                    Jekyll Shell for STalker, version 1.0
                    Written by Tim Seufert, December 1992

     Freeware - distribute freely and alter source.  Please try to include 
     a little credit, both the compiled script and the source, and this    
     document file.                                                        


INTRODUCTION:

     Jekyll Shell for STalker (from now on, JSS) is a BackTALK script       
program for STalker version 3.00 or above.  It allows you to run Jekyll,    
the bidirectional file transfer protocol written by Vincent Partington,     
from within STalker with a minimum of pain.  It's not terrifically fancy,   
but I've tried to make it fairly bulletproof.  I haven't done much testing  
of it (two successful upload/download sessions at the time of this writing, 
with many more testing sessions while off-line that did not involve         
completing a file transfer), but it's so simple that there aren't really    
any bugs that wouldn't get uncovered by even such a short testing program.  
                                                                            

INSTALLATION:                                                               

     Just copy JEKLSHEL.BTK (and JEKLSHEL.BTS if you feel like messing with 
the source code) into your STalker BackTALK script directory.  If you want  
JSS to be more handy, install it in STalker's BackTALK menu, or as a script 
chained to a function key (consult your STalker manual if you don't know    
how to do these things).                                                    

     The first time you run JSS, it will ask you to locate JEKYLL.TTP,      
putting up the standard file selector dialog.  Change to whatever directory 
you keep Jekyll in, select JEKYLL.TTP, and click OK.  JSS will then write a 
small ASCII configuration file (named JEKLSHEL.CFG) to STalker's BackTALK   
script directory, and proceed normally.  The next time you run JSS, it will 
load in the configuration file, and you will not be asked to locate         
JEKYLL.TTP.  If you should change the location of JEKYLL.TTP, JSS will not  
be able to find it and will go through the location process again.          


USAGE:

     After it has located JEKYLL.TTP (either by reading its location from   
JEKLSHEL.CFG or by asking you), JSS collects a list of filenames from you   
via the file selector.  Every time you select a file, JSS will first verify 
that it exists, add it to the list if it does exist, and then put up the    
file selector again.  After you've selected all the files you want to give  
to your friendly neighborhood Sysop, click the Cancel button in the file    
selector.  JSS will then create a JEKYLL.FLO file with the list of          
filenames you entered, and attempt to start up Jekyll.  (If you don't       
select any files, JSS will exit without running Jekyll.)  If all goes well, 
JEKYLL.TTP will start up, read in the JEKYLL.FLO file, and begin the        
simultaneous upload and download.                                           


KNOWN PROBLEMS:

     If you run STalker as an accessory, you must run MiNT, MultiTOS, or    
NeoDesk in order for JSS to be able to automatically start Jekyll.  This is 
not the fault of JSS or STalker, it's a limitation in normal TOS with       
respect to what a desk accessory can and can't do.  DA's just aren't        
allowed to start up external programs.  MiNT and MultiTOS both eliminate    
that particular rule, and if you run STalker as a NeoDesk Accessory, it can 
ask NeoDesk to start external programs for it.                              

     For reasons unknown to myself, JSS sometimes seems to bring out a very 
odd bug in STalker 3.02 (STalker being used as an accessory - I don't know  
if this happens when STalker is run as a program).  Sometimes, after        
running JSS, STalker no longer draws the text cursor in the main window,    
and when you click the drop-down menus, STalker erases the menu entries     
instead of highlighting them.                                               

     Both times that I have successfully tested JSS, Jekyll has returned    
strange positive error codes after a successful transfer.  Due to this      
problem, JSS will not report a positive return code as an error, even       
though convention is that any return code other than 0 indicates an error.  

     Finally, if there are too many files listed in JEKYLL.FLO, Jekyll      
seems to ignore JEKYLL.FLO.  I have not done enough testing to determine    
how many files it can handle before it "decides" to not see anything.  If   
this happens to you, press Ctrl-F once you are in Jekyll.  This brings up   
Jekyll's file selector in the upper half of the screen.  Use the arrow keys 
to scroll through the directory listing, and the Return key to open a       
directory or tag a file for uploading.                                      


MISCELLANEOUS:
     
     I can be reached at the following BBS:
     
         Sanctuary From The Law BBS running RATSoft ST v.1.6h beta on
         a TT030/2 with 220 megs and a US Robotics Dual Standard HST
                1200-14,400 Baud - (HST/V.42bis/V.32/V.32bis)
         
                 Sanctuary From The Law Network Node Numbers
                            (1:210/41.0 @ FidoNet)
                            (51:3/11.0 @ AtariNet)
                           (100:290/7.0 @ TurboNet)
     

STalker and BackTALK are trademarks of Strata Software.
NeoDesk is a registered trademark of Gribnif Software.

