Possibilities - Realities 2/91

Contact:   eSoft, Inc. (Makers of TBBS)
           15200 E. Girard Ave., Suite 3000
           Aurora, CO  80014
           (303) 699-6565      Voice
           (303) 699-6872      Fax
           (303) 699-8222      BBS
           support@esoft.com   E-Mail

REALITIES 2/91
--------------

*** From February 1991 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1991 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

REALITIES...how to make it work
by eSoft Technical Support Staff

From the moment you first install TBBS, it's easy to see the possibilities are 
almost endless.  Turning those possibilities into realities can bring up 
questions.  For this reason, quality customer support is at least half the 
overall value of any software package. 

We recommend you call the eSoft Support BBS (303-699-8222) and read through 
the messages in each of the various support areas.  You could find answers to 
your questions, even before you've asked them!  You'll definitely get some 
useful tips and ideas for bringing possibilities to life with tbbs.  In this 
section of the newsletter, we will answer some of the more commonly asked 
questions we receive. 

Keeping Up to Date...

Q. I purchased my copy of TBBS in February, 1990.  I have read on the Support 
Board that there are patches available to fix problems in the software.  How 
do I get these patches, and how much do they cost? 

A. That's what nice about it -- the "patches" (we call them MODS) are totally 
free of charge, you just need to dial in and download them from the Support 
Board. 

Once you're on the board, select <M>ODS from the Main Menu. Select <1>TBBS, 
and then select the version and line count you have.  Download all needed 
MODS, and apply them. 

To know which MODS you need, look on your release disk.  In the root directory 
of the second disk, there is file named README.DOC.  The first paragraph of 
that text file will tell you which MODS were applied prior to shipment.  
Obtain and apply all MODS released since then. 

There are several approaches you could take to applying MODS, but the easiest 
method is to copy the MODS and the APPLY.BAT file into your main TBBS 
directory.  From the DOS prompt, type "APPLY" followed by the name of the MOD 
file.  For example, to apply MLMOD31 to your TBBS 16-Line software, type: 

APPLY MLMOD31 

Apply all needed MODS one at a time, in numerical order.  Once you've done 
them all, that's it -- you're finished, and your copy of TBBS is current. 

There are MODS available for other eSoft products as well.  The filenames 
vary, but the process is identical. 

Ants in Your ANSI... 

Q. I've used SDL to create some colorful menus with ANSI codes. Procomm and 
Qmodem users see the menus as I designed them, but with users who run Telix 
and some other terminal programs, the background is partially color and 
partially black.  It looks awful!  What did I do wrong? 

A. You've done nothing wrong -- the problem is with the terminal program's 
ANSI interpretation, and Telix as well as some other programs handle ANSI 
differently.  They aren't broken, they just act differently. 

Terminal programs generally follow one of two models for ANSI code 
interpretation.  The first model works like the ANSI.SYS driver that came with 
DOS Version 2.x.  The second is like the ANSI.SYS driver from DOS Version 3.x 
and up.  With ANSI 2.x, when a clear screen code is received, the screen 
clears to black. With ANSI 3.x, a clear screen means "clear the screen to the 
currently set background color." 

Telix follows the 2.x model; Procomm and Qmodem both follow the 3.x model, 
hence the difference in behavior.  With the 2.x method, your background color 
will only show up wherever text is written to the screen. Elsewhere, the 
background will be black. 

It should be noted that most modern terminal programs DO NOT require the 
ANSI.SYS driver to be loaded -- they interpret the codes internally.  
Therefore changing DOS versions or ANSI.SYS drivers will usually not fix this 
problem. 

Opening the Window...

Q. Will TBBS run under the new Windows 3.0? 

A. Probably not.  Although we have not tested it with Windows specifically, we 
recommend that TBBS always be run on a dedicated machine without ANY type of 
multi-tasking environment loaded. These environments are very detrimental to 
interrupt driven asynchronous communications -- the type which TBBS uses.  If 
you attempt to run it in a multi-tasking environment, you will most likely 
experience serious performance degradation at the minimum, and lock-up 
problems at the extreme.  We strongly recommend against it, and remind you 
that we cannot provide technical support when the product is operated in such 
an environment. 

Expanding the Paper Trail...

Q. Can users input information to TBBS (using a Q&A file, for example) that 
could be routed to the printer? 

A.  No.  The only printing that TBBS itself is capable of is directing the 
dayfile (TBBS' running log of system activity) to a printer connected to the 
host. 

Other types of host printing can only be done using TDBS, the database 
companion product for TBBS.  Since TDBS is a dBASE III Plus compatible 
development environment, it offers the same printing commands as dBASE itself.  
These printing commands can route output to up to four (4) printers 
simultaneously.  The dBASE language provides excellent input functions with 
format checking, and as such, you could easily program a very sophisticated 
user input application with printer output capabilities by using TDBS. 

A Strange Code...

Q. When I use Telix to call my TBBS, I see two characters -- +0 -- after the 
name prompt.  I have to backspace over them in order to successfully log on.  
I don't see this on the local console.  What am I doing wrong? 

A. What you're seeing is one terminal program's response to the Auto-ENQ 
prompt.  TBBS is sending a character called an ENQ (ASCII decimal 5) after the 
name prompt.  Some terminals and terminal programs can be configured to send a 
user name or logon sequence in response to that character.  Many terminal 
programs for the PC display this character as a club or cloverleaf symbol if 
they don't handle the code. 

If you don't want to use this feature of TBBS you may disable it with CEDIT.  
To disable the sending of the ENQ character at logon, go to the CEDIT LOGON 
OPTIONS screen, and set the "Do ENQ auto-logon poll at first prompt" to NO. 

Blankety-Blank Blanks...

Q. I want to have a menu option that displays like this: 

D -> Download, Search for new files,
     Change areas, ... 

The second line won't indent when I use this as the Entry: text string.  TBBS 
removes the leading spaces and the second line displays without the indent.  
I've heard that an ALT-255 could be placed at the beginning of the line to 
"hold" the indent where I want it, but IBM graphics must be set "on" in the 
user's configuration before this works.  If IBM graphics are turned off, the 
text won't indent this way either.  Is there a way to do this that doesn't 
require this setting? 

A. Yes.  You must make each line you wish to display a separate menu entry.  
Make all but the last line a "text only" Entry: with KEY=?.  If each line is a 
separate text entry, then each can be indented, since the first line of each 
entry will indent correctly.  This will always display properly, whether your 
callers have IBM graphics set to "on" or "off".  Just be sure the KEY entry 
for your text-only menu option is "?" and not a blank or you and your users 
will continually be greeted with "Menu Option Not Defined" messages whenever 
they press their space bar. 

- END -
PS0291-2
Rev. 2/91

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
to distribute this file in its entirety, without modification, to any
interested party.  Any other use requires the written permission of
eSoft, Inc.

IMPORTANT:  The information herein is subject to change without notice.
Please call or write to confirm factual information of importance to you
or your organization.

