RIP Kit 1.0 - RIP Screens or Displays Corrupted

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

RIP SCREENS OR DISPLAYS CORRUPTED
---------------------------------

There are five common ways that RIP screens become corrupted.

RIP SCREEN (SCENE) TOO LONG

RIP screens are simply text files, and as with any text file, TBBS will insert 
a "-More-" after each screen full of data if a user has their screen length 
(more setting) set a non-zero value.  All RIP users have screen length set to 
24.  As such, TBBS will pause every 24 lines of the display.  If the RIP 
screen is longer than 24 lines, this will cause the RIP screen to become 
corrupted or to behave oddly when shown to a caller. 

To fix this, you need to make sure that you insert a clear screen (form feed 
character, ASCII 12) every 10 to 20 lines in the RIP file.  To do this, you 
must first create the RIP scene using RIPaint (or another RIP paint or draw 
program), and save the scene to disk.  Edit the RIP file using a text editor.  
Every 10 to 20 lines, insert a form feed character using your editor. 

LINES IN THE RIP SCREEN FILE ARE TOO LONG

This is simply another variation of the above.  When lines within the RIP 
scene file (which remember is simply ASCII text) are longer than the user's 
screen width setting (usually 80 characters) TBBS will word wrap the RIP 
command and corrupt the RIP display.  

When saving a RIP screen with RIPaint, RIPdraw, etc., make sure you instruct 
the program not to exceed 79 characters per line.

LINE NOISE

RIP is not error corrected.  On noisy lines, RIP displays will become corrupted 
unless you and your users take advantage of error correcting modems.  There is 
not a way to work around this limitation. 

HOT KEY INTERRUPTION

Hot-keys in TBBS can interrupt RIP screens, with sometimes undesirable 
results.  If a user presses a hot-key in the middle of a RIP menu display, 
TBBS will immediately process the hot-key as usual.  Interrupting a RIP 
display, however, can leave some RIP settings (such as colors, fonts, etc.) 
such that they will look "odd" or inappropriate on subsequently displayed 
functions. You should warn users not to use hot-keys in the middle of menu 
displays to avoid this behavior.  If they use only buttons (part of the RIP 
screen) with their mouse, this isn't a problem. 

FONTS NOT DISPLAYING PROPERLY

If you use fonts in your menu designs other than the default font in the 
default size (1x), you must remember to reset the font to the default within 
your menus.  Otherwise, internal TBBS functions may look "odd" or 
inappropriate in some cases.  To reset, as the last element of a menu design 
you're creating in RIPaint, simply select the default font in 1x size from the 
font menu.  THIS MUST BE THE LAST THING YOU DO IN RIPAINT PRIOR TO SAVING YOUR 
FINISHED MENU DESIGN.  As an alternative, you can edit the .RIP file with your 
text editor, making the very last item in the .RIP file the following: 

       !|Y00000100|#|#|#

This must be the LAST thing in the file, and must begin flush left (on a new 
line). 

- END -
TBBSRIP2
Rev. 10/93

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.

