To judge by most things written about it, the press in this country is in love with CompuServe. It isn’t often you see an article critical of this information service, and some journalists and magazines promote it unashamedly. Sometimes, although I’m sure it couldn’t be true, it’s very tempting to believe ±at they must have free accounts or discounted access, or at least have had free access to the service at some stage in order to rave about it as they do. I’ve almost made a point of remaining cynical.
Well, I hate to say it, but I’m going to have to drop my usual cynicism towards CompuServe Information Service, or CIS as it’s endearingly known, for a little while. You see, CompuServe Pacific was kind enough to give me free access to the service for a few days to review the Windows CompuServe Information Manager CWinCIM).
The combination of a great new interface — and it is a great interface — the newly introduced 9600 baud access line in Sydney, and the false security of knowing there’s no bill to pay, make it pretty hard not to be impressed by the vast range of services the system offers and how easy they have become to access.
For Australians, though, and even for users in the US, the problem with CIS has always been its cost. The combination of WinCIM and 9600 baud access should, in a levelheaded world, lead to substantially lower costs for users all round. WinCIM has a sensibly designed interface with sufficient information management tools to help you get into CompuServe, grab what you’re after as quickly as possible, get out again and then intelligently sort through the information accumulated online.
In the past, I’ve found it difficult to avoid staying online for longer than either myself (if using my own account) or my organisation can afford. Now, using WinCIM, at somewhere up to four times the speed I used to use DOS CIM, it’s going to be even harder to resist exploring the truly mammoth resources available online. An easily used and aesthetically pleasurable interface, and the ability to work at a tolerable speed, make WinCIM a deadly proposition for the bankbook.
The menu structure and broad metaphor of WinCIM is close to both the Mac and DOS versions of CIM, although its appearance is obviously much closer to the Mac version.
On first opening the application, you are presented with a Services window (identical to the Mac version), with a large icon for Basic Services (a set of services available to users in the US at a flat rate per month — an option still not available here), and standard size icons for the major forum
and services areas, such as News and Communications.
An icon bar runs across the top of the screen, providing quick access to your Inbox and Outbox, Filing Cabinet, Address Book, and other common functions, including Find and catalogue of Favourite Places.
The Favourite Places window is also open on startup, with some of the most common areas already entered. Favourite Places is the key to using WinCIM effectively while online; there is so much on CompuServe that you cannot hope to keep track of it all. The trick is to pick a few sections of a few forums that interest you, and only stray from them if there is specific information you’re looking for. You cannot beat WinCIM in looking for that other information. To regularly track a limited selection of forums, however, many people may find their best bet remains in DOS.
WinCIM, like the DOS and Mac versions of CIM, offers little scope for automating forum access. Programs such as Navigator on the Mac, and TAPCIS and OZCIS for DOS, provide a method of specifying which forums you are interested in offline, and then leaving it to the software to log on and grab their contents for you automatically, allowing you to browse later.
The problem many have had with these packages is that you either get too much information that you’re not interested in or you don’t get what you were after. The fact they are DOS-based can also make moving information out of them on the fly difficult, and they can be tricky for users to set up effectively. How long until there are Windows versions of these products is anybody’s guess.
While the key to using WinCIM is still to read everything offline, CIM itself is designed for randomly browsing the vast stores of information online and grabbing hold of what interests you, not for automating the reading of a few forums.
Most seasoned users recommend using a combination of both: the CIM package for news, online shopping or financial services; and TAPCIS or similar for charged forums.
DOS CIM is basically a windowed package, and it seems that CIM, as a product, is far more comfortable in Windows than in DOS. There are several areas of CompuServe access that really benefit from a full Windows interface. One •is managing and browsing through the information you’ve downloaded. The functionality is the same, but a button and window-based interface suits browsing well. The more windows you have open and switch between simultaneously, the more you’ll appreciate WinCIM.
When it all gets too cluttered, the ability to reduce any WinCIM window to an icon in your workspace is also a boon — something that not even the Mac version provides for.
There are several areas where WinCIM has it all over its cross-platform counterparts. The Help System is superb; the system is both hypertext-based and context-sensitive. It is also comprehensive, which is not always true of Windows ports of DOS programs, and even includes a reasonably good directory of CIS areas and services. The way some individual services are handled is also excellent, although one or two have their problems.
For example, the front end to the Executive News Service (ENS), a custom-defined pressclipping service of major news sources such as Associated Press and the Washington Post, is superb. As with forums, you go into the ENS, search through and mark the items you’re interested in retrieving for your Filing Cabinet, download them, and then read them offline.
On the other hand, the standard news services could be better handled: although the stories are windowed, and their text can either be saved as a text file or cut-and-pasted, there is no provision to mark the stories you are interested in downloading to your Filing Cabinet and reading them after logging off.
The Filing Cabinet is well handled under Windows. Rather than downloading to paths on your local drive, which leaves the user to try to search through a quagmire of criss-crossing threads with a text editor — as anyone who uses a terminal emulator to access CIS must do — items are downloaded to a virtual Filing Cabinet. The Filing Cabinet maintains indices and maps of message threads, making it easy to move between them. While the actual text files do reside on your local drive, WinCIM maintains the relationship between disparate items.
I found some problems, as I have with the Mac version, accessing CIS at 2400 baud. Two timeouts on any activity in a row appear to force WinCIM to disconnect. Full 9600 baud access seems far more reliable. When WinCIM drops out, it does not do so in style. Even after you’re disconnected, it continues to sit there trying to talk to the system, timing out over and over again. More than once, I gave up waiting and rebooted in frustration.
This can be a real nuisance and a serious problem with the package, especially if, as usually happens, the drop out occurs during a file transmission or batch transfer of forum messages. I also found problems with the system becoming confused, and dropping out of CIS altogether and back to CompuServe Pacific’s access system FALNET, when moving between the CIM compatible parts of CIS and those that must still be accessed via Terminal Emulator.
While you’re online, WinCIM builds a database of areas you’ve visited, so that if you revisit them, you don’t need to wait while it downloads directory information. It can also take a substantial amount of time to browse through a forum, and pick the sections and files you want to download. Losing your connection, or worse, having to restart the program, means that you lose all of this information, and the effort and time you’ve already spent searching online is wasted.
The Terminal Emulation Component of the package is about as well-implemented as Terminal Emulation can be, including provision for user-defined function keys.
One very good aspect of the software is its ability to use multiple accounts and line settings, and switch between them in the same session, although obviously not while online. Filing Cabinets are shared between multiple accounts, as are inboxes and outboxes, allowing you to build a shared database from several people’s access.
The WinCIM software (as of this writing, Version 1.0.1) still has a few beetles and ladybirds clambering around in it, especially in the area of printing and compatibility. I think most CIS users appreciate the premature release, however. Despite the bugs, the software is a pleasure to use, and I would rather be using a slightly buggy version than be without it. The developers have obviously taken the attitude that the software was in good enough shape to put out on CIS for downloading in pre-release or slightly imperfect form.
With such a large number of people worldwide acquiring and using subsequent releases, and reporting direct to its source, it shouldn’t take long to squash most of the insects. CompuServe expects to be mailing the packaged product as you read this.
There are a few features still missing from WinCIM that are available in the DOS version, such as front-end support for mailing to postal addresses and File Finder support. CompuServe expects to include these in upgrades released over the next few months.
WinCIM doesn’t fix what is, in my opinion, the single biggest problem with CIS access for Australians: cost. WinCIM is a dream to work with at 9600 baud, but if you’re paying $0.85 a minute, it would want to be. WinCIM makes it easier than ever before for most users to access CompuServe. Unfortunately, that also makes it easy for them to get their fingers burnt.
CompuServe in the US was touted to be releasing an entirely new and supposedly vastly more competitive pricing structure towaids the end of February. Hopefully, the new structure will reach these shores. At the very least, CompuServe Pacific should introduce a Basic Services Plan similar to that currently available in the US, charging users a flat monthly access fee for basics such as E-mail and shopping.
If you’re contemplating joining the service, the combination of WinCIM and highspeed access make CIS difficult to resist (if financially dangerous), even for a CompuServe cynic such as myself. If Fujitsu, which operates CompuServe Pacific, introduces Basic Services, it will be irresistible. In the meantime, I await my next Visa statement in a cold sweat.
Requires: 2M minimum of memory, a 4M hard disk, a 386SX processor, Windows 3.0, EGA monitor.
