*** Comms Tutorial/1 page/892 words/2 grabs/1 boxout/Harry Sideras *** *** Tutorial *** *** Harry Sideras *** *** Communications *** *** Title Headline *** On the NeST *** Standfirst *** Semper is more than a simpler Mailer - Harry Sideras delves deeper into its workings and discovers more time-saving tips *** Body Text *** Semper is a deceptively simple program but a good read of the documentation reveals hints of its hidden tricks to take control of messaging so that it does what we want and not that cardinal sin of software 'only what it lets us do'. The method used is a combination of two menus in Semper's 'Config' menu - 'Functions', which we met last month, and a new one called 'Events'. *** Crosshead *** The main event *** Body text *** Semper is driven by events and uses a default 24-hour event if none other is specified - this should be disabled in the "Events" menu before we add our own. *** Screenshot 1: EVNTMENU.GIF here *** Last month's introduction required us to export our messages and dial the BBS by pressing keys manually, but basic functions of this type are ideally suited to automation. Our first choice of event will be one that calls our home BBS, so choose a suitable label for it and we can decide the days and times to call. Telephone charges vary with the time of day and between weekday and the weekend, so we may decide to call at cheap rates during the week and differing times on Saturday and Sunday. Another variation might be to delay a Friday call until after midnight to catch the weekend rates and to dial on Sunday night rather than at Monday's higher weekday rates. If we also restrain ourselves from requesting files until the weekend we can easily keep our costs below our target of œ10 per quarterly bill. Beware though - unless the ST and modem have a separate room, the combined hum of hard-drive fan and screech of modem in the night can be the cause of unsettled sleep. Alternatively, it can be used as a back-up alarm clock! *** Screenshot 2: EVNTDEFN.GIF here *** To configure a daily call, double-click on the line labelled 'On:', as shown in the screenshot, where a pop-up menu gives us the choice of individual days, weekdays or weekends. For the example discussed earlier we need to type the days directly onto the line, with each one separated by a vertical line (Shift-backslash on the keyboard) - such as 'Tue|Wed|Thu'. Start and End times need to be set in case of interruptions by screensavers or telephone calls, but also set the 'Dynamic' and 'Force' check boxes to ensure that the event is carried out at the first opportunity after the interruption, even if that's beyond the end time we decided upon. To the right of the 'Start' field we can configure the event to take place on a certain day of the month, only within a certain month, or a combination of the two for once-a-year events. That may be useful for other functions you may decide upon. Finally, 'Cost' should be set to '-1' to match the delimiter used in Semper's COSTS.DAT file. *** Crosshead *** Functional behaviour *** Body text *** Having chosen the parameters to be met for the event to take place, the operation that will actually be carried out needs to be set up. Mark the check box titled 'Start event with:' and select the 'Function' radio button. Double-clicking on the 'Name/Cmd:' line reveals the Functions we set up last month, so choose the one that dials the BBS and click on OK to complete the event setup. The main Semper dialog will show the label for this event as the next one to be carried out. Up to 20 functions can be created in Semper, each of which can set off several programs or dial different BBS's. Further examples include a daily event which ensures all messages we've written have been exported, or a weekly run to trim the size of LED's messagebase. Operations like this remove the drudge of remembering simple file maintenance, which is what a computer is best designed for, after all. If you haven't already experimented for yourself, try adding to your Aftermail function so that LED is loaded as a program following the import of your new messages. A whole host of support utilities are available to be called from Semper and a more detailed diary of events and functions will be looked at later in the series. *** Start of Boxout 1 *** BBS Update New to the NeST list since issue 1 are: LETS Forum Falmouth Rob Follett 01326 378717 Meon Valley Portsmouth Si Gardner 01705-632199 OASES User Westerham, Kent Rory Street 01959 563 968 17:00-22:00 Paul Seed's PMT BBS has changed its name to Phoenix and has a new number - 01253 342628. Times remain restricted to 6pm-9am. BBS closures include SySTem BBS and, sadly, AdLib BBS run by Andy Curtis and Frank Charlton. Please ensure you remove these numbers from your diallers. However, the AdLib message base has been recreated by Andy and Frank as an Internet EMail mailing list. To subscribe, send an email to majordomo@adlib.co.uk with a blank subject and the following in the body of the message: subscribe mbase [first name] [last name] Example: subscribe mbase andy curtis *** End of Boxout 1 *** *** Screenshot 1: EVNTMENU.GIF *** Connecting to the BBS and system maintenance can be timed for maximum convenience and minimum cost *** Screenshot 2: EVNTDEFN.GIF *** The regularity of processing each event can be controlled in great detail