QUOTE.DOC - February 25, 1988
Lawrence Davis - Glendale Litera QBBS - 818/956-6164 (HST 9600)

This document describes the usage of QUOTE.COM and its accompanying 
QUOTES file.

QUOTES.BAS is an MBASIC program designed to display a two line quote 
from a QUOTES file.  QUOTE is designed to be used in the remote CP/M 
(RCP/M) environment to display a quote to a caller.

QUOTE.BAS must first be compiled into a runable COMfile using BASCOM 
and L80.  There are several constants they may be edited to adapt 
QUOTE to your needs.  


QUOTE.BAS CONSTANTS
-------------------

WHEEL    Set to Wheel address (current: 3Eh)

QDRIVE$  Drive where QUOTES file can be found
QUSER    User area where QUOTES file can be found

COMFILE  TRUE, if QUOTE will chain to a file after completion
CHAIN$   Name of COMfile that QUOTE will chain to
CDRIVE$  Drive where CHAIN$ can be found
CUSER    User area where CHAIN$ can be found


COMPILING QUOTE.BAS
-------------------

BASCOM =QUOTE/O/Z/C
L80 QUOTE,BDOS,CTAIL,QUOTE/N/E


QUOTE.COM USAGE
---------------

QUOTE may be entered from the CP/M command by using QUOTE n <RETURN>  
where n is any character they can be input from the keyboard.  The n 
character is used to seed the random number generator.

In remote usage, the Sysop may have BYE run QUOTE upon connect.  Then 
QUOTE can run the bulletin board program.  With a two part BBS such as 
QBBS, the logon program (QENTER.COM) loads QUOTE and then QUOTE loads
the actual BBS (QRUN.COM).  QUOTE may also be run when the user exits 
to CP/M.  

If QUOTE Q is entered and the Wheel byte is set then QUOTE will go 
directly to the quote entry mode.  A two line quote may be entered. 
The QUOTES file will be updated when a RETURN alone is entered on the 
first line of quote entry.

The QUOTES file is a normal ASCII-only file and can be edited with a 
regular editor such as VDE or Wordstar in non-document mode.
The only requirement is that each quote occupy two lines.  If the 
quote is a one-liner then the second line should contain 
'-- author's name'.  (See QUOTES for format).


TECHNICAL NOTES
---------------

QUOTE.COM uses the clock values in the BYE5 or NUBYE RTC buffer to 
seed the random number generator.  Seconds are multiplied by minutes 
so that each run of QUOTE will produce a different quote.

The QUOTES file is read entirely into memory before the quote is 
displayed, so one should keep in mind the size of the QUOTES file when 
adding quotes.  A typical QUOTES file with 50 quotes is about 4k in 
length.

Since all quotes are two lines QUOTE assumes that each quote starts 
with an odd numbered line.  If your quotes display with the last line 
on top then an extra line has been introduced somewhere in the QUOTES 
file.