1. Forum
  2. FidoNet
  3. FidoGazette

  • For the DOS users!

    From Sean Dennis@1:18/200 to All on Tuesday, March 08, 2022 20:48:38
    Hello All,

    After spending a bit of my evening tonight working on it, I wrote a BASH script that will automatically post each page of the FG as a separate message on my system.

    A few quirks of this script:

    - The way the script works, the title page is page 0 so you will see that reflected in the subject line.

    - You will see a "x" as the first character at the top of each page (except the title page). That is a grunged CTRL-L (linefeed) code that is not filtered correctly. I hope I can figure this out.

    So I will run this script now as an inital test run. Please bear with me.

    -- Sean

    ... Never go to bed with anybody crazier than you are.
    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)
  • From Shaun Buzza@1:229/110 to Sean Dennis on Thursday, March 10, 2022 13:51:31
    - You will see a "x" as the first character at the top of each page (except the title page). That is a grunged CTRL-L (linefeed) code that
    is not filtered correctly. I hope I can figure this out.

    Is this a DOS-only 'feature'? I have not seen this mysterious "x" anywhere...

    McDoob
    SysOp, PiBBS
    pibbs.sytes.net

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: PiBBS (1:229/110)
  • From Sean Dennis@1:18/200 to Shaun Buzza on Thursday, March 10, 2022 17:12:12
    Hello Shaun,

    10 Mar 22 13:51, you wrote to me:

    Is this a DOS-only 'feature'? I have not seen this mysterious "x" anywhere...

    You won't see it anymore. The script I wrote removes the formfeed control code, which was being converted to a "x" by a previous version of the script. I spent about four hours teaching myself how to write the script and it works nicely. It's a simple BASH script...nothing too fancy.

    -- Sean

    ... WinErr 014: Keyboard locked: try anything you can think of.
    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: Outpost BBS * Home of the FidoGazette! (1:18/200)
  • From Shaun Buzza@1:229/110 to Sean Dennis on Thursday, March 10, 2022 20:27:15
    Is this a DOS-only 'feature'? I have not seen this mysterious "x" anywhere...

    You won't see it anymore. The script I wrote removes the formfeed
    control code, which was being converted to a "x" by a previous version
    of the script. I spent about four hours teaching myself how to write the script and it works nicely. It's a simple BASH script...nothing too fancy.

    Erm, perhaps I was a little unclear. This is the second time I've seen you mention this mystery "x", and I have never, not once, seen it. Not now, and
    not previously. This is why I was wondering if it was specific to DOS, or perhaps to one (or more) BBS backend, as it's not showing up on my Linux
    Mystic build, and never has.

    It's really just a curiosity.

    McDoob
    SysOp, PiBBS
    pibbs.sytes.net

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: PiBBS (1:229/110)
  • From Sean Dennis@1:18/200 to Shaun Buzza on Thursday, March 10, 2022 21:30:01
    Hello Shaun,

    10 Mar 22 20:27, you wrote to me:

    It's really just a curiosity.

    It's because for the two times I tested my script, I didn't run the text through dos2unix which produced the "x" as a placeholder for the formfeed character.

    In my script, I use "sed -i 's/\x0c//'" to remove the formfeed character (hex: 0C). There won't be any more "x" characters showing up.

    If you're curious, the script is listed at https://pastebin.com/qUE773uj for your perusal.

    -- Sean

    ... "We have confused the free with the free and easy." - Adlai Stevenson
    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: Outpost BBS * Home of the FidoGazette! (1:18/200)