****************READ THIS ENTIRE FILE******************* ***** REGISTERED CALLERS CAN PICK UP THE LATEST VERSION BY ENTERING MARQEEREG, IT WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY FLAGGED FOR YOU. 05-28-94 ** The initial release would not always honor the registration numbers that I was giving out and would continue to display evaluation copy. This has now been fixed. You should replace your old ppe with this version. - Added a random display feature, On line 18 there is a new switch FR This stands for File/Random. On Line 32 you may specify a different text file if you so choose. You may enter 50 different display lines, and the program will randomly select them each time. The maximum text display will be 2048 characters, each line must not exceed 255 characters, and it should be a complete sentence, otherwise it might not make sense to the caller. This has no affect on the F switch. Just note the additional Path that you would have to insert. - An added ppe utility. NOMARQEE.PPE, This utility will allow the caller to turn the marqee display on or off. We've heard great praises about the marqee, but there's always a few that don't like changes. So we have created a new ppe to toggle it on and off. Place the command "MARQEE" or whatever you want to call it in your CMD.LST and point to NOMARQEE.PPE and select the desired security level. Since it is toggleable don't call it NOMARQEE. Since you want your callers to see the marqee I would not place this command on the menu screen, and only tell those who ask for it to be shut off. NOTE: VERY IMPORTANT DATA IN COMMENT FIELD #2 COULD BE LOST. DO NOT USE NOMARQEE.PPE IF YOU ARE USING COMMENT FIELD 2. We are using PCBoard's sysop comment field number 2, to place a - character that we look for each time Aqmarqee is run. If you are storing any information in this field the NOMARQEE.PPE will not work. Comment 2 field has to be blank. We can make a custom version using one of the Pcboard Note fields if you need it. Due to the need for access speed of AQMARQEE we felt that having a separate file with the caller's selection would hinder the program. 05-29-94 - If sysop invoked a chat, with the F10 key the screen would not be cleared, and upon sysop exiting chat the caller would have a marqee display and no menu. This bug will require a little assistance from you. You will need to edit your PCBTEXT file. Type MKPCBTXT enter the location and name of your PCBTEXT. Use the F3 key to Jump to Record 333. This is the record you will need to edit. The field is rather small so insert the following. %J:\PCB\SYS\REC333 This is where all of my text is located at, insert your drive and appropriate location. Now save the file by hitting Escape. Next you will need to create and edit the file REC333 in the location where you pointed it to. INSERT @CLS@ at the very beginning, then insert the Text that you want to display to the caller afterwards. For an example I will enclose my REC333 FILE. If you need to execute another PPE do this on the second line after you have completed a @CLS@. I've never run a PPE while another one has been running so we shall see what some of you come up with. I don't see any other way of correcting this since I don't have access to knowing when the F10 key is hit, as PCB seems to grab hold ofit first. When your done chatting the screen should restore and MARQEE will start over from the beginning. NOTE: You may invoke the F10 key at anytime, except when your BBS name is being displayed. If you do then upon exiting of the chat mode the PPE will wait until it is finished displaying your bbs name before restarting the screen. If you invoke F10 while they are entering commands, their commands will no longer be there, as I'm restarting the PPE. If they PAGE you, this will not be a problem. - Added a number of times switch. In Marqee.cfg line number 11, enter the number of times that you would like the Marqee to display. A 0 will disable this option. PARDON ME if I'm getting to involved in writing the directions, I want to make everything perfectly clear, There are things such as mkpcbtxt that a novice sysop might not have yet discovered. 05-31-94 - Increased the fieldlength of the BBSNAME from 22 to 40. - Added Propellers in the spaces left and right of the bbsname. 06-02-94 - Added an Expired Level 1 line text display. See config lines 16 and 17 - Added a Row setting display, it no longer has to be displayed on the top line. You may place it wherever it works best for you. Config Line 12 1 is the default setting. - Added a text size limit. you may enlargen or shrink your text field, the text will run off of our centering points left and right for the display. Config line 13 39 is the default setting. An example would be if you wanted a 30 character display it will come off the center and back up 15 spaces and forward 15 spaces. NOTE: Report any problems with this section if any. This was a nasty area. Note: Were centering off of a 78 character display and not an 80 character display. Important Note: If you deviate from our 39 character default, all header selections will be nullified. It will be up to you to fill in your own left and right headers in your brdm screen. ALSO your Text Display length cannot be smaller than your BBS name. If it is we will take the length of your BBS name as the text display length. - Added a monitor operation. When using pcbmoni, and you space on a node to see what they are doing, we will display the conference number, and the time that AQMarqee began running. This is great for checking to see if you might have a hung node by the time display. - Added the way the configuration file is handled. You may now pass a path and name for the configuration file in your brdm for startup. if you do not specify a path then it will look in the location where the ppe is run and use marqee.cfg. This will allow you to run multiple copies for more security specific reasons based on Security BRDM screens and what you want to display to the caller. One of the reasons I did this was to avoid author error. I almost released a version using a hardcoded config file, which would have stopped everyone . Example: Last line in BRDM !C:\PCB\PPL\MARQEE\AQMARQEE.PPE MARQEE.CFG WILL BE ASSUMED Example: Last line in BRDM21 BRDM Security level 21 specific menu !C:\PCB\PPL\MARQEE\AQMARQEE.PPE C:\PCB\PPL\MARQEE\MARQEE2.CFG MARQEE2.CFG will be used - Cleaned up and removed extraneous stuff to increase efficiency. 06-03-94 - Keyboard Timeout checking installed. When a function is running in a PPE. PCBoard does not check for a keyboard timeout. We have written a timer that will look at your Pcboard.Dat and adjust accordingly. - Found a small error in the command line display, which was not always printing the ? after the command prompt depending on how your switches were set in Lines 28-30. Let me know if this is still a problem. 07-15-94 - At a special request we have added the ability to turn off the BBSNAME at the end of the text scroll. Select Y to display the BBS name, or N to turn off the BBS display. 07-16-94 Morning - 2 more configuration switches have been added. Line 37 will allow you to select the non expert prompt display of your choice. Line 38 will allow you to select the expert prompt of your choice. Obviously you will have to do a little investigative work to sync up the 2 prompts from your pcbtext file. If your using the other prompt capabilities then you should leave these fields empty by having the semicolon on the first column of line 37 and line 38. The format for these lines is nothing more than a number which corresponds to the PCBTEXT line number. For example if you want MARQEE to display on your bulletin screen you would enter 224 on line 37 for the non expert prompt and on line 38 you would enter 611 this would be the corresponding expert pcbtext that is generally displayed. Entering a number on these lines will override all the other configured prompts. Some of you have been using marqee for other things than your main menu, so this should help to keep the prompts in compliance. If you leave line 38 blank then line 37 will be displayed. This is in the event that there is not an expert text line for a particular function. - Registration form was still showing a 22 character limit for a BBS name, revised reg form for 40 characters. 07-16-94 Afternoon - Well version G didn't last to long. Modified the initial clearing of the text area to match the text color that you specified in CFG line 7. The BBSNAME will also default to this color. This is for those of you who are not running screens that have a black background. 07-17-94 - Oops two versions in one day I'd forgotten to copy the latest PPE to the archive. This is now 1.0i. I've recompiled and copied just to make sure we have te right one this time. 07-30-94 - Pcboard MENU SYSTEM ONLY: Added cfg line 39 This will push the command line echo down one line after you hit enter. Previously it would be up one line in your screen. This was not a problem for standard PCBoard setups. - Pcboard MENU SYSTEM ONLY: Added cfg line 40. If you need hotkeys in the menu system select Y for this line. This will accept the first keystroke from the caller and execute the command. 12-20-94 - Pcboard Menu System Only; Once again I'm still getting some reports of sysops with the jumping Screen and an odd prompt. I have added a switch in Line 41 to shut off the standard menu prompt. In Line 42 you should add the command that you are using in your mnu file Example: @X0EMenu Command?; This prompt will be displayed instead of the Pcboard prompt, this is the only prompt I will be adding to Marqee, so if you have different prompts for every menu, you'll either have to change them to be standard with eachother or run the PPE on only one mnu. AqMarqee has been getting to complex with all the different configurations that everyone has and people become confused with all the different switch settings as it is. If this quick bug fix solves the majority of the problems out there we will release another version and try to trim out some of the extraneous switches with this newest fix. Line 41 Set it to Y; or simply leave a ; in the line for NO Line 42 @X0EMenu Command?; Note the color code, you may or may not need it. The "?" is necessary. The MNU command prompt does not officially begin until after it has displayed the screen. When we invoke the Marqee, Pcboard does not know to display the prompt yet, hence all these problems that have arisen from those running the menu system. Try this version and let me know the results. Backup your old copy in the event you need to go back. 06-19-95 A New Update, its been quite some time since our last release, primarily due to the need for new features without rewriting the entire code . - Line 15 now allows you to tell the program where to start the text and deviate from the standard centering routine. - Line 8 the "C" switch has been added to provide no clearing functionality for Line 15 to prevent left and right overwrites. This is a required switch if your going to be changing the centering. Lets say at col 5, row 10 you want to display 15 characters of text in a box Line 15 will be 5; * Registered Version Only Line 12 will be 10; Line 13 will be 15; Line 8 will be C; This is so we don't write over the box NOTE: Your display width added to the starting position must not should not be longer than the width of the screen otherwise strange things will happen. If you were running a previous version and your having problems with this one please drop me a note explaining what the problem is so that I can check it out. Some of the routines in this version were changed and I have tried to make sure it is backwards compatible with prior versions.