Black Box 4/BlackBox.cdr/os2/bubba.arj/BUBBADIR.ZIP/BUBBA.HLP

OS/2 Help File | 1992-03-11 | 13.2 KB | 369 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. BUBBA Help ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 B.U.B.B.A - Best Universal Bulletin Board Access

 Beta Version 0.01

 Copyright 1992 Bubba Software, All rights reserved.

You may copy or distribute as many copies as you want, but there must not be
any charge for distributing this program.

If you distribute copies of this program you must include all license notices
and documentation.  You may not modify this program before you distribute it,
without the permission of the authors.

You are licensed to use this software free of charge during it's beta test and
evaluation period.  The beta period will end June 1, 1992.

       Contents

 o Overview
 o Terminal
 o Setup
 o Mark
 o Marking Fora
 o Marking Areas
 o Marking Subjects
 o View
 o Supported BBS Types
 o Why BUBBA?
 o License Information
 o Known Problems


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Overview ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 B.U.B.B.A is a multi-bulletin board message gatherer and reader for OS/2
Presentation Manager.

 It is designed to provide a common message-reader user interface while
allowing access to many different style bulletin boards.

 B.U.B.B.A is designed to minimize the number and duration of on-line
operations.  Only selected fora and areas are visited to obtain new subjects
and only messages belonging to marked subjects are downloaded. Subjects are
marked and messages are viewed off-line.

 B.U.B.B.A allows downloading of new subjects or marked messages from any board
while viewing of previously downloaded messages from that, or any other board.

 Currently supported boards are IBM National Support Center, Compuserve and
Fernwood.  We plan on supporting many more of the Maximus and Fido style
boards as time permits (and demand dictates).

 Under the menu bar is the B.U.B.B.A Button Bar (say that three times fast!).
On the Button Bar is a combo-box and four radio buttons.

 The combo-box contains the list of currently accessible bulletin boards. The
currently active bulletin board is selected via this control.

 B.U.B.B.A is divided up into four workspaces.  They are: Mark, View, Setup and
Terminal.  Each of the workspaces is accessed by its radio button on  the
button bar.  The Mark, View and Setup workspaces reflect the context of the
currently active bulletin board.  The Terminal workspace reflects the current
on-line operation, regardless of what board is selected.

 Note that we have adopted the following terminology to describe the
organizational hierarchy of bulletin boards:

 FORUM - Highest level division.  A forum contains one or more areas.  On some
boards this is called a Conference.

 AREA - Broad topic such as "OS/2 2.0 Beta".  On some boards this is called a
section.

 SUBJECT - Bulletin board members can create new subjects or reply to existing
subjects by writing messages.

 MESSAGE - The text written by the user to describe the subject or reply to a
previous message.

 Next Item (Terminal),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Terminal ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The Terminal Workspace shows the progress of the current on-line operation,
regardless of which BBS is currently active.

When you enter the Terminal Workspace, the button bar expands.  Located on the
expanded button bar are two icons.  The first is a keyboard radio-button. When
selected it allows interactive access to the current on-line session.  The
second button, when pressed, will attempt to break the current on-line session.

 Next Item (Setup),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Setup ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The Setup Workspace is divided up into two sections.  The top half is common
to all bulletin boards.  It contains the communication and modem settings used
to access the board.  The bottom half contains non-hardware settings such as
user name and password.

 Before attempting any on-line operations, you should select the SETUP
Workspace and type in your userids and passwords for any of the supplied BBSs
that you want to access.  Also, check that the telephone numbers and modem
initialization and termination strings are appropriate.

Recent Forum and Area lists have been provided.  Fora for BBSs other than
Compuserve do not change very often.  In the case of Compuserve, however, you
will probably want to add your own favorite fora. You should  also select the
Areas that you want to visit.

    BBSSETUPHINTS

 o IBM National Support Center - We recommend that you toggle expert mode on.
   It speeds things  up. Graphics should be turned off.

 o Fernwood - You should be setup as: Novice, without More? prompts, no IBM
   characters,  no clear screen, tty mode and no hotkeys.

 o OS/2 Shareware -  You should be setup as: Novice, without More? prompts, no
   IBM characters, no clear screen, tty mode and no hotkeys.

 o Bubba - You should be setup as: Novice, without More? prompts, no IBM
   characters, no clear screen, tty mode and no hotkeys.

  Next Item (Mark),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Mark ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 When you enter the Mark Workspace, the button bar expands.  Located on the far
right are three radio buttons labeled: Fora, Area and Subjects.  Also, a
vertical "Action Bar" appears containing other context-sensitive controls.

 The Mark Workspace is where fora, areas and subjects are selected. Selection
means different things for each context.

 There are two listboxes.  The top listbox contains un-marked items and  the
bottom listbox contains marked items.  To mark an item, double click  on an
item in the un-marked listbox. To un-mark an item, double click on  an item in
the marked listbox.

 Next Item (Marking Fora),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Marking Fora ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 To mark fora, select the Fora context by clicking on the Fora radio button  on
the expanded button bar.

 Marking a forum activates it.  Only marked fora will be visited to  obtain new
area lists and new subjects.

 To add a forum, click on the New button located on the Action Bar.  You will
be prompted for the BBS specific information necessary to add this forum.

 Next Item (Marking Areas),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Marking Areas ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 To mark areas, click on the Areas radio button on the expanded button bar.  A
Combo-box will appear on the left side.  This combo-box is used to select which
Fora's Areas to display.

 The listboxes will reflect the areas of the currently selected forum only.  To
switch fora, use the combo-box or the Up and Down arrows on the action bar.

 If you have never visited the selected forum, there will not be any areas. To
get an area list, use the "Join" button on the vertical Action Bar.  This will
cause an on-line operation specific for the active BBS.  It will list  the
available areas and save them.  All areas will be un-marked (inactive).

 Only marked areas will be visited when gathering new subjects.

 Next Item (Marking Subjects),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. Marking Subjects ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 To mark subjects, click on the Subjects radio button on the expanded button
bar.  Two Combo-boxes will appear on the left side.  The first combo-box is
used to select a forum.  The second combo-box allows you to select an area.

 The listboxes will reflect the marked and un-marked subjects of the  currently
selected forum and area only. (To switch fora, use the combo-box  or the Up and
Down arrows  on the action bar.  To switch areas use the  right and left
arrows.)

 If you have marked subjects, the "Marked" Button will appear on the  action
bar.  Pressing that button will cause an on-line operation that will gather
only the messages belonging to the subjects that were marked.

 Note: When an on-line operation is in progress, you may not access the mark
controls for that BBS.  You may, however, perform Mark operations for other
BBSs, go to the View Workspace and view any BBSs messages (even the one
currently on-line) or watch the progress of the on-line operation in the
Terminal Workspace.

 After the messages have been downloaded, the "Process" Button should appear on
the action bar.  New messages are held until you press this button.  This
allows you to finish viewing previously downloaded messages in the viewer
before they are replaced by the new messages.

 Next Item (View),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. View ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The View Workspace is where message trees are viewed.  There are three
combo-boxes on the expanded button bar.  The first selects fora, the second
selects areas and the third selects the current subject.  (The current  subject
is also selected by using the Up and Down arrows on the action bar.)

 It is interesting to see the messages in their from/to relationships.  After
B.U.B.B.A reads all the messages of a given subject, it links the messages into
a message tree.  This tree is displayed and can be used for navigation.

 The tree and message windows can be sized as necessary.  Increasing the size
of one window will decrease the size of the other. As the mouse pointer passes
over the border between the two windows, it changes into a sizing icon.  To
size, click the left mouse button, hold and drag the border.

 There are two main windows in the View Workspace. When a subject is  selected,
its message tree is displayed in the top window.  The first message text is
displayed in the bottom window.

 You may use the graphic tree to select the next message text to view. You may
also use the left and right arrows on the action bar to scan the  messages in
the order in which they were downloaded.

 There are other buttons on the action bar.  Currently they are not
implemented but eventually you will be able to reply to a message, create a new
subject, search for text, print and file messages.

 Next Item (Supported BBS Types),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. Supported BBS Types ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 IBM NSC - [phone]; upto 9600,Full,8,N,1

 Compuserve - (see CIS manual for local phone, baud, settings)

 Fernwood - [phone]; upto 9600,Full,8,N,1

 OS/2 Shareware (NORLOFF) - [phone]; upto 9600,Full,8,N,1

 Bubba BBS - [phone]; 2400,Full,8,N,1

 Next Item (Why BUBBA?),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 11. Why BUBBA? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Bubba was written by three programmers with a total of 38 years of professional
programming experience behind them and two startup companies to their credit.
We have been using OS/2 since the beginning (when Bill Gates said this was the
future direction of personal computers). Many of the features and functions
found in BUBBA could only have been done using OS/2. Thanks to our wives,
children and pets for their support during our long nights and weekends spent
in front of the computer.

We have decided to release this Beta Version of BUBBA for two reasons.

First, we have noticed a lot of message traffic on the IBM National  Support
Center BBS on the subject of OS/2 message readers.  We felt that the IBM BBS
supports the OS/2 cause (as we do) and we should help that effort.

Second, we are interested in getting feedback on whether a product like  this
is in demand, and if so, what additional features it should have.

This is by NO MEANS a finished product.  This product cannot reply  print or
save messages and will no longer function after June 1, 1992.

We have set up our own Bulletin Board to answer questions, provide  support and
bug fixes and, most importantly, obtain feedback from you.

Thank you for your interest!

JoeSchmitt
Peter Sparago
Theo Jenetopulos

Next Item (License Information),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12. License Information ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 You may copy or distribute as many copies as you want, but there must not be
any charge for distributing this program.

If you distribute copies of this program you must include all license notices
and documentation.  You may not modify this program before you distribute it,
without the permission of the authors.

 You are licensed to use this software free of charge during it's beta test and
evaluation period.  The beta period will end June 1, 1992. After June 1, 1992
this software will no longer be completely functional. We hope to make a
Shareware version available on or before June 1, 1992.

If you find this program of use PLEASE let us know by writing to us at:

    BubbaSoftware
    P.O. Box 449
    Branford CT, 06405.

Or phone the Bubba Bulletin Board at [phone].

You may use this program during the beta period to evaluate it's usefulness.
You are not allowed to modify this program in any way. This product is supplied
on an "as is" basis, there is no warranty either expressed or implied.

        PRODUCTSUPPORT
    To contact Bubba Software you may either:
    1. Call us (voice) at [phone].
    2. Call the Bubba BBS at [phone]. Supported
          bauds are 300,1200 and 2400.

We hope that the Bubba BBS will be used to report bugs and give  constructive
feedback on the Bubba software.

Next Item (Known Problems),  Return to Contents


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13. Known Problems ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 o * BUBBA - does not always position large trees properly when tracking  the
   left and right arrows.

 o * BUBBA - You are not always notified when an on-line operation fails.

 o * BUBBA - The number of Re-dial retries is hard coded.

 o * BUBBA - There is no way to stop an on-line operation on demand.

 o * BUBBA - Due to script resync, it is possible to download a duplicate
   message.  This causes the message tree for that subject to be corrupted if
   another message in the download references the duplicates.  One duplicate
   can be edited out of the MSG file.

 o * BUBBA - There is no keyboard interface.  A mouse is required.

 o * BUBBA - takes a while to load.  Though each board is loaded in a separate
   thread, you must wait for the first one to load.

 o * IBM NSC Bulletins change frequently, therefore the order of More and
   Continue prompts vary.  While BUBBA is programmed to expect this, sometimes
   it seems to get lost. (Especially if not in expert mode.)

 o * Compuserve - You must already have "joined" a forum.  The Join button in
   the Area list will only get new section lists.

 o * Compuserve - You cannot delete (or edit) a forum.

 o * Compuserve - BUBBA does not handle E-Mail.

 o * Maximus Boards (Fernwood and OS/2 Shareware) --- These boards change
   message numbers dynamically.  Since BUBBA  saves message numbers, it keeps
   track (as best it can) of the changes in message numbers.  Currently, this
   algorithm is still in development. We suggest that once you download new
   subjects, you download all desired messages as soon as possible. (We are
   seeking help from Maximus experts on this problem!)

  Return to Contents