
                       Lora Bulletin Board System and
                         Electronic Mail Interface

                           Version 2.40 (beta 3)

    Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 by Marco Maccaferri
                            All rights reserved



    How to upgrade
    =====================================================================

    Here is the right procedure to upgrade Lora in your system:

    1. Change to your system directory (normally called C:\LORA) and
       uncompress inside it the original archive, LOD240B3.ZIP (or
       LOS240B3.ZIP for the OS/2 release).

    2. Run LOD240B3.EXE (or LOS240B3.EXE for the OS/2 version).

    3. Run LSETUP for every configuration file created (by default
       it reads CONFIG.DAT only) and save after checking that everything
       is ok.

    The program will upgrade the files that are changed with this
    release.



    News made with beta 3
    =====================================================================

    - Added the -LF command line switch. It does a local login without
      opening the mailer screen and without the fade effect and the
      double status line at the bottom of the screen.

    - Added the *U parameter for the external protocols and door commands
      that tells Lora to physically change the current directory to the
      user's filebox.

    - Added the %r parameter for the external protocols and door commands
      that will be replaced with the user's filebox path, without the
      trailing backslash.

    - Added a window at the bottom of the mailer screen that shows the
      event that is currently executing, with the number (as a referece
      for LSETUP), starting time and the optional comment.

    - The last caller record for a mailer call now reports the node
      number only (the sentence 'Mail width' was removed).


    News made with beta 2
    =====================================================================

    - Beta 2 was released to few people and immediately retired.


    News made with beta 1
    =====================================================================

    - Added the message base 'GoldBase'. It is an evolution of the Hudson
      (QuickBBS) base that allows an unlimited number or messages without
      the disadvantages of the Hudson, one for all the 16 megabytes limit
      due to the 16 bit variables used.

    - Added the support for the RIPscript graphic protocol. As with ANSI,
      Lora will attempt to detect if the remote termina supports RIP, if
      that's true Lora will send the files with the extension .RIP instead
      of the same files with the .BBS extension.

    - The new areas create function now allows you to specify where and
      with which message base you want to create new areas.

    - The internal message reader can display the kludge lines, normally
      hidden. The new menu' type 130 can be used to toggle the hidden lines
      view, and the embedded command ^FK you can know if the lines are
      hidden or not.

    - Added the support for connection speeds 128000 and 256000 baud for
      ISDN lines, and 24000 baud for the new V.FC modems.

    - Added a new security level to the inbound mail processing: now you
      can define for each node a packet password different for inbound
      packets (received from that node) and for outbond packets (destined
      to that node). This security level if correctly used can avoid other
      nodes from sending mail packets as if where sent from other nodes
      connected to the same system. The command %INPKTPWD was added to
      allow the Sysop to change the inbound packet password.

    - Added the support for BlueWave mail packets to the off-line reader
      section. BlueWave allows more flexibility in handling the mail than
      the QWK, allows you to write netmail packets and doing some basic
      configurations while off-line, like adding / removing areas. The menu
      type for BlueWave mail is 131.

    - With this release you can select the screen blanker to use. You have
      three screen blanker at your disposal: blank screen, exploding stars
      (already present in the previous releases) and snakes.

    - Two command line arguments are added: -NP (No Poll) that allows you
      to specify that the program do not call other nodes even if the node
      is flagged immediate, it is very useful for multiline nodes where
      only one node can call. -NM (No Mailprocess) do not allow the program
      to process the mail.

    - Added the ^Wl<num> embedded command that allows the rest of the line
      to be send if the task number that reads the file is equal to <num>.

    - The serial port speed field was increased to 32 bit, this allows to
      specify speeds ver 57600 baud. However these higher speeds are not
      usable from the DOS version, because the current FOSSIL
      specifications do not allow similar speeds. You can lock the speed of
      you FOSSIL driver to use these speeds or you must use the OS/2 or
      DOS/NF (No Fossil) version that allows to use speeds up to 115200
      baud.

    - To the terminal emulator was added two keybord commands: ALT-N sends
      the Sysop's name followed by an ENTER, ALT-P sends the active
      password (if defined) followed by an ENTER. This allows to speed up
      the login process to systems without the IEMSI driver.

    - Added the menu type 71 that allows you to write a line in the log
      file.



    Fixes made with beta 3
    =====================================================================

    - The events now are working perfectly.

    - LMSG should not have big problems now.

    - The TIC file import should no more report stack overflow
      problems or acting strange.

    - Fixed a bug that prevents the quote reply for messages stored in
      Pip base format.

    - The upload check for the offline reader now checks the *.UPL and
      *.NEW packets for Bluewave messages.

    - Fixed a bug that prevents the QWK or Bluewave packet to be
      sent if the user has other files tagged for a later download. Now
      the mail packet will be added to the tagged files.

    - Fixed a bug that creates the high water mark in the current directory
      when passthrough areas are exported.

    - The personal mail check now displays the messages addressed to
      the user's alias.

    - Fixed a bug that locks the system when a user trys to view the
      contents of an archive not in the currently active area.

    - Fixed a bug that when the -NM or -NP command line switches are
      specified forces the task number to zero.

    - Receiving an update file with the TIC processor Lora now deletes
      the description of the old file.


    Fixes made with beta 2
    =====================================================================

    - Beta 2 was released to few people and immediately retired.


    Fixes made with beta 1
    =====================================================================

    - Fixed a bug for which the areafix (and raid) answers sent after a
      forward to the alert nodes are sent to the latest alert node insted
      to the correct addresses.

    - The toggle CLS command, now allows you to receive the formfeed
      character (0x0C, 12( instead of the clear screen ANSI sequence. If
      the CLS is set to YES the formfeed will be sent.

    - Added a filter to the IEMSI driver to clean the user's name from
      impurity added by some programs.

    - The EMSI tranx field now correctly reports the GMT time.

    - Fixed a bug with the month field when importing Squish mail.

    - The row buffer for reading .BBS files was increased to 2048 bytes.

    - The row buffer for reading messages was increased to 150 bytes, this
      allow users with 132 columns terminal to correctly read messages.

    - The modem answer command was increased to 40 characters.

    - The modem initialization command will be sent after each failed call
      to allow you to specify a different modem configuration for calling
      and for answering.

    - If you specify a file name for the download command, Lora will not
      consider the download limits.

    - Fixed a bug that sometimes allow the user to write messages in denied
      areas using the QWK off-line reader.

    - The file request routine was partially rewritten to fix some bugs
      introduced with the file index.

    - The log buffer is now specified in 16 bytes paragraph. The entry
      field allows you to specify a maximum of 4096 bytes buffer.

    - The Hudson (QuickBBS) import routine now checks the message base for
      the 16 megabytes limit.

    - The ^F" embedded command now works correctly.

    - Fixed a bug with the message tracker that tracks message with the
      wrong zone number when the kludge line REPLY was present.

    - The messages sent back by the message tracker now are marked private.

    - Fixed a bug in the OS/2 version that caused a trap when the
      description of the downloaded (or requested) file was too long.

    - Fixed a bug in the OS/2 version that denied the toggle of the hot-key
      menu for the users.

    - Added the multiple immediate (.ILO) flags handling. If poll, file
      request and file attach commands do not deletes the immediate flags
      already present, ou must now use the toggle immediate flag from the
      view outbound info command (ALT-V).

    - The exit after mail errorlevel was move after the internal mail
      processing, to allow a better mail handling. If you want to process
      the mail externally to Lora you must disable the internal handling
      too.

    - Fixed a bug that causes the areafix answers to be always sent with
      the primary aka.

    - The swith to send text files without handling them was changed to /R
      (raw mode), the /P switch allows you to view the message 'Press
      enter..' at the end of the reading. The raw mode do not checks the
      contents of the file and send it as is.

    - Fixed a bug that sometimes do not recognizes the end of a message
      during the import procedure.

    - The %v command now works correctly with the external protocols.

    - With LSETUP is now possible to copy message and file areas in a new
      area. This allows you to speed up the operations necessary to create
      multiple similar areas.

    - Added the /C switch to the upload command that allows to enable the
      check on the upload files before starting the upload.

    - Added the /F= switch to the upload command that allows to specify the
      name of file (or the directory) to upload when the user uses a
      protocol that can not transfer the file name. Useful for uploading
      automatically processed reports.

    - Fixed a bug that truncates the messages sent by areafix and raid to
      16k (only the last part of the message was sent).

    - Fixed a bug that do not allow the delete of a file from the filebox
      with the related menu type.



