8-Bit Software Online Conversion

        by Steven Flintham (15A) This is a short info file for the messaging system. A full info file is available on TBI-00. Introduction The 8BS messaging system allows members to message one another in private or in public. It also allows members to comment on programs or write short articles. Members create their messages and then send the message file to the editor on their submission disc. Basic instructions Run the program. Insert your 8BS submission disc. Press SPACE to use the current filing system, A for ADFS or D for DFS. DO NOT take your submission disc out of the drive until you have finished using the program. DO NOT PRESS BREAK, particularly when editing a message. If a message file does not exist, you will be asked for your user ID and name. You do not have to enter your name (just press RETURN). If you enter your name it will be placed at the top of all your messages. You will now be presented with the main menu, these are the options available: New message Create a new message. You will be asked to enter the ID of the user who is to receive the message. You can: 1. Enter an individual member's ID, in which case he/she will receive the message privately 2. Enter 999, in which case the message will end up in the "Messages and ads" section 3. Enter CCC, in which case the message will be treated as comments on a program Once the destination ID has been entered, the main editing screen will appear. The program automatically puts a heading at the top of the message. When you enter the editing screen the cursor is automatically positioned so that you can type in either the subject of the message or the title of the program to which the comment relates. Editing a message Changing the user ID in the line at the top of the message will NOT change the destination of the message! You must edit the "To:" line and also press SHIFT-f9 and enter the new destination ID. In editing mode you can use the cursor keys to move around the message: SHIFT + left or right cursor keys moves you to the start or end of the current line. SHIFT + the up or down cursor keys moves you up and down a page at a time. RETURN moves the cursor to the left hand edge of the next line down and automatically places a teletext colour code. DELETE deletes backwards as in a wordprocessor, closing up the gap created by moving the rest of the line to the left. CTRL+f6 inserts a space at cursor. Word wrap is provided, but only when typing forwards. CTRL+f7 inserts a line above the current line if there is enough room in the message. CTRL-f8 deletes the current line. CTRL-f9 for help when editing. f0-f6 enter text colour codes. As you type, a new code is inserted at the start of each line automatically. View/edit the messages Browse through the messages created. Cursor up and down to scroll through each message. Cursor left and right to move from message to message. D to delete a message. E to edit a message. Once this has been selected, the program behaves as in the section "Editing a message" above. f0 for help. Print one/all messages Printout of messages. Tidying the messages Messages "deleted" by the D option actually remain on disc and can be recovered using the undelete option. If you use the "tidy messages" option, this totally removes all trace of deleted messages which then cannot be recovered. Use this option before sending your submission disc to 8BS. Re-enter your user ID/name If you typed your ID or name incorrectly when you first ran the program, use this option. You will have to edit any messages you created earlier too as these will still have your incorrectly entered ID and name. Quit This returns you to BASIC. If you encounter any problems. DON'T PANIC! Send the problem disc off to the editor with a detailed explanation of what happened. Most files are recoverable as long as you have not used the "tidy" option. Advanced editing facilities CTRL+T Load plain text previously saved from your own word processor SHIFT-f0 to f6 places graphic colour codes. f9 toggles pixel editing and text modes. Pixel editing mode allows you to toggle the pixels of the graphics character at the cursor using: QW [ 1 character AS [ is made with ZX [ 6 blocks ie ] Remember that if you want to use the pixel editor you must first enter a graphic colour code to the left of the point you are going to edit. f7 Steady f8 Flash SHIFT-f7 Colour background SHIFT-f8 Black background ^ CTRL-f0 Contiguous graphics  CTRL-f1 Separated graphics  CTRL-f2 Hold graphics CTRL-f3 Release graphics CTRL-f4 Double height CTRL-f5 Single height Note that you must enter the text on both lines yourself when using double height. Undelete messages If the "delete message" option is used, the message deleted can be recovered using this option. However, if you deleted a message and then used the "tidy messages" option, "undelete" will not work. Undelete recovers EVERY deleted message. This means that you will have to re-delete a lot of messages as whenever you edit an existing message a new message is created. The program only allows 25 undeleted messages in a message file, but there is no limit on deleted messages. Once there are 25 undeleted messages, no more can be undeleted and so you may not be able to get back the message you wanted. You can reduce the risk of this happening by tidying the file regularly to keep the number of deleted messages in the file as low as possible.    