This version is meant to be an interim release that takes advantage of the newly-released ZipIt by Tommy Brown. With ZipIt, under System 7, you can now drop a QWK packet onto Freddie and walk away. Freddie will take care of launching ZipIt, decompressing the packet, and opening the files of the packet. For more information on ZipIt, see the accompanying text file called “Decompressing the QWK packet.”
For those of you wondering why this isn’t v.1.3, it’s because I felt I hadn’t added enough to justify a full increment in the release version. I also didn’t want to wait since my time is very scarce these days. But I try to devote as much of it to Freddie as possible. Rest assured that my commitment to improving this program remains solid and I will release v.1.3 when I feel there have been substantial improvements and additions.
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Despite what the manual says, a thermometer will not show up when a message whose length exceeds the Format Status Limit is being formatted. This is because the formatting is MUCH faster in v.1.2 than in previous versions and many users probably won’t notice the delay enough to justify a thermometer (which introduces its own delay).
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Freddie 1.2 and later uses an interesting notification sound to alert the user when Freddie has finished some process in the background. This sound may not appeal to everybody so I include instructions here on what resource to change in order to replace it.
The sound is in a ‘snd ’ resource with an id of 1015. Replace that resource with an alternate sound through ResEdit. Make sure your replacement sound has the same id or it won’t work (and might just bomb).
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If you have used 1.0 previously, please be aware that bookmarks created with 1.0 are incompatible with version 1.1 and later due to UPE (Unforeseen Programmer Error). Finish any existing bookmarks you may have with v.1.0 before moving on to 1.2.
WARNING: Attempting to open a 1.0 bookmark in a later version of Freddie will result in crashes that are new, interesting, and virtually immediate. Unless you really like MacsBug or the System Error dialog, don’t try it.
DISCLAIMER: If you DO try it, I cannot be held responsible for any damage to your Mac, hard drive, love life, or real estate values.
I have taken steps to ensure that future versions of Freddie will be able to open bookmarks created by v.1.1 or later. I apologize for any inconvenience this incompatibility may cause.
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The people who won’t read the manual should see “For People Who Don’t Read Manuals” in the accompanying docs.
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Some QWK Tips
Conference Manipulation
Generally, you choose which conference to read while online in the BBS's QWK door. However, you can usually send messages to the QWK door while offline allowing you to configure it.
Three commands seem to be universally supported: ADD, DROP, and RESET. To use them , create new message in the conference you want to manipulate and address it to the QWK door or to QMAIL (generally supported). The subject should be one of those commands.
For example, let's say you wanted to start receiving messages in the "Exciting" conference, and wanted to stop receiving messages in the "Boring" conference. The BBS's QWK door is MkQWK.
First, create a new outgoing message and place it in the "Exciting" conference by clicking on the "Conf…" button. Put "MKQWK" (the name of the QWK door) or "QMAIL" into the "To" field. Make the subject "ADD".
Next, create a new message and place it into the "Boring" conference. Address it to "MKQWK" or "QMAIL" and make the subject "DROP".
NOTE: "QMAIL" can often be used in the "To" field since it was the original QWK door. If you are in doubt as to what you put here, consult your sysop.
When you send the REP packet containing these messages to the BBS, the QWK door will add "Exciting" to, and remove "Boring" from, the list of conferences you want to receive in your next QWK packet.
The format for resetting a conference to a particular message number is generally the same as above. The subject should be "RESET n" with "n" being the message number to which the conference should be reset.
Routing Messages in PCRelay
You can route messages directly if the message is going through PCRelay. The best indication of this is if a message from the person you want to route to has the words "PCRelay:" at the bottom.
The format for routing is to put the characters "->" at the top of your message, followed by the name of the board where the person can be reached (you can determine this by looking at the characters directly following the words "PCRelay:" in their message). The next line should be blank.
For example, if you wanted to route a message to me, you would take a look at one of the messages I have written and find that "PCRelay:MOONDOG ->" appears at the bottom. To route a message to me, your message would look something like this:
->MOONDOG
Hi Kem! Just wanted to drop you a note telling you how much I like Freddie.
If an incoming message is routed or private, Freddie will automatically put in the appropriate text to route it back to the sender when you reply.
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Tips for Speedier Operation
Users of 68000 machines especially may notice that Freddie is not the fastest application in the world. This is due to the combination of being written in Prograph and the amount that Freddie has to do in order to bring QWK to the Mac environment, and provide all the additional features that Freddie provides. While I continue to strive for better performance in future versions, there are things that you as the user can do now to get faster operation:
•Keep the index windows closed.
Updating indexes takes a lot of processor time. Updating and then displaying them takes even more. Keep the index windows closed when you are just browsing through messages from beginning to end.
•Do as much at startup as possible.
Generally, the more you have Freddie do on startup, the better. Set it to Find Personal and Create indexes on startup. You can then leave or switch to another application and have Freddie finish the bulk of it's work while you are away.
•Use background formatting wisely.
There are two schools of thought on background formatting. One says that you should turn it off to get a quicker response while browsing messages. The other says that, if you deal with the initial delay while browsing, you will gain it back later when the background formatting is finished. Freddie will respond quickly and display new messages faster as well. Plus, if you walk away, Freddie can use that time constructively.
•Set the "Show status bar if message is longer than:" limit higher.
Showing a progress bar takes processor time. Generally, actions can be sped up significantly if Freddie doesn't have to show the progress bar as well as perform the action. By setting the limit higher, Freddie can use the time it would have otherwise used on the status bar to format messages.
