Quoth Readme ************ Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, over many a VB manual filled with useless junk galore, While I pondered, coding badly, sudenly my old malady, flared up, I gladly went to solve it, solve it now forevermore. For it was in a netting session, when I found the file I reckon holds quarter of a million taglines, Taglines never seen before. Trekers, simiys, defintions, gags thought lost in days of lore. Lost in time, forevermore All I wanted, simple maybe, was my progam, my own baby, to take a random quote from it and then display it on the screen Append it then onto a file where it would then lurk awhile then posted out into the ether, upon some useless Usenet lore To lurk in Archives, forevermore What it does: ************* Quoth takes a file (standard ASCII text), counts the number of lines in it, and then picks a random line in that file and then reads it. It then loads in an existing file, appends the Quote to it, and saves it as a new file. If you use file it exports as your .sig file (in Netscape, for example), it will change every time Quoth does this. You can change the Sig manually, or you can get Quoth to automagically do it every so often. What this means: **************** Set your news-readers sig file (if your newsreader reload the sig each post, see below) to the file that Quoth outputs and you will nave a random sig each post! How to Use it: ************** Starting Up Click on the Splash screen to lose it If this is your first time running this version Quoth, or if your INI file has been deleted, Quoth will ask you for three files. The first will be the Quotes file, where the taglines come from, the second is the Sig Template explained below. The third file it the Sig Save file, where it goes to after the quote has been added. The Main Window: Use the Tabs to toggle between Quotes and options settings. Quotes: Use the sliders to set how often you want the quote to change Press Go! The countdown will be shown in the Titlebar (and the Taskbar if you Minimize the window) Every time the countdown hits 0 the new quote will be generated. Quit, or press stop to end the countdown Create new sig now: A new quote will be generated each time you hit the button Options: Top to bottom, the first three text boxes are for changing your data files. Click the "..." buttons to the right of each box to change them. Beep On Change: Causes Quoth to make a sound when your sig changes, nice in Automatic mode Center Quotes Causes the Quotes to be centered to whatever you put in the Word Wrap box Confirm Quotes: Causes Quoth to ask you to confirm each new quote. Copy sig to clipboard Copies your new sig to the clipboard, ready for pasting in your e-mail app. Save Sig File Causes your new sig to be saved to a file of your choosing The two buttons at the base will, from left to right, show Product Infomation, and Quit (Asking you if you want to Save Settings first) Quote Files *********** The Quote Files are just ordenary text files, as created in Notepad, EditPlus, UltraEdit or whatever your program of choice is. Quotes are seperated by New Line (as in, Press Enter) If the first line of the file is "lines=" (without quotations) followed by the number of lines in the file, Quoth doesn't have to count them before it picks the Quote, which makes it faster and less processor hungry. If you want quotes on multiple lines, put the § symbol (hold down alt, press 7, 8 then 9 on the number pad and release alt) where you want the lines broken. Example sig files are available at Quoth's Home Page (http://www.aquarionics.com/quoth/) Sig In Files ************ Sig In Files, or Sig Templates, should consist of less than 4 lines. The program will insert the quote after the last line, so if you press return at the end of your file you will get this: -- Aquarion. Web: http:\\www.Aquarionics.com E-Mail: Aquarion-at-aquarionics.com Your quote here where as if you saved with the last point at the end of the .com in the e-mail address you would get: -- Aquarion. Web: http:\\www.Aquarionics.com E-Mail: Aquarion-at-aquarionics.com Your quote here Notice the first line is "-- " this is an internet convention to say "the rest of this is my .sig block" I suggest you use it. Sig Out Files: ************** An important thing to remember is that Quoth will OVERWRITE WHATEVER IS IN YOUR SIG OUT FILE WITH YOUR NEW SIG. Mini-Quoth ********** Miniquoth.exe will pick a quote from the file specified for Quoth and display it onscreen. Run Quoth to set these files up *before* you use Miniquoth Known Bugs: *********** None. Touch wood :-) Future Things: ************** There is no future, this is the last release by me, I've released it under the GPL. Goodbye, Cruel development world :-) Version History *************** * Change/fix + add - remove 31/03/00 1.01, Aquarion's Random Sig Engine, Never released. Name too bad 01/04/00 1.02, Quoth * Name * About Box, now a form of it's own + Splash Screen + Minutes and seconds now saved to the Ini file * Fixed a crash if the Ini file was trunicated + Readme.txt + Confirm Quote box * Fixed Save Settings when x box is pressed * fixed Mini-Quoth * fixed bug in Scrollbars, Now disabled when countdown is running. 10/04/00 1.03 + Multiple Line Quotes * Interface, now tabbed + "Last Generated Quote" Box + Quote Centering * Save Settings, now all options saved * Quit Dialog now asks if you want to cancel + Timeout on Splash Screen 22/04/00 1.04 + Clipboard export 24/04/00 1.05 * Realised that the random function was producing the same output each run (Always line 56, then 24. for example) and it only changed per build Fixed that :-) 26/06/00 1.06 - Manual tab removed, since it was just a button on it's own. * allowed users not to specify a Sig Out if they wern't saving sigs + Show Details box, gives details of what the program is doing. 04/07/00 1.07 * fixed the Save Settings button. + Added the Icon + added a "Version" line to the ini file. Program no longer crashes on old ini files. It refuses to use them :-) * Locked the "Minutes & Seconds" text boxes, to stop people crashing Q by putting text in them. * fixed the Status box to realign itself every time it is displayed. 06/08/00 1.1 + added support for Countdown * Version number bumped up to 1.1. Scary. * Misc bug fixes * updated Mini-Quoter to use the new ini file format 09/05/02 1.1.1 + Released under the GPL. The End.