• MTAFile Updates

    From Black Panther@21:1/186 to All on Sunday, November 15, 2020 23:18:42
    Hi All,

    For those of you who were not aware, I had written a program that would take the .TIC files from incoming files to the BBS, and create a New File Announcement that can be posted in automated message echos.

    I had stopped working on this program over a year ago, and started on some other projects. I had put this program out there as open source, to see if anyone wanted to continue with the development. I had one person who made some changes for personal use.

    Well, a couple weeks ago, I was taking a look at the source code, and decided to see if I could improve this program a bit. I've ended up doing some major
    rewrites of sections of it, which in turn increased the speed dramatically! On my test system, I was processing 500 tic files, and it would take about 3
    minutes. That includes reading all the tic files, sorting all of the information by file area, then by filename, and removing duplicates. After the most recent changes, it will now process 500 tic files in about 16 seconds.

    While working on optimizing this code, I've also added some features that I felt would be useful for people when using this program.

    Here is a list of what's been done recently to this program:

    v4.0 - Started rewriting sections of code
    - so far, have removed almost 600 lines of code. Still working on many optimizations, and rewrites.
    - Removed many global variables, and assigned them local
    - Added logging of exit errorlevels
    - Will supply list in code to show user the exit status of program - Rewrote many functions/procedures to optimize. Running 500 tic files at once went from 3 minutes to 15 seconds to process, so it's getting better
    - Fixed bug where LDESC would only print the last line
    - Fully incorporated use of OSID
    - Incorporated Line Terminator and Path Separators per OS
    - Rewrote LDESC section of printing report, due to problems with multiple null lines contained in some descriptions
    - Added option for how file sizes are displayed. Either full size in bytes, or shortened version in appropriate size, ie MB, KB, etc
    - Added option for thousand separator character.
    - Added option for date format between three choices

    I'll be running this locally on Castle Rock for a bit to make sure there are no problems with anything. After that, I'm looking at releasing this update.


    ---

    Black Panther(RCS)
    aka Dan Richter
    Castle Rock BBS
    telnet://bbs.castlerockbbs.com
    http://www.castlerockbbs.com
    http://github.com/DRPanther
    The sparrows are flying again...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/06 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Castle Rock BBS - bbs.castlerockbbs.com (21:1/186)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Black Panther on Monday, November 16, 2020 20:10:57
    On 15 Nov 2020 at 11:18p, Black Panther pondered and said...

    I'll be running this locally on Castle Rock for a bit to make sure there are no problems with anything. After that, I'm looking at releasing this update.

    Golly that's a lot of extra bells and whistles :) I have to say if I saw 500 TIC files coming into my echomail in folder I'd be waiting for the red lights to start flashing and the klaxon to sound :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Black Panther@21:1/186 to Avon on Monday, November 16, 2020 00:33:50
    On 16 Nov 2020, 08:10p, Avon said the following...

    Golly that's a lot of extra bells and whistles :) I have to say if I saw

    Considering this was the first program that I wrote, it needed a lot of work. I figured while I was rewriting, it would be a good time to add some more options. :)

    500TIC files coming into my echomail in folder I'd be waiting for the
    red lightsto start flashing and the klaxon to sound :)

    If I noticed 500 tic files in my inbound, my first thought would be, How long have my files not been processing! ;)

    It's nice to know the program can handle it though. Actually, it's set to handle up to 1024 tic files in one run. That takes awhile to process. :)


    ---

    Black Panther(RCS)
    aka Dan Richter
    Castle Rock BBS
    telnet://bbs.castlerockbbs.com
    http://www.castlerockbbs.com
    http://github.com/DRPanther
    The sparrows are flying again...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/06 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Castle Rock BBS - bbs.castlerockbbs.com (21:1/186)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Black Panther on Monday, November 16, 2020 20:37:05
    On 16 Nov 2020 at 12:33a, Black Panther pondered and said...

    If I noticed 500 tic files in my inbound, my first thought would be, How long have my files not been processing! ;)

    It sounds like the start to a nice geeky sysop joke...

    "A sysop notices 500 .TIC files in their inbound directory and wants to know why?

    He asks a fellow buddy why this could be the case?

    The friend replies "just wait a TIC and I'll let you know"

    *ba da boom*

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Black Panther@21:1/186 to Avon on Monday, November 16, 2020 00:53:56
    On 16 Nov 2020, 08:37p, Avon said the following...

    The friend replies "just wait a TIC and I'll let you know"

    *ba da boom*

    That would be considered a bad 'Dad Joke'. Maybe we should start referring to them as 'Sysop Jokes'. :)


    ---

    Black Panther(RCS)
    aka Dan Richter
    Castle Rock BBS
    telnet://bbs.castlerockbbs.com
    http://www.castlerockbbs.com
    http://github.com/DRPanther
    The sparrows are flying again...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/06 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Castle Rock BBS - bbs.castlerockbbs.com (21:1/186)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Black Panther on Monday, November 16, 2020 21:24:59
    On 16 Nov 2020 at 12:53a, Black Panther pondered and said...

    That would be considered a bad 'Dad Joke'. Maybe we should start
    referring to them as 'Sysop Jokes'. :)

    Is there such a thing as a good Dad joke? :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Black Panther@21:1/186 to Avon on Monday, November 16, 2020 01:56:52
    On 16 Nov 2020, 09:24p, Avon said the following...

    Is there such a thing as a good Dad joke? :)

    That depends on who you ask.

    My kids would say no there isn't.

    I think some of my jokes are good! :)


    ---

    Black Panther(RCS)
    aka Dan Richter
    Castle Rock BBS
    telnet://bbs.castlerockbbs.com
    http://www.castlerockbbs.com
    http://github.com/DRPanther
    The sparrows are flying again...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/11/06 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Castle Rock BBS - bbs.castlerockbbs.com (21:1/186)