Fritz: All Fritz/All Fritz.zip/All Fritz/FILES/COMMADIO/TAP.LZH/TAPLEX.DOC

Text File | 1989-02-08 | 23KB | 510 lines

               TAPLEX Version 1.2 -- February 8, 1988
         Copyright (C) 1989 Korenthal Associates, Inc.  ]</\
                         All Rights Reserved

      Supported on CIS TAPCIS forum: Tracey Siesser [73267,333]

                         ┌─────────┐
                   ┌─────┴───┐     │                  (tm)
                 ──│         │o    │──────────────────
                   │   ┌─────┴╨──┐ │  Association of
                   │   │         │─┘  Shareware
                   └───│    o    │    Professionals
                 ──────│    ║    │────────────────────
                       └────╨────┘    MEMBER



                            INTRODUCTION

TAPLEX is a TAPCIS add-on program which helps you organize and main-
tain your EasyPlex correspondence.  It merges messages from your
EASYPLEX.MSG and EASYPLEX.SAV files in time and date order into
different message files based on user name and PPN, so, for example,
you can have all your John Smith messages in JOHN.M, all your Myrtle
Jones messages in MYRTLE.M, etc.  Those of you who already perform
this task manually using a text editor will find TAPLEX a tremendous
timesaver; those who don't can now enjoy the benefits of having their
EasyPlex organized without all the work.

(TAPCIS is a CompuServe forum "navigation" program written by Howard
Benner and sold through the Support Group, Inc.  Call  1-800-USA-GROUP
or 1-301-889-7893 for details.)


                        NOTE TO DISTRIBUTORS

This version of TAPLEX is NOT a public domain program.  It is a copy-
righted work which may be distributed to the public for free or for a
nominal shipping, handling and media charge.  TAPLEX may under no
circumstances be distributed without this accompanying documentation.


                         SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

TAPLEX requires 140K free memory, and will work on a system which runs
any version of TAPCIS.  It probably isn't useful to run TAPLEX from
within TAPCIS, but if you really want to, you should have at least
400K free before running TAPCIS.


                            REGISTRATION

Registration for TAPLEX is free; however it IS required if you use the
program on a regular basis.  TAPLEX will prompt you to register every
time it is run.  The prompt will disappear when you register TAPLEX.

When you do register, TAPLEX will present you with a series of ques-
tions.  Your answers will automatically be EasyPlexed to Korenthal
Associates the next time you go online using TAPCIS.


                     A SIMPLIFIED VIEW OF TAPLEX

TAPLEX reads a message each from EASYPLEX.MSG and EASYPLEX.SAV, and
chooses the one that came earlier.  It analyzes the user name and PPN
from the message header, constructs a file name, decides if a message
file containing that user's correspondence already exists, and if it
doesn't, creates the file.  It then writes the message to the file.
Along the way, it allows you to edit the file name it's constructed,
or put the message in a file of miscellaneous messages, or even throw
the message away altogether.


                             THE DETAILS

The message file name is constructed from the user's first and last
name (with optional initials depending on the command line option
"/Nxxx" - see below).  Leading titles and trailing forum or company
affiliations are skipped, as is the word "Sysop". (TAPLEX recognizes
an affiliation if it appears within some sort of parentheses or
brackets, it follows a forward slash "/", or it appears in all upper-
case when the rest of the name is in mixed case.)  For example, for
the name "Dr. Jane E. Smith TAPLEX", various naming options will yield
these file names:

        /NF       (first name)                       JANE.M
        /NL       (last name)                        SMITH.M
        /NFIL     (first initial + last name)        JSMITH.M
        /NFMIL    (first + middle initials + last)   JESMITH.M
        /NL.FMI   (last . first + middle initials)   SMITH.JE

In checking if there already exists a file containing this user's
correspondence, TAPLEX checks all files beginning with the first four
characters of its constructed file name.  In the above example, if the
first name option is used, TAPLEX will check "JANE*.M", and use the
first file it finds that begins with a message from Dr. Smith.

Note, therefore, that if you do edit the file name, try not to change
the first four letters so that TAPLEX will be able to locate this file
by itself the next time it is run.  Otherwise you will be prompted to
edit the file name each time.  For example, in first name mode, it's
better to edit Jane Smith's file name to "JANESMTH" rather than
"JSMITH".

If TAPLEX doesn't find the user's message file, it displays the first
screen of the message and the default file name.  At this point you
may just press <Enter> to create a new message file with that name;
edit the file name and press <Enter>; or press one of these special
keys:

        Alt-Q or F2   to quit TAPLEX.
        Alt-V or F3   to toggle between the message window
                      and the file list window.
        Alt-M or F4   to place messages to and from this PPN.
                      in the miscellaneous file (MISC.M).
        Alt-S or F7   to create a new message file, save this
                      message in the file, but still stop on
                      future messages to and from this PPN.
        Alt-K or F9   to discard this message (but not neces-
                      sarily other messages to and from this PPN).
        Alt-P or F10  to discard ALL messages to and from
                      this PPN.
        Space bar     to cycle through the help messages on the
                      bottom line of the screen.

In all cases (except Alt-V or F3), you will be asked to confirm your
decision by pressing the <Enter> key; pressing any other key will
return you to editing the file name.  (You may bypass these confirma-
tions by running TAPLEX in expert mode - see the "/X" option below.)

If you press Alt-S (or F7), the current message will be saved, and the
next time TAPLEX encounters a message to or from the same PPN, it will
ask you whether you want to save that message.  It will continue to
stop on each message until you press Alt-S again to save ALL future
messages to and from that PPN (as though you'd simply pressed <Enter>
in the first place).

If you press Alt-Q (or F2) to quit TAPLEX, the unprocessed portions of
your EASYPLEX.MSG and EASYPLEX.SND files will be written out for next
time.  (If you used the "/S" option to save your EASYPLEX files - see
below - the new files will be named EASYMSG.TPX and EASYSAV.TPX, and
the old files will not be deleted.)

The following keys are available for editing the file name and regis-
tration information (see above).  Note that if you are using a file
naming option that doesn't use the file name extension (i.e. a naming
option that doesn't contain a period "."), you do not edit the
extension; all message files will have the the same extension, which
may be specified on the command line (see below).

        Left/Right Arrows    move left/right one character
        Ctrl-Left/Right      move left/right one word
        Home/End             move to beginning/end of field
        BS                   delete previous character
        Del                  delete current character
        Ctrl-End             delete to end of line
        Ins                  toggle insert/overstrike mode
        Esc                  restore original file name


                   TAPPATH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE OR
                    /TAPPATH COMMAND LINE OPTION

It is helpful for TAPLEX to be able to locate the TAPCIS parameters
file, called PARAMS.CIS.  Either run TAPLEX within the same subdir-
ectory as TAPCIS, or set an environment variable called "TAPPATH" to
indicate the TAPCIS subdirectory.  (TAPMARK users note: this is the
same TAPPATH environment variable that TAPMARK uses.)  Or if you
prefer, you may specify "/TAPPATH=path" as a command line parameter.
For example, the following two lines have the same effect:

        C>set tappath=c:\tapcis
        C>taplex /tappath=c:\tapcis

TAPLEX will read from PARAMS.CIS your user name and information about
where the EASYPLEX files are stored; it does not alter PARAMS.CIS, nor
does it use any information therein for any purpose other than that
described in this documentation.  If PARAMS.CIS is not found, TAPLEX
will assume the EASYPLEX files are to be found in the current direc-
tory.

If you are uncomfortable with TAPLEX's access to PARAMS.CIS, you may
set TAPPATH to some fictional path (such as "Z:") and only run TAPLEX
in the same directory as your EASYPLEX files.


                     TAPLEX ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE

A second environment variable called "TAPLEX" may be used to specify
options that you always wish TAPLEX to utilize.  Any options specified
on the command line will override those specified by the TAPLEX
environment variable.  For example, if you always want to suppress the
beep and to create the message file name from the user's first name
(see below), specify:

        C>set taplex=b nf

Note that DOS does not let you use an equals sign within an environ-
ment variable string.  Therefore, when setting up the TAPLEX environ-
ment variable with any option that takes a value (such as "/MEXT=ext"
or "/C=a,b,c,d,e"), use a colon or a slash instead of the equals sign.
In this example, we use a colon to separate the "/MPATH" option from
its value:

        C>set taplex=mpath:c:\tapcis\msgs


               MESSAGE FILE PATH - THE "/MPATH" OPTION

Use the "/MPATH" option to specify to TAPLEX where your individual
correspondence files reside.  (This is the path for the message files
TAPLEX creates, NOT TAPCIS' storage path for your EASYPLEX files.)  If
not specified, they are assumed to reside in the same directory as
your EASYPLEX files.  For example, to store your message files within
a subdirectory of your TAPCIS directory:

        C>taplex /mpath=c:\tapcis\messages

To store your message files in the current directory, use:

        C>taplex mpath=

Note, in these examples, how a command line option may begin with a
slash "/", but is not required to.


             MESSAGE FILE EXTENSION - THE "/MEXT" OPTION

Unless you are using a file naming option which uses the extension for
part of the name (see below), TAPLEX requires all message files to
have the same extension.  By default, this is ".M", but you may
specify a different extension if you like.  Note that you don't have
to type the period: "MSG" and ".MSG" both work.  For example:

        C>taplex mext=msg


                SIMPLE MERGING - THE "/MERGE" OPTION

If you don't want to maintain separate message files for different
users, you may use the "/MERGE" option to force TAPLEX to merge
EASYPLEX.MSG and EASYPLEX.SAV into a single file.  Specified by
itself, "/MERGE" will write to EASYPLEX.M; if you like, you may
provide a different file name.  If the name you provide doesn't have
an extension, the message file extension will be used.  For example:

        C>taplex merge                   merges to EASYPLEX.M
        C>taplex merge=email             merges to EMAIL.M
        C>taplex merge=email.msg         merges to EMAIL.MSG
        C>taplex merge=email mext=mmm    merges to EMAIL.MMM


          CREATING MESSAGE FILE NAMES - THE "/Nxxx" OPTION

Different people have different preferences about how file names
should be constructed - some use last names, some like first names
with the last initial, some may even prefer to use the first three
letters of the user's first or last name as a file extension.  In
the hope of satisfying most people, TAPLEX allows 12 different file
naming options.

Note that if you choose to use one of the options that uses part of
the name as a file extension, you should be sure to keep all your
message files in a separate directory (and use the "/MPATH" option to
tell TAPLEX where they are).  Otherwise it will be impossible to get a
directory listing on your message files alone!

Using "Bozo T. Clown" as an example, the file naming options are:

        /NF       first name                         BOZO.M
        /NL       last name                          CLOWN.M
        /NFLI     first name + last initial          BOZOC.M
        /NFIL     first initial + last name          BCLOWN.M
        /NFMIL    first and middle initials + last   BTCLOWN.M
        /NLFI     last name + first initial          CLOWNB.M
        /NLFMI    last + first and middle initials   CLOWNBT.M
        /NF.L     first name . last name             BOZO.CLO
        /NF.LI    first name . last initial          BOZO.C
        /NL.F     last name . first name             CLOWN.BOZ
        /NL.FI    last name . first initial          CLOWN.B
        /NL.FMI   last . first and middle initials   CLOWN.BT


             STOPPING ON EVERY MESSAGE - THE "/M" OPTION

Normally, TAPLEX stops only on the first message from a new PPN, and
automatically saves any subsequent messages from that PPN without
confirmation.  The Alt-S (or F7) key forces TAPLEX to stop on every
message from that new PPN.  If you want to stop on every message in
your EASYPLEX files, whether it's from a new PPN or not, specify the
"/M" option.


      AUTOMATICALLY CREATING NEW MESSAGE FILE - THE "/A" OPTION

To automatically use the file names TAPLEX constructs without stopping
to confirm each one, you may use the "/A" option.  Note that this will
also deny you the opportunity of maintaining a miscellaneous file, and
of discarding all messages to and from a particular PPN since that
PPN's message file will be created automatically.


  SAVING OR DELETING THE EASYPLEX FILES - THE "/S" AND "/D" OPTIONS

When TAPLEX is finished with its processing, it will ask you if you
want to delete the EASYPLEX files.  Normally they should be deleted so
the next time you run TAPLEX you don't write duplicate messages into
the message files.  You may skip this question by using "/D" to spec-
ify that the files be deleted after processing, or "/S" to specify
that they be saved.


          USING ALT KEYS OR FUNCTION KEYS - THE "/K" OPTION

Specify "/K" if you prefer to use single function keys over mnemonic
Alt-key combinations for operations such as deleting a message or
placing all messages to and from a particular PPN in the miscellaneous
file.


                   EXPERT MODE - THE "/X" OPTIONS

If you find yourself frustrated by having to confirm the deleting of
messages, etc., you may run TAPLEX in expert mode.  TAPLEX will still
stop to ask you to confirm new file names (unless "/A" is also spec-
ified), but you won't get any of the "Are you sure" type prompts that
accompany certain operations.


                DISABLING THE BEEP - THE "/B" OPTION

TAPLEX beeps when it requires some sort of confirmation from you.
Specify "/B" to quiet down the program.


        LIMITING THE NUMBER OF OPEN FILES - THE "/#=n" OPTION

TAPLEX normally keeps a maximum of ten files open at one time.  To
decrease this maximum (thereby decreasing TAPLEX's file handle
requirement, but possibly slowing down its operation), use "/#=n"
where n is the maximum number of open files.  Note that TAPLEX needs
to keep a minimum of four files open at one time.  For example, to
limit TAPLEX to using five open files:

        C>taplex /#=5


        COMPOSITE MONITORS - THE "/C" (FOR COMPOSITE) OPTION

If you are using a composite monitor attached to a CGA, or in general,
if you have any problems seeing TAPLEX's text on your screen, specify
"/C" to cause TAPLEX to always use standard monochrome display
attributes.


       CHANGING COLORS - THE "/C=a,b,c,d,e" (FOR COLOR) OPTION

TAPLEX provides a rudimentary mechanism for changing the colors of the
information it displays.  If you specify the option "/C=a,b,c,d,e",
where each of a, b, c, d, and e are integers, TAPLEX will use these
numbers as display attributes for its a) title window, b) file window,
c) message window, d) prompt window, and e) input fields.  Specify
each number by multiplying the background color value by 16 and adding
the foreground color value.  Color values are: 0=black, 1=blue,
2=green, 3=cyan, 4=red, 5=magenta, 6=brown, 7=grey, and for foreground
colors only, 8-15=the high intensity versions of 0-7.  For example, if
you wanted yellow (which is high intensity brown) letters on a red
background, you'd calculate 4 * 16 + 14 and use the value 78.

Just as an example, the following tells TAPLEX to use all of its
default colors (and also to create the message file name from the
user's first name, just to show how you specify multiple options in
TAPLEX):

        C>taplex nf c=81,23,113,49,19

You can specify all five colors, or let some of them default.  For
example, this command runs TAPLEX with its default colors, except for
the prompt window, which is specified to be yellow on red (as calcu-
lated above):

        C>taplex c=,,,78

Note that there should be no spaces between or after the commas!

The "/C" and "/C=" options only apply to color display cards (CGA,
EGA, VGA).  They will have no effect if you are using a monochrome
card.


                          NOTES ON OPTIONS

Most options may be strung together without separating spaces.  The
exception is for options that take an equals sign and a value; these
may be concatenated to the end of a string of simple options, but may
not be embedded within them.  Furthermore, many simple options may be
inverted by following them with a hyphen.  The following are valid
TAPLEX command lines:

        C>taplex nfb-           use first name, enable beep
        C>taplex nlb            use last name, disable beep
        C>taplex xmext=mum d    run in expert mode, use .MUM as the
                                message file extension, delete
                                easyplex files after processing


                     MISSING OR TRUNCATED PPN'S

Sometimes TAPLEX will run across a message where the PPN has been
truncated or is missing altogether.  It will do the best it can to
locate that user's message file anyway, and it will ask if you want to
put the message in that file.  So if you've already set TAPLEX up to
put Jane Smith's messages in SMITH.M, and then you're asked to confirm
where to put another one of her messages, don't panic.  It could just
be that her PPN was truncated in one of those messages.

It may sometimes happen that the very first message in a message file
has an incorrect PPN.  Since TAPLEX checks the first message to see
whose file it is, this will cause some confusion to the program and
inconvenience to you each time it is run and you have to direct TAPLEX
to put that user's messages in that file.  The best thing to do in
this case is to correct the PPN in the message file manually with your
text editor.


                  REREADING THE MISCELLANEOUS FILE

After a while, you may wish to separate out some of the messages in
your miscellaneous file (MISC.M).  In order to run MISC.M back through
TAPLEX and sort through its messages, you must first rename it
EASYPLEX.MSG or EASYPLEX.SAV.  (Make sure you've either processed and
deleted your real EASYPLEX files, or temporarily renamed them.)
TAPLEX will process this single file and prompt you to confirm the
file name for each correspondent.  Just press Alt-M for those users
you wish to remain in the miscellaneous file.


                        THE TAPLEXXX PROGRAM

Bug reporting can be a touchy issue with a program such as TAPLEX that
deals with confidential information.  We recognize that users won't be
enthusiastic about eplexing their EASYPLEX files to us, and yet it
could be difficult to track down specific problems without access to
the files causing those problems.

As a solution, we have created an auxiliary utility TAPLEXXX which
creates facsimiles of the EASYPLEX files where all the message text
has been X'd out.  Feel confident that if you need to send us your
files, their contents can remain private.


                          ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TAPLEX was written in Turbo C Version 2.0 by Tracey M. Siesser of
Korenthal Associates.  She reluctantly thanks her partner, James E.
Korenthal, for browbeating her into using his TABLE (associative array
processing) functions, still in development at the time.  (Then
again, everyone at Korenthal Associates is used to programming at
moving targets.)  She also thanks Jim for his excellent suggestions on
the design of this program, even where it resulted in days (nights,
etc.) of extra work to make things "just so."  (So if you also think
TAPLEX supports an overabundance of file naming options, you now know
where to point the finger!)

Korenthal Associates would also like to thank Esther Schindler, Joan
Friedman, and John James for their assistance and encouragement, and
Sandra Lashway for her good intentions, during the TAPLEX beta test
period.  Don Gloistein and Daniel W. Opperman gave invaluable sugges-
tions for new features.  Lewis Horowitz of Korenthal Associates was
also helpful in the design and testing of this program.


                          REVISION HISTORY

    1.0   01/24/89  Initial release.
    1.01  01/25/89  Registration bug fixed.
    1.2   02/03/89  Alt-S (F7) key added for "Stop 'n Shop", er,
                        "Save 'n Stop" single message save.
                    /M option added for single message mode.
                    /MERGE option added for simple EASYPLEX merge.
                    Status information moved to bottom of file
                        list window.
                    Single keystroke summary line replaced by
                        multiple help messages; space bar cycles.
                    New cursor processing hides cursor when not
                        needed; uses different cursors for insert
                        and overstrike modes.
                    Moved TAPLEX.TPX from storage path to TAPPATH.
                    : and / can substitute for = in /C and /#
                        options (in TAPLEX environment variable).
                    Added ASP affiliation.


                               SUPPORT

Support for TAPLEX is provided on the CompuServe TAPCIS forum, as
mentioned above, or you may EasyPlex Korenthal Associates directly at
[73267,333].  We may also be reached at the following address and
telephone number:

        Korenthal Associates, Inc.
        230 West 13th Street
        New York, New York 10011
        [phone]

We hope you enjoy using TAPLEX!   ]</\