My 2€

A good idea, but we will make some additional suggestions:

• everybody has his favourite tools and tips. many of them are put
  on one of the forums, but without special remarks 'you mostly doesn't
  find it back'.
  we want to see an extension for other info also:
  - TOOLs (3rd party tools - members love specially freeware)
  - TIPs (f.e. registry issues, faq, new links)
  - SCRIPTS (f.e. create a summary of possible kixtart errors or Bryce's way
  of dynamic array programming. just as a complete script or as an idea for
  other implementation)
  
• it can be very usefull when the creator of a topic rewrite the information
  in such a way it isn't directly necessary to read the related topic. this
  related topic mostly contains a lot of other information which aren't
  sometimes not related to the information.
  sometimes it is also hard for us to find the topic number from an known idea.
  
• so you may know: "we found freedom a big issue on this board" and
  "we must not give members a nasty fright in publishing a very nice idea he
  had or he found on the other forums".

  the only important task can be: think of a good description of topics f.e. by
  using catchwords like TOOLS, TIPS, REGISTRY, EDITOR, SCRIPTS, etc.
  A possible task for the moderator can be to give direction to the description
  part. To prevent to take too much time of him he can divide those
  descriptions in the right classes.
  

For the name we want to suggest INFO.
A example of it you can find in topic
http://kixtart.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=000268
which handles about the differences between kixtart releases.
greetings.

btw: for above moderator task we have a little piece of time for.

[ 22 November 2001: Message edited by: MCA ]

[ 22 November 2001: Message edited by: Popovk ]

Setting up and moderating a discussion forum is one thing, but managing a file repository is yet another. For a download area, you could ask Henri if he would post your program/utility in http://kixtart.org/downloads.html, or there's always the parallel KiXtart universe download area KiXtart Download Zone

If it's a discussion area, I don't think the volume would warrant one. There are may cases where discussions start out as "how do I... in KiX" and end up with a suggestion for a 3rd party utility, and just as often, the inverse.

I think the moderators have been very tolerant of off-topic threads and as long as they remain pertinent to the KiX community, I see no reason why we cannot continue. Simply prefixing the topic should suffice. It is not inconceivable that some of the tasks we rely on 3rd party addins for, may one day be incorporated directly into KiX.

cj

It would certainly fit the topic of "Fringe".

COM Scripting

for the new forum. Not just for UDF's but for "ALL THINGS COM" ? And i would imagine that all COM udf's would still be posted to the UDF library ... but discussed and evolved out of COM scripting instead of the scripts forum ? my two cents (did any of that make sense ?

Shawn

[ 05 December 2001: Message edited by: Shawn ]

My AUD0.02

cj

-Shawn

Some additional reactions:

• it isn't necessary to copy existing topics to this forum. Only a good
  title and a short description with link is enough.
  
• CJ games are also very interesting. In the past and also in the
  future games will always show what is possible with computers. Mostly their
  structure must be very well, because games are using mostly all available
  resources of computers.
  Also CJ a lot of people doesn't find your very nice games with in some
  situations very special capabilities (f.e. multi playing by network)
  back, because you have published most of them a long time ago and mostly
  a very few are taking time to look at a separate site.
  The most important thing is 'choose a good keyword' for readers.
  
• Shawn it isn't necessary to create all kind of different forums.
  With a good keyword it will not be hard for readers to see were the topic
  is related to. Indeed Shawn it must be something like a general catch-all
  forum
  We suggest to create on a periodic basis a sorted list of topics on that
  forum, which can be done by analyzing the description fields of topics.
  Something like we are doing with the "top 25" list.
  The first page of http://www.scriptlogic.com/kixtart/FunctionLib
  make it very easy to see what functions are available and we have transfer
  that list to a nice readable format.
  Example of scriptlogic functionlib:
  

  code:

  ---

  
  ASort.asp                Sorts the elements of an array (ascending or descending).
  CompareVersions.asp      Compares two multi-segment version strings.
  GetFileExt.asp           Returns only the filename's extension, given a filespec.
  GetFileName.asp          Returns the filename-only portion of a given filespec.
  SerialTime.asp           A function used to convert time to numbers for use in mathematical computations using time.
  abs.asp                  Returns the absolute value of an expression.
  ascan.asp                Scans the elements of an array for a matching expression. 
  cnvtbase.asp             Converts numbers from any base (2-36) to any base (2-36). i.e. base 2=binary, 8=octal, 10=decimal, 16=hex, etc.
  comparefiledates.asp     Compares the date-only portion of two files.
  datemath.asp             Performs mathematical computations on a date or computes days between two dates.
  day.asp                  Returns the day portion of a specific date. 
  displaytext.asp          Packaged combination of KiXtart's AT( ) function and and Color command.
  exp.asp                  Mathematical Exponentiation.
  getdefaultprinter.asp    Gets the name of the current user's default Windows printer.
  getfilepath.asp          Returns the path-only portion of a given filespec.
  getfoldersize.asp        Returns the total bytes consumed by the files in a folder tree.
  getservicestartup.asp    Returns the startup state of any service, given its 'short' name. 
  ingroups.asp             Checks whether the user is a member of a group, given a list of one or more groups.
  instring.asp             Similar to KiXtart's built-in Instr( ) function, with expanded capabilities. 
  isunc.asp                Indicates whether the given path is a UNC or not.
  join.asp                 Combine the elements from an array into a single, concatenated string (the opposite of the new KiXtart SPLIT function).
  left.asp                 Similar to KiXtart's built-in Substr( ) function. Created for ease-of-transition between different languages.
  makepath.asp             Creates a multi-level directory structure on a local or remote system.
  mod.asp                  Returns the modulus, given a dividend and a divisor.
  month.asp                Returns the month portion of a specific date.
  monthname.asp            Returns the month name, given a specific date or number.
  numsep.asp               Inserts the regional default thousand separator character (or alternate character of choice) into a number.
  occurs.asp               Calculates the number of times a string occurs within another string, element or all the elements of an array.
  ordinal.asp              Takes a number and returns the named series of that number (e.g.: 1st, 2nd, 53rd, 89th, etc.).
  queryhotfix.asp          Queries the installation of a specific Operating System Hot Fix or displays all Hot Fixes installed on the specified computer. 
  repeat.asp               Returns a string composed of a specified character repeated n times.
  right.asp                Similar to Left( ), but parses from right to left. 
  serialdate.asp           A function used to convert dates to numbers for use in mathematical computations using dates.
  strip.asp                Removes (by default) all punctuation from a given string. However, any list of characters may be specified for removal.
  stuff.asp                Allows to add, replace, remove or substitute characters of one text string with another.
  trim.asp                 Removes both the leading and trailing spaces from a text string.
  unique.asp               Creates a zero-length unique-named file in the specified directory.
  verbosedate.asp          Returns a verbose representation of a specific date. Example: "April 1st, 2001".
  wait.asp                 Pauses script execution for a specified number of seconds or until a key is pressed.
  word.asp                 Returns the n-th word of a text string.
  words.asp                Count the number of words in a text string.
  xor.asp                  Performs an Exclusive Or on two numbers.
  year.asp                 Returns the year portion of a specific date.
  Functions 43
  

  ---

  
  So it will be nice that a group of keywords will be introduced or used
  on a free basis.
  f.e.
  - COM
  - EDITOR
  - FAQ
  - INFO
  - KIX-COM
  - KIX-GAMES
  - KIX-SCRIPTS
  - LINK
  - REG
  - TIP
  - TOOL
  - TRICK
  Shawn you last remark about the status of beta forum should
  in our opinion not be removed or replaced. The beta forum is something
  for possible problems with the current final release and new releases.
  We know Ruud doesn't have end the kixtart story. The only differences with
  the past is: the amount of new known problems a decreasing dramatically,
  which is of course a very good issue for a final release. To change
  the name can make it hard for Ruud to find back possible problems
  and for members to see 'are there known problems'.
  To find interesting parts it can be necessary to read all beta topic
  back and put a link to them. It is necessary that each link gets a
  separate topic. It can presentated as a list of interesting issues of
  beta forum.
  
• Popovk the creation of our site was inspired by the missing
  capability to upload binaries to the kixtart.org site. It will not be
  our goal to upload the scripts published on our site. A lot of scripts
  were created after reading a lot of topics. You can see them as FAQ
  issue.
  The benefit of this forum can be 'it contains the best of all the other
  discussion forums & it isn't hard to (new) members to find relevant
  information'. F.e. starters can first look at the FAQ related topics.
  Also it isn't necessary to recreate an standard answer for most FAQ
  questions.
  So each member knows a lot of issues which are put regular on the
  forums. f.e. 'how can I make my script secure'. A lot of special
  tool-discussions but also an very interesting kixtart to-do discus-
  sion were put on the board. Mostly: were are the located?
  
• LLigetfa. The most important part for the download area on
  the kixtart.org is to distribute all available kixtart releases. For
  binaries we think we must find a way and location of uploading those
  files without moderator intervention.
  The area isn't a discussion area. It should be something like the recent
  introduced "UDF's library" forum. A possible discussion which members
  wants to start can stop by the more experienced members (see the
  results on the "beta" forum). Also the moderator(s) can stop (= close
  topic) in very incidental situation such thread and he can use a prefix
  keyword for such topics, which prevent users for reading unnecessary
  information. A good keyword for it we doesn't have at the moment.
  Guys an idea?
  Topics may never be removed from a forum is also our idea.
  

for the rest of our point of view about a new forum see our reaction
on topic
http://kixtart.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=12&t=000001
greetings.

1) The COM Scripting forum is a go-er

2) The beta forum stays to act as a
going-forward problem reporting tool
for new releases

3) The Games Forum and any notion of a
specialty forum is a no-go. Solution for
this is to post to scripting forum with
standardized topic headers, e.g. KIX-GAME:,
TIP:, TRICK:, etc ...

Is this an acurate read ?

-Shawn

[ 06 December 2001: Message edited by: Shawn ]

I will go through my games and get them fixed for KiX2k latest build and packaged correctly before I post them.

cj