Phoenix, Arizona--July 20, 1991-- John Sintuer and MacWizards release
the first Tick program for the Macintosh BBS Fido community.
MacTick is a program that helps manage file distribution through FidoNet. It is based on the TIC mechanism, which is documented in FSC-0028 and is used by most IBM based systems with a program called Tick (written by Barry Geller). Files are sent from BBS system to BBS system accompanied by a small control file. This control file contains information, such as who originally sent the file out, which file area it belongs to, what path it followed to your system, which nodes have already 'seen' this file, which node sent it to you, etc. These control files are named TKxxxxxx.TIC, where xxxxxx stands for six digits, and you can find them in your Generic folder, where Generic Import, Generic Export, and all your incoming and outgoing mail reside.
Setting up MacTick is relatively simple. First, you copy the program to the folder where all your BBS programs, and the TabbyNet programs, reside. Next, you take your favourite text editor, and create a couple of text files. A sample setup has been provided with MacTick. Finally, you insert MacTick in your Tabby event chain.
The Tic mechanism has some features not seen in a news echo. First there is the concept of a 'prerelease file'. This means a file is distributed to you, but is not to appear in the file area until a certain date. This is useful for spreading files around that network and have them 'appear' everywhere at the same time.
Next, there is the concept of the 'secondary area'. This means that a file is not only spread to all nodes connected to a certain area, but also to all nodes connected to a second area. How you use this feature is completely up to you. It becomes particularly useful however in combination with the prerelease system. Let's say you are a beta tester for some product that is spread through fidonet. The author wants all beta testers to receive the beta versions at the same time. For this purpose he creates two file echo areas, called UTIL and PREUTIL. He makes UTIL the secondary area of PREUTIL, and spreads the file to a couple of privileged beta testers, who will in turn spread the file on the prerelease date to all beta testers. This is implemented in the same way on MS-DOS systems.
While MacTick allows you to maintain file echo's and receive files sent to you from other nodes, another program provided called Hatch allows you to send out files yourself. If you have a file you want to send out in a file echo, double-click Hatch.
HOW TO ORDER MacTick is being offered during this introductory period for $35.00 including the Hatch utility. International orders please add $10.00 for shipping.
