TAPORDER






TAPORDER Version 1.2
TOTSR Version 1.2
Copyright (C) 1990 GRIMS Associates
All Rights Reserved





GRIMS Associates
P.O. Box 810666
Boca Raton, Florida 33481-0666







DISCLAIMER AND LICENSE AGREEMENT

Your first use of TAPORDER or TOTSR constitutes your agreement
to the following provisions. If you do not agree to them,
please do not use these programs.

TAPORDER and TOTSR are copyrighted programs offered "as is" to
CompuServe subscribers for personal use, testing and
evaluation. TAPORDER and TOTSR have no official affiliation
with the CompuServe Information Service, CompuServe
Incorporated, OMNI Information Resources, Inc., or Korenthal
Associates, Inc. GRIMS Associates and the author make no claims
as to the program's suitability for any specific use and
expressly disavow any responsibility for real or consequential
damages of any sort.

A limited license is granted to all CompuServe subscribers to
use and to duplicate this version of TAPORDER and TOTSR for
their personal use. After an evaluation period of no more than
30 days, those who did not purchase the program directly from
GRIMS Associates, continuing to use this program are obligated
to pay for it, as outlined on the opening screen of TAPORDER
(when run with no command line options) and in this
documentation.

Additional provisions for commercial use: In commercial use
this limited license applies only to one individual. Commercial
users are granted a limited license of 30 days duration during
which time individuals in the organization may evaluate the
software. After that evaluation a site license or purchase of
individual copies is required for each individual in the
organization who uses the software or for each computer it is
used on, whichever is less. Commercial users may contact GRIMS
Associates at the address below or on CompuServe at
[73417,3603] for further information.


TRADEMARKS

TAPCIS(tm) is a trademark of OMNI Information Resources, Inc.
CompuServe Information Service(R) is a registered trademark of
CompuServe Incorporated. EasyPlex(R) is a registered trademark
of CompuServe Incorporated. TAPMARK, Enhanced TAPMARK, and
TAPTOOL are copyrighted programs from Korenthal Associates,
Inc.







LIMITED WARRANTY

GRIMS Associates (GRIMS) warrants the physical diskette (when
one is purchased with TAPORDER registration) and documentation
to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period
of 60 days from the date of purchase. In the event of
notification within the warranty period of defects in material
or workmanship, SEI will replace the defective diskette or
documentation.

GRIMS Associates specifically disclaims all other warranties,
express or implied, including but not limited to implied
warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose. In no event shall GRIMS be liable for any loss of
profit or any other commercial damage, including but not
limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages
arising out of the use, the result of use, or inability to use
this product.




GRIMS Associates
P.O. Box 810666 * Boca Raton, Florida 33481-0666

Program and Documentation Copyright (C) 1990 GRIMS Associates.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication or program may
be reproduced, photocopied, stored on a retrieval system, or
transmitted except as provided by the license above.







INTRODUCTION

TAPORDER is a companion program for the TAPCIS Communications
Program. It is intended for use with message files created by
TAPCIS.

TAPORDER takes over the task of managing the contents of the
.MSG message files created by TAPCIS enhancing the TAPCIS
capabilities.

TAPORDER is a separate product originally written by Doug
Swallow, a user of TAPCIS, and now supported by GRIMS
Associates. TAPORDER is a copyrighted program, but is
distributed as a shareware product. TAPORDER can be
distributed freely for a 30-day free trial period. If after the
30 days you continue to use TAPORDER, you must register and pay
for the program.

Although TAPORDER will continue to function after the 30-day
free trial period, you should register and pay for it if you
keep it on your computer.

TAPORDER is available for download from the Scripts & Tools
section of the CompuServe TAPCIS forum.


FEATURES

Have you ever downloaded a message from a thread that
cryptically answered a question posed earlier in the thread?
Perhaps you no longer know what was being discussed, or for
whatever reason, need to refer to earlier discussions in a
message thread.

Every time you run TAPCIS, you lose continuity with threaded
messages in each forum. If you have elected to append new
message downloads, you still lack a logical order to the
messages and you eventually have an extremely large message
file that must be manually trimmed to conserve space.

Perhaps you use TAPCIS several times a day and download
messages from all forums you participate in. Some forums have
high activity and some do not. But you want to stay on top of
everything happening.

TAPORDER will keep your messages in order and keep your disk
from filling up out of control.

- TAPORDER reintegrates the individual on-line
sessions into a single, correctly threaded sequence
of messages.







- TAPORDER removes duplicated messages from the .MSG
file. EasyPlex message files are treated
differently since it is not possible to ensure that
a unique message number is assigned to each
message.

- TAPORDER updates the reply information associated
with each message as more replies are obtained from
CIS, regardless of how many individual on-line
sessions are used to gather these replies.

- TAPORDER marks the messages most recently obtained
from CIS so you can quickly scan only messages you
have not yet read while having quick access to all
messages in the appropriate thread, just as if you
had downloaded the entire message base.

- TAPORDER disposes of messages once they reach a
certain age.

- TAPORDER disposes of entire threads of messages
when no new messages have been added to the thread
in a certain amount of time.

- TOTSR lets you control how TAPORDER handles
specific messages and threads, and lets you place
permanent "holds" on specific messages so they stay
as part of your "in box" until you release them.







USING TAPORDER

TAPORDER is designed to be run after every TAPCIS on-line
session that downloads data into the message files (*.MSG) and
before you view the messages off-line with TAPCIS.

TAPCIS is first used to gather new messages from CIS. These
messages are appended to the message files stored on your hard
disk. If you use a utility such as TAPMARK from Korenthal
Associates, Inc. to mark threads you are interested in, you
would run TAPMARK now, then re-run TAPCIS to download any
selected threads.

Once all new messages have been gathered TAPORDER is run
against all the message files TAPCIS just updated. TAPORDER
processes the new messages from CIS and inserts them into the
proper locations in pre-existing threads in the message files.
TAPORDER updates the reply information maintained for each
parent message in the message file. TAPORDER also processes
instruction given to it by the use of the TOTSR memory resident
utility. These instructions include commands to delete, hold,
or age messages or threads specifically. Finally, TAPORDER
places a special marker on every message that has just been
downloaded from CIS. This marker is the only way you can tell
that you have not already read a message.

TAPCIS is run to view the message files. You can page through
all messages normally as if the entire message file had just
been obtained from CIS, or you may view only the newly
downloaded messages. Each newly downloaded message is marked in
the upper right corner "[***] New message ## of ##" where the
"##" symbols are actually replaced by the message numbers. If
the message is directed to your PPN or is from your PPN, the
marker will actually be "[***]@". You can quickly locate new
messages directed to you by searching for this special marker.

Using the F2 (Search) function of TAPCIS, search for any
occurrence of "[***]" in the message file. This will cause
TAPCIS to display the next new message in the message file. Use
the "N" key to skip to the next new message, and so on. Since
the entire thread of every message is maintained in the message
file, you can always use the up and down arrow keys to
familiarize yourself with any other messages in the thread.

Pay attention to the "[***]" marker in the upper right hand
corner as you scan through the message file. TAPCIS will reset
the search string to null if you press the "N" key when there
are no more matches to be found. By watching the new message
counter and skipping to the next forum at the last message, you
will be able to continue using the "N" key without re-entering
the search string with F2.







While you are reading messages you can invoke the TOTSR memory
resident utility to command TAPORDER to perform special
processing against individual messages or threads in a forum
message file.







CONFIGURING TAPCIS FOR USE WITH TAPORDER

TAPORDER is designed to be used with message files created by
TAPCIS that are appended to every time you go on-line with
TAPCIS. It is important that you set the TAPCIS option entitled
"Append/Overwrite Message Files" to "Append." If this option is
set to "Overwrite," TAPORDER will not offer you many advantages
at all.


INSTALLING TAPORDER FILES

Install the TAPORDER.EXE and TOTSR.EXE files anywhere that is
convenient for you. Because TAPORDER makes use of overlays, it
must either be in the directory it will be run from, or that
directory must be specified in the system PATH environment
variable.

TOTSR must be run from the same directory that the TAPCIS file
PARAMS.CIS is located. See the section on installing TOTSR for
more information.

TAPORDER must be able to locate your PARAMS.CIS file. Either
run TAPORDER from the same directory PARAMS.CIS is located, or
have the PARAMS.CIS directory listed in the system PATH
environment variable. Alternately, you can create a new
environment variable named "TAPPATH" and specify the directory
that the PARAMS.CIS file can be located. For example, if
PARAMS.CIS is installed on a directory named "\TAPCIS" on drive
D:, add this line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

SET TAPPATH=D:\TAPCIS

TAPORDER uses the PARAMS.CIS file to determine the location of
your STORAGE directory, and the names of the forums which are
currently active.


RUNNING TAPORDER THE FIRST TIME

The first time that you execute TAPORDER, it will create a
configuration file on your disk. This file will be created on
the same directory as TAPORDER.EXE. The configuration file will
contain your registration number, information about default
settings, and information about the command line options you
have defined for TAPORDER. This is an important file, and you
will learn how to add a great deal of functionality to TAPORDER
by editing this file directly.







TAPORDER uses certain control codes that TAPCIS embeds in a
message file between sessions in determining which messages are
new and unread. The first time you process a message file with
TAPORDER, either no messages will be marked as new and unread,
or most of them will be marked. Subsequent processing of the
file by TAPORDER will correctly identify new and unread
messages as TAPORDER becomes synchronized with TAPCIS.

Once you've run TAPORDER the first time, you're ready to begin
using TAPORDER in your daily TAPCIS environment.







TAPORDER COMMAND LINE

The format of the TAPORDER command line is:

TAPORDER [options] filespec [[options] filespec ...]

'options' can be any combination of defined options. Command
line options are completely user-defined in
TAPORDER. The TAPORDER.INI configuration file
allows you to define what TAPORDER functions are
activated or deactivated by a command line option.
Refer to the section entitle EDITING TAPORDER.INI
for details. A sample TAPORDER.INI file is included
with the distribution of TAPORDER which contains
some commonly used command line definitions.
Comments within this file describe how the command
line options are used.

'filespec' can follow one of two different formats:

FILENAME FORMAT
You can list a specific filename explicitly for TAPORDER
to process. It may include wildcards, but must give the
full name and extension of the file to be processed.

FORUM NAME FORMAT
Precede the name with one or two exclamation points ("!"
or "!!") tells TAPORDER that you are specifying a forum
name that is declared in the TAPCIS PARAMS.CIS file. If
you use one exclamation point, the forum must also be
active otherwise TAPORDER will skip it. Wildcards can be
used in the forum name. When you use this format,
TAPORDER keeps track of which forums you have processed
and ignores a second attempt to process them in the same
TAPORDER run.

A forum or file name may include wildcard characters "*"
and/or "?". A filename extension may be provided for
either case. If none is specified, ".MSG" is the default.







EDITING THE TAPORDER.INI FILE

A configuration file is created the first time TAPORDER is run.
This file is used to store important information about your
preferences for TAPORDER processing. As future versions of
TAPORDER are released, you usually will not to make any changes
to TAPORDER.INI except where new features have been added to
TAPORDER.

The TAPORDER.INI file contains three important types of
information:

(1) Registration information

(2) Command line option definitions

(3) TAPORDER message file processing defaults

Remember that everything in the TAPORDER.INI file is case
sensitive. It is important to preserve the upper and lower case
of all options which you define.

Information is organized in the TAPORDER.INI file in named
"paragraphs." Each paragraph is identified by being enclosed in
brackets. For example, the paragraph containing registration
information is entitled "[TapOrder registration]".

Underneath each paragraph is a list of options and values. This
follows the format:

option=format

When you execute TAPORDER from the command line, TAPORDER will
search through the TAPORDER.INI file for default operating
parameters. For each file that TAPORDER is told to process, it
will search the TAPORDER.INI file and load parameters in the
following order:

[TapOrder defaults] is loaded.

[FILE fullyqualname] a fully qualified filename
(including drive and directory)
is matched against the message
file TAPORDER is currently
processing; if no exact match is
found, a wildcard search is
performed; the matching paragraph
then overrides any previously
loaded options which are
specified explicitly. If a fully
qualified filename matches,
processing begins, otherwise a
filename/extension paragraph
search is performed.







[FILE filename] filename is matched against the
message file TAPORDER is
currently processing; if no exact
match is found, a wildcard search
is performed; the matching
paragraph then overrides any
previously loaded options which
are specified explicitly.

Finally, any command line options which precede the name of the
file currently being processed take final precedence over any
defaults that exist in the TAPORDER.INI file.

As was mentioned earlier, command line options are fully user-
defined in TAPORDER. By creating a paragraph named "[Option
optionname]" where optionname is the exact sequence that you
desire to use on the command line, you can specify any number
of TAPORDER options and values. The same options which can be
specified in a paragraph named "[TapOrder defaults]" or "[File
filename]" can be used in an "[Option optionname]" paragraph.







OPTIONS VALID IN [TapOrder operation]

The "[TapOrder operation]" paragraph defines functions which
control the overall operation of TAPORDER.


Beep=On
Beep=Off [default]

Specify that TAPORDER is/is not to sound a beep when all
files specified on the command line have been processed.







OPTIONS VALID IN [TapOrder registration]

The "[TapOrder registration]" paragraph defines functions which
control how TAPORDER views the registration status of the
current copy of the program. All of these functions are
controlled internally by TAPORDER when the installation process
is followed, but this information is provided for those who
might be curious, or who would experiment anyway.


Version=XXX [XXX is actually the current version
number]

This option enables TAPORDER to recognize when a new
version is running for the first time against a
TAPORDER.INI file that existed with a previous version.
Sometimes formats of options will change and this enables
that change to occur automatically. TAPORDER always
ensures this parameter reflects the version of TAPORDER
that last ran against the file.


Registration=XXX [XXX is actually 'TRIAL' or a
registration number]

This option is where the registration number will be
stored when you purchase a copy of TAPORDER. In the
meantime, the word 'TRIAL' is kept here to indicate that
TAPORDER is in its free trial period.


Installed=dd-mmm-yy hh:mm:ss

This option records the date and time that TAPORDER was
first installed.







OPTIONS VALID IN [TapOrder defaults], [File ...] and [Option
...]

The parameters which control how TAPORDER processes a message
file are declared in paragraphs identified by filename as
described in the TAPORDER.INI introduction.

Further, you can define new command line options to override
any defaults defined by filename, so that you can control how
TAPORDER works from the command line entirely the way that best
suits your specific needs.

The "[TapOrder defaults]" paragraph allows you to override
TAPORDER's built-in defaults.

Defining a command line option is as simple as creating a new
paragraph. For example, to create a command line option called
"spec", create a paragraph named "[Option spec]". Underneath
that paragraph, include the options and values which you want
in effect when you use this option. On the command line, just
add the option "-spec" to the command line preceding the files
you want it applied to, and TAPORDER will use the options
defined in this new paragraph to control how the files named on
the command line are processed.

The "[File filename]" paragraph can use just the filename and
extension, or a fully qualified filename including drive and
directory. Remember that TAPORDER initially loads its built-in
defaults, then overrides those with any specified in the
"[TapOrder defaults]" paragraph, then overrides those with any
specified in a generic filename/extension paragraph unless a
fully-qualified filename paragraph exists, and finally
overrides those with any command line options specified.


Beep=On [default]
Beep=Off

Control TAPORDER's use of the system bell to signal the
end of processing after each file.


Clean message=Yes [default]
Clean message=No

Specify whether the new message marker "[***]" should be
replaced with "[***%" when one is found within the text
of a message. Using this option prevents the TAPCIS F2-
Search function from locating messages that contain this
special marker within their text. This function also
works with the special strings "[*START-OF-THREAD*]" and
"[*T*]".







Compare last processing=No [default]
Compare last processing=Yes

When set to "Yes," TAPORDER tracks the date and time a
file was last processed. Before processing the file
again, TAPORDER compares the current date and time on the
file with the stored date and time. If it has not
changed, processing of the file is skipped.

TAPORDER keeps the date and time of last processing in a
paragraph named with the fully-qualified file name of the
message file. If TAPORDER must create this paragraph, a
special option is included in it: "Use higher level=".
This option tells TAPORDER to ignore anything stored in
the paragraph except for the last processing date.


Delete private message=No [default]
Delete private message=Yes

Private messages can be deleted by TAPORDER from the
message file. Only messages that are not marked as new
will be deleted. This is useful for pruning private
communications out of a message file that you want to
send to someone or post publicly. It is most beneficial
when used as a command line option so that you can
control its use from the command line.


Description=

You can specify a descriptive explanation of the file
defaults. The description will be displayed prior to
actually processing the message file. This can be helpful
to give verification that the correct parameters are
being used for a specific file.


Display functions=No [default]
Display functions=Yes

Specify whether or not to display the values of all
options prior to processing a message file. Use this in
conjunction with the "Verify=" option to require
confirmation of parameters.







Mark new duplicate=Yes [default]
Mark new duplicate=No

Specify whether new messages which are duplicates of
existing messages should still be marked as new with the
"[***]" marker. When you download threads first, then
messages, or set TAPCIS to download marked messages then
read the forum regularly, you can end up with duplicated
messages. Rather than force you to see the duplicated
messages as new, TAPORDER allows you to decide what is
important.


Mark new message=Yes [default]
Mark new message=No

Specify whether or not new, unread messages should be
marked with the "[***]" marker.


Message age=None [default]
Message age=<# days>

Specify the number of days a message is kept in the
message file. The number of days is a floating point
number greater than 0. Any message older than the
specified number of days will be "aged" in accordance
with the "Save aged=" option. See also: "Thread age=". Be
careful, if you specify a 0, all messages will be aged
immediately if they're not new and unread.


Navigation=Off [default]
Navigation=On

Specify whether message navigation information should be
included in the message header area of each message. If
included, this navigation information provides the
specific TAPCIS keypress or JUMP# to go directly to the
previous message marked with "[***]", the parent of the
current message, and the first message in the current
thread.







News flash=Recycle [default]
News flash=Save
News flash=Delete

Specify whether "Forum Bulletins" and "Forum
Announcements," the normal location for forum News Flash
announcements, should be saved.

"Recycle" specifies that only new forum announcements
should be saved. The next processing will see those
deleted and a new set take their place.

"Save" specifies that they should always be saved and are
subject to the normal aging going on in the file.

"Delete" specifies that they should always be deleted,
even when they're new and unread.


Process transaction file=Yes [default]
Process transaction file=No

Specify that TAPORDER should process the .TOX files
created by TOTSR.


Reply style=None [default]
Reply style=Count
Reply style=List
Reply style=Navigate
Reply style=Describe

Specify the format for listing replies to each message at
the end of the applicable message. "None" causes no
information about replies to be included in the message.
"Count" causes a single line showing the number of
replies that exist to each message to be included at the
end. "List" causes a list of individual message numbers
of each reply to the message to be included. "Navigate"
causes a list of the individual messages and navigational
information to specify the TAPCIS keypress or JUMP# that
can be used to go directly to each reply. "Describe"
presently is a synonym for "Navigate" that will include
author and date/time at some future date.







Reset message mark=Yes [default]
Reset message mark=No

Specify whether messages marked as new with the "[***]"
marker should have this marker reset. Normally you will
review messages after running TAPORDER, but in the event
that you want to capture a new set of messages from
CompuServe before you read them, you will want to retain
the messages marked as new and run TAPORDER again to
include the newly downloaded messages. This option is
ideally suited as a command line option so that you may
activate this feature when you run TAPORDER from the
command line.


Save aged=No [default]
Save aged=Yes

Specify whether messages which reach the maximum age
defined for the message file should be saved in a file
with the same name but an extension of ".AGE" or deleted
entirely. See also: "Message age=" and "Thread age="


Save backup=No [default]
Save backup=Yes

Specify this option to force the backup copy of the
message file to always be saved with the ".BAK"
extension. Normally TAPORDER will only save the backup
copy of a message file if an error was detected during
processing.


Sort=Name,Age [default]
Sort=Section,Name,Age
Sort=Section,Age
Sort=Age
Sort=Position

"Name,Age" causes the messages in the file to be sorted
first by Subject name, then by message age.
"Section,Name,Age" causes the messages in the file to be
sorted first by Section, then by Subject name, then by
Message age. "Section,Age" causes the messages in the
file to be sorted first by Section, then by Message age.
"Age" causes the messages in the file to be sorted by
Message age; this is the closest to the order CompuServe
normally displays messages. "Position" causes the
messages in the file to be sorted based on the original
position of the first message in a thread in the message
file.







Thread age=None [default]
Thread age=<# of days>

Specify the number of days to keep inactive threads in
the message file. The number of days is a floating point
number greater than 0. Any thread where the newest member
of the thread is older than the specified number of days
will be aged in accordance with the "Save aged=" option.
See also: "Message age="


Thread mark style=None [default]
Thread mark style=Top
Thread mark style=Between
Thread mark style=Both

Specify what, if any, markings should be made to denote
the beginning of a new thread. Specifying "Top" will
force a "[*T*]" marker to be placed on the first line of
the first message in each thread. "Between" will force a
"[*START-OF-THREAD*]" marker to be placed on the line
before the start of each thread. "Both" activates both
options.


Use higher level=No [default]
Use higher level=Yes

This function declares that the paragraph is to be
ignored. This is used when it is necessary for TAPORDER
to create a fully-qualified filename paragraph so that a
last processing date may be maintained. If this function
were not present, the fully-qualified paragraph would
over TAPORDER operating parameters which might otherwise
affect the processing of this file. See "Compare last
processing=" for more details.

Note that TAPORDER will install this option when
appropriate automatically. You need only worry about
removing it from a paragraph when you decide to enter
file-specific options.


Verify=No [default]
Verify=Yes

Specify that manual verification of the file is required
before it is processed. Any file processed with this
option specified will require you to manually respond to
a question before processing will begin. This is useful
to protect important files from inadvertent processing.
See also: "Display functions="







SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS

Two of the options which can be included in a command line
definition allow a parameter to be specified. To include this
from the command line, add a "#" to the end of the option name;
then at the point in the command line option paragraph where
you want to use this value, place another "#".

Here's an example of how this might be used:

[Option m#]
Message age=#

Then, to invoke this command line option, you might enter:

TAPORDER -m5 !TAPCIS

This would load the parameter definitions for the TAPCIS.MSG
file, then override any previously defined "Message age="
option at set the message aging at 5 days.







SAMPLE TAPORDER.INI FILE

A sample TAPORDER.INI file is included with this distribution.
Do not use this file if you are upgrading from an earlier
version of TAPORDER or you will lose all of the settings that
now exist in your existing TAPORDER.INI file!

The TAPORDER.INI file includes a setting for the TAPCIS forum
which demonstrates some of the powerful capabilities available
with TAPORDER. Edit the TAPORDER.INI file to provide defaults
that meet your needs for the other forums you visit.







THE TOTSR PROGRAM

TAPORDER provides several ways to control the content of
message files by rule. Often there are exceptions to these
rules which we would like to make while reviewing the messages
with TAPCIS.

TOTSR is a memory resident utility that provides you with the
ability to control the deletion or premature aging of a message
or thread. It also enables you to place a "hold" on a message
or thread preventing them from being removed from the .MSG file
until explicitly released. These held messages are also marked
as if they were new during every TAPORDER processing so that
they constantly are available for review among new messages in
a forum.

Many users utilize several TAPCIS add-on's. For users of
TAPMARK and Enhanced TAPMARK (products of Korenthal Associates,
Inc.), TOTSR also emulates the function provided by the TAPTOOL
memory resident utility, eliminating the need to load multiple
TSR's and simplifying the hot-key access to their functions.


** NOTICE **

This product supports the TesSeRact(TM) Standard for
Ram-Resident Program Communication. For information about
TesSeRact, contact the TesSeRact Development Team at:

TesSeRact Development Team
c/o Chip Rabinowitz
2084 Woodlawn Avenue
Glenside, PA 19038
1-215-884-3373

Compuserve: 70731,20
MCIMAIL: 315-5415

This MCIMAIL Account has been provided to the TesSeRact
Development Team by Borland International, Inc. The TesSeRact
Development Team is in no way associated with Borland
International, Inc. TesSeRact is a trademark of the TesSeRact
Development Team.







INSTALLING TOTSR

TOTSR must be installed before you run TAPCIS. The program
takes approximately 7K of resident memory, and will not allow
itself to be installed multiple times. TOTSR is DesqView aware,
and can be installed outside of DesqView or within a DesqView
window. When installed outside of DesqView, TOTSR is active for
any TAPCIS program running in any window and from DOS. When
installed in a window, TOTSR is active only for that window.
TOTSR provides a built-in capability of releasing itself from
memory.

The following parameters may be specified on the TOTSR command
line:

-Khotkey Specify the hotkey which will activate TOTSR
within TAPCIS. The default hotkey is ALT-Q.
-T[K|D|B] Specify which thread name files TOTSR should
update to be compatible with TAPMARK's
TAPTOOL and with TMKAGE; K specifies .TMK
files, D specifies .TMD files, and B
specifies both .TMK and .TMD files; no
parameter disables the TAPTOOL compatibility
features, which is the default.
-R Remove TOTSR from memory
-H Online list of TOTSR parameters, including
function keys.

'hotkey' consists of zero or more of these keywords:
CTRL- ALT- LSHIFT- RSHIFT-
followed by one of these keywords:
ESC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = BKSP TAB INS DEL A B C
D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ENTER
CTRL LSHIFT RSHIFT ' " ; \ , . ? * ALT SPACE
CAPSLOCK F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12
NUMLOCK SCRLOCK HOME #8 PAGEUP #- #4 #5 #6 #+ END
#2 PAGEDOWN

Parameters may be specified in upper or lower case.

Once TOTSR is installed, the hotkey and the thread file mode
may be changed at any time without uninstalling TOTSR. Just run
the program with the desired changes on the command line.
TOTSR will print the new settings for TOTSR operation.

Here are some examples of valid TOTSR installations:

TOTSR -KF11 -TB F11 is the hotkey, .TMK & .TMD files
for threads
TOTSR -KLSHIFT-ALT Left-shift and Alt is the hotkey, no
thread file
TOTSR -TK ALT-Q is the hotkey, .TMK files for
threads







TOTSR will tell you when it installs or removes itself from
memory. TOTSR will tell you if it has a problem parsing the
command line and will provide sufficient information to
diagnose what you did wrong.







INVOKING TOTSR

Press the hotkey you defined for TOTSR from within TAPCIS
activates TOTSR. If you are not reviewing a forum message,
TOTSR will not pop up, and will beep to indicate that it did
not find a message on the screen. TOTSR will not invoke at all
if it detects you are at the DOS prompt.

When TOTSR is first invoked on a specific message, it must
collect several pieces of information. If the TAPCIS message
you have on the screen is a single page long, all the
information TOTSR needs is on the same screen and TOTSR will be
able to immediately pop up. If you are displaying a multiple-
page message, TOTSR will work with TAPCIS to page through to
the last page of the message, then page to the first page, then
TOTSR will pop up on the display. This operation is fully
automated and requires no intervention on your part.

When TOTSR pops up, it displays a small box in the upper right
hand corner of the screen. It will look something like this:


H-Hold T-Thread
A-Age L-Later
R-Release DEL-Delete


The top line contains the forum name and the current message
number.

You may press ESC at any time to return to TAPCIS without
performing any operations with TOTSR.







TOTSR OPERATION

Once TOTSR has displayed the command box, you can enter one or
more TOTSR functions to perform an operation. Here's a summary
of the valid commands:

T Toggles to the Thread mode, where the operation you
specify affects the entire thread instead of just
the current message.

M Toggles to the Message mode, where the operation
you specify affects the current message, not the
entire thread. This is the default when TOTSR is
first popped onto the screen.

L Toggles to the Later option, where the operation
you specify will occur when the message or thread
is marked for aging by TAPORDER instead of
happening the next time you run TAPORDER. Please
note that this feature is presently not implemented
by TAPORDER. All commands are executed as if the
"N" option (the default) had been chosen.

N Toggles to the Now option, where the operation you
specify will occur the next time you run TAPORDER
against that forum. This is the default.

H Hold the message or thread so that it is not
deleted or aged from the message file until you
explicitly release it.

R Release a held message or thread so that TAPORDER
can deal with it in the way it normally would be
handled, depending upon aging options for the
forum.

A Age the message or thread at the next TAPORDER run.

DEL Delete the message or thread from the message file
at the next TAPORDER run.

B Bypass the current thread. This feature is
compatible with TapTool functions provided by
Enhanced TAPMARK and TMKAGE. Using this function
causes TOTSR to search through the forum .TMK and
.TMD files (depending upon how TOTSR was
configured) for a matching thread name and modifies
the entry so that TAPMARK will consider the thread
bypassed during its next run.







TECHNICAL OPERATION

When TOTSR is installed, it looks for the PARAMS.CIS file to be
in the current directory. TOTSR reads the storage directory
from PARAMS.CIS. For TAPORDER operations, TOTSR will create
files with the forum as the name and .TOX as the extension
which contain the specific commands that direct TAPORDER to
perform certain operations against messages or threads.

For the "B" function (providing the same features as TAPTOOL
from Korenthal Associates, Inc.), TOTSR also expects to find
the .TMK files. If TMKAGE is also in use, then .TMD files are
also expected in this directory.

No provision exists for following the TMKPATH or TAPPATH
environment variables in the version of TOTSR. Applicable files
must exist in the storage directory as shown in the PARAMS.CIS
file, which must be on the same directory that TOTSR is
installed from.


TAPORDER PROVISIONS

In order for TOTSR commands to be processed by TAPORDER, the
command line option shown below must be set in a Paragraph of
TAPORDER.INI applicable to the forum(s) involved.

Process transaction file=Yes

If you do not specify this command line option, it will default
to "Yes."







SUPPORT

Support for TAPORDER and TOTSR is provided on the CompuServe
TAPCIS forum, or you may send Electronic MAIL to GRIMS
Associates, P.K. Larsen, at [73417,3603].

Questions about TAPORDER and TOTSR may also be sent by regular
mail to:

GRIMS Associates
Attn: P.K. Larsen
P.O. Box 810666
Boca Raton, Florida 33481-0666

Enhancement requests are always welcome, too.







ORDERS

TAPORDER and TOTSR are available for downloading as Shareware
in several forums on CompuServe and on a number of Computer
Bulletin Boards across the world. The programs distributed as
Shareware are fully function versions of the program. You have
a 30-day trial period in which to evaluate TAPORDER and TOTSR
at no cost to you, other than the cost of downloading the
files.


After the 30-day trial period has lapsed, continued use of the
software without paying for it violates the copyright. If you
do not plan to purchase TAPORDER, you should promptly remove
the software from your computer once the trial period is over.

TAPORDER and TOTSR cost US$25.00. This is a one-time
registration fee which entitles you to obtain future updates to
the program at no additional charge. You are responsible for
actually downloading the software updates, but we will notify
you of their availability by Electronic MAIL on CompuServe.

A 3.5" or 5.25" diskette is available with TAPORDER and TOTSR
for US$5.00. Orders outside the U.S. and Canada please add
$5.00 for shipping.

To purchase TAPORDER and TOTSR, send a check or money order in
the amount of your purchase, in U.S. funds, made payable to
"GRIMS Associates" and your CompuServe ID number to:

GRIMS Associates
TapOrder Registration
P.O. Box 810666
Boca Raton, Florida 33481-0666

We will acknowledge your order within four weeks of the receipt
of your payment and will send you instructions for installing a
registration number in your copy of the program.

Please include your CompuServe PPN with your order so that we
may keep it on file and send you notices of future upgrades as
they become available.







SITE LICENSES

If you plan to purchase more than 20 copies of TAPORDER and
TOTSR, a worldwide site license valid for use by an unlimited
number of employees affiliated with a single organization may
be purchased for US$475.00. The site license includes
customized versions of TAPORDER and TOTSR which identify the
company affiliation. Support is provided to a single designated
individual. A 3.5" or 5.25" diskette is included, and a printed
copy of the documentation, with right to copy.

If you've bought multiple copies of TAPORDER previously, your
purchase price can be applied towards a site license.







HISTORY OF CHANGES
TAPORDER VERSION 1.2

* Removed credit card registration options.

* Added function to strip any information trailing the PPN in
PARAMS.CIS, to allow for the ";OLDM" option of TAPCIS 5.2 in
support of CIS MAIL.