I am using Mystic currently mostly as just a front-end matrix for my GT
Power and SBBS boards. However, there are times (like for some netmail functions), that I need to log onto the Mystic system.

The canned ANSI headers, footers, and screens look horrible. I have not changed any of them so they are stock and are appearing this way out of the box. Even the logoff ANSI, which looks good on other boards I have seen it on, is a horrible mess when displayed in either of the terminal programs I use. The only menu that does look right is the matrix menu, which I have edited for my own use. I did a little snooping and figured out that the garbage characters I am seeing on the screen, which look like old fashioned line noise, are actually in the *.asc files in the text directory.

I am using 1.12A31 on a debian jessie stable box. For terminal programs, I am using syncterm and gt power's terminal mode. Both display my SBBS and
GT Power boards, and other boards I visit, just fine.

As an example, here are the contents of my msghdr.asc file. These
characters are what show on the screen when I am logged into the mystic
bbs, minus the color codes (which seem to translate properly):

|16|07|CL
|17|09²|16|01ÛÛÛßÛßÛ |17|09±|16|01ßßßßß |17|09²|16|01ÛÛÛßßÛ |17|09±|16|01ßßßßß |17|09±|16|01ÛÛÛ Û ßß|17 |16Û|17 |16|07 |17|09±|16|01ÛÛÛ ÜÜ ßßÛÛÛ|17 |16|07 |17|01
|16ÛÛÛÛ Û |17 |16Ü|17 |16ÛÛ|17 |16|07 |01ÛÛÛÛÜÜÛ ÛÜÛÛÛ|17
|16|07

I am wondering if there is some issue with maybe the screens being created
on one type of system (like a Windows box) and the character set being different on a *nix box. Like I said, it is "stock" and I have not changed it at all.

Thanks,
Mike
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Linux
* Origin: CCO BBS - capcity2.synchro.net - 1-502-875-8938 (21:1/175)

A brief addendum... although those characters look awful in my terminal programs, and in the text box I am entering this web message into on synchronet, they do look like some actual ANSI characters (solid boxes and partial-boxes) when I view the message via the synchronet web interface. Hmmm...

|16|07|CL
|17|09²|16|01ÛÛÛßÛßÛ |17|09±|16|01ßßßßß |17|09²|16|01ÛÛÛßßÛ |17|09±|16|01ßßß |17|09±|16|01ÛÛÛ Û ßß|17 |16Û|17 |16|07 |17|09±|16|01ÛÛÛ ÜÜ ßßÛÛÛ|17 |16| |17|01
|16ÛÛÛÛ Û |17 |16Ü|17 |16ÛÛ|17 |16|07 |01ÛÛÛÛÜÜÛ ÛÜÛÛÛ|17
|16|07

--- SBBSecho 2.12-Linux
* Origin: CCO BBS - capcity2.synchro.net - 1-502-875-8938 (21:1/175)

04-08-17 12:56 Dumas Walker wrote to Dumas Walker about Re: ANSI Weirdness Howdy! Mike,

@MSGID: <58E91656.1851.fsx_mys@capcity2.synchro.net>
@REPLY: <58E915C0.1850.fsx_mys@capcity2.synchro.net>
A brief addendum... although those characters look awful in my
terminal programs, and in the text box I am entering this web message
into on synchronet, they do look like some actual ANSI characters
(solid boxes and partial-boxes) when I view the message via the
synchronet web interface. Hmmm...

|16|07|CL
|17|09²|16|01ÛÛÛßÛßÛ |17|09±|16|01ßßßßß |17|09²|16|01ÛÛÛßßÛ |17|09±|16|01ßßß |17|09±|16|01ÛÛÛ Û ßß|17 |16Û|17 |16|07 |17|09±|16|01ÛÛÛ ÜÜ ßßÛÛÛ|17 |16| |17|01
|16ÛÛÛÛ Û |17 |16Ü|17 |16ÛÛ|17 |16|07 |01ÛÛÛÛÜÜÛ ÛÜÛÛÛ|17
|16|07

I see this using the MultiMail DOS QWK reader.
It don't bother me though, Computers Do what they want to do, don't they?


... Have you checked your smoke detector batteries & Fire Ext, LATELY?!
--- MultiMail/MS-DOS v0.49
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Linux
* Origin: CCO BBS - capcity2.synchro.net - 1-502-875-8938 (21:1/175)

On 04/08/17, Dumas Walker said the following...

As an example, here are the contents of my msghdr.asc file. These characters are what show on the screen when I am logged into the mystic bbs, minus the color codes (which seem to translate properly):

|CL
²ÛÛÛßÛßÛ ±ßßßßß ²ÛÛÛßßÛ ±ßßßßß
±ÛÛÛ Û ßß Û ±ÛÛÛ ÜÜ ßßÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛÛ Û Ü ÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÜÜÛ ÛÜÛÛÛ
I am wondering if there is some issue with maybe the screens being
created on one type of system (like a Windows box) and the character set being different on a *nix box. Like I said, it is "stock" and I have
not changed it at all.

Sounds like your Mystic "stock" pipe code screens just need replaced with a real ansi screen (not) pipe codes.. like the default install has. You should
be about to just replace them when some other ansi screens that you already have. Example, goto the mystic -cfg Editor | Menu | Setting and just change Display File Name line Here is a picture of what it looks like (: Ûßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß Menu Settings (msg) ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß
Û Description ³ Message Menu
Û Access ³
Û Fallback ³ msg
Û Menu Type ³ Standard
Û Input Type ³ User Defined
Û Input Chars ³ Uppercase
Û Use Global ³ Yes
Û Node Status ³ Message menu
Û Display File ³ msg <-= create an ansi in your /mystic/text/msg.ans
Û Display Cols ³ 2
Û Menu Header ³
Û Menu Prompt ³
Û X ³ 0
Û Y ³ 0 ßÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
You can do this for all your default menu display file names, anywhere. This should take care of your so called ANSI weirdness. There is a program called ansi2mys.exe (I think) it's still on sourceforge.net under mystic bbs. It
just convert ans to mystic pipe code. There is an screen done using pipecode
ÛÛÝ
ÞÛÛÜÜÜÜÜ °°Ý ÞÛÛ
Þ²±±°°°Ý Þ°° ÛÛÝ °°² Þ°°ÜÜܱ±Ý
ÜÜ ±°ÝÜÜÜÜÜ Þ±±±ÝÜÜÜ ÛÛ°°ÜÜÜ Ü ±°ÝÜ °°Ý ÜÜÜÜÜ
²Û °°Ýßßßßß ²²²±ÝßÛÛÞÛÛÛÛ ÜÜßß±±Üܲ±ÝÝÞ Û Û°²ÛÝ Color Help
°° Þ°Ûßßßßßß±±Ý°°Ü ÞÛÝÛÛÝ Þ±ÛÛ²±° ÞÛÛ ßßþ Ü
ÞÛÛ skÞ°Û ßß°°ÝÛÛÝ ÜÜ°°ßßÞÛÛ
Þ°Û fLUPH ÞÛÛßß
ÞÛÛ
Colors are made by typing the | character followed by a two-digit
number between 00 and 23. Colors 00 through 15 change the foreground
color, 16 through 23 change background color.

Background Foreground
16 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
17 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
18 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
19 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
20 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
21 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
22 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
23 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 |PA

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A31 (Windows)
* Origin: flupH | fluph.darktech.org (21:1/105)

04-08-17 21:28 Skuz wrote to Dumas Walker about [ANSI] Re: ANSI Weirdness Howdy! Skuz,
In Your Reply to Dumas Walker I could make out the characters MIGS .

Yesterday in my reply to Dumas, all I saw was Numbers, Pipe characters,
the characters CL near the beginning and some Block character jumbled up.

@MSGID: <58E9A444.1858.fsx_mys@capcity2.synchro.net>
@REPLY: <58E915C0.1850.fsx_mys@capcity2.synchro.net>
On 04/08/17, Dumas Walker said the following...

As an example, here are the contents of my msghdr.asc file. These characters are what show on the screen when I am logged into the mystic bbs, minus the color codes (which seem to translate properly):

|CL
²ÛÛÛßÛßÛ ±ßßßßß ²ÛÛÛßßÛ ±ßßßßß
±ÛÛÛ Û ßß Û ±ÛÛÛ ÜÜ ßßÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛÛ Û Ü ÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÜÜÛ ÛÜÛÛÛ
I am wondering if there is some issue with maybe the screens being
created on one type of system (like a Windows box) and the character set being different on a *nix box. Like I said, it is "stock" and I have
not changed it at all.

-snip-

You can do this for all your default menu display file names, anywhere. This should take care of your so called ANSI weirdness. There is a
program called ansi2mys.exe (I think) it's still on sourceforge.net
under mystic bbs. It just convert ans to mystic pipe code. There is an screen done using pipecode
ÛÛÝ
ÞÛÛÜÜÜÜÜ °°Ý ÞÛÛ
Þ²±±°°°Ý Þ°° ÛÛÝ °°² Þ°°ÜÜܱ±Ý
ÜÜ ±°ÝÜÜÜÜÜ Þ±±±ÝÜÜÜ ÛÛ°°ÜÜÜ Ü ±°ÝÜ °°Ý ÜÜÜÜÜ
²Û °°Ýßßßßß ²²²±ÝßÛÛÞÛÛÛÛ ÜÜßß±±Üܲ±ÝÝÞ Û Û°²ÛÝ Color Help
°° Þ°Ûßßßßßß±±Ý°°Ü ÞÛÝÛÛÝ Þ±ÛÛ²±° ÞÛÛ ßßþ Ü
ÞÛÛ skÞ°Û ßß°°ÝÛÛÝ ÜÜ°°ßßÞÛÛ
Þ°Û fLUPH ÞÛÛßß
ÞÛÛ
Colors are made by typing the | character followed by a two-digit
number between 00 and 23. Colors 00 through 15 change the
foreground
color, 16 through 23 change background color.

In Your example I see the characters Color Help, sk and fLUPH and some
Block characters.
I didn't see any Numbers or Pipe characters as I saw yesterday in Dumas's message.

When I press the ANSI Key in MultiMail DOS it shows me the same images
and characters that I saw before I pressed the ANSI Key, nothing changed
at all.

Here On Earth Computers Always Win Because They Have Inside Information.

--- MultiMail/MS-DOS v0.49
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Linux
* Origin: CCO BBS - capcity2.synchro.net - 1-502-875-8938 (21:1/175)

Hello Ed!

09 Apr 17 16:39, you wrote to me:

In Your example I see the characters Color Help, sk and fLUPH and some Block characters. I didn't see any Numbers or Pipe characters as I saw yesterday in Dumas's message.

That is because the file was uploaded using mystic message editor command /U <filename> in this case color.ans (converted to mystic pipecode It is the mystic editor that will strip out all the Pipe characters and leave the (cp437)

block characters. All the striped |## are just color changes for the complete file that was uploaded. As it should be.. I'm in GoldEd now, and a copy/paste of just one line of that same file look totally different. |20 20 |16 |20

|0000 |0101 |0202 |0303 |0404 |0505 |0606 |0707 |0808 |0909 |1010 |1111 |1212 |1313 |1414 |1515 |16 Hence the difference in viewing a message in different bbs software or Editors that do or do not support it. The botton line here that

I'm getting at, is Mystic will display the (default) pipecode setup screens or a real ansi screen only if you make the changes and edit the default menu | settings | Display file name. Sorry if I'm sounding confusing.. Not the best person to explain how Mystic works or how it does things. (:

When I press the ANSI Key in MultiMail DOS it shows me the same images
and characters that I saw before I pressed the ANSI Key, nothing
changed at all.

Exactly, this is normal ... Because mystic editor did all the stripping
of the {|} pipe code and numbers. It just left the block characters and the Letters. I'd say at least 50% of the screens displayed on my board are all done

with mystic pipe code |0000 |0101 |0202 |0303 |0404 |0505 |0606 |0707 |0808 The

other 50% is done in normal ansi codes. Since Mysic BBS supports both you really can tell the difference. It is all up to the system op to using their imagination, use the out-of-box {default} or modify with either ansi/ascii or mystic pipe code. There a tons of bbs software supporting pipe color codes.

--- MultiMail/MS-DOS v0.49

Only in a editor that does not support these things (issue at hand) will you see the so call Re: ANSI Weirdness the pipe color codes.

--- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20160201
* Origin: flupH * fluph.darktech.org (21:1/105)