[255D[40m
[8C[0;1;31m7. [37mHopefully requires nothing but integral [34mSBBS [37mfunctions to set
[8Cup so that adding, and wrecking-balling any room is easy and
[8Cinvolves [32mno custom programming [37mor [32msoftware author support[37m. No
[8Coffense to the many excellent and responsive software developers
[8Cout there ([33mRob and many others[37m), but I usually need to talk to
[8Cyou at 1:30 a.m. - and I know you're working then and have no
[8Cuse for me!


[30C[33m--------------

[20C[35mEarly Thinking & Other Problems
[9C(Of course my Early Thinking was PART of the problem!)


[8C[37mI spoke with [32mseveral sysops [37mabout this many months ago and everybody
seemed to want it too. Each had different views about what to use [36m"rooms"
[37mfor, and none seemed to have a total [33msolution[37m.

[8CI logged on to boards where the sysop claimed on [36mDOVE-Net [37mto have
[32m"virtual" [37mBBSes and separate rooms or [35m"matrix" [37mlogons and found the
identical problem in every case: while they had set up separate areas
with some [33mmenu/baja [37mfunction to take users to the appropriate message
base or file area, or other function, when a user [33mscanned_all [37mfor his
messages or new ones, he ended up scanning the entire board. I even saw
one sysop on [36mDOVE-Net[37m, many months ago, talk about running a separate
instance of [34mSynchronet [37mor some other freeware bbs, either as an external
program door, or as a [34mbaja [37mfunction. That seemed very inappropriate to me too.

[8CIt is clear that [35mnone of the sysops [37m(or myself) [35mwanted that[37m, and
that we all wanted functionally separate rooms, or truly separate "virtual"
[34mBBSes [37mor more limited rooms.

[8CI spoke with [33mDigital Dynamics [37mabout it and Rob said on one
occasion [32m"Yes, you can do that now" [37mand I hung up and didn't press for
the solution. (I'm used to that [31mbrick wall imprint [37mafter all.)

[8C[34mQuickly [37mI realized that in order to do it inside the current
shell, there had to be a [33mway to isolate the functions [37mand limit them to
the room only, without disrupting the rest of the board outside the
room. [32mBoth areas[37m, inside the room and the areas outside, have to exclude
each other.

[8C[31mIt dawned on me [37mthat if I could toggle [35mARS flags [37mfrom baja then
I could probably do this. However, [36mbaja doesn't allow this [37m- although it
does allow other user toggles. So, to be sure, I spoke with [32mAllen at DD
[37m(who is also the Domain Entertainment developer), and he said [33m"Nope,
can't toggle flags from baja at this time."

[8C[37mIt's [35mone of those problems [37mthat you end up just staring at,
knowing that there IS a solution and you just can't [31m*see* [37mit. This went
on for several months while I set up and learned all the other "[0;36mlanguages[1;37m"
(read that "programs") needed to run my board. (A process still continuing
and that has me in [32m"total immersion" [37m- man, I pray to everybody's gods
for software documentation that doesn't assume I know [33m*their*
[37massumptions!)

[8CWhat made it more frustrating was that I had successfully,
and easily, [34mwritten a baja command shell [37madding instant online help
(without modifying or simplifying the menus - [31mI hate novice shells [37m- and
separated the Main and Message menus, and some other things. (Unlike
some other successful [34mSynchronet [37mboards, I'm [35mending up with only one
command shell [37mthat is getting modified beyond recognition and I'm not
going to take the time to modify all the other shells.)

[8CI had even contacted an [34mSBBS [37msysop who is a [33mskilled and bright
programmer [37mand he said yes, he could write a [32mutility with command line
parameters [37mthat could do what I wanted. It wouldn't take him long,
etc... and, we were working out how to pay for it, share it, etc...

[28C[33m+++++++++++++++

[10C[35m*** And then, late one cold, coffee-tanked night...

[31mthere it was[37m. Right in front of me. [32mOn page 261 of my Synchronet manual[37m.
The [33mMODUSER.DAT [37mfile. The drop file external programs return to the BBS
to alter user [35mARS [37msettings! Could I use this? How? When does [34mSBBS [37mread
the file? I knew that from [34mUEDIT[37m, when I change a users settings, they
take effect immediately so I concluded if I could change them from [35mbaja
[37mthey must be similarly instant. [[32mBTW, I learned long ago that reading
instructions and manuals is just part of living, so I read Synchronet's
manual constantly. "RTFM!" isn't lost on me. But, for me, I use a
different acronym - "RTFM&UI!" - "Read The Friggin Manual & Understand
It![37m"]

[8CI called [31mAllen [37magain ([33mI think he knows my voice at the first
[37m"Hello" [33mat this point[37m), and he said SBBS reads this file only on
returning from an external program that must be configured in
[36mSCFG -> External Programs[37m. [35m<whew!> [37mI was a step closer.

[8CIn the last few months I've developed an email relationship with
the author of the book [32m"Dr. Batch File's Ultimate Collection"[37m, Ronny
Richardson [ [33mWindcrest/McGraw-Hill[37m, a great book IMHO ], and have learned,
and done, some amazing (to me) things from DOS batch files, so I realized
that I could create a batch file as an external program to deal with the
[36mmoduser.dat [37mplacement.

[8C[34mThat's the key[37m, but it takes several other modifications for it
to work. And [32min retrospect[37m, it seems [31mso simple [37mthat I can only laugh at[0m[255D


