From: pat@berry.Cary.NC.US (Pat Berry)
Newsgroups: comp.bbs.waffle
Subject: Re: HELLDIVER running with Win-OS2
Date: Sat, 02 Jan 93 02:11:30 EST
Organization: Berry Communications

rhys@cs.uq.oz.au (Rhys Weatherley) writes:

> In <i0DNwB3w165w@berry.Cary.NC.US> pat@berry.Cary.NC.US (Pat Berry) writes:
> >What I'd *like* to do is just create the article and queue it for later
> >transmission.  Then, when I'm ready to send my outgoing traffic, I'll
> >just use Waffle's uucico like I always have.  Is there any way to do
> >this?  Helldiver seems to insist on grabbing the modem and sending each
> >article out the instant I finish editing it, and when that doesn't work,
> >it dumps the article in the bit bucket.
> 
> >Why is this necessary?  I don't even understand why I *need* HSEND, but
> >Helldiver won't let me not use it.

First of all, let me apologize for frothing at the mouth the way I did.
I've been hungry for Helldiver ever since the first time you posted a
preliminary description of it a year ago.  Over the last week and a
half, I've tried half a dozen ways of getting a copy by ftp, mailserver,
and BBS, but something always didn't work.  Finally, I got it, installed
it, and discovered that it wouldn't work on my system -- and the
accumulated pressure temporarily dislocated my brain.  I feel much
better now, really.  :-)

> :-?  Helldiver doesn't grab the modem at all.  It needs to call Waffle's
> RMAIL.EXE and RNEWS.EXE programs to feed the mail and news into the Waffle
> system, and then those programs queue up the message in the usual Waffle
> way.  Polling, uucico, etc, don't come into the picture at all, or if they
> do then there is something seriously wrong with your Waffle setup. :-)

Some of the readers of this newsgroup have very kindly sent me notes
explaining this.  And not one of them called me a twit or told me to
stop raving about things I don't really understand.  Thanks for your
patience, everybody.

I think I have a better idea now of what is going on when HSEND gets
called, and it certainly makes sense from a design standpoint.
Nonetheless, it does prevent anyone running the program under OS/2 2.0
from posting anything -- but you already know that.

> Since OS/2 2.0 is being such a pain, how about this scenario: I create a
> Windows version of HSEND (not hard) which copies the mail and news into
> a temporary directory that you specify.  Then once you are ready, you run
> a DOS program to flush the contents of the temporary directory into Waffle?

That sounds marvelous to me, and more than I could have asked for.
Currently, I have a batch file that calls uucico and then uuxqt.  I run
it when I'm ready to dial up my smarthost, send my outgoing traffic, and
receive any incoming stuff that might be waiting.  I could just add a
line to the beginning to run the flush-into-Waffle program, right?

> You'd only need this for OS/2 2.0 - the DOS version of HSEND will be used
> for Windows.  It is possible to launch Windows apps from Windows apps in OS/2
> 2.0 isn't it?

To be honest, I really don't know.  I didn't even know about the
launching-DOS-apps-from-WINOS2 limitation until a few days ago.  I
haven't had enough experience running Windows apps under OS/2 2.0 yet.

Incidentally, a friend of mine who has used the OS/2 2.1 beta tells me
that you *can* launch DOS apps from the WINOS2 Program Manager, and he
suspects that this means they can be launched from Windows sessions as
well.  Can anyone confirm this?

> A native OS/2 version is a long-range possibility, but until I get more
> disk space, more memory, and a compiler, it will remain vapourware.  A
> Windows NT version is more likely in any event, because that is my currently
> planned upgrade path.

But you'll need at least as much disk space and memory for NT, won't
you?  More, from what I've heard.  Either way, you still have to buy it.

This brings up a related question, one that will probably get me nicely
flamed by Helldiver users everywhere.  But I'll ask it anyway.  Why are
you giving Helldiver away for free?  A program this slick and
sophisticated is well worth a modest registration fee -- and it wouldn't
take that many registrations to pay for your new disk drive, memory, and
compiler. Those of us who are asking for enhancements ought to be
willing to help provide the financial resources to make them possible.
And you've certainly earned it.

-- 
Pat Berry - Cary, North Carolina, USA   |  "At least that's what *I* thought.
pat@berry.Cary.NC.US                    |  But I have a history of missing the
**** Happy user of OS/2 2.0 ****        |  point of stuff like this."
                                        |  -- Homer Simpson