IMPORTANT:  Before you do anything else, please read this documentation all 
the way through, as it contains information necessary for the proper creation 
of your DragonSoft BBS installation system.





















                                 REQUIREMENTS

To create a runtime version of the DragonSoft BBS, you must first create the 
installation disks designed for that purpose.  The entire procedure has been 
automated for you by means of the file GENKIT.BAT.  GENKIT requires that you 
have available three (3) blank, formatted 360K floppy disks.  Because of the 
space required by the install diskette, do not make them bootable.  In 
addition to the installation disks, you may need one or more blank disks 
depending on where you are installing the BBS: 

         SIZE  QTY              ADDITIONAL MEDIA
          360K  2       Two blank, formatted diskettes (non-booting)
          720K  2       Two blank, formatted diskettes
        1.22Mb  1       One blank, formatted diskette (non-booting)
        1.22Mb  2       Two blank, formatted diskettes
        1.44Mb  1       One blank, formatted diskette (non-booting)
        1.44Mb  2       Two blank, formatted diskettes
        Hard Disk        No additional diskettes

         Features limited to available space




                              INSTALLATION NOTES

Do not attempt to generate the install diskettes without the GENKIT utility, 
as it contains specific instructions for extracting the INSTALL disk files.

To execute the GENKIT utility, you must tell it the drive where the blank 
disks will be found.  Do NOT include a colon (:) in this specifier.  If you 
don't tell it otherwise, GENKIT defaults to the A: drive.  Therefore, an 
example of a correct commandline would be:
                GENKIT B
in order to create the installation disks in drive B:

GENKIT first displays this README file to make doubly sure that the 
installation will be handled properly, and then prompt you to insert the first 
blank diskette into the target drive.  After you press a key, the files 
required for the BBS INSTALLATION disk will be extracted to their proper 
subdirectories on the target disk.

When this step is complete, you will be prompted to insert the second blank 
diskette in the target drive and after pressing a key the support files will 
be extracted in the same manner.  The same procedure applies for the final 
diskette, to which all documentation files will be extracted.

                             DRAGONSOFT, A HISTORY

A number of years ago, a gentleman by the name of Ron Stanions set out to 
develop a small, but powerful Bulletin Board program that would be easy to set 
up, mantain and use.  The program started out as a computerized RPG game and 
evolved into a BBS from there.  The earliest BBS format of the program was 
written in BASIC, and released as version 4.0.  However, this version was 
encumbered by the trappings and limitations of that language.  That prompted 
the development of what ultimately became this version.

This version of DragonSoft (DSoft for short) was written using the Microsoft C 
compiler.  Totally free of the limitations imposed by BASIC, DSoft was infused 
with many features.  Among these are ANSI Color Code support, multiple 
Terminal emulation (ANSI, VT-52 and TTY/dumb), a full screen Editor 
(ANSI/VT52), a Compiling Pseudocode language for add-on programs and more.

DSoft v6.0 doesn't need alot of memory to run: 130K or so (plus roughly 20K 
for buffers).  It is capable of running two ports with full CrossTalking.  
Several new features were added to release 6.1, including the Alternate 
Command Interpreter (ACI) system which permits the System Operator to create 
custom alternates to the standard commands.  A basic DSoft v6.1 BBS can be up 
and running in under 30 minutes, be it on a hard disk or on a 2 floppy system. 

What does the future of DSoft hold?  For one, this version of DSoft has been 
released to the Public Domain, and there is no registration fee attached to 
using it.  This makes it available to a broad audience.  Also, despite aborted 
plans to create a format-generic version for other computer systems, work is 
almost completed on version 7 (The Zephyr) which incorporates everything the 
BBS program offers to date, plus networking and more.  Version 7 operates 
under the UNIX/XENIX Operating System, and has the ability to receive feeds 
from USENET, the largest and most active computer messaging network in the 
world. 

As mentioned, this program has been placed in the Public Domain.  There is no 
registration fee required for operating it.  If you have any questions or 
ideas regarding this or futrure versions of the DragonSoft BBS software, you 
are invited to contact the author at the following address:

                               Ron Stanions
                               65 Virginia Ave.
                               Livingston, NJ  07039



