TriBBS 11.0 History ------------------- 02/28/97 -------- TriBBS will no longer allow callers to enter Alt + 255 characters in their Real or Alias Names during logons. Also, a caller cannot go to the Main Menu and select "Your" information and change their Alias name and enter a Alt + 255 characters. TriBBS now displays "Last Caller" on the Waiting for Callers Screen. The callers name will be shown on the Waiting for Callers Screen after the caller logs off and the Waiting For Callers Screens come back up. The callers name will remain until the sysop exits tribbs or edits one of the configuration setups via the Waiting for Callers Screen. When this happens, TriBBS is closed out and not in memory any longer so it can run Triman.exe, therefore, when TriBBS is called back up, the Last Caller field will be reset to "None". However, if the sysop drops to dos, or views the callers.log, TriBBS is not unloaded from memory and the Last Caller name field will keep the prior caller's name intact. Recompiled all executables to reflect the new company name Freejack's Software and start at a fresh version number to seperate prior work on TriBBS from any new work that will be performed by Freejack's Software. Updated Register.doc, and other text files. 01/01/97 ------- Freejack's Software officially takes control of TriBBS. ============================================================================= TriBBS 10.x History ------------------- 02/14/96 -------- TriBBS was stripping high ASCII characters from the on-the-fly menus. Fixed. The default for the logon ANSI message is now "Yes". Fixed a display problem with RIP menus that exceeded 20 options and the more prompt. TriBBS wasn't display NODOWN.BBS/ANS/RIP. Fixed. TriBBS will no longer display the bulletin menu prompt if no MNU file exists for the bulletin menus. 02/02/96 -------- Fixed yet another bug in the master indexing system. 02/01/96 -------- Fixed another bug in the master indexing system that would cause TriBBS to recheck all of the master indexed file areas if a file wasn't found in the master index. Kind of defeated the purpose. This required a small change to the structure of MASTER.IDX; therefore, you must rebuild the master index file by running the new version of MASTER.EXE. MASTER now remembers the last offline CD inserted an will not repeat asking for a CD to be inserted until the offline disc number changes. 01/31/96 -------- Fixed a couple of logic errors that were causing offline files to not be found on some systems. Added support to the way TriBBS writes DOOR.SYS for the daily file limit and the number of files downloaded for today. Made it so that the line "Do you want to read messages now?" in the language file can be edited for color. Eliminated the requirement for having BULLET1.BBS/ANS/RIP and DRBULL1.BBS/ANS/RIP in the DISPLAY directory before TriBBS would recognize that there were any bulletins. This seems to be a major point of confusion, even though the docs point out that they were required. Made a few minor changes in TriMan. 01/30/96 -------- Fixed a bug in FMAN32.EXE that was being caused by symantec differences between the Borland and Watcom filelength runtime library routines. 01/29/96 -------- Added context sensitive help screens to TriMan, FileMan, and ListCvt. These files are TRIMAN.HLP, FILEMAN.HLP, and LISTCVT.HLP repectively and must reside in the directory where you run the EXE files from. The help screens can be displayed by pressing . By adding extensive help screens to these programs, this should greatly reduce the size of TRIBBS.DOC and will eliminate the need for a printed version of the manual. The 10.0 manual will be primarily devoted to setting up things for the first time; whereas, the help screens will provide the necessary documentation that sysops will need to refer to for ongoing maintainence of their systems. TriBBS/Pro now features offline file areas. In TriMan you can flag a file area as an offline file area and assign CD disc number to the area. You can not define additional paths for an offline file area and the file area's upload path is where TriBBS will put the offline files online for the caller to download. Offline files that callers request are put online by running the program REQUEST.EXE in any of your node's main directory. REQUEST.EXE will prompt you to change CD discs when necessary, move the files to the file areas' upload directory, add the files' descriptions to the file lists, and leave a message to the user or users that request a file. MakeIdx has also been modified to support the offline file areas. When generating new index files for the offline file areas, TriBBS will prompt you to insert the appropriate CD when necessary. TriBBS/Pro now features a master index file system. By setting a file area as a master index file area, TriBBS will use one large index file called MASTER.IDX to locate files in your file areas. As with the MakeIdx indexing system, upload file areas are not suited to be included in the master indexing system. The new master indexing system offers even faster retrieval of files than the MakeIdx system. A master index is created by running MASTER.EXE in one of your nodes main directory. The system should be down when running MASTER on a or the results my be unpredictable. Added support to the string entry routines for the new field lengths supported by the 10.0 data structures. For example, the From and To fields in a message now support names up to 60 characters in length. FileMan: For the most part, FileMan now uses combos to perform most functions instead of the function keys. Consult FileMan's context sensitive help screens to learn what the new key combos are. FileMan now lets you save a revised description as the file's DIZ file. FileMan now lets you virus check a file. FileMan now lets you convert all archives to the board's default archive type. FileMan now lets you redate the file's date in the file list. FileMan now lets you resize the file's length in the file list. FileMan now comes in an optional 32-bit extended version called FMAN32.EXE, which greatly increases the size of the file lists you can manipulate with FileMan. 12/13/95 -------- Security levels in the questionnaire menu weren't working correctly. Fixed. Made some enhancements to the new change file area and message area routines. The prompts for both are now hotkey prompts unless the first character entered is a numeric digit. Added support for custom network screens, where NET1.BBS/ANS/RIP is the local conference screen, NET2.BBS/ANS/RIP is the first network conference screen, etc. 12/08/95 -------- After displaying NETWORK.BBS/ANS/RIP, TriBBS would skip a whole bunch of important code and go directly to the conference selection prompt. Fixed. After changing the language, TriBBS wouldn't display the word "Main" (or the foreign language equivalent) correctly in the main menu's header. Fixed. 12/07/95 -------- Added a Change Language command to the main menu. This allows the caller to change the current language. TriBBS supports an optional LANGUAGE.BBS/ANS/RIP display screen for the language menu. Additionally, you can now customize the language menu's prompts in the language files. The custom language menu display screen and any ANSI codes in the language file prompts will not work at the initial logon, because ANSI and RIP emulation has not been established at that point. Therefore, any fancy display screens or @x codes will only work off of the new main menu function. When changing message conferences, TriBBS will now allow you to display all of the conferences, the conferences by network, or conferences by a substring search. The caller can also enter <+> to change to the next conference, <-> to change to the previous conference, or directly enter the conference number without listing any conferences. TriBBS supports an optional NETWORK.BBS/ANS/RIP display screen for the network menu. When changing file areas, TriBBS will now allow you to display all of the file areas or the file areas by a substring search. The caller can also enter <+> to change to the next file area, <-> to change to the previous file area, or enter the file area without listing any file areas. When trying to run a copy of TriBBS when dropped to DOS from TriBBS, it would cause a crash. Fixed. 11/27/95 -------- TriBBS was displaying the Toggle Cras option while reading messages in non-Fido Style Netmail conferences. Fixed. When editing a message with the internal full screen editor, TriBBS was saving the message's old contents. Fixed. The ead his ew routine wasn't using the correct last message read number under certain circumstances. Fixed. 11/22/95 -------- TriBBS now comes with a program called List Converter. List Converter will is used to convert non-TriBBS file lists to the TriBBS 10.0 file list format. Please note that List Converter will only run for registered TriBBS Pro sysops. TriBBS now optionally asks if a Fido-style netmail message is to be crashed if the sender has sysop or co-sysop status. TriDog and TriMail have been modified to support crashmail. TriBBS now filters out form feed characters will importing a message. TriBBS now filters out form feed characters when display a text file with the file menu's iew file option. TriBBS now uses EDITOR.BAT for the external editor batch files instead of EDIT.BAT. This fixes the name conflict with DOS's editor. TriBBS now removes MSGTMP after inserting a message into the message base. This fixes a problem with copying and moving messages. TriBBS wasn't writing out a message's contents to MSGTMP when editing a message. Fixed. 11/06/95 -------- TriMan now displays a string of asterisks when the registration code isn't being edited. TriMan now displays a string of asterisks when the system password isn't being edited. TriMan now displays a string of asterisks when the user password isn't being edited. The chat availability toggle wasn't working because of an error in LANGUAGE.001. Fixed. When saving a message TriBBS now puts a form feed character at the end of the message. TriBBS now longer asks if the caller wants to page the sysop if PAGE.BAT is present. TriBBS wasn't restoring the screen after CHAT.BAT. Fixed. 10/26/95 -------- I stopped the more prompt from being displayed in on-the-fly menus a little too well. It wasn't displaying at the end of each section of menus with more than 20 options. Fixed. 10/25/95 -------- The biggest single problem people are having with 10.0 (and fortunately it only effects a handful of systems) seems to be not enough DOS real memory. This seems to mainly effect sysops running under DesqView and on XT and AT class machines. Lack of available memory can cause a number of problems: doors won't run, display screens can't be displayed, events won't run, etc. Unfortunately, the downside of the all of 10.0's new features is that it makes 10.0 more memory hungry. To help alleviate the problems people are having I have tried to make 10.0's use of dynamically allocated memory more efficient. Hopefully, this will be enough to get 10.0 running correctly on the low-memory systems. But we all have to be realistic. 10.0 offers many new features and some of them require large amounts of memory (local RIP in particular). I have also changed all malloc/free pairs in the code to new/delete pairs. This allows BBS.EXE to abort with an appropriate error message if not enough memory is available at any point when it's trying to grab a block of memory. This can be a tool in trying to free up more memory on a system that just doesn't have a lot of DOS real memory available. Many people just haven't been believing me that some of the problems that they're having as simply not enough real memory. This will hopefully be a better method of convincing them. It amazes me how some people will leave a message asking for help and then they completely ignore the advice that they are given. I've never claimed to have all the answers and I never rule out a bug, but if people are just going to blow off the advice that I do give them without even bothering to consider it, they are wasting both their time and mine in asking for help in the first place. :( The RIPscrip emulator was freaking out on screens with auto-stamped clipboard buttons. Fixed. With local RIP disabled, but RIP enabled for the system; TriBBS was putting more prompts inside of some menus. Fixed. TriBBS wasn't calculating the number of seconds remaining in DOOR.SYS correctly if it overflowed an integer. Fixed. Both of the editors' change "To" field functions were broken. Fixed. 10/18/95 -------- Some of the function keys weren't working correctly with the RIP emulation on. Fixed. The ew Messages ll function wasn't working correctly. Fixed. In the past, TriBBS would not allow sysop paging during a remote logon because it didn't make much sense to try to chat with yourself. However, TriBBS will now allow sysop chats during local logon in order to test CHAT.BAT and PAGE.BAT easier. 10/17/95 -------- TriMan now swaps itself out of memory when spawning a DOS task. The new TriMan is much bigger than previous versions and it wasn't able to spawn TriPack correctly on some systems. This should solve the problem a few people are having. :) TriMan will now let you drop to DOS by pressing the key combo at anytime. TriMan will now search for users in both the user name fields and user alias fields. Searches will look for the search string in any location in either name. The new searching method is faster than the previous one too. :) 10/16/95 -------- I seem to have to the worst luck with initial beta releases. The fix for the waiting message check bug caused another bug. The waiting message check was being displayed twice if the caller wasn't doing a quick logon. "Hopefully", fixed. :) 10/16/95 -------- This is the initial beta release. TriBBS wasn't doing the waiting message check during a fast logon if FASTLOG.BAT wasn't present. Fixed. TriBBS wasn't reading DOOR.SYS back in. Fixed. 10/13/95 -------- FASTLOG.BAT is not run as a door and not spawned. This will allow the user data file to be updated for certain doors. You must add a BOARD.BAT at the end of FASTLOG.BAT to have it restart the board. TriBBS will now call GOODBYE.BAT before appending the temporary callers log in NWORK to the main callers log in MWORK. This is done just before BETWEEN.BAT. Where TriBBS spawns GOODBYE.BAT, you should *not* put a call to BOARD.BAT at the end of the GOODBYE.BAT file. You should note that the caller is still online and TriBBS generates all door files for GOODBYE.BAT. The "There are no file areas available!" message wouldn't display @-variables. Fixed. FOSSIL driver support is a now a TriBBS/Pro feature only. 10/12/95 -------- Modified TriMan and TriBBS to let the sysop give certain callers cosysop privileges in selected message conferences. Made a few changes internal changes relating to what I call TriBBSes submenu routines. 10/11/95 -------- Fixed a bug in the message reading routine that could cause freaky problems with extremely long messages. TriBBS wasn't taking the phone off hook when dropping to DOS from the waiting for caller screen. 10/10/95 -------- The view file lists security level is now implemented. This required a new prompt so you must run NEWLANGS.EXE in node 1's MWORK directory again. Fixed a bug caused by one of yesterday's minor internal changes. The iew File function's archiving wasn't working. Fixed. Added a new batch file for external chat programs. Whenever the caller requests a chat, TriBBS will look for PAGE.BAT instead of CHAT.BAT. CHAT.BAT is still used to sysop initiated chats. TriBBS now supports an EXTPAGE.BBS/ANS/RIP and an EXTCHAT.BBS/ANS/RIP display screens. EXTPAGE is displayed when the caller pages the sysop just before the external chat program is called and EXTCHAT is displayed when the sysop initiates the chat and just before the external chat program is called. 10/09/95 -------- TriBBS was incorrectly capitalizing the "Uploaded By:" name due to the change in the file list format. Fixed. Made a few minor internal changes to BBS.EXE. 10/06/95 -------- TriBBS wasn't displaying on-the-fly bulletin and door bulletin menus if an custom ANSI or ASCII screen existed. Fixed. A couple of minor enhancements to the rip support. When scanning the waiting message counters, TriBBS now saves a set of flags to indicate which conferences have waiting messages and which ones don't. This greatly speeds up the actual reading of waiting messages, because TriBBS no longer has to reexamine which conferences do or don't have waiting messages in them. FileMan had a rather nasty bug in it that could cause it to crash when a DIZ file had more than 20 lines. Because of the way the hashing system works, TriMan couldn't properly add a new user to the board. It now uses a name and alias of "New User" to trick the hashing system into cooperating. :) 10/05/95 -------- Yesterday's FileMan wasn't stripping out blank lines. Fixed. Improved the way TriMan adds, inserts, and deletes message conferences and file areas. 10/04/95 -------- TriBBS now support descriptions of up to 45 characters a line. It also no longer wordwraps FILE_ID.DIZ and DESC.SDI files. Nor does it remove high ASCII characters. Additionally, I was able to make this change and retain the current file flagging method. To make this possible, the [] characters surrounding the flag letter and all double spaces between the four fields in the listings have been changed to a single space. I think this new method will please everybody. :) FileMan has been modified to support the new file list format and no longer wordwraps DIZ files. TriBBS will now allow the caller to upload a file without at least one filename. 10/02/95 -------- Both the conversion program and TriMan were using the name field in the user records to build the ALIAS.IDX file. Fixed the problem with both programs. All alpha boards should pack their users do build new index files. Do NOT run the conversion program again! Deletion of a user from an index file had a bug in it. Fixed. TriMan wasn't displaying the "Public Messages" and "Private Messages" fields correctly. Fixed. Because the users record hasn't been created and the way the new data structures work, the new user display screen and questionnaire is now executed after the user record is created and not before as with previous versions. 09/29/95 -------- During the waiting message function, TriBBS will zero the waiting message counter for any conference where the caller's last message read pointer is equal to the message conference's highest message read. This will help resync the waiting message counters when they go astray. Did some more work on the realtime node-to-node chat system. It now displays each node in a different color and fixed a bug that wouldn't allow a node to receive the other node's messages until had been pressed. 09/28/95 -------- TriBBS wouldn't display an on-the-fly RIP menu if a custom ANSI or ASCII display screen existed for the menu. Fixed. TriBBS wasn't able to display on-the-fly RIP menus with more than 20 selections. It now splits the oversized menus into multiple RIP screens with more prompts in between. When a caller was calling remotely with RIP, TriBBS wouldn't process keypresses and mouse presses on the local side correctly. Fixed. Button selection on bulletin, door, and questionnaire RIP menus wasn't returning a host command. Fixed. 09/27/95 -------- On a node with local RIPscrip enabled, TriBBS will now switch the display from an EGA graphics mode to a color text mode. This allows more efficient use of system resources when graphics emulation isn't necessary. TriBBS wasn't finding all of the batch files in BATCH. It should now be able to run all batch files except of course BOARD.BAT from the optional BATCH directory. 09/26/95 -------- TriBBS will now display TriBBS (R) Pro on the waiting for caller screen and in the initial logon message if a pro registration code is present in the system configuration. When a caller selected

to page the sysop, TriBBS was still using it's own sysop page before calling CHAT.BAT. Fixed. The TeleChat paging system was broken. Fixed. TeleChat now does a crude form of realtime node-to-node chat. It still needs a lot of work. :) 09/25/95 -------- Alpha version 1 is released. TriBBS will now be marketed as two separate systems. TriBBS and TriBBS/Pro. Both versions use the same BBS.EXE file, but you need a different registration code (see below) to utilitize the advanced features of TriBBS/Pro. To obtain a TriBBS/Pro registration code, you must "purchase" a TriBBS/Pro license. At present, the only difference between TriBBS and TriBBS/Pro be the way local RIPscrip graphics is supported. 10.0 now uses a whole new registration system. Instead of a key file, it now uses a registration code system that is entered into the system configuration. This new system is much more versatile. It allows me to generate registration codes that will expire with time and it allows me to generate registration codes that can turn on and off advanced features. All currently registered TriBBS sysops in good standing with TriSoft can obtain a TriBBS registration code "free of charge" by calling The Lobster Buoy and leaving a request in conference no 9. The phrase "in good standing" means (but is not limited to) sysops who don't owe me money and haven't infringed on one of my trademarks or copyrights. To obtain a TriBBS/Pro registration code, registered sysops can purchase them according to the info contained in TBPRO.DOC. Added support for local RIPscrip graphics. Local RIPscrip is a TriBBS/Pro feature. However, to allow sysops to "try before they buy", local RIPscrip is limited to once per every five calls with TriBBS. Added support for on-the-fly RIPscrip menus. TriBBS now appends the temporary callers log in NWORK to the main callers log in MWORK in an extremely fast manner. TriBBS will now support baud rates up to 115200 baud. TriBBS will now optionally support a FOSSIL driver. Door batch files can now be put in an optional BATCH subdirectory. Event batch files can now be put in an optional BATCH subdirectory. Added support for external editors. An external editor can replace the internal full screen editor by creating an optional EDIT.BAT batch file. Please note that BBS.EXE swaps itself out of memory to run EDIT.BAT so you shouldn't call BOARD.BAT at the end of EDIT.BAT to rerun BBS.EXE. The external editor must be the type that supports DORINFO1.DEF, MSGINF, and MSGTMP. I would like to thank Jeremy Landvoigt, the author of IceEdit, for providing me with the formats for MSGINF and MSGTMP. Added support for external chat programs. An external chat program can replace the internal sysop chat function by creating an optional CHAT.BAT file. Please note that BBS.EXE swaps itself out of memory to run CHAT.BAT so you shouldn't call BOARD.BAT at the end of CHAT.BAT to rerun BBS.EXE. You can now optionally specify command lines for the virus checker, compression utilities, and decompression utilities. The "Uploaded By:" line in file lists can now be optionally disabled in the system configuration. 10.0 now uses hash tables to locate users. This greatly increases the number of users that TriBBS can support. Dropped support for the compressed message base. The compressed message base was originally put into TriBBS before disk compression utilities (Stacker, DoubleSpace, etc.) became readily available and requires a lot of memory to perform the necessary compression and decompression. Therefore, the compressed message base has really outlived its usefulness. Recoded a great deal of BBS.EXE. This was done in order to reduce the memory requirements that TriBBS needed in the past and to increase speed whereever possible.