Wikify date September 2010 TAPCIS , The Access Program for the Compuserve Information Service was an automated utility that speeded up access to, and management of, CompuServe email accounts and forum memberships for PC users from 1981 until 2004 when advances in CompuServe technology rendered this highly regarded little DOS based program obsolete. Written in Borland s Turbo Pascal , TAPCIS ref name TAPCIS http www.nfbnet.org files modems TAPCIS.TXT , The Access Program for the Compuserve Information Service. ref was a 79 Shareware program that automated access to CompuServe. At a time when subscribers paid for timed access and had to spend time online reading and replying to messages, the TAPCIS autopilot took its users online with a single keystroke, bypassing the windows interface while it sent all pre written email and forum postings written offline, received new messages, downloaded requested files, and logged off CompuServe. The program was the chosen tool for dozens of CompuServe System Operators SYSOPS . TAPCIS was the brainchild of Howard Benner, ref name Howard Benner http www.tapcis.com benner.html , Howard Benner ref , a marketing executive from Wilmington, Del. Benner joined CompuServe in 1981 and soon after he authored and published TAPCIS. Stricken by melanoma, Benner died in June, 1990, aged 44. However, his software inspired a loyal community of TAP users who today still maintain their own website at http www.tapcis.com References Reflist Category CompuServe ... more details
Unreferenced stub auto yes date December 2009 ForCIS is a client computing client program which was used to connect to the CompuServe CompuServe Information Service . It is the predecessor to NavCIS . It was available for MS DOS . Other clients TapCIS WinCIM Compuserve Information Manager NavCIS OzWin DEFAULTSORT Forcis Category CompuServe DOS stub Internet stub ... more details
Unreferenced date December 2009 OzWin was a client program which was used to connect to the CompuServe CompuServe Information Service . It was a GUI program written in Delphi that ran on the Microsoft Windows operating system . It was published by Ozarks West Software Ltd. and programmed by Steve Sneed. OzWin was born out of the earlier OzCIS program which was DOS based. OzWin allowed users to connect to CompuServe forums and batch download messages, files, and so forth from the server and then disconnect. They could then read the messages offline, and as well compose new messages and replies while offline. When they finished reading and composing messages, they could connect again to batch send all of the messages, as well as receive any new messages others had posted to the forums. This allowed users to batch upload and download messages and then work offline, minimising the time they were connected to CompuServe. This was important, since at that time, users were charged by the hour to connect to CompuServe, so remaining connected all the time was an expensive proposition and could quickly run up charges. Like OzCIS, OzWin also had features for up and downloading files to the forum libraries, plus a complete set of SysOp features such as moving and deleting messages, administering the file libraries, and flagging users giving denying SysOp rights, kicking banning . Unlike other offline readers such as TapCIS and NavCIS which added proprietary ways of formatting text colors, fonts, attributes , OzWin always remained plain text and never displayed any custom styles. In May of 2005, CompuServe discontinued access the OzCis and TapCIS forums on CompuServe. Other CompuServe client programs CompuServe Information Manager ForCIS NavCIS TapCIS WinCIM DEFAULTSORT Ozwin Category Windows software Category CompuServe Windows software stub Internet stub ... more details
refimprove date February 2009 NavCIS , originally known as CompuServe Navigator , is a client computing client program which was used to automate connections to the CompuServe CompuServe Information Service at a time when online use was priced by the minute. It was available for MS DOS and Microsoft Windows as a graphical user interface GUI on both. NavCIS was one of the first e mail and Internet forum forum clients to feature WYSIWYG e mail in the early 1990s. For a while, a Macintosh version called CompuServe Navigator was also available, which fulfilled the same function. It ran on MacOS 4.1 up to 7.1, and made it to at least version 3.2. ref http www.savetz.com ku ku jesus compuserve navigator march 1994.html ref Other clients TapCIS CompuServe Information Manager ForCIS OzWin References reflist Category CompuServe comp stub software stub internet stub DOS stub windows software stub ... more details
Refimprove date March 2010 Image WinCIM.jpg right thumb 300px WinCIM CompuServe Information Manager CIM was CompuServe CompuServe Information Service s client software. The program provided a GUI front end to the text based CompuServe service that was at the time accessed using a standard terminal program with alphanumeric al shortcuts. Issued at the same time as the GUI only America Online began to grow in popularity, CIM was available for MS DOS DOSCIM , Microsoft Windows WinCIM , Macintosh MacCIM , and OS 2 CIM for OS 2 and allowed access to CompuServe s features, such as its forums, chat, e mail, and messaging facilities these continued to be accessible via standard communications software using alphanumeric shortcuts. The first versions were released in around 1990. Version 2.0.1, released in 1994, included a version of the Mosaic web browser . ref http www.smartcomputing.com editorial article.asp?article articles archive guideinternet97 3net09 3net09.asp&guid ref Later, CompuServe switched parts of its service over to a new binary protocol called HMI, or Host Micro Interface , which was more of a binary machine protocol and was not usable directly via a telnet client like the old text based interface, thus requiring the use of specialised client software like CIM. Version 3.0 CompuServe for Windows 3.0 , in 1997, was intended to compete head on with AOL, and was released amid an advertising campaign in which CompuServe was briefly brand re branded as CSi . After CompuServe was purchased by AOL in 1998, CompuServe began providing CompuServe branded versions of the AOL client software known as CompuServe 2000 and CompuServe 7 and its protocols as a way to access the service, however it continued to remain possible to connect to WinCIM via HMI, which became known as the CompuServe Classic service. Other CompuServe client programs TapCIS OzWin NavCIS ForCIS References reflist Category CompuServe ... more details
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