BWTIPS.TXT
One of the first tips is to dnld the file BWSETUP, which is all the
setup screens from my own BW setup, arranged as an ASCII file. It also
includes, on the first screen, my recommended architecture for BWAVE.
This should assist in accomplishing your own BW Setup. What follows is
several tips that I have generated in response to queries, over a period
of time. Good Modeming! /\oo/\
Д Area: Local Messag ДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДД
Msg#: 2085 Date: 12-02-93 17:52
From: Bat Lang Read: Yes Replied: No
To: Willie Mckemie Mark:
Subj: Search
ДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДД
-*> Quoting Willie Mckemie to Bat Lang, <12-02-93 06:46> <*-
WM> Bat, now that you have everyone hooked on List and BWave, you need
WM> to provide some instruction on string searchs on BWave message bases.
WM> I need to search a message base with several hundred entries for
WM> the string "phone" and have not found how to export from BWave to
WM> a text file which could be searched with LIST or how to perform the
WM> search with BWave. I'm sure that you have pondered/solved this
WM> problem. Can you enlighten us? Gracias
First, let me use as a basis for your BW config, a file that I recently
posted called BWSETUP. That way (barring system limitations) your setup
will work as mine does. In my setup you will find a file called 11
(that's it's full filename--I have another called 67) inside these two
files are the names that I wish to search for in the reader on a regular
basis. My default is 11, but in one conf I wish to use another set of
names, so I just change to 67 for that conf. Just to give you a feel
for these search files, here are my 11 & 67 file contents: (resp)
@George Hatchew Bat Lang
@Bob R. Boxer
Bat Lang SVGA
Boxer VLB
Terminat VESA
Editor SCSI
QFile Nutshell
WYNTKAM !OS/2
Now when I have picked the conference from the first large menu, and am
reading the first msg therein, I hit <k> and up pops a small window with
11 therein. I hit <cr> and it starts searching thru ALL msgs in that
conf for the words in the 11 file, and stops on the first msg containing
a 'hit' on one of those words (all 'hits' are hilited in a contrasting
color). Either a <cr> or <Rt> takes me to the next msg with a hit, etc.
When I have hit <cr>/<Rt> and there are no more hits, it 'beeps' at me.
The next <cr>/<Rt> takes me back to the start of the search (normally
msg 1 of ??). Now I hit <esc> which takes me back one menu to the
summary of all msgs. On that screen, ALL msgs which I just saw (that
had hits in them) are marked * in the left most column. If I answered
any during this search (replying during this search does NOT break the
search mode) then there will be a ~ there instead. Now I begin my
'secondary' search mode. I browse this screen looking for any
interesting Subj lines. If I find any that are not already marked in
the l/h col, I hit <cr> and look those over, then <esc> back and
continue my sec'y search. When I finish that mode, I <esc> back another
menu, and pick the next conf to view/search.
When the <k> brings up the 11, but I now want the 67 group, I just type
67, and <cr> and we're off just as above, only NOW using the other
words. Most of this, incl the @ and ! above, is explained in a default
BW file which is THEIR 11 file, but with LOTS of commentary included. I
just find it much easier to type 11 or 67 or whatever, than their
default of KEYWORDS.BW, tho *that* file will aid you in your
understanding of the use of keywords searching.
Now, for those off-the-cuff type searches where you decide to search for
a word NOT in either listing, or only wish to search for one (or more)
words to be defined on the spot, use Alt-k vice just <k>, and you will
be prompted to enter your word(s), with a brief menu thereon. Since I
have upldd the full LOCAL msg base for Oct (watch for Nov) as
HMSG1093.QWK, you can dnld this a place it in your (BW) dnld dir, and
open up the reader, and it will be found, just open it up like any other
.QWK and inside you will find the 496 public msgs posted here in Oct,
and can use the above techniques to search these msgs for nuggets.
Another powerful tool is avail at the screen from which you select the
the conf to view. If you put the hilite bar on one of these conf's, and
hit F9 (there is a menu to tell you which one) you can change the
default sort for that conf (most folks use subj as their default) just
before you enter that conf. Interested in what WM had to say in Oct?,
just hit F9 and pick F)rom and now when you enter, you will find all
msgs sorted by the From col (by *First* name). So page down to the W's
and there you'll find what you had to say, Willie. USE THESE MENU'S.
They will tell you lots of things. If in doubt, F1 is another one with
MUCH info whilst at a particular screen. It is not necessary to print
out the docs (I never did) as MOST of your questions can be ans. at
these menus or F1. Should you not find it there, load the .DOC file
into LIST and say F)ind search
and one of the hits will tell you just what you wanted to know, WITHOUT
laboriously looking thru a stack of pages. LIST is much more efficient.
Good Modeming! /\oo/\
BTW, one of the best ways to learn much of this is to T)ag the BLUEWAVE
conf at the O)ffline reader menu so you start getting that echo. That's
all they discuss there are questions like yours. If you didn't catch
the @George Hatchew at the head of my 11 file, that will cause 11 to
stop on ALL msgs either From or To George, who is the BW author. My
interest there is a revision in the next version that will allow me to
narrow that to just F)rom him. That's where all the good stuff is.
Those T)o him are much less interesting. BLUEWAVE is the classroom.
Hope to see you in attendance. {^; That's how I learned. Good
Modeming! /\oo/\
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
Д Area: Local Messag ДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДД
Msg#: 2761 Date: 12-22-93 15:39
From: Bat Lang Read: Yes Replied: No
To: Bent Buschpetersen Et Al Mark:
Subj: HUB pointers
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-=> Quoting Bent Buschpetersen to John Dierdorf, {12-22-93 10:42} <=-
BB> John, if one has been stupid enough to delete a QWK packet before
BB> reading all of it, how can one reset one's pointers on the HUB the
BB> way it was possible on HUB Classic? I HAVE read the HUBMANL.TXT
BB> from cover to cover and found no words to that effect in there.
Bent, that may not be necessary. If you go to your download dir, and
enter: undelete You will be given a series of files capable of being
undeleted, starting with the most recent deletion. Since this should be
the dir in which file got deleted, when it says HUB2.QWK, ans Y and it
will be replaced in that dir (you must NOT have another same named file
in that dir). Now, go back into the reader, and open up that pkt and
see if that's the one you wanted. If not, delete it while backing out
of the reader, and go back to the download dir, repeating the undelete
procedure. This time the first file should be HUB2.QWK, the one you
just deleted. Ans N and continue ans N until the next HUB2.QWK comes
up, and then ans Y. Then back in the reader for another look, etc. I
did this yesterday thru three recent HUB2.QWK files, looking for a
particular Msg. #. I finally ran out of available 'cadavers' and had to
get on the Hub to get some more. {^; Here's a little batch file that I
have posted here before to help keep track of these things, and guard
against a premature deletion.
::D.BAT to monitor your BW packet(s) status
dir /o-d \pp\down\hub2.*
dir /o-d \pp\down\flotombw.*^Z
The path is to my download dir, where BOTH my downloads go AND my mail
uplds (eg, HUB2.QWK and HUB2.REP). Thus, I only need to query a single
location for ALL my mail. Both of these dir's remain on the screen to
be examined. The /o-d ensures that they are sorted descending-date/time
thus, the latest is always on top. So if you run D each time BEFORE you
run BWAVE, you will have a fresh picture of your current status. The
situ from which you deleted the unfinished .QWK packet would have looked
like this (before entering BW):
HUB2 REP 2,806 12-22-93 3:27p
HUB2 QWK 13,674 12-22-93 12:38p
2 file(s) 16,480 bytes
14,745,600 bytes free
So when you see that you have .REP later-than .QWK (but QWK still there,
cause you were not yet finished), you simply enter BW and ans Y (add to
the replies) and go about your business. When the only thing there is
.REP, then you know that it's time to UPLD your mail. If the only thing
is .QWK, then you have mail to ans, but no replies to ADD to. If you
have both, but the QWK is on top, you prolly just finished uplding the
.REP's and have a newer .QWK that you subsequently dnldd, so now you
know that when you enter BW and open your mail, you should ans NO and
that old .REP will be gone (but still capable of being undeleted {^; ).
This little batch file has never failed to give me the info that I need
to stay on top of this status. Try it, you'll like it. Seasons
Greetings, and Good Modeming! /\oo/\
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
Another area that is rather 'grey' to most users of BW is the use and
management of the USER-CONFIGURABLE Alt-keys. This should help:
In most any area of the reader, the F1 key will pop up a screen, listing
all the legitimate commands and their key assignments for that screen,
INCL the Alt-key assignments. Since those are all displayable with the
F1 key, I won't bother covering those. What is a real help, however, is
utilizing the available user configurable Alt-Fn keys. The following
suggestion should help you a GREAT deal in BW. I first learned of it in
the BLUEWAVE echo, about 2 years ago, and have enlarged upon it. It
maximizes the ease of use of 12 functions that George has provided in
the reader. The following is the contents of an ASCII file I created
called BWMENU.TXT:
BLUE WAVE HOTKEYS
ЙНННННННННННННННННННННННННННННН»
є є±±
є Alt-L ..... LIST viewer є±±
є Alt-T ..... LIST PCP2 Setup є±±
є Alt-F1 .... Edit BWMENU.TXT є±±
є Alt-F2 .... LIST NODELIST.* є±±
є Alt-F3 .... LIST WYNTKAM.TXT є±±
є Alt-F4 .... Edit TAGLINES є±±
є Alt-F5 .... Call QFiler є±±
є Alt-F6 .... Edit NAMES.BW є±±
є Alt-F7 .... LIST FLOT.LOG є±±
є Alt-F8 .... Edit 11 keywords є±±
є Alt-F9 .... Edit 67 keywords є±±
є Alt-F10 ... LIST BW212SET.* є±±
є є±±
ИННННННННННННННННННННННННННННННј±±
±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±
It defines the current status of those 12 definable keys, and appears
from the reader when you press Alt-F1. The first two are defined in the
Setup menus, and since I never use my Terminal pgm whilst in the reader,
but have frequent need to refer to my Terminal config for answering
queries about COMM setups, I config'd my Alt-T key to do what it says
above: use LIST.COM to display my PCP2 setup [another ASCII file I
created which consists of a series of screen snapshots (ala SNIPPER) of
my PCP2 Setup menu called PCP2PARA]. The last 10 are covered in the
BWAVE.DOC file, and are just simple batch files, which do the things
indicated above. The purpose of the menu is to remind you where and what
each of them do. Simply press Alt-F1, and you are looking at the above
menu. Since I am using my editor to display it with the Alt-F1 key,
this key also enables me to reedit any of these keys.
NOTE: it also requires the editor's EXIT key to leave the menu so you
can depress the proper Alt-Fn key.
After defining any new functions, it is--of course--also necessary to
reedit the applicable batch file(s), named just like the menu indicates.
I do this by calling QFiler with the Alt-F5 key, which actives QF thru
the ALTF5.BAT. Here are my current 10 batch files:
ALTF1.BAT - b c:\pp\bw\bwmenu.txt
ALTF2.BAT - list c:\pp\down\nl\nodelist.* /W-
ALTF3.BAT - list \pp\txt\wyntkam*.txt
ALTF4.BAT - b \pp\bw\taglines.bw
ALTF5.BAT - qf
ALTF6.BAT - bn -w NAMES.BW
ALTF7.BAT - list \pp\flot.log
ALTF8.BAT - b 11 ;this is my default KEYWORDS file
ALTF9.BAT - b 67 ;this is my alternate " file
ALTF10.BAT - list BW212SET.CFG
And from my BW212SET.CFG (created the very same way as PCP2PARA above):
[and upldd to the Hub, as BWSETUP]
Terminal Cmd Line LIST C:\PP\BW\PCP2PARA
External LIST Cmd LIST @F
Hope you find this as useful as I have, and thanks to the original
poster?, whose idea I have merely expanded upon.
Good Modeming! /\oo/\