



            
                                                         TM
                                                        
                                           
                                              
                                                   
                                 
                                                            
                           P r o f e s s i o n a l

                        Shahar Hajdu & Amir Mirenberg









                     Delta-5 (C) 1993-1994 , DeltaTeam

                           All Rights Reserved

Ŀ
  About Delta-5 :                                                            

           Delta-5 is a BBS program that has an easy BBS  components
           editor. The editor works like  a  FlowChart.  It  has  10
           icons which help to create  the  BBS.  All  of  them  are
           explained in D5Design.DOC. The program  itself  has  some
           C00L things that I'll explain later on, in this document.



Ŀ
  The Delta-5 Package :                                                      

           There are some added doors in the package, and they are :
             WM - Warez Manager - The file door
             MMaster - Mail Master - The mail door
             AceChat - Ace Chat - The chat door
             NewsMan - News Manager - The news door
             Fillit - Fill It Up - The questionnaire door
             TagLiner - Tag Liner - The tag line door.
             OnUsers - The multi line who is online door.
             LastOn - Last users on the system.

           Documents are added with them.
           Also added an already set and  ready  to  operate  BBS  (
           Smpl_BBS.ARJ ), just extract it and you have a BBS.



Ŀ
  Some UnDocumented and important things :                                   

         - Delta5.EXE's command line options :
           -L       Puts Delta-5 in a local mode operation. In  this
                    mode there is no need for the fossil driver  and
                    there will be no  waiting  screen,  which  means
                    that it will put you right into the BBS, logging
                    off will exit right back to DOS.  Also  in  this
                    mode no logging will be made, and the Delta5.LOG
                    will stay untouched.
           -B[Baud] Enters fixed baud rate. Used to pass Delta-5 the
                    connect baud rate from  an  external  connection
                    handler. Like the local mode, it puts you  right
                    into the BBS, this time a  fossil  is  required.
                    Also, if a no user is online it will  exit  back
                    to DOS ( or to the program that ran Delta-5 ).
           -N[Node] Execute Delta-5 with a  node  parameter.  Useful
                    for multi-line BBSs. When this parameter exists,
                    Delta-5  creates  the  DORINFO1.DEF  files  with
                    ?=node, if it doesn't exist ?=1.
           -R[Mod.] Runs the module [Mod.]  instead  of  the  module
                    defined as "BBS Main Module" in D5Config  (  for
                    module debugging purposes).

         - Keys in waiting mode :
             Alt-L - Logs on locally to the BBS.
             Alt-X - Exits Delta-5.
             Alt-A - Answer  manually,   works   only   if   carrier
                     detected. Good for serial cable connections,  I
                     myself used it while debugging Delta-5.

         - Giving/Getting data from doors :
             Delta-5 uses 2 files to communicate with  doors.  These
             files are :
             DORINFO1.DEF ( as other BBS programs have ) -  Gives  a
               door all needed data about the user  online  and  the
               modem data. This is the "output" file.  This  one  is
               a text file. It's format is equivalent to  the  other
               BBS programs that uses it, so  other  BBS  doors  can
               work with Delta-5.
             EXITINFO.BBS - RA's format, has the same job of DORINFO
               we added this support  so  that  some  RA  supporting
               doors could be used in Delta-5.
             DOORRET.D5 - Gives Delta-5 back  data  from  the  door,
               right into Delta-5's variables. Use to give back  the
               time left into the ^TL0 variable and so on.  This  is
               the "input" file. It is a binary file.
             Also an environment variable is added,  DORINFO,  which
             contains Delta-5's root directory.

         - Node.<#> ( The between node communication ) :
           When activated, Delta-5 creates a file for each node, and
           each input to those files comes out to the node that file
           belongs to. For example, if I have a user in node 3 and I
           input a string to the file Node.3, the string will appear
           to the user on that node. Of course you need to  use  the
           Delta-5 commandline -N[Node]

         - Nodes.D5 :
           This file contains information about each and every  node
           on your system ( even if you use only one node ).  It  is
           mainly updated  by  Delta-5  every  time  the  user  does
           something.

         - Everywhere in Delta-5 ( even in doors,  original  Delta-5
           doors of course ) Ctrl-K kills the process. Pressing this
           key will exit to dos, not handling modem disconnection if
           the modem is online.

         - From anywhere  in  Delta-5  (  again,  only  in  original
           Delta-5 doors ), you can hung up the user by pressing the
           F8 key. In local mode, this will exit to dos.

         - While a user is online you can shut him up by F1 key  any
           time ( this does not exist in the external doors ).  This
           will disregard the input coming from the modem. Till  you
           press F1 again the user will not be able to  do  anything
           in the BBS except than hanging up his modem. ( btw,  some
           doors will be also effect by this, i mean, if  you  leave
           the user shut up, and then execute a door, the door  will
           not be able to get any input from the user and  you  will
           not be able to change it till you exit from this door ).

         - F2 key loads you the  D5Config.EXE  program  wherever  or
           whenever you are in Delta-5 ( except in external doors ).

         - F3 key loads you the  D5Design.EXE  program  wherever  or
           whenever you are in Delta-5 ( except in external doors ).
           If you're in the BBS at that moment, the D5Design will be
           loaded with the same module  Delta-5  will  run  at  that
           time.

         - F4 key shells to DOS ( with swapping ).

         - F5 key edit the current user. If no user  is  defined  it
           will put you in the users list.

         - Delta-5 supports DESQView and MS-Windows multitaskers and
           when loaded, displays a message that it had detected them
           ( each one, both, whatever ). This support causes Delta-5
           to run better and faster in each,  and  also  spares  CPU
           time when it can, to improve other tasks' speed.



Ŀ
  How to build a multi line BBS with Delta-5 ?                               

           First make different directories for each line. For  each
           line execute the D5Config.EXE from it.
           For example :

           C:\LINE1>c:\delta5\d5config.exe

           Then make sure all your E icons (  execute  a  program  )
           will have the full path of the program they're suppose to
           execute. When activating the lines you  need  to  execute
           Delta-5 from each  line,  just  like  you  did  with  the
           D5Config, plus the node parameter.
           For example :

           C:\LINE1>c:\delta5\delta5.exe -N1

           Delta-5 will keep a separate Delta5.LOG, DORINFO1.DEF and
           DoorRet.D5 for each line, but use the same  Delta-5  data
           files for all lines.
           ( Note: DORINFO1.DEF will be created with the node number
           you give it, as mentioned before, in the above example it
           will be DORINFO1.DEF ).
           Easy, ha?



Ŀ
  Tips for building a BBS :                                                  

           1. First, before doing anything,  read  the  D5Design.Doc
              document. Then read  it  again  and  again  until  you
              understand it, or at least part of it.
              ( Just kidding about that. btw, there is a F1  -  Help
              in the D5Design so you  don't  have  to  memorize  the
              D5Design.DOC )
           2. Then set all basic things with D5Config before editing
              anything.  (  you  have  a  document  for  that   too,
              D5Config.DOC, so if you  don't  understand  something,
              read about it ).
           3. After you put the first icon, don't forget to  connect
              the Start ( S ) icon to it. (;
           4. When you set a Case  icon,  before  editing  the  case
              definition file make sure that all the icons that  you
              want to go to from all the cases, exist on the  chart.
              If you forgot, nothing happened, it's just a tip  from
              me.
           5. Don't forget UnEnding edges, like an icon that doesn't
              connect to  anywhere,  but  is  being  connected  from
              another icon. If you do forget one the user that  will
              get there will be hanged up.
           6. In Exec Door icon you can put batch files as  well  as
              the actual names of the door you want to execute. Also
              in batch files you can put more than one door, and you
              can also put there dos commands.
           7. In Input icon in the menu type, don't forget to define
              the keys in the "Get control keys" menu item.  without
              it movement will not be possible.
           8. If you don't understand an  item  in  a  menu  or  why
              something does not work then try all the menu  options
              of that icon, maybe you forgot something to define.
           9. Get use to using the procedure icon, I mean build your
              BBS in pieces. you will understand  the  chart  better
              like this.
           10.Don't ever leave the part separator undefined.  It  is
              defined by default " " ( space ), so if you don't want
              to use it, or don't know what it is, then don't  touch
              it.
           11.If you don't  remember  the  name  of  a  file  within
              D5Design when you need to specify a file name you  can
              use wild cards and then to choose the right file  from
              the list.
           12.You have a debug option, F9, don't hesitate to use it,
              it will find most of the errors in your design.






Ŀ
  Some C00L stuff :                                                          

        As mentioned  in  the  D5Config,  you  can  specify  2  file
        names in which you will write names  that  if  Delta-5  gets
        them it gives them the Security  you  specify  to  each  one
        of them. Nice aha ?, you can  specify  your  friends'  names
        in the Good names file name and give them a  good  sec,  and
        you can  specify  your  "friends"  in  the  Bad  names  file
        name, and give them a "good" security.
        There is an option in  the  security  editor  to  give  each
        security level a name and use it in the design.
        You can leave wrong password  users  after  they  tried  out
        all their chances to guess the password and  not  hang  them
        up right after they fail.
        You can edit strings that will appear to the  users  in  all
        the colors, and with different colors every character.
        You can give users the option to  identify,  and  till  they
        do, they  have  the  Unidentified  security.  When  they  do
        identify, if they are new users  and  don't  appear  in  any
        good or bad list they get the New User Security.



