[nos-bbs] JNOS & tactical calls

[Michael Curry]

FiSH K6FSH wrote:

  Look in config.h for MBX_AREA_PROMPT and MBX_MORE_PROMPT.  They should be
> DEFINEd by default for the "old" behavior.  To get the behavior that you
> want, they both should be UNDEFINEd after or instead of the DEFINE.  And
> this only applies to JNOS 2.0i and later versions.
>


>  Undefining MBX_AREA_PROMPT and MBX_MORE_PROMPT has no effect on users
> (calls) that are already known to jnos (they have an entry in users.dat).
>  But when a NEW user connects, jnos should automatically create that new
> user with the desired preferences, including the one that turns off "The
> alphabet-soup prompt".
>

Hi FiSH,

It took until this morning for me to get back to playing with this, and I
wanted to report my findings -- you might find them interesting.

I rebuilt JNOS with of the following preprocessor directives set as shown --
each with a sense opposite to the sense they had in the stock config.h file:
-----------
#define MBX_TAC_CALLCHECK
#undef MBX_AREA_PROMPT
#undef MBX_MORE_PROMPT
----------
On the intial Outpost connect from a tactical callsign that has an entry in
ftpusers ("25A25" in this case), but no entry in users.dat, I see the
following:
----------
[JNOS-2.0i-B2FHIM$]
You have 0 messages.
Current msg# 0.
?,A,B,C,CONV,D,E,F,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,O,P,PI,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Z >
LM
No messages
Current msg# 0.
?,A,B,C,CONV,D,E,F,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,O,P,PI,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Z >
----------
and the interaction wedges because, although the area prompt (and presumably
the more prompt) are off, the "alphabet soup prompt" is still in force.
According to the Outpost page on JNOS: 'The JNOS BBS prompt picks up the
last message ID that was read as part of the prompt.  Outpost will use the ")
>" prompt sequence as the JNOS prompt.'

After this incomplete interaction, the automagically-created entry for 25A25
in users.dat looks like:
----------
25a25 0 M0 A     P CA
----------
The "0" in the timestamp field looks a little suspicious, but I'm guessing
it's the result of the interaction not actually going to completion. I
believe I aborted it from the Outpost Packet Session Manager.

"Okay, fine," (I sez to myself) "so every Tactical Callsign needs to sign on
once manually to set expert mode. Not a huge deal."

(Actually over the longer term it *could* be a somewhat big deal, depending
on how many tactical calls we end up with, but I can get into the code and
figure out what needs to be done. For now, I can live with it.)

So I go ahead and log in manually to set expert mode for 25A25:
----------
[JNOS-2.0i-B2FHIM$]
You have 0 messages.
Area: 25a25 Current msg# 0.
?,A,B,C,CONV,D,E,F,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,O,P,PI,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Z >
x
Area: 25a25 (#0) >
lm
No messages
Area: 25a25 (#0) >
b
Thank you 25a25, for calling n6orc JNOS.
----------
"Huh? So why is the Area prompt back on now? Oh... I guess it must be that
'A' in the users.dat record..."

Now the users.dat entry for 25A25 looks like:
----------
25a25 1302968588 M0   A X   P -n -h -e CA
----------
I'm guessing that that "M0" is the setting for the "More prompt," and is the
result of #undef-ing MBX_MORE_PROMPT, which is the compiled-in setting
equivalent to having manually issued the BBS command "XM 0" ... (Right?)

(Maybe you see now why I was wishing for some definitive documentation on
the content/layout of users.dat records... :-)

Anyway, the good news is that, even with the Area prompt on, as long as the
Alphabet Soup prompt is off, Outpost is happy. So that's it for now, we're
off to integration testing this afternoon!

73, Michael KI6TYV
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