** Important - you may need to increase TeachText's memory allocation to 512K in order to see and print all the graphics included in this file. To do so, quit TeachText, select it in the Finder and choose Get Info from the File menu. TeachText's typical defualt memory setting is 192K; type 512 in the box and close it. Then re-open this file. **
•What is BulkRate?
BulkRate is an offline reader for FirstClass BBSs. With BulkRate, you can automatically get all new messages on a FirstClass BBS, then read and reply to them at your leisure, while offline. This frees up the BBS for other users and also allows you to have more control over the amount of time you spend with your mail and messages.
BulkRate works only with FirstClass BBSs. You must have an active account on a FirstClass BBS to use BulkRate. You can use BulkRate to call any FirstClass BBS that supports Command Line User Interface (CLUI) access, though you will have to create settings files for each BBS.
BulkRate operates by accessing the FirstClass BBS through the Command Line User Interface (CLUI). It is possible for a FirstClass sysop to set up his/her BBS so that the CLUI is disabled. BulkRate will not work in this situation, though a friendly request to the Sysop might fix things.
Unlike a point software package, BulkRate does not compress messages and mail or employ error checking, so it is subject to line noise and random errors. If you have a relatively clean phone line and/or an error-correction modem, however, this should not present much of a problem.
BulkRate was developed using SuperCard 1.6, a product of Silicon Beach Software. (Since acquired by Aldus, which is now looking for a buyer for SuperCard.) SuperCard is a HyperCard-like authoring environment with many enhancements. Its advantages over development environments like Think C or Pascal or MacApp are speed and ease of development; its disadvantages are memory requirements and speed of execution. One further disadvantage is that by nature, it is a self-modifying application. This means a crash could cause BulkRate to become corrupted, so it is best to keep a backup copy at all times. BulkRate will not run on a locked volume for the same reason.
•Setting up BulkRate•
Before you can use BulkRate for the first time, you must set things up. Setting it up is a two part process - first, setting up your FirstClass BBS account; and second, creating the appropriate BulkRate settings file.
Part 1 - Making your FirstClass BBS account "BulkRate ready"
First, you must have an active account on a FirstClass BBS.
Next, log on to your FIrstClass BBS.
From the Desktop level of your FC (FirstClass) BBS, choose "New folder" from the File menu. A new folder will be created on your FirstClass Desktop. Choose the folder and select "Get info" from the File menu. In the resulting dialog, change the name to "BulkRateToRead" - make sure there are *no* spaces in this name.
Next, go to the various conferences you are interested in having BulkRate read for you, select them, and choose "Make alias" from the Conference menu. This will create aliases of the selected conferences on the FC Desktop. Once you have aliased all the desired conferences (make sure you get any sub-conferences hiding inside of other conferences), return to the FirstClass Desktop.
By the way, since BulkRate will grab any message that has a flag, you may want to take this opportunity to clear the flags of old messages you aren't interested in by option-clicking on them. You can clear the flags of all the messages in a conference by option-clicking on the conference icon.
The last step is to drag all the aliased conferences into the new BulkRateToRead folder. Make sure to scroll around the FirstClass Desktop to be sure you have moved all the aliases. You can then log off the BBS.
FirstClass BBS Desktop
Part 2 - Setting up BulkRate
Host settings
Your first step in setting up BulkRate is to fill out the Host Settings dialog. Normally, when you first launch BulkRate, this dialog automatically opens for you. If it did not, open it by choosing "Host settings..." from the Settings menu.
Host settings dialog
Fill out each line of the dialog.
“Host name” is the name of the FirstClass BBS you will be calling.
“UserID” is the UserID you use to log on, and “Password” is the password you use to log on. Remember that the UserID is not necessarily the same as your name as it appears in messages on the FirstClass BBS.
“Phone number(s)” must contain at least one phone number for the BBS. Be sure to include 1- (area code) if needed. If the FirstClass BBS ("host") supports multiple lines, you can enter more than one phone number, each on a separate line. When attempting to log on, BulkRate will automatically rotate through each phone number.
Next, click on “More host settings...”
More host settings
If you have created the BulkRateToRead folder on your FirstClass Desktop, all that should be in the “Conferences can be found in:” field is:
Home
Home:BulkRateToRead
This will cause BulkRate to look first on the FC Desktop and then inside the BulkRateToRead folder for flagged conferences. If you do not want it to scan the conferences on the FC Desktop (your Mailbox is one of those), delete the line that reads just "Home."
Don't make the mistake of putting "Home:Mailbox" in this list. This will cause BulkRate to look inside your mailbox for flagged conferences (there won't be any), and also cause it to ignore any messages within.
The second field ("DON'T read these conferences:") contains a list of individual conferences you want BulkRate to skip. BulkRate will never look for new messages in these conferences. In most instances, you can leave this blank if you have included only aliases of desired conferences in the BulkRateToRead folder.
When you are done with this dialog, click "OK".
Modem settings
Lastly, you should tell BulkRate about your modem. Choose "Modem settings..." from the Settings menu.
Use this dialog to set which port your modem is connected to, what kind of phone line you have and at what baud rate you want to call.
The modem initialization string is customizable, but try the default (AT E1 Q0 V1) before you change it. The string shown in the picture is the factory default for a SupraFaxModem, plus a command to lower the speaker volume. BulkRate works only with reasonably-Hayes-compatible modems, but unchecking the "Hayes-compatible modem" box may help BulkRate work with some modems. See the separate document on "BulkRate and modems" for more info.
Click OK when you are finished with this dialog.
It's a good idea to save these settings into a Settings file, especially if you are going to use BulkRate with several FirstClass BBSs. Choose "Save settings..." from the Settings menu.
Now that you have set up BulkRate, you're ready to try it.
•Using BulkRate•
Using BulkRate is simple. Normally, you would follow these steps:
1) Launch BulkRate.
2) Compose mail you wish to send in the Outgoing mail window.
See BulkRate windows – Outgoing mail for details.
3) Choose "Exchange mail now" from the Mail menu.
BulkRate will call the host BBS, send your mail, get the new mail,
and log off.
4) Read new messages in the Incoming mail window and compose replies
in the Outgoing mail window.
See BulkRate windows – Incoming mail for details.
5) Quit BulkRate.
BulkRate saves any unsent outgoing mail and asks if you wish to delete all
incoming messages.
That's it.
•BulkRate windows•
Outgoing mail
This window is where you create and edit your outgoing mail, as well as replies to any incoming messages. The new button will display a new blank form to enter a message. You can also create a new message by choosing "New mail..." from the File menu. The "Delete" button will delete the current message. The left and right arrows will take you to the previous and next messages, respectively.
You may enter multiple names in the To: and cc: fields; your message will be sent to every name you include.
"Send to host:" should contain the name of the BBS you wish to send this message to, if you call more than one BBS. If it is left blank, the message will be sent to the first BBS you call. Note that this BBS name must match EXACTLY the name in the Host name field of the Host settings dialog. (See Settings menu, Host settings...)
When a message is sent, the Message sent box will be checked. You can also set and clear this manually. One reason to manually check the Message sent box is to temporarily prevent BulkRate from sending a message. Unchecking it will cause BulkRate to send (or resend) the message on the next mail exchange.
Message list
The message list is available from the Mail menu. It also displays automatically after a mail exchange completes.
The message list shows all new messages that are available to read. You can jump directly to any message in the list by double-clicking on its entry in the message list.
If you choose multiple messages (by shift-clicking or command-clicking), you can read only the selected messages by using the right and left arrow butttons.
You can delete a single message or several messages by selecting them and hitting the delete or clear key, or clicking on the "Delete" button.
The message list display.
You may sort the messages in a variety of ways. By clicking on "Sort by 'thread'" you can re-sort your incoming mail so that all messages with a given subject are together. This can make it easier to read a "thread" of conversation, since BulkRate does not currently support message threading. You may sort by "To," "From," "Date/Time," or "Subject" by clicking on the appropriate label at the top of the window.
The "Rebuild list" button will cause BulkRate to rebuild the message list from scratch. This may be useful if you interrupt a sort, but need a usable list.
The "Archive..." button allows you to save any selected messages in a single archive file. In the illustration above, you could select all the *New Uploads* messages and click on "Archive..." to save just the new files messages to an archive for later re-reading, or editing in your word processor or text editor.
Mail log
The mail log (accessable through the Mail menu) is a log of the mail exchange session, including log-on and log-off times, and conferences and folders checked by BulkRate to find all new mail. New messages are indicated with an asterisk. You may be able to use this to troubleshoot problems with reading mail, and you can also keep track on the amount of time BulkRate is online.
The mail log display.
Incoming mail
The Incoming mail window contains the individual messages from the host BBS. You can navigate between them with the left and right arrow buttons as well as the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.
You can cause the text window to scroll up or down by using the up and down arrow keys.
"Delete" will delete the currently displayed message, as will Command-D.
"Reply" will open the Outgoing mail window and format a reply to the current message.
If you select text of the original message before clicking on "Reply", the selected text will be automatically copied and pasted to the reply. If you hold down the Option key as you click on "Reply," the text will be auto-copied and formatted "Quoter-style," which look like this:
GN> This is an example of
GN> "Quoter-style" quoting.
Command-R will also create a reply.
Incoming mail window.
Address book
This window is simply a list of names - use it to help you address your outgoing mail. You can cut, copy and paste into the list. The "Sort" button will sort the names by last name; Option-click will sort by first name. There are several "pages" available in this window; you can use seperate pages for seperate BBSs, or one page for conference names and another for individual names, for example. You can enter the name of each page at the top, just under the title bar. "TDB Conferences" is the name of the page in the example.
The Address Book "windoid."
•BulkRate menus•
File menu
New mail
Opens the Outgoing mail window and displays a blank form for you to enter a new outgoing message.
Open mail...
Allows you to open a text file. The file will appear in the text body of a new outgoing message, or if you open a saved BulkRate message, it will appear in the appropriate window.
Close window
Closes the topmost window.
Save mail...
Allows you to save the currently displayed message as a text file. This is actually an archive containing a single message.
Save selection...
Save any currently selected text as a text file — useful for saving parts of a message. If you want to save an entire message, use "Save mail...". If you want to save all messages, use "Archive mail".
Print selection...
Prints any selected text to the currently chosen printer.
Archive mail...
Saves all the messages in either the Incoming message window or the Outgoing message window into one text file.
Restore archive...
Allows you to restore a saved archive.
Quit
Quits BulkRate.
Edit menu
Undo
Doesn't work. It's there for DAs to use.
Cut
Copy
Paste
Clear
Select All
All offer the standard Mac editing functions on text.
Clear incoming
Deletes all messages in the Incoming mail window.
Clear sent mail
Deletes all Outgoing messages that are marked as sent.
Mail menu
Incoming mail
Opens or brings to front the Incoming mail window, in which all incoming messages from the host BBS are displayed.
Outgoing mail
Opens or brings to front the Outgoing mail window, in which all outgoing messages to the host BBS are displayed.
Address book
Opens the Address book. The Address book will always remain front-most unless you specifically close it.
Mail log
Opens the Mail log.
Message list
Opens the Message list window, which displays a master lsit of all incoming mail.
Exchange mail now
This is the command you use to initiate a mail transfer with your host BBS. BulkRate will call the host BBS, get all the new messages posted since your last call, send any mail you've composed, log off, then create a double-clickable list of the new messages.
Exchange mail later
Brings up a dialog that allows you to set a time for a mail exchange to occur. For example, you could set a mail exchange to occur at 2 am, while you sleep. You must leave the dialog open for the exchange to begin.
Multiple exchange...
Brings up a dialog that allows you to set BulkRate to call several BBSs in a single session. You must have a seperate settings file for each BBS you wish to call. See "Setting up BulkRate" for details on creating BBS settings files.
You can add BBSs to the list of BBSs to call by clicking on Add... You'll be prompted to choose a settings file.
Selecting a BBS and clicking on "Delete" will permanently remove the BBS from the list.
Double-clicking on a BBS will toggle the checkmark. Checked BBSs will be be called when "Exchange now" is selected; unchecked BBSs will be ignored. This allows you to temporarily exclude a BBS from a multiple exchange without having to delete it and later re-add it.
You can set the multiple exchange to happen at a later time by entering the time in the "Do exchange at:" field. You must leave the dialog open in order for the scheduled exchange to begin.
Once the exchange list has been set, you can quickly do a multiple exchange by typing Command-shift-E. (Since a "regular" single exchange is Command-E, I hope this will be easy to remember.)
Settings menu
Host settings...
Opens the first of three interconnected dialogs in which you set up everything for BulkRate to be able to communicate to the host BBS. See the section "BulkRate set up" for details.
Modem settings...
Opens a dialog to allow you to choose modem speed, phone line type, and other modem settings.
Save settings...
Allows you to save the current settings to a file. This allows you to use BulkRate to call multiple BBS, or to have multiple users use the same copy of BulkRate.
Open settings file...
Allows you to restore a settings file.
Preferences...
Opens a dialog that allows you to decide how BulkRate will behave in certain situations.
"Auto-delete mail after sending", when checked, causes BulkRate to delete each piece of outgoing mail as it is sent.
"Delete sent mail when quitting" causes BulkRate to purge all sent mail when you choose Quit from the File menu.
"Use a message tag line" causes BulkRate to add a “tagline” at the end of each message you send. BulkRate will choose randomly from the taglines in this field. You can add to, delete from, or change the taglines supplied with BulkRate to anything you want.
"Maximum number of redials" is the maximum number of times you want BulkRate to try to dial a busy BBS before giving up.
"Redial delay" is the time in seconds you want BulkRate to wait between dialing attempts.
"Default font" and "Size" control the font and size that mail is displayed in. Due to the way SuperCard works, it's best to change the default font and size when there are few or no messages in incoming and outgoing mail. If there are a lot of messages, it may take several seconds (or longer) to change the font on every message.
"FirstClass prefs..." opens another dialog:
This dialog allows you to choose what settings BulkRate will restore to FirstClass when BulkRate logs off. While BulkRate is running, it shows only unread items and does not accept chat invitations. By changing these settings, you can have BulkRate restore the settings to the way you'd like them when you call using FirstClass Client. See the FirstClass Client manual of the FirstClass online help for more information about these settings.
Text menu
Font
With this submenu, you can change the font of any selected text.
Size
With this submenu, you can change the size of any selected text.
Find text...
Attempts to find the specified text in the topmost open window.
Find again
Finds further occurrences of the same text. Due to a quirk in SuperCard, this does not function reliably when selected from the menu. For better results, use the Command key equivalent (Cmd-G) instead.
•Hints and Kinks•
• If something weird happens and BulkRate seems to get "off track" during its processing, try the following:
° Hit Command-. (that’s a period) to interrupt BulkRate.
° When you see a dialog asking what to do, hit "Disconnect".
In fact, you can use Command-period to interrupt almost anything BulkRate does.
• "Help! BulkRate is grabbing a lot of old messages I'm not interested in!"
BulkRate will grab any message that has a flag, whether it's truly new or just an old message you've never bothered to read. To clear the flags on old messages, use FirstClass Client and option-click on them. A fast way to clear a bunch of messages is to read the ones you are interested in a conference, then close the conference and option-click on the conference icon to clear its flag and all the flags within.
• Message List limit
Since SuperCard (and therefore BulkRate) uses TextEdit for its fields, all BulkRate fields are limited to a maximum of about 32000 characters. Since FirstClass messages are also limited to a maximum of 32000 characters (FirstClass uses TextEdit as well), this limitation is only a problem in one place: the Message List. Each line of the message list is approximately 80 characters. Multiply that by 400 messages and you arrive at the 32000 character limit. So, consequently, the Message List can display a maximum of 400 messages at a time. If you happen to have more than 400 messages in the Incoming mail window, only the first 400 will be listed in the Message List window. If you want to use the Message List to read and navigate past the 400th message, you'll need to delete the first 400 messages by selecting them in the Message List and clicking the Delete button. After they've been deleted, Click on "Rebuild list" to cause BulkRate to create a new list from the remaining messages.
• The above problem extends to conference names as well. Beware of conferences with "curly quotes" (“”), "curly apostrophes/single quotes (‘’) or en or em dashes (–—). These translate to straight quotes, straight apostrophes and hyphens, but of course do not translate back. Again, use the directory match feature to work around this— "Member’s Messages" can be shortened to "Member Messages" (this eliminates the curly apostrophe).
• “Help! I can send mail to individuals, but not to conferences with BulkRate!”
This problem usually manifests itself with a "BAD ADDRESS" indication in the outgoing mail window, even for perfectly good conference names.
It is possible for the BBS Administrator to set up users so that when they access the BBS via the command-line interface, they cannot post to conferences. If you find yourself in the above situation, drop a line to your local Admin and ask him/her to check your CLUI setup.
• INITs, cdevs, etc.
If you use AutoDoubler, you should set it to leave BulkRate alone; that is, AutoDoubler should NOT compress BulkRate.
If you use one of the many utilities that modify the appearance and/or function of buttons, scroll bars, windows, such as Greg's Buttons, Scroll2Init, ClickChange, etc, don't be terribly dismayed to find out that many of BulkRate's controls are not affected by those utilities.
• Modems, Modems, Modems.
I simply cannot be an expert on every brand of modem out there. If you are having problems getting BulkRate to talk to your modem, get out your modem manual and find out what AT commands will turn off all the fancy features such as error correction, hardware compression, hardware handshaking, active renegotiation, etc. Then try to connect at 2400 bps. The basic concept is to make your modem work like a plain vanilla 2400 bps Hayes modem. If your modem now works with BulkRate, turn the features back on one by one, and increase the speed to 9600 or 14.4K, if desired. It may also help to uncheck "Hayes compatible" in the Modem dialog. It seems some "Hayes-compatible" modems don't always send the types of responses that BulkRate is looking for. Every modem I have personally tried with BulkRate has worked fine, and that includes Hayes, US Robotics, Farallon, Supra, and several off-brand modems. Your mileage may vary. See the “BulkRate and modems” file for more details on using BulkRate with v.32bis modems.
Thanks to Pete Johnson for his time, support and hard work, and for introducing me to FirstClass.
Thanks to my early beta testers, and special thanks to:
Paul Hampton, Reed Hutchinson, Charles Zweig, Godfrey Lue, Phillip Stewart, Nancy Blum, Richard B. Tickle, Scott Brees, Al Varnell, Bill Williamson, Nelson Benitez-Ruiz, and all those who sent postcards and letters.
Greg Neagle
650 Cordova St. #1
Pasadena, CA 91101
Aug 15, 1993
Remember, if you use BulkRate, please send me a postcard. That's a lot cheaper than shareware!
