This file describes the new dedication systems created by Tim Miller and
Mario Becroft. This system is for use with the Ken Lowe Diplomacy
ajudicators. Diplomacy is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc.

Please see also the commands "SET RESRAT" and "SET ONTIMERAT" in file
'index' for details on how the systems work. Also, see file 'dedsystems'
for the generic user info about the new dedication systems. This file
deals mainly with how data is stored and how the Judgekeeper can adjust
player records.

The data for the players is kept in a file in the dip directory called
"plyrdata". This file is a binary file containing all the records, plus a
header containing such information as the file version, and a few other
things to make sure the Judge doesn't try to read from or write to a
corrupted file.

Judgekeepers may look at this file through the recdump program, which is
similar to deddump except that it allows the user to modify data as well
as read it.

To simply read the records, log in as the judge and run the program
recdump with no flags. The records will be displayed in a file called
"text.rec"  **Modifying this text file will, of course, NOT modify the
actual records in the plyrdata file**. If you wish to modify a record, you
must run the recdump program with the -w flag. The program will prompt you
to enter the number of the record you wish to modify. The record number of
a particular player is always the same as that player's user ID number.
The program will ask you which field of the record you wish to modify, and
then ask for the new value for that field. The new data will then be
written back into the plyrdata file. 

The "RECORD" command allows the Judge Keeper to modify a player's entry via
an e-mail command. Please see file 'index' and look under the "RECORD"
entry for details.

If you need to convert an ascii text.rec file to the binary plyrdata format,
the ascii2rec utility is provided. The first command line argument to this
program must be the file you wish to read in from. Since the outfile will be
called plyrdata *back up any other plyrdata file(s) in your working directory
so they don't get overwritten.* Combined with recdump, this utility provides
additional protection when moving a binary plyrdata file between two
different architectures.

Tim Miller
Initially written, April 28, 2002
Revised last March 4, 2003