INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ALPHA-TEST VERSION OF CASTAWOTE:



Welcome to CastAWote. This is version 3.00 - the new one. :-)

The instructions are fairly terse, as this is supposed to be an upgrade,
however CastAWote is designed to (hopefully) be plug'n'play.

Upgrade differences:

  * Votes can have 0 questions.
  * If no votes data exists, a blank file will be created.
  * There is nicer memory management.
  * Compared to version 2.48 or 2.50 (what you are likely to have been
    using), this offers more features and is 'nicer'. A rewrite...
  * Some other stuff... You'll see. :-)

Right, let's make it totally clear that this is an ALPHA TEST VERSION.
I am releasing it because lots of people asked, and the code seems fairly
stable. However ANYTHING could happen. :-)

Finally... I'd like to point out that "Richard Murray" and "BudgieSoft"
disclaim all liability to the results of using this code. Like I said,
it is fairly stable in my opinion - but you use at your own risk.


Installing:
~~~~~~~~~~~

  * Copy your OLD CastAWote somewhere safe. Don't delete it - you may
    wish to revert back to it at a later date.

  * Unarchive the !CastAWote in this package to the location of your OLD
    CastAWote.

  * Copy the DATA directory from your old CastAWote into your new CastAWote.
    Only the files "Data" and "HasVoted" are of importance. The remaining can
    be ignored.

  * Set up CONFIGURE (in !Edit) to your own requirements (see later).

  * To run CastAWote, simply do what you did before.


Configuring:
~~~~~~~~~~~~

  In the CONFIGURE file, you will see various keywords:

    BBSNAME     - Is the name of your BBS, for example "Digital Databank".

    NVP         - Determines whether or not CastAWote is in NVP mode. If this
                  is not "No", then CastAWote will create a secondary log
                  file. That's about all CastAWote does.

    OURFIDOADDR - Don't alter this.

    MASTERADDR  - Don't alter this.

    DOORNUMBER  - The number you wish CastAWote to respond to.

    LANGUAGE    - Doesn't do a lot at this time. Leave as is.

    VOTEMASTER  - Doesn't do a lot at this time. Leave as is.

    LOGFILE     - Doesn't do a lot at this time. Leave as is.

    LISTDIR     - The direction to write the results. NF is newest first
                  (backwards) and NO is natural order (forwards).


New stuff:
~~~~~~~~~~

  * CastAWote has been rewritten.
  * The 'results output' parts have been removed.
  * You can now have up to 8 options for each vote.
  * The advertising lines have been removed, now shows best vote/voter.
  * On-line help has been added.
  * Support for NVP (Network Voting Protocol) has been added. This is being
    written and shall undergo testing soon.
  * Click SELECT on the CastAWote icon for a basic status report.
  * KillFile
  * CastAWote can now operate without having any DATA/HASVOTED file(s)
    present. It'll create them as needed.
  * CastAWote can support databases with NO questions (ie: empty).

  - See 'Versions' for full details.


Percentages:
~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The percentages shown in the results may actually add up to more than 100%
  or may add up to less than 100% (say, 95%-105%). This is because the
  percentages are rounded to the nearest number when being computed. If you
  find something that is way off track, let me know as it may be an error in
  the vote accumulation. See if VoteFile fixes the problem...


Finally:
~~~~~~~~

  Thank you for being willing to test this version of CastAWote.

  It is likely that CastAWote may behave oddly. In such case, please tell me
  so that I may resolve the problem.


   ___
  /__/
 /  \ichard.

