A BBS Coder's Guide to Pascal Programming
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Version 3.

All files included in this archive are (C) 1998 Michael Preslar,
Elysium Software unless otherwise noted.

No copyright infringement is meant with these texts.

"Pascal" and "Turbo Pascal" are (c) copyright Borland.
"MSDOS" and "WINDOWS" are (c) copyright MicroSoft.

The acronym "BBS" for "Bulletin Board System" is (c) copyright to no one.
BBS'ing is an institution. You cant own it, nor can I, but we can enjoy it.

Whatever else belongs to whoever else.

About the Guide
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This text and the other enclosed texts are meant as a reference for basic
BBS programming in the Pascal language. Please keep in mind that the authors
didnt write the language or compiler, and wont know all the answers to every
question, nor can we gaurentee that every explanation we have to be perfect.

Keep in mind that although there is a lot of code here, this guide is meant
for BBS programmers. Hence, we probably wont get into things like highly
advanced algorhytms for encryption, or highly graphical type applications.

The latest <and as far as we know> version of Pascal is 7.0. Therefore,
all code will use 7.0 standards. Previous versions of pascal wont be
explained here.

A reference section is also included with the Guide. In it, youll find some
hard and some easy to find information that a BBS programmer would find
useful.

There is also a "suggestion" section. Its a place where programmers of today
can help lead the programmers of tomarrow down the right path. All suggestions
are screened by the editor before they are added to the guide.

What you will need
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To view these files.. youll need MSDOS's EDIT.COM, or some other text file
viewing program. I prefer something with "windowing" capabilites, so you
can open up more than one of the text files at a time.

To use the information within these texts.. Youll need a pascal compiler.
I recommend "Turbo Pascal 7.0" from Borland, but thats a biased opinion, and
an expensive package. There are freeware compilers available. However, they
are beyond the scope of these texts, and our patience.

There should be a file called "diction.ary" included with this archive. Its
our "dictionary and index" for use with these lessons. Not sure what something
is? Or need a quick look up for the first place something was mentioned? Look
in this file. It's probably there.

Youll also need lots and lots of money to register this Guide. Wait.. You
already have the Guide.. How can I force you to register? Since you put it
that way, I guess I can make it free.

The Lesson Plan
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A full "table of contents" is included with this archive. Its found in the
file, "contents.txt".

Information about the staff and Gratitude
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Michael Preslar
  He's been coding in pascal for 4 years (as of oct, 98) for the bbs
  community. Its all he knows. Hes the editor of the Guide.
  Email address: marx@shadowscape.net

Mike Phillips - Thanks for the getchar routine in SWAG.
Steven B Edwards - I used your "text scroller" as the basis for my text
  displayer. It was taken from SWAG.

Other staff will be added as time passes, and as they are needed.

In Closing..
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We, the staff, hope these text files help you. A lot of time, effort, and
knowledge are contained here, and I, the editor, want to thank any and all
who contributed to this guide. If you have any questions concerning a
specific lesson, please direct them to the author of the lesson. If you
have questions about the Guide, or any other inquieries, please direct them
to the editor.

Michael Preslar, September 26th, 1998.
