Contents

GoCIS Charges calculates general and detailed information about CompuServe calls, connect time and charges from GoCIS log files.  Information is calculated for all CompuServe activity, and for activity in individual forums.  By default, the program calculates and displays information for the current month, but information can be calculated for any month or year.

Interface

Menu Bar

File Commands

Edit Commands

Sounds Window

Free Forums Window

Options Commands

Forum Summary Window

Details of Operation and Limitations

PeachtreeMedia

About Registering

This program was developed using log files produced by GoCIS, version 1.01.  GoCIS was developed by Larry Lee, CIS ID:  77670,1471.

Direct comments and questions about GoCIS Charges  to:

Jack J McDowell

164 Fifth St. N.E.

Atlanta, GA 30308

CIS ID:  72707, 643

Internet:  psyjjmd@unix.cc.emory.edu


Interface

GoCIS Charges calculates and displays information about CompuServe calls, connect time and charges for specific months or years.  Information is calculated for all CompuServe activity, and for activity in individual forums.  For incomplete time periods, projected charges are also calculated and displayed.

Add-Base-Fee Check Box

When this box is checked and >>>>ALL ACTIVITY is selected in the Activity/Forum List Box, to-date and projected charges include the monthly flat fee for basic services (when the Standard Pricing Plan is selected) or the monthly membership fee (when the Alternative Pricing Plan is selected).  Addition of the monthly base fee is reflected in the yearly graph for >>>>ALL ACTIVITY.  For the current month the base fee is added to the total cost on the first day of the month, but is added to the average cost on a prorated basis (see Details).   The Add-Base-Fee check box is not visible and its status is ignored when an activity or forum other than >>>>ALL ACTIVITY is selected in the Activity/Forum List Box.

Pricing Plan Option Buttons

Either the Standard Pricing Plan or the Alternative Pricing Plan can be selected for calculating charges.  Fees for these plans are listed in the Rates dialog box.

Activity/Forum List Box

The information displayed by GoCIS Charges, including the information in the detail window, pertains to the activity or forum selected in this drop-down list box.  When >>>>ALL ACTIVITY is selected, information is displayed for all CompuServe activity.  When >>>>TERMINAL is selected, information is displayed for all activity that cannot be assigned to a specific forum.  When >>>>ROUNDUP is selected, information is displayed for "virtual" on-line activity, which is generated at logoff when CompuServe rounds on-line time up to the next minute.

Additional Features of the Interface

The graph shows charges for each day or month.  In the white box are listed the total number of calls or visits, the total connect time, and the total costs to date, along with the average and projected number of calls or visits, connect time, and costs.  Information pertains to the activity or forum selected in the Activity/Forum List Box.


Menu Bar

File commands on the menu bar are used to open log files, reprocess log files, save and export information calculated by GoCIS Charges,  and save GoCIS Charges settings.  Edit commands on the menu bar are used to view and change sounds assigned to program events, and to view and change CompuServe rate information.  Options commands on the menu bar are used to display call, time, and cost detail, to switch between monthly and yearly time periods, to show a summary of forum activity, and to toggle the refresh-on-restore feature, which automatically reprocesses the current file, or the most recent month's file, when the program is restored from an icon.


File Commands

The following commands are accessed by selecting File from the GoCIS Charges menu.

Open is used to select a new log file.

Refresh reprocesses the current log file.  This command is useful for recalculating charges after completing a CompuServe session.  If the Show year option is checked, then only the current month's log file is reprocessed.  The refresh command is ignored if the relevant file has not changed .  It is a good idea to assign sounds to the ignore-refresh events (the first two events marked with asterisks in the Sounds Window) to provide notification that they have been handled correctly.

Save charges saves the information calculated by GoCIS Charges to a text file with the default name gcyymm??.chg, where yy and mm are the year and month of the log file (mm = 00 for a full year).  The first ? identifies the pricing plan (s for Standard Plan, a for Alternative Plan).  The second ? is b if the base fee is added to the charges; this character is omitted if the base fee is not added to the charges.

Export charges exports the detail calculated by GoCIS Charges to a semicolon-delimited text file with the default name gcyymm??.exp, where yy and mm are the year and month of the log file (mm = 00 for a full year).  The first ? identifies the pricing plan (s for Standard Plan, a for Alternative Plan).  The second ? appears in full-year file names only and is b if the base fee is added to the charges; this character is omitted from the full-year file name if the base fee is not added to the charges.  The semicolon-delimited text files contain unrounded data that can be imported into many spreadsheet and database programs.

Save settings saves the schedule of fees listed in the Rates dialog box, the status of the Pricing Plan option buttons, the status of the Add Base Fee check box, the status of the refresh-on-restore option, and the information in the Sounds Window to the gccharge.ini file.  If this information has not changed since the last save, then the save-settings command is ignored.  It is a good idea to assign a sound to the ignore-save-settings event (the third event marked with an asterisk in the Sounds Window) to provide notification that it has been handled correctly.


Edit Commands

The following commands are accessed by selecting Edit from the GoCIS Charges menu.

Sounds... opens the Sounds window.

Rates... opens the Rates dialog box, which lists CompuServe's fees as of 6 February 1994.  GoCIS Charges uses the rates in this table for all calculations.  New rates can be entered in the text boxes when necessary.  If newly entered rates are not saved by selecting Save Settings, a "Save new settings?" prompt is generated before the program terminates.  GoCIS Charges uses the rates listed in the 9600bps text boxes to calculate charges for sessions with connect speeds greater than 9600bps.

Free forums... opens the Free Forums window, where the list of free forums that GoCIS Charges recognizes can be edited.


Sounds Window

The Sounds Window permits control over the sounds associated with program events.  The Sounds Window is accessed by selecting Edit|Sounds... from the main menu.

To assign a sound to a program event, click a program event on the left side of the Event-Wave table, then click the Assign button and select a digital waveform (*.wav) file.  The path of the selected file will appear on the right side of the table.  You can listen to the selected file by clicking the Test button.

The program events listed in the Event-Wave table are self explanatory.  Five are marked with asterisks.  It is a good idea to assign sounds to the marked events because they provide little or no visual notification that they have been handled correctly.

The check box and the buttons in the Sounds Window have the following functions.

Enable sounds toggles the sound feature on and off.  Windows 3.1 must be running, and appropriate sound hardware and software drivers must be installed in order to hear sounds.

Assign... opens a dialog box that permits browsing for a digital waveform (*.wav) file.  Before clicking this button, select a program event in the Event-Wave table by clicking it.  The waveform file will be assigned to the selected event.

Test plays the sound selected in the Event-Wave table.

Delete deletes the assignment selected in the Event-Wave table.

Save saves the status of the enable-sounds check box and the assignments in the Event-Wave table to the gccharge.ini file.  These settings can also be saved by selecting File|Save settings from the main menu.  If you do not save the changes you make in the Sounds Window, you will be asked if you wish to save them when you exit GoCIS Charges.  It is a good idea to assign a sound to this event (the fourth event marked with an asterisk in the Event-Wave table) to provide notification that it has been handled correctly.


Free Forums Window

GoCIS Charges recognizes activity in the forums listed in this window as free from connect-time charges.  The list can be edited with the following command buttons.

Add/OK creates a text box in which a new forum name can be entered.  The name must be entered exactly as it appears in the GoCIS log file.  Be sure to precede the forum name with the three-character CIS gateway and a colon, and to follow the forum name with a space and the word, Forum.  When the text box is visible, the caption on the Add button changes to OK, the Delete button is disabled, and the caption on the Close button changes to Cancel.  Click OK after entering the new forum name to add it to the list of free forums, or click Cancel to abort the entry.  GoCIS Charges can recognize a maximum of 10 free forums.

Delete removes the selected forum from the list of free forums.  Select the forum to be deleted by clicking it, then click the delete button.

Close/Cancel closes the Free Forums window or cancels the addition of a new forum name, depending on the caption visible on the button.

After editing the list of free forums and closing the Free Forums window, it is necessary to force GoCIS Charges to reprocess the current log file using the new list of free forums.  This is done by reopening the file.  Select File|Open... from the main menu and reselect the current log file (or select any log file).

Save changes in the list of free forums by selecting File|Save settings... from the main menu.  If you do not save the changes, GoCIS Charges will prompt you to do so when exiting the program.  If GoCIS Charges does not recognize a forum listed in this window as being free from connect-time charges, it is because the forum name has not been entered correctly.  Check the GoCIS log file for the correct forum name.


Options Commands

The following commands are accessed by selecting Options from the GoCIS Charges menu.

Show detail opens the detail window which shows call or visit, time, and cost detail by day or month.

Show year toggles between monthly and yearly time periods.

Show forum summary opens the Forum Summary Window

Refresh on restore.  When this feature is toggled on, the current log file, or the most recent month's log file, is automatically reprocessed (if necessary) when the program is restored from an icon.  This is useful when GoCIS Charges is minimized during a GoCIS/CompuServe session.   After the session is over, restoring GoCIS Charges automatically reprocesses the current log file.  The setting of this toggle can be saved to the gccharge.ini file by selecting File|Save settings from the main menu.  It is a good idea to assign a sound to this event (the fifth event marked with an asterisk in the Sounds Window) to provide notification that it has been handled correctly.


Forum Summary Window

This window is accessed by selecting Options|Show forum summary from the main menu.

The Forum Summary Window shows the month's or year's number of visits, connect time and cost for individual activities and forums.  The activity,  >>>>TERMINAL, refers to all activity that cannot be assigned to a specific forum.  The activity, >>>>ROUNDUP, refers to "virtual" on-line activity, which is generated at logoff when CompuServe rounds on-line time up to the next minute.  The option buttons are used to sort the activity and forum information by  name, number of visits, time or cost.  The option-button selection is saved to the gccharge.ini file when File|Save settings is selected from the main menu.


Details of Operation and Limitations

Details

1.  GoCIS Charges accommodates different connect speeds for different on-line sessions.  For example, the program correctly calculates CompuServe charges if one session occurs at 9600 bps and a second occurs at 2400 bps.

2.  GoCIS Charges uses the 9600bps rates listed in the Rates dialog box to calculate CompuServe charges for sessions with connect speeds greater than 9600bps.

3.  The program correctly calculates values for sessions that span midnight.

4.  Slight discrepancies may occur between displayed projected values and projected values calculated from displayed averages due to rounding error in the displayed averages.  The program calculates projected values from unrounded averages.

5.  When the Add Base Fee check box is checked for the current (incomplete) month and >>>>All ACTIVITY is selected in the Activity/Forum List Box, the total month-to-date cost includes the full monthly base fee.  However, the average daily cost includes only a prorated portion of this fee.  This means that the average daily cost calculated from the displayed total month-to-date cost will not agree with the displayed average, although the two values will converge as the month progresses.

6.  Depending on your system, GoCIS may take a few seconds to record a logoff from CompuServe.  If so, the connect time reported by GoCIS Charges may on some occasions be one second longer than the connect time recorded by CompuServe.  Compare, over several online sessions, the connect time CompuServe displays at logoff with the connect time GoCIS Charges displays in the detail window.  If the two numbers do not always agree, then it will be necessary to tune GoCIS Charges by modifying the logOffDelay entry in the [Tuning] section of the gccharge.ini file.  Using an ordinary text editor, enter an integer between 1 and 60 immediately after the equals sign of the logOffDelay entry.  Start with the integer,  7, and then add or subtract 1 until consistent agreement between CompuServe and GoCIS Charges is obtained.  Every time you modify the logOffDelay entry, save the gccharge.ini file, restart GoCIS Charges, and compare the connect times recorded by CompuServe and by GoCIS Charges  over several online sessions.

Limitations

This version of GoCIS Charges calculates charges for all connect time, including time in basic services (regardless of the status of the Pricing Plan option buttons).  It does not take into account communications surcharges or additional charges for special services.  If there is interest in these or other features, it might be possible to incorporate them in a future version of GoCIS Charges.  In the meantime, the greatest accuracy will be obtained by users who do not incur communications surcharges, do not use premium services, and who turn off GoCIS session logging before going online to access basic services (if on the Standard Pricing Plan).  GoCIS session logging can be turned off and on by selecting Settings|Processing Options from the GoCIS main menu.


PeachtreeMedia

PeachtreeMedia is a division of Peachtree Publishers, Ltd., publisher of fiction, travel, art, humor, and children's books since 1978.  Look for our books at your local bookstore or write Peachtree Publishers, 494 Armour Circle, N.E.,  Atlanta, GA, 30324 for our catalog.  Don't miss The Book of Shadowboxes:  A Story of the ABCs, Peachtree's first multimedia children's book on CD ROM.


About Registering GoCIS Charges
About Registering

GoCIS Charges is a shareware program.  If you find it useful please register and pay for it.  If you do not find the program useful, please delete it from your hard drive.  GoCIS Charges is $12.95 plus $2.55 shipping and handling.  Make check or money order for $15.50 payable to Jack J McDowell and send to Jack J McDowell, 164 Fifth St. N. E., Atlanta, GA, 30308, along with your name and address and desired disk size (5¼" or 3½").  Or use the order form (gccorder.txt) in your GoCIS Charges or Windows directory.  Or click the order-form button below.

Registered owners receive...

 the satisfaction of compensating the author.

 the latest version on disk, including all enhancements and bug fixes.

 a set of great wave files and suggested program-event assignments.

 notification of updates.

 support on CompuServe.

Register your copy today!


GoCIS log files are located in your GoCIS directory and are named gcisyymm.log, where yy and mm are the year and month of the log.


Projected charges are based on average charges to date for the incomplete time period.


This initialization file is located in your windows directory and was created by GoCIS Charges the first time it ran on your system.


Time is expressed in hh:mm:ss format, where hh is hours, mm is minutes, and ss is seconds.


Projected values are based on average values to date for the incomplete time period.


"Virtual" activity is the difference between the rounded-up on-line time that CompuServe records and the actual on-line time.