09 Apr 12 08:42, Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt:   
      
    RB> Roy Witt wrote to Robert Bashe on Sunday April 08 2012 at 07:29:   
      
    RW>>>> I use FE as GoldEd's messagebase.   
      
    RB>>> FE is a tosser and has no messagebase. It just works with quite a   
    RB>>> number of them.   
      
    RW>> Oh? What does the MSGBASE sub-folder under FE have in it?   
      
    RB> That tells me you're using a Hudson messagebase (or simply have the   
    RB> Hudson structure, as described below).   
      
   Nope. Hudson is part of FE but I don't use it. Instead I use *.msg...   
      
    RB> Although I have no MSGBASE subfolder, only "HUDSON" and "SQUISH". I   
    RB> use the squish subfolder to assemble the echo list for FE after   
    RB> tossing. The Hudson structure exists, but is not used as a   
    RB> messagebase.   
      
    RW>> Why, it's a message base! How odd.   
      
    RB> Hudson. There is no "native" FE messagebase. It merely uses/supports   
    RB> them. In the doc there's the statement: "* Very fast and fully   
    RB> featured TOSSER/SCANNER for Hudson- (aka  QBBS), JAM-, Squish-, and   
    RB> Fido/*.MSG-Messagebase."   
      
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
      
   BTW, FE won't work without a messsage base.   
      
    RB> One peculiarity is this:   
      
    RB> "You MUST here define the complete path and directory where you want   
    RB> the Hudson Message Base  structure to  reside. If  the HMB  (or   
    RB> QBBS) messagebase structure doesn't already  exist, it will be   
    RB> automatically created directly by FESetup.  Well,  you  can  choose   
    RB> to  work  with messagebases such as JAM or SQUISH  or *.MSG only or   
    RB> the same  combined of course but, in any cases you MUST have at least   
    RB> the HMB structure in your choosen directory even if unused. (Don't   
    RB> worry, the HMB structures takes only an handful of bytes)"   
      
    RB> I've never throught to ask why the Hudson structure must be present   
    RB> even if you don't use that messagebase.   
      
   I just ran 'FEUTIL.EXE Link' on my message base. Note that it linked Fido   
   type *.MSG (messages) and not a JAM or Hudson message base.   
      
   47 Fido/*.MSG areas linked   
   1407 Fido/*.MSG messages linked (111 subjects cleaned)   
      
    MSGIDX           .BBS        0 .a..  4-09-12  3:40:40   
    MSGINFO          .BBS      406 .a..  4-09-12  3:40:40   
    MSGTOIDX         .BBS        0 .a..  4-09-12  3:40:40   
      
   Note also that the message base files have today's date on them.   
      
    RB>>> Thanks for the flowers.   
      
    RW>> You don't get flowers for making an easy job harder to do, as in   
    RW>> having to edit a text based config file.   
      
    RB> Depends on the program. I generally have no problems with text   
    RB> configurations, and in some cases it's easier to find something with   
    RB> them (here I'm thinking of the GoldED configuration, which would be a   
    RB> mess if someone tried to squeeze it into a GUI. As it is, I just have   
    RB> to search the text for what I want to see/change.   
      
   I do that too. I hate every second that I spend on a text based config...   
      
    RB>>> I'll pass that on to the author, who lives some 5 miles away from   
    RB>>> me and now has his own IT company ;-)   
      
    RW>> Tell him that he'd have better luck if he provided a GUI system..   
      
    RB> Tell him yourself: Tobias Burchchardt, 2:2448/401. That's his binkd   
    RB> address, and he speaks good English. But if you want to suggest   
    RB> improvements, save yourself the trouble. He doesn't do much   
    RB> developing for fido nowadays, and you can get a free FE key if you   
    RB> ask him politely.   
      
   I already have a registered copy of FE. # 8214 ?   
      
    RW>>>> Plus it has another option to export a 'squish' text file if one   
    RW>>>> wants such a thing.   
      
    RB>>> Never seen the option, and I suspect it would be for individual   
    RB>>> echos, not for everything at once.   
      
    RW>> Example.   
      
    RB> Ah, OK - I thought you meant the squishbase. Got confused there.   
      
    RW>>>> One  could probably export it to a squish messagebase and have it   
    RW>>>> running in minutes instead of hours.   
      
    RB> Possibly. But if you're running Hudson, you'd probably have to have   
    RB> some kind of conversion program. Maybe not... I've never worked with   
    RB> such things and have little experience in converting the various   
    RB> messagebases.   
      
   I've never run Hudson either since, at the time I began using FE, I'd had   
   no exposure to it but lots of exposure to *.MSG. Still don't have any   
   experience with Hudson, for that matter.   
      
    RB>>>>> No experience with anything else.   
      
    RW>>>> Too bad.   
      
    RB> Never had any problems, and like they say "Don't rouch a running   
    RB> system". I occasionally have to clean up the squishbase, for which   
    RB> there's a special program. Otherwise all I can say is that I've been   
    RB> using squishbase since 1993 without difficulties.   
      
   I run a batch file that calls FEUTIL to do indexing and cleaning up the   
   message base files about once a month, sooner if I or FE detect a problem   
   that causes FE to stop tossing mail correctly.   
      
    RB>>> You never know until you try - and anyway, you know that what   
    RB>>> you're using yourself is "the best" ;-)   
      
    RW>> I think so. And so does a major NAB hub who has just recently   
    RW>> switched to FE.   
      
    RB> As a matter of curiosity, what was he using before?   
      
   Russian software, H (not Hudson) something or other. Before that he used   
   Squish and recommended that to me. I used it for a while, but migrated   
   back to FE when Squish began to give me fits of rage over that stupid   
   text based config file.   
      
      
                   R\%/itt   
      
      
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