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Text File | 1991-06-29 | 9.9 KB | 219 lines | [ TEXT/QED1]
About Tally… ------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> New with Version 2.2 << Version 2.2 is more intelligent in dealing with Config files that are bigger than the original Second Sight Config size, allowing for future versions of Second Sight. Also adds SIZE resource and renumbers the “days ago” legend to today through 9 days ago, as opposed to the original 1 to 10 legend. The original heading looked like this: Message ---------------------- Days Ago ------------------ Section 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Avg ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- but it now looks like this: Message ---------------------- Days Ago ------------------ Section Today 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Avg ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> New with Version 2.1 << Version 2.0 of Tally was a recompile which used Macintosh Toolbox calls for better speed and more compact code. Unfortunately, the modifications introduced some bugs -- Tally would freeze if it was run on a system which did not have an existing Tally Data file. Version 2.1 corrects those bugs. >> New with Version 1.5 << Tally now runs correctly with other launch.next events under MultiFinder (version 1.4 was skipped). >> New with Version 1.3 << Previous editions of Tally had problems recognizing messages in sections with numbers higher than 128. That’s now fixed. In addition, Tally is now “BBS aware”, per Michael Connick’s Tabby specs. >> New with Version 1.1 << Version 1.0 speeded up its operation by keeping track of the highest message it had processed, but this led to problems in several areas. Tally no longer keeps track of the high message -- it always reads 10 days’ worth of headers. This slows it down a bit, but its reports are accurate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tally is a Tabby NetMail-compatible utility designed to count messages posted during the past 10 days on your BBS system. To do this, it reads the MSGHDR file from back to front until it hits a message lower than its last recorded “high message number” or a “delivered to the BBS” date more than 10 days old. As it reads the headers, it keeps a count of active messages in each section. When it has finished with the MSGHDR, it writes a report of its findings. Tally keeps track of its last run in a file called (usually, but you can choose your own name) “Tally Data.” This enables it to keep track of messages which may have scrolled off your BBS. Tally can be configured for your BBS by launching it and holding down the mouse button. There are five options to set: Next Launch ^^^^^^^^^^^ This is the name of the file you want Tally to run after it’s finished. This is used *only* if Tally does not find a Tabby launch.next file. Tally comes configured to launch Red Ryder Host. Path:Logfile name ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is the location and name of the file you want Tally to produce. If you want this shown to callers as they log onto your BBS, you can call it System3.msg. Path:Intro name ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is the location and name of the file you want Tally to use as introductory matter to its report. Tally copies this file to the beginning of its output. If you leave this edit field blank, Tally will not add anything to its basic report. You can use this to appeal to callers to leave messages, or to explain a wrinkle or two of the Tally program, which is what I’ve done. I’ve included a copy of my Intro file in this Stuffit archive. *** Make sure you end your Intro file with a Carriage Return! *** Path:Stepfile name ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is the location and name of the file you want Tally to create as its “Stepfile.” The “Stepfile” is a small report which Tally produces to show you where each day’s messages begin. Here is a sample: Message Numbers By Days Ago Use this table to read messages you might have missed. To see all messages posted in the last two days, just read forward from the second message number in this list. Day / Msg No ------------ 1 -- 20598 2 -- 20498 3 -- 20111 4 -- 19808 5 -- 19686 6 -- 19565 7 -- 19267 8 -- 19198 9 -- 19077 10 -- 18390 The introductory paragraph is “hard wired” into Tally. The numbers will reflect your own messages. You can use this report as a caller-readable feature in your message sections, to help those poor souls who got disconnected three days ago and want to know where to start reading messages. Path:Omitfile name ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you want Tally to *not* list some message sections -- such as local private, net private and Unknown -- create a text file with a list of the sections to be omitted, like so: 1 50 51 Each number should be on a line by itself and the last line *must* end in a carriage return. Give this file a name such as Tally Omits, put it wherever you want it, then enter its location and name in this default option. If you leave this default blank or Tally doesn’t find a file where you indicate, all sections will be listed. You can use this feature to set up multiple copies of Tally if you wish, each creating a different list of file sections. Path:Datafile name ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In order to keep track of old messages which might have scrolled off the board, Tally saves a text file containing 10 days of numbers for all active Host message sections. This field contains the path and name of this Datafile. The first line of this text file contains a long integer of the number of seconds since January 1, 1904, when Tally ran and produced this text file. The remaining 255 lines each contains a line number, a tab and daily counts followed by tabs, except for the tenth daily count, which is followed by a carriage return. You can use this file for spreadsheet and database purposes -- just clip off the first line and you have a standard tab-delimited import file. Keeping track of vanished messages was a problem which occupied me for many days. It wouldn't be too hard if I knew that Tally would run every day without fail, but those of us who run Host and Tabby know that crashes can interrupt the best planned routines, so I had to adapt. Tally uses the first item of data to calculate when it was last run, then uses this as an offset to apply to the message information in the data file. When Tally counts the current messages, it compares the figure of each section against its historic record, and uses the higher of the two figures. The result is a report which shows the real flow of messages through each section. I did not use resources to store this information because resources are an inefficient way to keep track of this many individual pieces of numeric information (or, more precisely, I don’t know how to use resources in an efficient manner for this sort of storage). Here is what a finished Tally report looks like: Message Activity Report Prepared 5/29/89 at 3:08 p.m. These counts are for messages posted during the past 10 days. The Glassell Park BBS sets limits of 100-200 messages for each section. These limits cause high volume Echo sections to "roll over" every day or two. Message ---------------------- Days Ago ------------------ Section 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Avg ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- General 7 18 13 33 26 27 22 20 17 18 20 Help & Tips 0 1 1 3 0 3 3 3 3 1 2 Music & Sound 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 2 0 1 1 Inside Mac 0 0 0 1 0 3 6 3 6 3 2 Games 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Buy & Sell 0 0 1 2 1 3 4 1 4 1 2 Humor 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 EchoMac 0 0 0 0 0 34 3 34 3 34 11 AlterNet Mac 0 0 0 0 1 4 2 0 2 0 1 Mac Developer Echo 0 1 0 0 0 1 28 1 28 1 6 HyperCard Echo 0 0 0 0 0 4 11 4 11 4 3 U.K. Mac Echo 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Tabby Echo 20 31 0 0 14 4 6 4 6 4 9 Red Ryder Host Echo 5 8 1 0 7 1 3 0 3 0 3 So Cal Mac Sysops 0 2 0 3 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 So Cal Fido Sysops 0 0 9 4 0 11 12 9 11 8 6 Music Echo 0 0 1 95 0 67 81 67 21 0 33 Writing Echo 0 0 4 95 0 67 93 60 32 0 35 Mac For Sale Echo 0 0 0 1 0 4 18 4 18 4 5 UseNet Mac Resource 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 6 0 1 UseNet MacSystem 0 43 55 76 0 115 85 115 85 55 63 UseNet MacDigest 0 0 4 5 0 8 9 6 9 6 5 UseNet MacHyperCard 0 3 6 14 0 14 20 14 20 14 11 UseNet MacProgrammer 0 14 35 67 0 61 45 61 45 61 39 Daily Totals 32 121 130 399 50 435 459 410 332 217 259 Thanks to Ed Edell and Bruce Gerson for their suggestions regarding Tally. This program is part of the Archie & Mehitabel registered users package and is not to be distributed otherwise. Tally was written in Think Pascal. -- Pete Johnson Glassell Park BBS Post Office Box 65074 Los Angeles, CA 90065 June 28, 1991 
