Synchronet v2.00a áeta Notes 05/06/94
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This pack is only for those who have already upgraded to v2.00a beta
(04/30/94).

This is mainly bug fixes. Hardly any "new code" has been linked with this
release. Development time is getting lagged by having to explain to everyone
which bugs we have already fixed, which "bugs" aren't "bugs" at all, and
answering questions like "why did I lose all my files when I converted". So
hopefully this release will relieve some of the e-mail demands that the
original beta has created. Since the beta has been released, Vertrauen has
averaged 58 pieces of FEEDBACK per day (excluding NetMail and EchoMail), 95% of
which are regarding the beta. Please do not send mail unless you have found
a bug and have already searched the Synchronet Sysops echo for posts from
Digital Man about it.

The most frequently asked question was: Why did I lose all my file listings
when I converted to v2.00a?
Answer: Because you didn't follow the instructions in SBBSBETA.DOC and move
your INDX\DIRS\*.* files to your DATA\DIRS directory.

The (I)gnore mail command has been eliminated from the sysop reading mail
menu. If you're logged on in quiet mode, it automatically ignores the mail
(doesn't notify the sender that you read it). New SYSMAILR.ASC menu file
is enclosed.

New main and transfer RIP menus (minor changes).

XTRN_SEC menu file supported for replacment of the external program section
listing. The prompt is no part of the menu file. See EXAMPLE.ZIP for example
menus which contain prompts (and use the new Ctrl-AS - Synchronize code).

XTRN1, XTRN2, etc. menu files for replacment of the external program section
listing. Again, prompt must be part of the menu file.

TEXTDAT.DIF contains the changes made to the TEXT.DAT from the previous beta to
this one (only necessary if you have a customized TEXT.DAT file).

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(All references to previous section are regarding the TEXT.DAT customization
 section in the sysop manual)

Node Action Text
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The node action text can be over-riden by editing the NodeAction lines in
the TEXT.DAT file (see previous section for details on TEXT.DAT). The node
action text is what is displayed on the node status line when a node is in
use. (i.e. instead of "Node  1: So-and-so uploading at 14400bps", you could
make it say whatever you like).

You can also include the following optional specifiers (in this order):

%s	User's name or alias
%u	User's security level
%u	User's age
%c	User's sex (gender, M or F)
%s	User's computer type
%s	User's note
%s	Date user was first online
%u	Auxillary value (chat channel, door number, paged node, etc)
%u	Connection rate (in bps)

If you include any of the above specifiers, you must also include any of the
specifiers above it. The order of the specifiers cannot be changed. If you
wish to supress the display of a %s specifier, use "%.0s" instead of "%s".
To supress other specifiers, see the previous section for details.
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Forwarded mail is now "from" the author, not the forwarder.

Many bugs fixed (thanks to the great bug reporting by the participating
sysops). Too many to mention. So if you found one or two, then please double
check that they were fixed in this release.

This beta includes the SCFG that was released earlier today which eliminates
quite a few bugs causing corrupted config files. In the event that any of
your config files get corrupted in the future (corrupted file system or
whatever), you will be happy to know that SCFG automatically makes back-ups
of your previous configuration files (.CFB are back files). Only one back-up
is kept, so if you load SCFG and see visual corruption, DO NOT save changes
when you exit or you will be reducing the usefulness of the automatic
backup files. The config backup files are small, so it is a good idea to leave
them on your drive (don't delete them).

To update SBBS.EXE and SCFG.EXE, you must first remove the Read Only attribute

ATTRIB SBBS.EXE -R
ATTRIB SCFG.EXE -R

then copy over the files...

ATTRIB SCFG.EXE +R
ATTRIB SBBS.EXE +R

to replace the Read Only attribute.

For those who haven't figure it out, SMBUTIL is what you use to keep your
message bases maintained. If you're using the Fast Allocation method, then
make a daily or nightly event (EXCLUSIVE) that runs a command line similar
to (the 500 specifies not to pack a sub unless 500k or more can be saved):

%!smbutil mp500 \sbbs\data\subs\*.shd

If you're using Self-Packing mode for your message bases, the a nightly event
similar to (should be exclusive if you have large capacity message bases):

%!smbutil m \sbbs\data\subs\*.shd

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