Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

SignUp Now!

FILES.BBS instead of DESCRIPT.ION

In Take Command and TCC I would like to use FILES.BBS instead of DESCRIPT.ION as a description file, because I still have a lot of descriptions from my old BBS sysop times.

In my TCSTART.BTM I have defined the TCMD12 directory as home directory for the TCMD.INI. But it doesn't matter if I edit this file manually or use the OPTIONS command or menu for the configuration of Take Command and TCC, the "DescriptionName=FILES.BBS" is not accepted. If I open the configuration in the OPTIONS again, the field for the filename (in the Take Command part left justified, in the TCC par right justified) is empty again. If I type in the name FILES.BBS and save the settings, the string in the TCMD.INI afterwards has been changed to "DescriptionName=11". Only in the listview window of Take Command the descriptions of the FILES.BBS are shown, but not in the normal TCC or TCC/LE window (yes, these are old descriptions and I did not use any NTFS descriptions or other description file).

Is this a bug or what's the trick? In the old 4DOS and 4NT it works properly.
 
Ralf Brinkmann:
| In Take Command and TCC I would like to use FILES.BBS instead of
| DESCRIPT.ION as a description file, because I still have a lot of |
descriptions from my old BBS sysop times.

| In my TCSTART.BTM I have defined the TCMD12 directory as home directory |
for the TCMD.INI.

That's the problem. The .INI file is processed BEFORE the TCSTART.BTM.
If you want to use an .INI file other than the default, you must specify it
in the command which starts TCC or TCMD. See HELP topics "cmdlineopts.htm"
and "take_command_startup_options.htm", resp. It also describes how to
specify the .INI file for a TCC or TCC/LE instances that is automatically
started when TCMD is started.
--
HTH, Steve
 
Sorry Steve, but did you try out what I wrote before you answered? The TCMD.INI is in the directory where Take Command (or TCC/LE) is, like described in the help, and everything else works. Your answer does not explain, why DESCRIPT.ION is accepted but not FILES.BBS. It does not explain, why the configuraton tool in OPTIONS changes an entry in the *.INI file from "DescriptiionName=FILES.BBS" to "DescriptiionName=11" and it does not explain why the inputfield for entering the filename in this configuration tool is always empty and why it is right justified in TCC and left justified in Take Command.

Now I tried out something else: I typed in "DESCRIP.ION". Do you want to know what Take Command did? It changed the entry in the *.INI file to ""DescriptiionName=D:\Progs\4DOS\Data". That's my Treepath and there is nothing else than the JPSTREE.IDX. For me that sounds as if a little Harry Potter is living in my Take Command.
 
Hi,
I'm still using TCC11, and I use

Code:
setdos /d"FILES.BBS"
to change the description file name. This method works in TCC11 for me.

See if this works in TCC12.

Joe
 
Hey Joe,

yes, that works. With all versions (Take Command, TCC, TCC/LE).

But I think Rex should find out, why the old way with the *.INI file doesn't work.

Thank you!
 
If I type in the name FILES.BBS and save the settings, the string in the TCMD.INI afterwards has been changed to "DescriptionName=11". Only in the listview window of Take Command the descriptions of the FILES.BBS are shown, but not in the normal TCC or TCC/LE window (yes, these are old descriptions and I did not use any NTFS descriptions or other description file).

Here, the Filename field on the Advanced tab of the OPTION dialog doesn't seem to have any effect at all. If I enter, say, FILES.BBS there and press Apply, TCC continues to read file descriptions from my existing DESCRIPT.ION files, ECHO %_DNAME returns DESCRIPT.ION, and my .INI file is unchanged.

(TCC 12.00.36, Windows XP SP3.)
 
Here, the Filename field on the Advanced tab of the OPTION dialog doesn't seem to have any effect at all. If I enter, say, FILES.BBS there and press Apply, TCC continues to read file descriptions from my existing DESCRIPT.ION files, ECHO %_DNAME returns DESCRIPT.ION, and my .INI file is unchanged.

(TCC 12.00.36, Windows XP SP3.)

Ditto for TCC 11.00.52 Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]

I've honestly only used the /D option of SETDOS, in the 4START.BTM, and never used the dialog method for changing the Description FileName.

Just checked TCC 10.00.78 Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600], same results.

In 4NT8, there is no option to enter the Description FileName, which would be on the Misc. tab of option if there was.

Which is probably why I was using SETDOS /D back then.

Joe
 
Ditto for TCC 11.00.52 Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]

I've honestly only used the /D option of SETDOS, in the 4START.BTM, and never used the dialog method for changing the Description FileName.

Neither has anyone else, apparently.
 
The thing is, I have been using 4DOS and later 4NT since 1985-1990 (around). A lot of SysOps I know also used it, because it was very comfortable to generate and edit file descriptions and to move these descriptions together with the files. We all had nearly the same configuration and used the FILES.BBS instead of DESCRIP.ION for the mailbox system. We all defined the description name in the *.INI file and it was never necessary to change anything. From 4DOS to 4NT only some small things.

Now I have tried to update to the newest version and used the same *.INI file. While starting a TCMD or TCC session the programm marked some lines in the *.INI file that were not compatible to the new version. I changed or commented them out and everything run, except these descriptions. So I decided temporary not to use the old *.INI file and to create a new, "clean" one, using the configuration tool of Take Command. That was the reason why I found out that there is something wrong. I've never used the setdos option. Now it works, but I think for beginners or for people like me it's difficult to find that way and easier to use the configuration tool and hope, that everything is going to work properly.
 
Fixed in build 37.

(Rex, it looks like the updated TCC/LE installer wound up in the /tcmdle directory on the FTP servers, rather than /tccle.)
 
(Rex, it looks like the updated TCC/LE installer wound up in the /tcmdle directory on the FTP servers, rather than /tccle.)

The CD for a SFTP directory isn't working in build 37. I had added a kludge a while back to work around a CD bug in the Ipworks library; they released a new version of the library which fixed the bug but which now fails because of my kludge.

I've fixed it for build 38.
 
Thank you, Charles, for your help. The configuration tool in build 37 now shows the right filename for both, the "4NT" part and the "Take Command" part and also in the *.INI file is everything okay - but still it does not show any descriptions in TCC / TCC/LE or the Prompt window of Take Command. Only in the Listview Window the descriptions are visible.

With the Setdos command it works, all descriptions are there.
 
Ok, sorry...!

Thank you Rex and everybody! With build 38 everything seems to work and the file descriptions are visible, even without the setdos command.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top