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-== BBS Bulletin FREE Electronic Magazine ==[ Issue 8, Volume 1 - Number 8 ]==- _____ _____ _____ _____ _ _ _ _ l __ \ l __ \ / ____) l __ \ l l l l l l_ (_) l l__) ) l l__) ) ( (____ l l__) ) _ _ l l l l ___ l _) _ _____ l __ ( l __ ( \____ \ l __ ( l l l l l l l l / __) l l l l l _ l l l__) ) l l__) ) _____) ) l l__) ) l l_l l l l l l ( _) l l_ l l l l l l l_____/ l_____/ (______/ l_____/ l_____l l_l l_l \___) l___) l_l l_l l_l -===========================================================[ 1st Jul 1991 ]==- Editor: Michael Barnes (FidoNet - 2:252/125) -=============================================================================- (C) Copyright BBS Bulletin Magazine 1991 All Articles are (C) Copyright their author. No part of this Electronic Magazine may be reproduced in anything other than it's original form without the permission of either the Editor or the author or authors of the part. Nor may any charge be made for any part of the magazine without the permission of the appropriate copyright holder. -======== Donations of articles, money or advice gratefully received! ========- _______________________________________________________________________________ Contents ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 Editorial 2 News 3 Zephyr, a Shareware database system 4 Shareware: How do I market my program? 5 UUCP<->FidoNet - getting mail across 6 Lastly _______________________________________________________________________________ ....Editorial...Editorial...Editorial...Editorial...Editorial...Editorial..... _______________________________________________________________________________ BBS Bulletin is now being distributed in the Newsletters area of the Software Distribution System (SDS). So now the Bulletin should be coming to your local SDS board. This means that the mag is now available freely in other countries - so for all readers outside of the UK... Welcome! I think the Bulletin is fairly international in flavour, so I don't plan to make any major changes to the format. However, I hope that the expansion of the readership will result in a huge flurry of articles from overseas! (he said with a smile on his face!). I've finally removed references to Rael from the Bulletin. Sadly his absence is lasting rather a long time. When he comes back on-line, you'll all be the first to know. Michael Barnes _______________________________________________________________________________ News from the BBS Scene _______________________________________________________________________________ @@@ New UK FidoNet Regional Echomail Coordinator (REC) Jon Dunster has resigned from the post of Region25 REC, and after a vote open to all Region25 FidoNet sysops Terry Robertson was elected by a small margin, followed by closely by Keith Wassell, with Andy Smith bringing up the rear. @@@ Off-line readers under threat in the US? A rumour that Zone 1 of FidoNet is to ban the use of off-line readers brought shock to many users and Sysops recently. However, measures are only being taken against readers which do not conform to FidoNet technical standards. The popular packages XRS and Silver Xpress are both said to be fully compliant. Mail not conforming to standards in the US runs the risk of being deleted by automatic detection programs. Nothing of the kind is intended for the UK. _______________________________________________________________________________ ooo # o o oo ooo oooo o o oo ooo oooo ooo # # # # # o # # # # # # o # # #""# #""# #"". #"" # # # #""# #"". #"" """ " " " " " " """" " " " " " " """" ZEPHYR TUTORIAL - Neil Blaber ______________________________________________________________________________ Zephyr, by Ward Mundy, is generally reckoned to be the best up-and-coming database program available for the novice computer user. Even Ward says on the cover of his shiny blue manual, "For the Non-Programmer". OK, so you've just had a couple of disks through the post from your friendly Shareware dealer and you've got 90 days (so it says in the documentation) to evaluate the program before you either have to pay for it or consign the disks to the Reformatting Department. Zephyr is supplied on two disks as self-extracting archive files (these are composite files which contain a number of other compressed files inside them), both called INSTALL.EXE. If you put Disk 1 in your A: drive and type A:INSTALL you will get a screen of information explaining how to install Zephyr. If you haven't done exactly what is asked on the help screen (I bet you haven't), type "N" and then follow the instructions. When you have done this successfully, you will find that you have got a new subdirectory called ZEPHYR on whichever drive you decided to install Zephyr. Remembering the instructions when you brought up the initial help screen, now either print the documentation by typing COPY \ZEPHYR\*.DOC PRN or have a look at it using a file viewing utility (Vernon Buerg's LIST.COM is an excellent one included by libraries on Shareware disks). Now you're armed with the instructions, you can start to use Zephyr in anger - the evaluation has begun ! However, there's one small snag which must be overcome in order to be able to get full use out of the program during the time we have to evaluate it. Due to Zephyr being a Foxpro application, it is supplied with a Foxpro run-time program which it needs to operate. However, Fox Software have only allowed the Foxpro "Demo" run-time (allowing a maximum of a measly 120 records) to be bundled with the freely distributable version of Zephyr. In order to be able to use Zephyr properly, you should send £1 to Folio Shareware (they are Ward Mundy's UK agents for Zephyr) in exchange for an activation code which "unlocks" the unlimited Foxpro run-time. This has to be done in order to satisfy the license Ward Mundy has with Fox Software which specifies that you must be personally sold the application in order to use the unlimited run-time. Confused? Yes, so was I! The activation of the unlimited runtime (when you have the correct code number) is done by typing "R" upon exiting Zephyr when presented with the "Exit from ZEPHYR (Y/N)?" prompt. On going into the ZEPHYR subdirectory and firing up the program, we are eventually presented with a menu screen with the BUILD option already selected; a fairly hefty hint that the first thing you need to do in your development of a Zephyr database is decide exactly what the database file should contain. Sit down with a sheet of paper and decide exactly what kind of data you want to store, and how much detail you want to go into. For example, the application I designed was to keep track of my excessively large and totally unmanageable record collection. I want to keep details of the artist, the title of the record, whether it is an LP, a 7" or 12" single, which label it appeared on, the year of release, country of origin, and a space for special notes. The sort of thing to work out is the maximum size each piece of information will be - obviously the year will be four characters, but how long is the longest band name in my collection? When you're happy with the details of your database, it's time to create it. Select "Database File" from the BUILD menu and "New" when the little box pops up to ask you whether you want to create a new database or revise an old one. Now think of a name for your database (I chose RECORDS; not very imaginative, I know), type it into the box provided and then, while holding down the "Control" key, press "Enter". The File Creation window is now displayed, and you should type in the names and sizes of the items of data (called "fields") that you want to keep in the database. Zephyr allows you to define the type of each field; types offered are Character, Numeric, Float, Date, Logical, and Memo. If you are unfamiliar with databases and computing in general, it is at this point that the Zephyr documentation becomes very vague (in fact, Ward Mundy suggests you go and buy an 800-page book on Foxpro in the first paragraph of his "Building Zephyr Applications" chapter), so I'll elaborate. Fields of type Character refer to any piece of text, for example "Mr Jones", "24, High Street", or in my record collection application something like "The Stranglers". Numeric and Float field types refer to data stored as numbers that you wish to perform calculations on later (use Characters otherwise); Date fields are similar but used if you wish to do date calculations; Logical fields can only be True or False, and have special uses (discussed later); the Memo field is a special Character field which actually uses a separate file to store the data, and has the advantage of being as big as you like (if you're intending to store your favourite short stories in your database file, use Memo fields for them) - I'll be using these for my "Special Notes". Once you have entered the names, field types and sizes of the information you intend to store, Zephyr asks you if you want to input data records now. At this stage, say no. You should now be looking back at the BUILD menu on the main Zephyr screen. The next job in hand, before we add our data to the database, is to define an index. An index is a separate file used to quickly locate records in a database, and to allow you to control the order in which records are displayed. For instance, I could display my record collection in order of the band name, in alphabetical order of the record titles, in chronological order of year of release, or a combination of these. Zephyr allows you to create up to 25 indexes for a single database; these can be of two types - simple or complex. A simple index just concerns one field; a complex index concerns multiple fields. So, if I just wanted to keep my collection in title order I would use a simple index on the Title field, or if in band order with the records by each band in alphabetical order, I would use a complex index on both the Band and Title field. From the BUILD menu, move the cursor down to Index, and press the "Enter" key. As we are creating a new index, the answer to the little "Create New or revise Old" box is obviously NEW. The answer to the next box (Simple or Complex index) depends very much on your application; I chose Complex for my record collection. For a simple index, just select the most important field that you want your data to be sorted on from the selection box that pops up. For a complex index, a different box will appear. In the box marked "Enter INDEX Expression", type in the names of the fields, in order of importance, on which you wish your data to be sorted, separated by a "+" character. For example, BAND + YEAR + TITLE will sort my collection in alphabetical order by name of the artist, then by the year of release of each record, and finally in alphabetical order of the title of each record if a number were released in the same year. Make sure the types of each field you are using are the same when creating complex indexes - Zephyr throws rather a major wobbly if they're not. Hold down the "Control" key and press "Enter" when you are happy you've got it right. Now think of a name for the index file and enter it in the box provided (in a creative frenzy I chose RECORDS again). You should now be back at the main BUILD menu. Move the menu bar to the left until the INPUT menu is displayed (you can either do this by pressing the "Home" key, or by pressing the left-arrow a few times), and them move down to the "Add Records" selection. Answer "Y" to the "Add New Data" prompt and start typing your data into the appropriate fields displayed on the screen - if you have any Memo fields (it will have the word "memo" already in the place where you would expect to type), add data to these by holding down "Control" and pressing the "Pg Dn" key when the cursor is positioned over the required memo field. This will bring up a blank "Memo Editor" screen which you can use like a simple word processor. After you have finished typing the contents of the memo field, hold down "Control" and press "W" to go back to the "Add Records" screen. If you get fed up adding records (typing in the details of about 1500 LPs is a bit too much for one stint), you can finish the session by pressing "Escape" when the cursor is positioned over a blank record following the last one you typed in. Press "Escape" a couple more times to exit Zephyr back to DOS. To return to the database, hopefully by now it has grown beyond the couple of records we added last time. To have a look at the information we've entered thus far, move across the Zephyr main screen to the INPUT menu (the same one used when records were being added) and choose the "Browse Records" option. You should now get an ordered list on the screen of the information you entered, which should correspond with the order in which you specified fields should appear when you defined your indexes. You can skip across fields in one particular record by pressing the "Enter" key, as well as using the "PgUp" and "PgDn" keys to page backwards and forwards through your database. Be careful not to hit other keys when doing this, as it is possible to alter information that you've entered when in Browse mode. If you have a lot of records in your database and wish to find one in particular, you can search for it by holding down the "Control" key and pressing "F". This will bring up a box asking you for a word to look for. You can enter the whole name or just part of it; press the "Enter" key when you've typed the required word. The highlight bar will now move down to a selection entitled "Ignore case". It is probably best to press the "Enter" key again here, which will enable this option (you should see an "X" appear in the box next to he highlighted option). It just means that if you have used a combination of upper and lower case letters for the information in your database, then Zephyr won't regard them as separate characters for the purposes of the search. Thus, if I was looking for "Stranglers" and had accidentally typed "stranglers" when entering my records, Zephyr would still find it during the search. Skip past the next two options using the "Down Arrow" key (next to "PgDn" on your keypad) and press "Enter" when the highlight bar is on "Find". You should now have returned to the initial Browse screen with the desired record highlighted. To exit the Browse screen and return to the main menu, you can either hold down the "Control" key and press "W" (do this if you've altered any records and wish to save the changes) or just press "Esc". The next step in my record cataloguing job was to design a printout. The usual layout for a database printout consists of a series of columns with headings; before we can do anything else we need to tell Zephyr where to put these columns on the page, what they will contain, how much space to give them, and any extra information like column headings, titles etc. To do this, go to the BUILD menu and select the Report option. A similar box will appear to that seen when we first created a database, asking "Create NEW or revise OLD?". As we are creating a new report, select NEW. You will then be prompted for a name for the report - after you have thought of and typed in a suitable name, hold down the "Control" key and press "Enter". You should now see a screen on which the printout design will be entered. It is divided into 3 sections: PgHead (for page numbers and column headings), Detail (where all your database information will go) and PgFoot (for any text that will go underneath your information). Bearing in mind the sizes of each of the fields that you will want included in your printout, type in the text that you would like to appear at the top of each page, making sure the headings are properly spaced. Note also that, although it looks similar, this screen is not like the text editor facility provided when putting information into Memo fields (another fact cleverly ignored by the documentation), in that once you start to enter text on each line you need to press "Enter" before you can move to another line. If you press "Enter" twice, a dialogue box pops up asking you about printing style. If you get stuck, you can tell what Zephyr is expecting by looking at the status line above your work area. The initial part tells you which row and column of the page you are working on; the next part will say "Move" if you are free to move the cursor about the page, or "Text" if you have started to enter text on a line and it is expecting the "Enter" key press, and the last part whether you are in the "PgHead", "Detail" or "PgFoot" part of the work area. Another major difference between a proper text editor and the Report Builder is that if you are in "Move" mode, the "Del" key deletes the entire line that you're working on, rather than just the character to the right of the cursor. When in "Text" mode, it worked normally the first time I entered text on a line, but didn't seem to work if I was trying to modify something after I'd pressed "Enter", moved off to do something else and then came back. I found the best method was to build up your report format from left to right, and not to treat the Report Builder as a full-screen text editor. ### Part two next month... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neil is Sysop of the Public Domain Software Library (PDSL) BBS, and runs the company along with the founder Rod Smith. Their excellent catalogue of thousands of titles can be obtained from PDSL at: Winscombe House, Beacon Road, Crowborough, Sussex, TN6 1UL. Include a couple of stamps to cover the return postage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________________________________ Shareware and Public Domain Software Part 3: How do you market your program? ______________________________________________________________________________ People have different expectations from the programs they write. Some feel that their program is just their in case people want it - they have a somewhat casual view of users of the program. If a user decides to register then all well and good - if he doesn't, then it was worth a try and at least the user is using the program rather than another. Other authors really expect the bulk of the users to register, and to receive comments from many of them. These people are usually first-time shareware authors! The number of people to use, register, and comment on your program depends on a number of factors, and the importance of each factor varies between applications and between different types of people. 1) Crippleware. Some authors decide that the best way to make people register a program is to in some way "cripple" the shareware version so that the user can't wait to get his hands on the proper version. Methods of crippling range from a profusion of "Unregistered!!!" messages to features being left out of the program. In the worst cases the whole range may be implemented at once! This method can often work against the author, as many users will be immediately put off by crippled software. If your program starts out with several black marks against it, it's got to be just that little bit better to make up for it. My advice, for what it's worth, is that if you really want to take out some features in the shareware version, take out unimportant features or reduce possible number of records in a file. These allow the user to test out the program to a very large degree and will only become annoying if the user decides to use the program a lot - in which case he should be registered! Also, keep "Unregistered!" messages to a minimum - one on the main menu is best probably. Make it noticeable but not glaring. From recent comments by shareware users in the States, it would seem that some people genuinely forget to register - they need to be reminded of the address and other details at an opportune moment. The best time for this is at the very end of the program, when they quit. An option to print a registration form is also handy, or failing that use a seperate file in the documentation for the registration form, rather than putting it in the main document file (this makes it easier for the user to get at). 2) How good the program is. The number of registrations depends to a very large extent on how good the program is. This includes not just functionality but also looks - try to make your program attractive and friendly, and keypresses as intuitive as possible. If you're using text only then use a program like "TheDraw" to design several different screens and then decide which you prefer, rather than just rushing in. If it's a graphics-based program then you can do the same with a graphics paint package. 3) How much it costs to register. Don't overprice your program, and don't underprice it. Go and have a look at other similar programs if you can, and relate your prices to theirs. Remember that people are likely to fail to register an extremely cheap program (ie: a couple of quid) simply because for the money it doesn't seem worth it. I fell into this trap myself, when setting the price for a program which was for use with another (XUC - some of you may even use it) which was itself quite cheap. As a basic rule, don't go lower than 5 quid for a small program, or under 10 quid for a longer one. If you're charging more than 50 quid then your program must either be tremelyood or tremelynique. A good method of pricing involves a tiered system. For example, X pounds lets the user continue using the program for as long as he likes, Y pounds gives him a manual as well, and Z pounds gives a one-time registration. 4) What you get for registering. Do you want the registration fee to buy only the version registered? Or are you going to give a "license in perpetuity" - a "one time" registration fee? I prefer the one-time method, as it rewards people for registering more than if just the current version is paid for. If you've circulated a tallyn-marked copy of the program as shareware (ie: no "This program needs to be registered" etc comments anywhere in the program), then you won't need to send the user anything. However, you may decide that as a gesture of goodwill you will send a copy of the latest version. Otherwise there are two routes to take. You can write your program with a key system. This involves the program checking for a file containing encryted information which identifies the user. If there is no valid key then the program knows to display it's "Unregistered!" messages. If it finds a valid key then it can use the information from the key to write "Registered to Mr X" or to just write "Registered." The key can be sent to the user on disk or even via the post - or on FidoNet as a file. Or you can simply send a copy of the full version to anyone who registers. Remember that this means you'll need to write two versions of the program, which is extra work for you. Some people hard-code the name of the user into the registered version they send. I prefer the key method, as I don't cripple my programs. I do send people the latest version but for a small extra fee. 5) Who you're aiming the program at. The above factors will be different depending on who you're aiming the program at - for example, 15 year olds won't pay as much as 30 year olds. Business programs can probably demand a higher price than simple games. You have to keep this fact in mind all through development of the program. Are you including o manyeatures in your program, or not enough? 6) Documentation. Take some care over this - it's important that your user doesn't get bored or confused, as that may mean he decides not to register. Be friendly, but not oriendly as that may also put the user off. Be clear - leave gaps between sections, and highlight titles and subtitles with at least some hyphens underneath. Even better is to put boxes round them. Don't assume too much - and don't treat the user like a baby. If you're going to include details of how to use parts of DOS then do so in a seperate section and refer to it, rather than including it in the bulk of the text - experienced users won't want to wade through such things. Go through the features of your program point by point, under subtitles. This allows the user to swiftly find help when he needs it, rather than having to scan through large blocks of text. If your program is even slightly complex, give some examples. Even better, write a tutorial section so that the novice user can work through the system step by step. You don't want the user to miss features that aren't obvious, and then get comments from him saying "why don't you include xxx" (which you already included, but which is badly documented). Always remember that the bulk of the users will probably skip the documentation anyway, only coming back to it if he can't work out how to do something. You should also be keeping this in mind all the time while you're writing the program itself. 7) The hard sell. When you've completed your program and prepared yourself for any registrations that may come in, you're ready to send your program out into the big bad world - but make sure you really are ready! If you receive a registration and find that you don't yet know whether you're going to send the latest version or what you're going to do, then you may run the risk of putting the user off shareware. Upload the program to a selection of large bulletin boards. Plug the program in all echos which seem relevant - there are several PD and Shareware echos on FidoNet, and some in other networks too. There is a ryarge one which is mainly circulated in the US but which is available in the UK too with the area tag "SHAREWRE". You can also plug your shareware in BBS Bulletin of course. If it's a BBS related program then it can go into the FidoNet Software Distribution System (SDS). If it isn't, then it may be suitable for another file distribution network (there are several in FidoNet). If it's a support program, make the author of the program which it supports aware of it's existence - he may give you free advertising in his documentation. If you have several programs, plug them all in your documentation. Find a friendly sysop (if you're not one yourself) who is willing to be advertised as the main place to get your program. This article isn't likely to give all the advice you'll ever need. Shareware needs a bit of thought - don't just rush in, or you may make a fool of yourself or give your programs a bad image. Well that finishes off this brief series. If anyone has any particular queries then feel free to comment via netmail or in the Library echomail area, and I'll do my best to help. I don't have inexhaustable knowledge of this subject, but I've released a few programs by now and if my experience can help newer Shareware authors then I'm pleased to help in any way I can! Michael Barnes. _______________________________________________________________________________ FidoNet to UUCP and Back, by Paul Martin _______________________________________________________________________________ This is probably the most asked question in the COMMS echo: How do you send mail to UUCP sites from FidoNet? Fidonet to Internet: Netmail your message to UUCP at 1:105/42 with your required subject. Include as the first line of your message: To: userid@site.on.the.internet and leave line 2 blank. eg. to mail to my internet address To: pm.nowster@tharr.uucp Internet to Fidonet: Mail to Full.Name@p<point>.f<node>.n<net>.z<zone>.fidonet.org eg. I'm Paul.Martin@p3.f107.n250.z2.fidonet.org Paul _______________________________________________________________________________ .And lastly...And lastly... And lastly...And lastly...And lastly...And lastly. _______________________________________________________________________________ My Netmail address, for any correspondence and for submitting of articles, is FidoNet 2:252/125. That's The Beacon BBS, which is my own board. It is only on-line between 11pm and 8am UK time. If these times are difficult for you, you can either route netmail via the normal routes, or route it via 2:252/7 which is my mail feed - please ROUTE it and don't just send it there. Please send routed articles as netmail and not files (use more than one message if necessary). The official unofficial echomail area for discussion or comments, if you wish to make any, is the FidoNet LIBRARY echo. This is an echo which I run myself which is for chat about books and related subjects. This might provide an easier route for users, and has the advantage over netmail in that it stimulates chat and ideas. The latest issue of this emag can be requested from 2:252/125, or any of the freq points listed below, as ZipBull or BullZip for the zipped version, and Bulletin for the text version. I no longer support any other compression format as everybody has used PKZip so far. The actual filename of each issue will always be in the form: Bull<Num>.Ext. If anyone finds they wish to re-pack the Bulletin in any format other than that in which they got it there is no problem with that so long as none of the contents of the archive are altered other than the compression. The following boards will have the Bulletin available for freq and download: ============================================================== Name Number Net Address Speeds -------------------------------------------------------------- Pacific Lightning +44-732-845338 Fido 2:440/7 ? Mektronics +44-61-773-7739 Fido 2:250/119 ? On The Beach +44-273-600996 Fido 2:252/122 ? The Owl Service +44-532-605876 Fido 2:258/34 ? Severn Side BBS +44-452-611342 Fido 2:250/408 ? Merkinstead +44-61-434-7059 Fido 2:250/102 HST Chatterbox UK +44-732-870941 Fido 2:440/6 ? Arkham BBS +44-81-952-5128 None V21-V22bis MNP5 ============================================================== My thanks to the sysops of these boards. If you'd like to be listed as a freq/download point feel free to netmail me. I can't afford to send it to you, so you must be prepared to freq it from me or one of the other freq points each month. Boards in nets other than FidoNet are especially welcome. The Bulletin should be available from these boards within a few days of the issue date (1st of each month). It is also distributed via the SDS, so if you're prepared to wait a while it will eventually get to you by that route. My postal address is: Michael Barnes (Ed) 67, Heath Road, Holtspur, Beaconsfield, Bucks. HP9 1DG. If you've read and enjoyed this magazine, do try and get hold of a copy next month - in fact do that anyway! If you didn't like the comment - well, the only real answer is contribute yourself! And if you dike the content, how about showing your appreciation of the contibutors efforts by writing an article of your own? I hope you've enjoyed this copy of BBS Bulletin. If you have any comments, good or bad, I'm eager to hear them! Michael Barnes, Ed.