to use Excel for this. Thank you.

 

Thanks, no problem on the time.  Yeah, the Excel tool is quite useful.  I had originally hoped I would be able to just write out normal Windows .TXT files and let TIPI do the work, but the end of line character handling gave me problems which would be an issue then should someone want to edit the files in TI-Writer.  So, now that the files are written out with a TIFILES header, all is well.  

 

Because I did write the files out with a TIFILES header, I took the "easy" route that for each file/description written out, it consumes 1 sector.  I did not do a Description length test for the file description, but I would limit  the description to no more than about 130 characters.  Everything I have there now is 80 characters or less.  I pad each sector with the bytes >FF, and fill with >00 to the end of sector.  TI-Writer and TIDIR have no issues with the extra padding, and it just makes things simpler to code in Excel.

 

I would have liked to have had something in a TI System, however, the number of files, name sorting, category areas, and the shear number of files needed would take forever to process on a TI or Geneve.  As it is, with my Windows system, I am going to estimate it takes about 2 minutes to process the files.  

 

Beery

 

[wolhess]

Your Excel tool is working with file names of up to 12 character, but the TI will accept only 10 characters for a file Name.

 

So I have to cut some file names to the proper length. Maybe I will use onle xxx-A so all info before is save.

[+9640News]

 

1 hour ago, wolhess said:

Your Excel tool is working with file names of up to 12 character, but the TI will accept only 10 characters for a file Name.

 

So I have to cut some file names to the proper length. Maybe I will use onle xxx-A so all info before is save.

Yes, the TI can only accept 10 character filenames, but that does not matter on the PI.  That only matters on the TI and the user specifies the filename when he does a file transfer and save.  You will not need to rename any files.  Many of those filenames were actually 12 character length filenames with the 8.3 MS-DOS naming I had on another BBS back in the 90's.

 

What I will need to do in the two XMODEM source files is expand the filename length in the PAB to accommodate longer filenames for user entry.  That's it.

 

Beery

[+9640News]

15 hours ago, wolhess said:

Hi Beery,

 

I will clean up the complete file library, but I need a few day's to do this, I think.

 

Just realized the Sound and Picture folder categories doesn't match up correctly as wrong files are in the wrong areas there  (CAT511 and CAT25).

 

There may be some other issues.  Looks like I typed the wrong category name.  

Beery

 

[wolhess]

No Problem, I saw this and some others. I will make the corrections.

[+9640News]

2 hours ago, wolhess said:

No Problem, I saw this and some others. I will make the corrections.

Not sure if I mentioned it in the zip file folder notes, but there is no problem if a filename/description is listed in multiple categories if it would be appropriate to be in more than one file area.

Beery

[wolhess]

2 minutes ago, BeeryMiller said:

Not sure if I mentioned it in the zip file folder notes, but there is no problem if a filename/description is listed in multiple categories if it would be appropriate to be in more than one file area.

 

Yes, you mentioned it in the FileCreator text file.

[wolhess]

@BeeryMillerHi, it was nice to have a sysop Chat in the BBS with you.

 

The sysop break in Routine is in the file BBSSUBS, but the Problem Maybe should solve on another place.

In BBSSUBS on line 392 there is a remark about giving the user credit for time spent with sysop.

[+9640News]

Thanks Wolfgang.  I'll get a timer reset routine added into the chat routine so we do not time out after 3 minutes.

 

The piece of code needed is a CLR  @NOWAIT.  Just need to find the right line where we are typing back and forth to add it.

 

Beery

Edited June 18, 2020 by BeeryMiller

[+9640News]

Got the chat timeout fixed.  I added a CLR @NOWAIT just after the following line:

 

SYSNT1   SETO @RSINWS+10 in the BBSSUBS file, around line 368.

 

Beery

 

[+9640News]

Got a question for our more tech savvy individuals.  I just upgraded my AT&T DSL to AT&T Wireless to get better reliability and better service.  AT&T has disabled port forwarding on their cellular network.

 

Does anyone know how to get around this complication?  AT&T told me if I wanted port forwarding, I needed to go back to DSL.  Right now, that has disabled access to my AfterHours BBS from external access as well as my other BBS connected to fidonet.

 

Didn't know if there is some kind of service out there that allows me to keep an open port to somewhere else, and then they would stream a connection back to me...……..

 

Beery

[+9640News]

Wolfgang,

 

I think I have the code working properly now with all the submenus for the data library.  Still need to do some testing, but I think it looks good.

 

No pressure on your spreadsheet work as I want to do some testing with all the menu options before I release the code.  Menus are recursive so they back up one level as one hits the <ENTER> key until they eventually back up all the way to the main menu. 

 

Only took about 1054 bytes at present with much of that the data statements for all the menu structures and filenames for the 40 column files.  Code adjusts the pab name for the 64 and 80 column files.

 

Anyways, got that done, as well as the Chat timeout issue resolved.

 

Beery

 

[wolhess]

Most of the excel work is done, I think during this week I will finish it.

[+9640News]

7 hours ago, wolhess said:

Most of the excel work is done, I think during this week I will finish it.

Sounds good.

 

I discovered I need to change some code on how the file terminates after reaching the end.  There appears to be a couple of control character bytes I am missing for AfterHours to terminate the file.

 

That will not affect your work.  

 

Beery

 

[wolhess]

@BeeryMiller I finished the work on the Excel sheet today.

 

BBS.zip

 

"TableNames":

- The CAT02 has the same text file names as CAT11, I used CAT11!
- CAT09 is missing in TableNames!
- I have renamed the 2nd submenu from "Disk Utilities" to "Tools" in CAT44 and CAT45!

 

All files are sorted into categories 1 to 73.

 

There are 7 new files:
Archiv             Byte       Description                                                                 Category
MXT-ARK         98688    Actual Mass Transfer Program for TIPI                           CAT01
ARTIST-ARC     60800    TI-Artist, INSCEBOT Program for TIPI and TIPI mouse    CAT11
ROS842-ARK    69248    ROS 8.42C vom 14.03.2020                                        CAT03
STRAT-ARK      31104     XB Game Stratego compiled with XBGDP                      CAT20
TIPIT-ARK       52864     Tipi Tools Config, Map, Browser                                    CAT40,CAT46
TBOXNE-ARK    1664      TBOX99 Newsletter in English and in German               CAT70
DIR-LIST          6273      Directory list of all files                                               CAT71

 

"New Files.xlsx" file with three tables:
New Files        This is the New Files list, same as above.
File List           This is a list of all downloadable files with category and description
Manu Text       This is a alphabetic sorted list of the download file menues like the table "Table

 

The Tool creates all the Textfiles correct. 

 

[+9640News]

Thanks.  I should have some time tonight to work on it.  I should be able to get a release out sometime this Friday evening or Saturday.

 

Beery

 

[+9640News]

OK, got the spreadsheet tool to use everything as 10 character filenames.  Took about 30 minutes to write the code to rename the files, do a search and replace across the whole workbook, and then confirm there were no hiccups with the file naming.

 

I will do some testing tomorrow as time permits, and hopefully have something available by tomorrow evening.

 

Beery

 

 

[+9640News]

OK, here is the update to AfterHours BBS.  Files in the DL directory in this archive should be copied to your existing DL folder.  Any existing files in this directory will need to be added to the new setup using the FileCreator1.xlsm Excel utility.  The Excel utility will write out files to the TIPI "BBS" folder with a TIFILES header in DIS/VAR 80 format.

 

A new directory, BBS, has been created that contains all the menus in 40, 64, and 80 column format.  The chat/page timeout issue is fixed as well.  Now, at any file listing area, one can drop into the File transfer menu.

 

This update includes a 2800+ file download setup ready to go.

 

Let me know if you see any issues.  My testing thus far has not shown an issue.

 

Beery

 

20200627 AfterhHoursBBS.zip

[+9640News]

Greg,

 

I was on The Keep last week, and was unable to find how to get to AfterHours.  Can you post that information again?

 

Beery

[+arcadeshopper]

Greg,
 
I was on The Keep last week, and was unable to find how to get to AfterHours.  Can you post that information again?
 
Beery

Login
Type "/go dialout" hit enter
Then "d 19" enter

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

[+9640News]

Greg,

 

Thanks for the info.

 

You can remove my BBS from the list of BBS's users can connect to.  After upgrading to AT&T wireless internet, I no longer can port forward to direct users to the two BBS's I have.  It's a disappointment for sure.  I still get my fidonet mail, etc. as I can poll other systems, just not receive inbound connections.

 

I've got a couple of ideas yet for AfterHours.  I see you are still on a much earlier release.

 

I wanted to do a string search within a D/V 80 file for finding a file associated with a file description, however, I am beginning to think that may be more work than originally anticipated.

 

The other is trying to interface with fidonet, however I have not found the utilities I need on the Windows side of things I need.  I was hoping to be able to export individual messages by message number.  At this point, I would be just happy to be able to export a message as a text file, but I can not even find anything yet that even allows that.

 

Beery