From: HENRY::IN%"MRL%PFCVAX%xx.lcs.mit.edu%csnet-relay.CSNET%relay.cs.net@RCA.COM" 15-JUL-1987 05:22 To: MHG <@xx:MHG@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA>, Subj: BULLETIN You are about to receive version 1.32 of the PFC BULLETIN. This software is public domain. (I will gladly accept recommendations for new features, not for changes that are due to "personal" preference.) (The latest feature and bug fixes for this new version are listed later.) You will be receiving 11 files: 1) BULLETIN.FOR 2) BULLETIN0.FOR 3) BULLETIN1.FOR 4) BULLETIN2.FOR 5) BULLETIN3.FOR 6) BULLETIN4.FOR 7) BULLETIN5.FOR 8) BULLETIN6.FOR 9) ALLMACS.MAR 10) BULLCOMS.HLP 11) BULLET.COM (They will be indentified in the SUBJECT header.) BULLET.COM is a command procedure which when run, will create several small files. After you run it, you can delete it. Read AAAREADME.TXT for installation instructions. NOTE: When creating these files (using the EXTRACT command) from the VMS MAIL utility, you will have to strip off any mail headers that are present, including blank lines. A command procedure is included at this end of this message which can be run which uses EDT to do this for you. SECOND NOTE: The feature which allows setting up folders to be publicly readable but with limited access for writing requires at least VMS VERSION 4.4, as the code uses a new system service $CHECK_ACCESS. The code is in BULLETIN4.FOR, and instructions are there for how to comment it out if you are running an earlier version. This will simply cause the feature to be disabled. Creating fully private folders will still be possible (i.e. limited access for both reading and writing). I've had various problems sending files to certain sites. I've had to reduce file sizes in order to transfer the files, and more reduction may be necessary. BITNET sites are being sent files without any TABs, as TABs were getting converted to 4 spaces. Please let me know of any sites which have similar problems (or any other type, for that matter). Thank you. Mark London MRL%PFCVAX@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The following is a description of recent new features and bug fixes. V1.0 One is now able to increase the limit of the number folders to whatever you want rather than the previous limit of 64. However, changing the limit requires rebuilding the executable. /VMSMAIL added to use with SET BBOARD/SPECIAL to check if there is VMS MAIL before running special command procedure. This saves time and avoids needless subprocess creation. EXTRACT command added as synonym command to FILE (for compatibility). Also /NEW qualifier added to create new file rather than appending to existing file. CREATE/BRIEF did not work properly. Although SHOW BRIEF would show that BRIEF was set, in reality it was not. Note that help for these two commands were also omitted. V1.1 Removed restriction that prevented GENERAL folder from being set to PRIVATE or SEMIPRIVATE. Fixed bugs with regards to PRIVATE folders. If it had /BRIEF or /READNEW defaults, a user without the ability to access that folder would get access violation when logging in. Also, if /NOTIFY was a default, the user would get notified. These have been fixed. Also, a bug which caused a crash when attempting to MOVE a message to a PRIVATE folder has been fixed. Access to private folders besides being allowed via SET ACCESS commands, is now allowed based on process privileges. Previously, access was allowed based on the UAF authorized privileges rather than process privileges. Made MODIFY/OWNER a privileged command. Also, modifying ownership of a private bulletin has been corrected. Previously, it did not change access correctly. It now removes access from the old user and adds access to the new user. Allow the CREATE command to become privileged command via change in BULLCOM.CLD. Add /FOLDER qualifier to ADD command. Modified algorithm which deleted non-existant users from user data file when new user logged in. For large databases, this was taking a long time, and in fact was not very useful. Add /EDIT qualifier to BULLETIN command, similar to MAIL/EDIT, to cause /EDIT to be the default for ADD & REPLACE commands. EX command is equal to EXIT, and is not flagged as being ambiguous (due to conflict with EXTRACT command added in V1.0). Fixed bug which caused incorrect notification of new messages in folders. Situation occurred if new message expired after user logged in. BULLETIN would notify user that new message existed, and would place user at a message that the user had already read. In login display, add line of minus signs to separate SYSTEM messages. (This can be disabled if desired by modifying BULLMAIN.CLD). Fixed (?) bugs which prevented proper file conversion from older versions of BULLETIN (circa 1985). V1.2 Added SHOW NEW command to show folders with unread new messages. This is useful if you enter BULLETIN and are notified that there are new messages in certain folder, and later in the session which to show which folders still have unread messages. CREATE/BRIEF should have been a privileged command, but was not. It is now privileged. The /ALL qualifier has been added to the SET BRIEF/NOTIFY/READNEW command. It will modify the option for the selected option for all users. This is in contrast to /DEFAULT, which would only modify the default for new users. This is a privileged command. When reading messages, the name of the folder is displayed on the top line at the upper right hand corner (similar to MAIL). V1.3 Fixed bug introduced in V1.1 that would put wrong subject in MOVED message. /EDIT feature now correctly recognizes MAIL$EDIT definitions of CALLABLE_EDT and CALLABLE_TPU. Messages sent via BBOARD that have lines containing greater than 80 characters are now broken into separate lines rather than truncated. V1.31 SEARCH did not work as advertised. It would start the search at the currently read message rather than at the beginning of the folder. This has been fixed. Additionally, a /START qualifier has been added to the command. V1.32 The change in V1.3 to wrap lines rather than truncate them in BBOARD had a bug which could occasionally add messages with lines > 80 characters, which cannot be read by BULLETIN. This has been fixed. The change in V1.3 which allowed /EDIT to use the CALLABLE feature to call editors directly broke the ability to use command procedures to call editors. This has been fixed. When there were new messages in the general folder, SHOW NEW would always show new messages in that folder. This has been fixed. A "SEARCH" can now be stopped by typing a CTRL-C. Previously it could not be stopped until it found a match or read the last message in the folder. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $ set nover $ edit/edt/nocommand allmacs.mar '; Name: SETACC.MAR' d 1:.-2 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bulletin.for 'C BULLETIN' d 1:.-2 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bulletin0.for 'C BULLETIN' d 1:.-2 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bulletin1.for 'C BULLETIN' d 1:.-2 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bulletin2.for 'C BULLETIN' d 1:.-2 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bulletin3.for 'C BULLETIN' d 1:.-2 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bulletin4.for 'C BULLETIN' d 1:.-2 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bulletin5.for 'C BULLETIN' d 1:.-2 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bulletin6.for 'C BULLETIN' d 1:.-2 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bullcoms.hlp '1 ADD' d 1:.-1 exit $ edit/edt/nocommand bullet.com '$set nover' d 1:.-1 exit