                       Alternating GOODBYE.ANS generator
                               For DCTList v0.05
                       Copyright (C) 1996 Dan Traczynski

                 Released December 27, 1996 with DCTList v0.05


[ Introduction ]


This utility allows you to have a different GOODBYE.ANS/ASC file shown each
time a user logs off your system.  Its basic purpose is to select up to nine
entries from the BBS list, then stick them into an ANSI and ASCII file of
your choice.  ANSIGEN can also be configured to also select a separate
template file each time it is run, so that you always have a unique logoff
ANSI.  Each time a user logs off, he will be shown 9 different BBSs from the
last time he was on.


[ Installation ]


   You must first have DCTList v0.05 installed before you can use this
utility.  Also, please make a backup of your current GOODBYE.A?? files
because they will be overwritten with a new copy each time ANSIGEN is run.
To install the program, simply run GENCFG.EXE and configure it to your
system.  After this, you must have ANSIGEN.EXE run after each user logs off
so that the next user online will see a different GOODBYE.ANS/ASC file.
This could be a sample batch file for use with RemoteAccess.

-----------------------------
@echo off

:start
cd\ra
ra
\ra\doors\dctlist\ansigen.exe
goto start
-----------------------------

As you can see, ANSIGEN is very easy to install in your system once it has
been configured.


[ Creating your own template files ]


   Four sample template files have been included in this archive, however
they may not fit your board's theme and you may want to design your own
logoff ANSI files.  Doing so is very easy.  The following control codes may
be inserted into your template file(s):

%N  BBS Name         %M  Minimum Baud
%S  BBS SysOp        %B  Maximum Baud
%P  Phone Number     %H  Hours
%L  Location         %Y  Pay?  (Yes/No!)
%V  Last Verified    %C  Creation Date
%O  Software         %E  Extra Field

   To display the BBS name of the first BBS, you would use "%N1".  This would,
however, truncate the BBS name to only three characters, so you must pad the
code with dots to the effect of something like "%.................N1".  This
would display the BBS name 20 characters long, because the length of the code
is 17 dots + 3 control codes.

   The second method of using the codes allows you to have more control over
the output.  Using this method, you could only display the second character
of the BBS name if you wanted.  The format is basically like this...

  %Xn.xx[.yy]

  X   This is one of the control codes listed in the above table.
  n   A number between 1 and 9 telling ANSIGEN which BBS entry to list.
  xx  Length of the string.  If it is longer than xx chars, it is truncated
      to that length, otherwise it is padded with spaces, but is always xx
      characters long.
  yy  This optional instruction tells ANSIGEN which character to start at.  If
      it is not specified, a default of 1 will be used.

   If you are familiar with Turbo Pascal, the "%Xn.xx.yy" code is the
equivalent of "Copy(%Xn, yy, xx);".  Here are some examples:

%N1.20                  "No Name BBS         "
%N1.17.3                "Name BBS         "
%N1.20.3                "Name BBS            "
%.................N1    "No Name BBS         " (same as %N1.20)


   Please see the sample template files included in this archive for more
help on using the imbedded codes.


[ Distribution & Disclaimer ]


     DCTList and ANSIGEN are copyrighted (C) 1996 by Dan Traczynski.  All
  Rights Reserved.  I encourage you to distribute it, but DO NOT change any
  of the files within the original archive.  The two programs may not be
  included on CD-ROM collections.  The ANSIGEN archive should be named
  AGEN005.ZIP, preferably kept in its ZIP format.

     The author, Daniel Traczynski, will take no responsibility to
  anything that this program may or may not do to your system.  Although
  the program has been tested thoroughly, no guarantee can be given that
  it will do what it was made to do.  Nevertheless, if anything should
  happen, the user is totally responsible and the author will be under
  no obligations whatsoever.  By using this program you agree to this
  disclaimer.


[ History ]

  + Added a new feature/Something was improved.
  - Removed something.
  * General comment.
  > Bug fix.


 Version 0.05 -=- December 27, 1996.
   > Fixed a small error in TEMPLAT1.ANS.


 Version 0.04 -=- July 13, 1996.
   * First released as an add-on for DCTList v0.04.
 

[ End of ANSIGEN.TXT ]
