.rm 79 .lm 2 ллллллл лллллллл лллллллл Алллллллл АллАААА лл АллААААлл АллААААлл АллААААлл DOORWAY TO Алл Алл Алл Алл Алл Алл Алл лл UNLIMITED DOORS Алл Алл Алл Алл Алл Алл АллллллА Алл Алл Алл Алл Алл Алл АллААААлл лл ллллллллл лл лл АлллллллА Алллллллл Алллллллл Алл Алл лл Алл АллАААААлл Алл Алл ААААААА АААААААА АААААААА АА Алл Алл Алл Алл лл Алллллллллл Алл Алл Алл Аллллллллл АААААллАА Written by: Marshall Dudley Алллллллллл АллАААААлл Алл Data World BBS 615)966-3574 Алллллллллл Алл Алл Алл Home of Eatumup, Doorway, АААААААААА АА АА АА BW-ONLY, and Superman. (C)opyright 1987 Version 1.43 - 12-04-88 WHAT IS DOORWAY? Doorway is a program which allows almost any program to be run as a door. Only programs which require the screen to go to bit mapped graphics and those which do direct screen memory writes or do things not supported by ANSI GRAPHICS (such as reverse scroll) will not function properly. DOORWAY is NOT a CTTY function. Doorway does a shell to the program to run and translates and redirects all video to the required COM port and all COM port inputs to the keyboard buffer. BIOS interrupts are used so that programs, which DOS CTTY cannot redirect, can still be used. The Board's keyboard is active so that the SYSOP can help a user out and the SYSOP can see what the user is doing. COMMAND.COM is not loaded by DOORWAY unless specifically instructed to do so by the Sysop, so a user cannot break a program and get to DOS. If the user exit's or breaks the program, he will simply return to DOORWAY, which will return to PCBoard after resetting all vectors including any the application program may have changed. Doorway may also be used as a remote drop to DOS instead of using CTTY. This has numerous benefits as will be discussed later. Doorway monitors Carrier Detect and after displaying a message that carrier was lost returns to PCBoard. It also monitors the input character string and traps any character(s) the SYSOP wants trapped (such as ^C). It will also abort a program with any character(s) the SYSOP has defined, thus making it possible to run UNBREAKABLE programs, such as many commercial games. The keyboard time and user's time are monitored and if either expires, DOORWAY will return to the board. The users's time will be what is computed as being left when PCBOARD.SYS is read, unless overidden by a command line switch. Keyboard expiration time is changeable and but defaults to 255 seconds (4 minutes 15 seconds). The keyboard timeout is measured on both the com port and the board's keyboard, so characters entered at either will reset the timer. The keyboard timer can also be reset by the video going out if desired. Full ANSI GRAPHICS are supported, but if your program doesn't need it, DOORWAY will work just fine in non-ANSI mode. DOORWAY also allows you to send all the extended keyboard codes, such as the cursor keys and Function keys. Please note that there is no way to trap music or sound (other than the bell), thus programs which beep or play music cannot be overridden from doing so on the Board end, and the sound cannot be redirected to the com port. PAGE 1 Doorway will look for up to three files. the INITIAL WELCOME, the APPLICATION PROGRAM, and the EXIT MESSAGE. The first and last are simply ASCII (or ANSI) files, and the PROGRAM can be either a .COM or .EXE program. If the INITIAL WELCOME or EXIT message has ANSI codes in them they will be displayed properly on the HOST and remote ends starting with rev 1.43. INITIAL WELCOME FILE This is simply a ASCII or ANSI file which tells the user what he is getting ready to run, and possibly tells him he must set the NUMLOC key and/or have ANSI graphics installed. If any line is started with a $: then that line will be printed (without the "$:") and a "Y", "N" or [CR] must be entered before the output will continue. This allows you to put pauses into the printing with a: $:ENTER CARRIAGE RETURN TO CONTINUE It also allows you to ask the user if he wants to continue, since if the user enters a [CR] or [Y] to the prompt, DOORWAY will run the application program, but if he enters an [N], DOORWAY will return to the Board. The last entry in the sequence is the one which determines if the DOOR will continue. Starting with version 1.3, the initial welcome can be made into a menu. This is similar to the monitor function seen on RBBS's. When DOORWAY is entered, it can be set up to display a menu of programs to select from. The user enters a number from 0 to 9 of character from A to Z and the program is loaded and run. When aborted, doorway returns to the menu, to let the user selects another door if desired. To exit the menu the user enters either an "E", "Q" or a number or letter which is not defined. If you don't enable the menu function then doorway will behave just like the previous versions did. Example: The batch file: doorway com1 /r:^k /g:on /i:menu The welcome file (menu): Welcome to Data World BBS's games doors. Select from one of the following doors. When through you will return to this menu. To end this doors session type either 'E', 'Q' or selection 5. 1. Eatumup. A color graphic monster maze game (you need ANSI). 2. 4inarow. Like Orthello. Can you beat the computer (ANSI). 3. Big Rig. Drive a truck across the country (ANSI). 4. Guessit. Let the computer guess something about you. 5. The financial menu 6. Return to board. M:Please enter your selection (1-5): /p:eatumup.exe /t:^C /p:4inarow.exe /t:^C /r:^x /p:bigrig.exe /g:off /p:guessit.exe /i:financ.men Please note that the M:...., and switches must start on the left margin. PAGE 2 Note that you can nest menu's now, so that one menu calls another. When the program is exited, it will return to the top level menu. The M: means that it is to stop and input a selection number. The selection numbers start with 0 and run 0-9 and A-Z. Since a blank line is between the M: line and the first selection, the menu in this case starts with 1. You may need to put a space on the blank line for correct operation. The command line sets the defaults for ALL the progams in the menu. Thus the graphics will be on and the ^K will cause an external abort in all the programs, unless set differently. 4inarow will also trap for ^C, and big rig will also abort with a ^X. Guessit has the command line ANSI on, overriden with the /g:off. The m:... may also be used. The "M:" and "m:" behave differently on timeouts. The "M:" will return to the menu if there is a keyboard or user timeout, but the "m:" will return to the BOARD. Most likely if you are reading the PCBOARD.SYS and using the actual user's time you will want to use the small "m", but if you are giving, say, only 10 minutes in a door, then the capital "M" would be more logical. You can now password protect any door, or your drop to dos with doorway. Create a welcome file, and on the last line enter: P:PASSWORD, for example: Enter the password for exit to dos: P:MONGOOSE Now if this is in the welcome file for your drop to dos, the user will see the first line, and when he enters the password, dots will echo. If the password is entered correct, the door, or drop to dos in this case, will be executed, otherwise he will get a message that the password is wrong, and he will be returned to the board. Password may be either small or capital letters as DOORWAY doesn't differentiate between them. APPLICATION PROGRAM The application program can be virtually any .COM or .EXE program. Note that the name of the program to be run, and the path, if not in the same directory as DOORWAY, must be given EXTENSION and ALL. This is because COMMAND.COM is not loaded for safety reasons. Although you could give the program name as "BASIC.EXE APPLICATION", it is not recommended that you do so. If the user was able to break the interpreted basic program, or it were to abort on a critical error, the user would be in the basic interpreter. Then he could do a shell command which loads COMMAND.COM and be in DOS. After checking out the BASIC program, then by all means compile it so a break will return to DOORWAY. EXIT MESSAGE This is essentially the same as the INITIAL WELCOME FILE message, but prints after the application program is run. The "$:" will wait after that line is output, but any [Y] or [N] responses will be accepted but ignored by DOORWAY. PAGE 3 INSTALLATION The batch file for DOORWAY should look something like this: DOORWAY COM1 /I:WELCOME1 /E:EXITM1 /T:^C /R:^K /G:ON /F: /S:\PCB /P:EATUMUP.EXE The COM selection must be the first command line parameter (unless you are using the DOOR.SYS file), and the program or /C:DOS if a drop to dos must be the last, but all the other switches can be in any order. DOORWAY > The doorway program COM1 > The com port number. Can be COM1, COM1:, COM2, COM2: SYS or LOCAL. The COM will be overriden and the doorway run in local mode if the board was signed on locally and PCBOARD.SYS is found. The SYS tells it to look for DOOR.SYS instead of PCBOARD.SYS in it's current directory. This generic door interface file contains the user's name, port number, time left and so forth. For the actual construction of this SYS file, look at the DOORSYS.DOC file included in this package. /I: > Name of the WELCOME MESSAGE file. No message if left out. /E: > Name of the EXIT MESSAGE file. No message if left out. /G: > ANSI GRAPHICs enabled if ON, disabled if OFF. If left out, will be as defined in the PCBOARD.SYS file. Default is ON. /A: > Alarm (bell) is enabled on the Board computer if ON, disabled if OFF. If left out, the bell will follow the ALARM setting of the PCBOARD.SYS or DOOR.SYS. Default = OFF. ie. "/A:ON", will overide the PCBOARD.SYS or DOOR.SYS setting. /F: > Fast. Functional only if Graphics is 'ON'. Some programs move the cursor all over the place between characters written, (Quick Basic compiler tends to do this). Each new locate of the cursor normally generates an 8 character ANSI sequence to send out the modem. For some games, this unnecessarily slows down the action. The /F: will not send ANY ANSI sequences on a cursor locate until a character is ready to be written. However, since cursor relocates are not done until a character is to be written, this gives the strange effect of not seeing a Carriage Return have any effect until a printable character is sent to the modem. It also has the strange effect of having the cursor one right of where you would expect if you enter back spaces over something. /K: > KEYBOARD TIMEOUT TIMER. The /K: will accept a number between 0 and 255 to define how long after the last character was received from the remote or local keyboard to wait before terminating the door and returning to the board. The /K:0 is a special case which will overide keyboard timeouts totally (recommended for drop to dos). Also an operand of "V" will reset the keyboard timer on each character which is sent out the port. This is useful if you have a door which sends out 10 minutes of text with no keyboard input required. The user would otherwise be kicked out of the door after about 4 minutes since he hadn't entered anything. Do not use a /K:V on something like eatumup though, since the continuous movement of the monsters will keep the keyboard from timing out. A /K:100V will give a 100 second timeout, and reset the timer on video. PAGE 4 /M: > Maximum door time allowed. This will overide the time computed from the PCBOARD.SYS or DOOR.SYS file. It is in minutes and has a maximum value of 32767 minutes. Default is 10 minutes. Negative values will cause an immediate abort. NOTE - This is functional on registered versions ONLY! The demo version will always default to 10 minutes. /N: > NETWORK. If the /N: switch is set, all files will be opened network compatible. Both the initial welcome, and exit messages will be opened share compatible, and if the program being shelled opens a file, doorway will change it's open command to a share compatible "Allow read - deny write" open command. Note that the PCBOARD.SYS/DOOR.SYS file is closed immediately after reading it so there is no longer a problem accessing PCBOARD.SYS from the program being shelled. /Q: This switch tells doorway that the program being shelled is a Quick Basic v. 4 program. Doorway will intercept the dos calls and tell the program that it's output is to be redirected. Without this switch these programs will not send characters out the com port, since they will do direct screen writes. If a program will not send characters out the com port under doorway, but can be redirected by CTTY, Gateway or the ">" symbol, then this switch should make doorway redirect it as well. Note that a program expecting redirected output may not send things like colors, and cursor relocations. /R: > RETURN. Each of these defines one character with which to abort the program. The character to abort with, will be the control equivalent if preceded by a ^, such as a ^C, for an ASCII 3. If the user enters the control character, the sysop will see "EXTERNAL USER ABORT" displayed. If the Sysop enters the return character then the user and Sysop will receive a message which says "THE SYSOP HAS REQUESTED YOU TO RETURN TO THE BOARD" and the program will be aborted. /T: > Each of these defines a character to trap out of the input. If there is a ^ in front of the character, it will look for that control character. A ^@ will trap all extended codes (See below). /S: > Where to look for PCBOARD.SYS. ie. \PCB\. Doorway can tell if the PCBOARD.SYS is version 11-12 or version 14, and will read and interpret each properly without being told which it is. If left out, then it will look in the same directory that DOORWAY is in. If not found, then the Graphics, Alarm, User time and User name settings will default to their "DEFAULT" settings. Thus, this program is compatible with RBBS, WILDCAT, GT, OPUS, RYBBS, QUICKBBS and GENESIS as well. For those of you who are running other than PCBoard I have made it so that the search for PCBOARD.SYS can be totally overridden. Simply enter an /s:* on the command line and the delays associated with looking for PCBOARD.SYS and putting the "not found" message will no longer occur. Note that to reliably run on RBBS, you must set RBBS up to drop to dos and not shell for doors. You can also look for a generic door file instead of pcboard.sys, by placing a "SYS" where the com port normally goes in the command line. Do not use the /S: parameter with SYS. /P: > The program name with the extension and path if not in the default directory. This MUST be the last switch on the command line. Anything following the program name will be passed to the progam as a command line parameter for that program. This is not used for a /C:DOS switch. PAGE 5 /B: > /B:X, /B:M, /B:MS, /B:Z. These codes deal with line 25 of the display in ANSI mode only. If the application program tries to position the cursor to line 25, some modem programs, such as QMODEM and possibly PROCOMM, ignore the request, since line 25 contains the MODEM's status information. This can be disasterous for some games which write a status also on this line, since it will appear randomly on the user's screen. The /B:X will simply not send any characters which are on line 25 and the /B:M will move the characters to the line above (line 24). If things go badly when the cursor gets to the bottom of the screen, try adding /B:M to the command line. Generally, you will want this switch for a drop to dos function. Version 1.3 now sends a sequence which will postion the cursor at the bottom of the screen for both 24 and 25 line modem programs. For maximum compatibility, it is highly recommmended to put this switch in for ALL programs, unless it specifically causes a problem. Also since line 24 and 25 will be going to line 24 if you do a /B:M, you will want to put a /B:MS on a drop to dos and some text programs. This tells doorway to scroll the screen when it moves the line from 25 to 24 if the last line written was line 24. Otherwise you may find that line 24 gets overwritten once when text is being printed. If you are using the /L: and /B:M this will already be taken care of by the /l: switch. A "Z" can also be placed in this sequence. It tells doorway to NOT write the very last character of the bottom line. Some programs will write a character there, quite often a space, making the remote's screen scroll, when it shouldn't. Obviously you will be missing a character on the right of the screen if you do this, and a character is suppose to go there. /O: > Overide the DOORWAY title screen. This can ONLY be done after registering your copy of DOORWAY. See REGISTRATION below. /C: > /C:DOS or /C:VIA. The /C: will cause COMMAND.COM to be loaded. The /C:DOS will then exit to DOS and allow you to perform DOS functions over the modem. Enter "EXIT" to return to the board. The VIA function will load the program via COMMAND.COM. I see no need to do the latter function, but it is available if absolutely necessary. I am not convinced that if a program is loaded VIA command.com, that it can not somehow exit, or abort to command.com. If you load via command.com, then path searching will be supported and the path, and extension of program name need not be given. Obviously, the DOS function is not for a door at all, but for a REMOTE drop to DOS function. You can do a DOORWAY /G:ON /C:DOS either in a high security door, or in the REMOTE batch file for remote drops to dos. /D: > Disable Disk writes. This switch will intercept all DOS calls and not allow disk writes to take place. This can be handy for a program like a game which insists on writing a score file. It may cause problems for programs which require writing to disk to run. /L: > Add line feeds when cursor is positioned at the bottom of the screen. Various ANSI.SYS's handle the scroll differently when they get to the bottom of the screen. Some do not do a BIOS scroll, but do the scroll directly without doing a BIOS interrupt. Thus, if you do a DIR in DOS it will work until you get to the bottom of the screen, then all further lines will overwrite the bottom line. The /L: will check for the cursor being addressed at the start of the bottom line and add a Carriage Return if it is there. If you have an ANSI.SYS which does PAGE 6 the BIOS call, you will get double line feeds if you add this switch. Another way of fixing this is to use a different ANSI.SYS, or try the ANSIPAT patch on your ANSI.SYS, it should work on most MSDOS's. It is recommneded to use the ANSIPAT if it will work, and leave this switch out. /W: If you put in the /W: switch it will pause at the completion of a program. It will not pause if there is a carrier loss, or if the program was terminated by the Sysop (Sysop has requested that you return to board). If you are running out of room on the command line (DOS only lets you put 127 characters on a line), you can now eliminate the colons after the switches. It makes reading the line more difficult, so it is not recommended to leave them out unless you really need the space. MULTITASKING DOORWAY now supports DOUBLE DOS, TaskView and other multi-Tasking enviroments. You need not even inform DOORWAY about the Multi-tasker. EXTENDED KEYBOARD CODES DOORWAY supports all extended character codes! This allows you to send it the Function keys, cursor keys, and ALT functions. Undefined codes and the Ctrl PrtSc code are trapped from going to the program since some undefined codes can crash the system. If you want to overide all extended codes, then enter a /T:^@ on the command line, as this will then trap the NULL character. At this time there are two modem packages which support extended keyboard codes. They are QMODEM 3.1a (or later) and PIBCOMM. PIBCOM requires you to obtain the keyboard definition file known as PIBDOOR1.ARC. They both go into the DOORWAY extended key mode by entering an ALT "=". If your favorite modem program doesn't support extended key codes, you might mention this much needed function to your favorite modem software vendor! DROP TO DOS REMOTE Many Sysops are now using DOORWAY for their remote drop to DOS. This can be done with the following command line for either your drop to dos door or remote batch file: DOORWAY COM1 /i:pword /g:on /a:on /b:ms /m:100 /c:dos I like to turn the alarm on, so if anyone gets into my dos I will hear any beeps. You may also need a /l: or to patch your ANSI depending on your ansi.sys. The above also sets ANSI graphics on, and makes it compatible with 24 line modem programs (Where the 25th line is a status line). The /m:100 gives me 100 minutes in dos, and the /c:dos tells it to drop to dos. The /i:pword allows me to check a password before an exit to dos is allowed, and may be left out if desired. See the discussion on the password in the initial welcome discussion above. PAGE 7 The reasons for using DOORWAY for you drop to dos are many. Here are a few of the more obvious ones: CTTY GATEWAY DOORWAY Redirects BIOS writes no no yes Generates ANSI codes no yes yes Smart ANSI generation (clear EOL's) no no yes allows external aborts no no yes works with DDOS no yes yes allows funtion keys to be sent no no yes allows cursor keys to be sent no no yes allows password protection no no yes allows trapping of characters no no yes monitors carrier no no yes monitors user time no no yes abort on keyboard timeouts no no yes handles 24 line com programs no no yes reads and uses pcboard.sys or DOOR.SYS no no yes allows you to externally abort pgms. no no yes Gives 24 hours support via BBS no no yes Allows you to inhibit disk writes no no yes Some of the PCBOARD 21.1 utilitys require you to do a SET PCB=/BIO to make them do BIOS writes. I would put this line in the batch file for your drop to dos just before the doorway line. PCBOARD will remove this from the enviroment when it is run so it needs to be set each time you do a drop to dos. With this set, the PCBSETUP can be run from remote if you are using a modem package which supports the extended key codes. The cursor, page up and page down, and function keys will all be handled as if entered on the board keyboard. You can move around the pages, and also enter the ALT F to find a string. In dos the F3 will repeat the last command and in EDLIN, you can use the F3, cursor, ins, and delete keys, just as you would at the main keyboard. PCBOARD 14 has a DOORWAY set of utilitys available for downloading from Salt Air. These include the system manager, pcbsetup, pcbfiler, user maintance programs. The PCB=/BIO is not required for PCBOARD 14. You will find you can do lots of things which CTTY disallows. Try a "COPY CON: FILENAME" with CTTY and it will lock up, but works fine with DOOR- WAY. To exit the COPY CON: enter a ^Z. Once you get use to a DOORWAY remote drop to dos you will wonder how you got along without it. USER ABORTS AND LOST CARRIERS If a user enters one of the characters following the /R: then the program will abort. "EXTERNAL USER ABORT" will be displayed on the Sysop's screen for a couple of seconds. Note that if the user does an EXTERNAL ABORT when the program is in a CRITICAL DOS function, the abort could crash the system. Therefore, if a critical DOS function is being performed, the abort will be put off (but remembered) until it is safe to abort. If the user does an external abort during a drop to DOS (REMOTE session), the function or program in process will be aborted and the user will be dropped back to DOS, and the message "EXTERNAL ABORT IN DOS" will appear on both ends. PAGE 8 If a carrier is lost, the program will abort and return to PCBoard automatic- ally. The message "CARRIER LOST >>>>> RETURNING TO BOARD" will flash up on the Sysop's screen. If carrier is lost during a critical DOS function, doorway will attempt to abort the program for 255 seconds. Starting with version 1.4 doorway goes to great lengths to abort a program which was previously unbreakable. It will resort to hooking the dos interrupts to gain control, and sending the program carriage returns, ESC characters, and ^C's. If unable to break the program for 255 seconds, then the system will reboot. The only way I know for this to happen, is if there is a critical DOS error and the system is waiting for an imput with "RETRY, ABORT,or IGNORE". If this happened and the user hung up, then the system would be hung until the Sysop noticed it and entered an "A". Therefore, Doorway will reboot the system, as there is really no other solution. Likewise, if a carrier is lost while in DOS, the system will abort and the message, "CARRIER LOST --> REBOOTING" will flash up to the screen. The reason for this may not be so obvious. First, you don't abort from DOS the same as from a program, DOORWAY would have to fake an "EXIT" being entered at the keyboard. Second, Doorway has no way of knowing if you are in DOS or running a program from DOS, which would have to be aborted first. If a User or keyboard timeout occurs, then DOORWAY will send the appropriate message and return to PCBoard. If a keyboard timeout occurs in DOS (/C:DOS), then the bell will be rung, but it will not reboot. PAGE 9 REGISTRATION This DOORWAY program is strictly a demo-version. The non-registered version may be freely distributed and uploaded to BBS's. It can be tested and used for one month. After that date, the program may not be used unless it is registered. You may register it several ways. First, you can fill out the order blank at the end of this document and send with $15 to: Marshall Dudley 406 Monitor Lane Knoxville, Tn. 37922 Second, you can call Data World BBS, and go into the DOORWAY registration door (DOOR 18) which will allow you to register your software on-line in only a couple of minutes. You will receive your registration number while you wait. Be sure and have either your VISA or MASTERCARD card handy before entering the door. Please note that using a false or stolen credit card number to obtain a product or service is a felony. It has been tried once and the FBI has already tracked down the perpertator. When you register, you will receive a Registration number for your copy of DOORWAY. This number will be valid for your board for all future versions of DOORWAY no matter when or where you get them. You will automatically be registered in the DOORS conference on Data World BBS, and given complete support. Defeating the registration, or distributing a registered version of DOORWAY is illegal. Make sure that any copies of DOORWAY you make available for others are NON-REGISTERED! Violators will be prosecuted. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact the home board: Marshall Dudley, Co-Sysop Data World BBS 615)966-3574 Knoxville, Tn. (Private Node 2 and node 3 for registered users 615)675-3282, and 615)675-4577) Nodes 1 and 2 use Hayes 9600 V modems. Node 3 is a 2400 baud only. Once you have your registration number, go into the subdirectory that DOORWAY is in and type "DOORWAY REGISTER". DOORWAY will ask for your board name. It must be entered EXACTLY as registered, including spaces and any punctuation (although capital and small letters can be interchanged) . Then, enter the registration number you have gotten, and it will automatically register the software to your board. The operation of DOORWAY will change as follows when registered: UNREGISTERED REGISTERED REGISTERED TO: [UNREGISTERED COPY!] YOUR BOARD NAME Time in DOOR: 10 Minutes PER SYS file or /M:TIME Registration screen Displayed to the Sysop Omitted /O: option Not available Operational This software is without warranty of any kind. The user assumes sole responsibility for its use, and it is the user's responsibility to determine if this software will meet his requirements. The author and any associates shall not be liable or responsible for any kind of damages, including special, indirect, or consequential damages, arising or resulting from the use of or modification of this software. Our sole liability shall be limited to refund of your registration fee. PAGE 10 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q. I have typed DOORWAY LOCAL, but all it does is print a screen of information and return to DOS. A. DOORWAY is not a door itself. It turns other programs into a door. Thus unless you are using it for a drop to dos, you will need a /P:FILENAME.EXT as the last switch on the command line. Q. I am using DOORWAY for my remote drop to dos. It seems to work fine except when a directory gets to the bottom line of the screen, one of the lines gets overwritten. Also, back spaces do not work on the bottom line, but become spaces instead. A. You are using a communication program which places a status line on the bottom line of the screen. Therefore, attempts to address the cursor on the bottom line are being ignored by your modem software. This is not a DOORWAY problem, but DOORWAY will solve it if you put a /B:MS switch in the command line. Q. DOORWAY use to work great for my compiled BASIC programs. Now it won't send the characters any more. A. You have moved from QUCIK BASIC 1, 2 or 3 to QUICK BASIC 4, or Turbo Basic. The compilers have quit using the MSDOS/IBM specifications for sending characters to the screen. Instead of using DOS or BIOS interrupts, they are writing to the screen memory directly. Thus it is impossible to redirect. Either include the (Q)uick Basic switch "/Q:" in the command line to compile with a pre-4 version of QUICK BASIC, or open the CON port for output, and write all the video to CON. Q. I am using DOORWAY for my remote drop to dos also, but when it gets to the bottom of the screen on a DIR listing, I don't get ANY more line feeds, and all lines overwrite the previous lines on the bottom. A. There are several versions of ANSI.SYS. Some are better behaved than others. Some of them do NOT do a BIOS scroll when they get to the bottom, but instead do a block move in video memory. DOORWAY has no way of trapping this "blind scroll". Therefore, DOORWAY can be made to send a line feed when it appears that a scroll was done. Just insert a /L: in the command line to get it to insert extra line feeds. If you put this switch in and don't need it, you will get double line feeds at the bottom. A better solution is to try the ANSIPAT in this archieve. It should work on most MSDOS's which exhibit this problem. Q. I can't seem to get DOORWAY to give me more than 10 minutes before it aborts. It even reboots if I am in DOS. A. Either you don't have a registered version or else DOORWAY cannot find PCBOARD.SYS, and you have not defined a maximum time on the command line with a /M:XXX (where XXX is the time in minutes). It is assumed that if time expired on a user in DOS, something is VERY wrong, and that he/she probably shouldn't be there. Therefore, the system will reboot, hopefully before any harm has been done. PAGE 11 Q. DOORWAY seems to work fine, but when it is through, the board doesn't come back up. A. Check your Board documentation for how to implement doors. For PCBOARD you need to place the line "BOARD" (or whatever you named the board's batch file) after the "DOORWAY XXXXXX" line. This will be different for different board softwares. See the example .BAT files for guidance. For RBBS, it is not recommended to shell to DOORWAY. Q. DOORWAY seems to work from the board end, but gives and receives no response from the modem. A. Check that you have defined the correct COM: port in the command line. Q. When I run a particular program during my remote drop to dos, it seems to hang up when I exit. If I enter a character, I get a beep, and everything starts working again. What is happening? A. Your program is turning off the com port when it exits. Doorway now monitors the com lines during timer ticks. When a character is entered by the user and not fetched for over .5 second DOORWAY will reopen the com port and send a beep. Q. When I run DOORWAY many programs will not send anything out the com port, but user entered characters are received ok. What's the problem? A. You are using an "ENHANCED" ANSI driver, such as FANSI or NANSI. These do direct screen writes instead of BIOS calls, so DOORWAY never sees the characters go to the screen. Replace the driver with the ANSI driver which comes with DOS. Also the programs you are running may be doing direct screen writes. These can not be redirected. You may try putting a "/Q:" in the command line to see if it will support redirection of output. Q. Why do you read everything from the command line instead of from a config file like everyone else does? A. I have never liked to add a bunch of files for any application. The config file would be different for each door, and if you are using doorway for 10 different doors, that would add 10 more files. Also, when modifying a door, it is more confusing to trace the names though different files to determine which config file should be modified. Lastly, it takes time to load the config file and as we all know, doors are slow enough as it is. Q. I am very confused on the order of the switches in the DOORWAY command line. A. There are only two things which have to be in any particular place. The COM1, COM2, SYS or LOCAL must be the first item after DOORWAY, and either /C:DOS or /P:FILENAME.EXT must be the last switch on the command line. PAGE 12 Q. I have registered DOORWAY, and now I find a later version on a local board. Do I have to register it also to use it? A. Your registration number is good for all future versions of DOORWAY. Simply register it just like you did your earlier version. If you have lost your number, then type DOORWAY REGISTER on your earlier version and it will give your board name and registration number back to you. Be sure you have your registration number before copying the new version over the old! Q. I have had to change my board name. I have already paid for DOORWAY but now it says "REGISTERED TO:" my old board's name. What can I do? A. Once we verify that you have really changed the board name, you can get a new registration number for the new name. Q. I am running multi nodes. Do I have to register more than one copy? A. If all nodes have the same board name, then one registration is all you need. Q. Why should I register DOORWAY? A. It allows you to do some other things not available if you do not register it. Also, I have spent hundreds of hours creating a good package which is needed by the BOARD community. Future changes to PCBOARD and compilers can make door programs not work anymore. The only way I can continue supporting this product if those who are using it support my efforts through registration. Lets be honest. The closest thing to this program will cost you over $300, so $15 is almost giving it away free. If you put 10 programs into DOORWAY that is only $1.50 each, and for a remote drop to DOS, it is unmatched. DOORWAY REGISTRATION ORDER BLANK Please fill out the following if you are ordering DOORWAY registration by mail Name___________________________________ Board's Phone # _____)____-_________ Address _______________________________ Is Board PCPursuitable? __________ City, State Zip _____________________________________ Board Name (Must be EXACTLY as you want it to appear to your users-60 chr. Max) _______________________________________________________________________________ Revision of DOORWAY you presently have __1.43___. You will receive a disk with the latest released version of doorway and your Registration number by return mail. Note: Personal checks drawn on Canadian banks should be made out in US $, and and additional $2.00 should be included to cover the additional collection fees. PAGE 13 INDEX ALARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,4,5,7 ANSI.SYS . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,6,11 ANSI GRAPHICS . . . . . . . . . . 1,2,3,4,7 BATCH FILE . . . . . . . . . . . 2,3,6,7,8,12 BELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SEE ALARM BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,6,8,11,12 BOTTOM LINE . . . . . . . . . . . 5,6,11 CARRIER DETECT . . . . . . . . . 1,6,8,9 CHARACTER TRAPPING . . . . . . . 1,3,5,7,8 COMMAND LINE . . . . . . . . . . 1,3,4,5,7,11,12 COMMAND.COM . . . . . . . . . . . 1,3,6 COM PORT . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,4,11,12 CTTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,8 DIRECT SCREEN WRITES . . . . . . 1,6,11,12 DOUBLE-DOS . . . . . . . . . . . 6 DROP TO DOS . . . . . . . . . . . 1,3,4,5,7,8,9,10 EXTENDED KEY CODES . . . . . . . 1,5,7,8 EXTERNAL USER ABORTS . . . . . . 1,3,4,5,8,9 EXIT MESSAGE . . . . . . . . . . 1,2,3,4,5 EXIT TO DOS . . . . . . . . . . . SEE DROP TO DOS FAST SWITCH . . . . . . . . . . . 4 GRAPHICS . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 INITIAL WELCOME FILE . . . . . . 2,3,4,5,6 KEYBOARD TIME . . . . . . . . . . 1,3,6,8,9 LINE FEEDS . . . . . . . . . . . 5,6,10,11 LOCAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,11 LOST CARRIER . . . . . . . . . . SEE CARRIER DETECT MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 MODEM PACKAGES, COMPATIBLE . . . 7 MULTI-TASKING . . . . . . . . . . 5 MUSIC AND SOUNDS . . . . . . . . 1 PASSWORD CAPABILITY . . . . . . . 3,7,8 PCBOARD.SYS . . . . . . . . . . . 1,3,4,5,8,11 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS . . . . . . 11,12,13 REGISTRATION . . . . . . . . . . 6,10,13 REMOTE FUNCTION . . . . . . . . . SEE DROP TO DOS TIME-OUTS, USER'S TIME . . . . . 1,3,4,5,8,10 TITLE SCREEN OVERIDE . . . . . . 6 SWITCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,4,5,6 SYSOP ABORTS . . . . . . . . . . 5 USER'S TIME . . . . . . . . . . . SEE TIME OUTS WAIT AT END OF PROGRAM . . . . . 6 WARANTEE . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 PAGE 14