May 1987 — Vol 9 No 5
Source
Open original PDF • May 1987 • Vol 9 No 5 • 92 pages • $2
Overview
Tom Warrick continues as President (election cycle in progress). The PDF's extracted text was dominated by a major TCS (Telecommunications System) tutorial by Leon H. Raesly beginning around page 40 — Raesly walks Pi members through the new TCS's file-transfer XFER system, including:
- Upload/Download policy: uploads don't count against download quota; 10 uploads in a single call don't burn time; current quota 3 downloads per call, 3 calls per day, total possible 9 downloads daily
- 8 file areas (as of Feb 21 1987, total 168 files, "substantially higher now"): 1. Library (AppleWorks templates + General TCS, 19 files) 2. Apple Utils & Misc. (Apple II, 72 files) 3. Apple Games (Apple II, 15) 4. Mac Games (Mac, 12) 5. Mac Utils & DAs (Mac, 38) 6. Mac Fonts & Accessories (Mac, 8) 7. Mac Graphics & Misc. (Mac, 4) 8. CP/M (Apple II, 2)
- Commands: B (Browse File Info — read 1-73 descriptions), C (Change File Area), D (Download), U (Upload), * (Page the System Operator), ? (List Commands)
The tutorial captures the Pi TCS in its first six months of operation — it had launched December 1986 per 1986-12 — V08 N12 coverage; by Feb 1987 it had grown from probably a few dozen files to 168.
Highlights
Pi TCS file ecosystem snapshot
The Feb 1987 file count breakdown shows Mac content already had 62 files (38 Utils/DAs + 12 Games + 8 Fonts + 4 Graphics) vs Apple II's 87 (72 Utils + 15 Games). The Mac side was growing at a faster pace per file age. Library AppleWorks templates were a distinct area, reflecting AppleWorks's dominance.
Raesly's TCS expertise
Raesly had been Pi's leading TCS/BBS voice since the early 1980s (cf. 1985-08 — V07 N08 "Optical Scanning", earlier "Did Ja? Did Ja Call?" hotline pieces). This is his most complete TCS user-tutorial.
Entities
People: Tom Warrick, Leon H. Raesly, Lou Pastura (TCS-related), Dave Weikert (Disketeria), Bill Baldridge (Mac TCS digest) Topics: TCS Conference System, Pi BBS File Transfer, TCS Upload Download Policy, Pi TCS Growth 1987 References: TCS, XFER System, AppleWorks templates
Connections to other issues
- TCS launched 1986-12 — V08 N12 — this issue covers ~5 months of operation
- TCS continues growing through Vol 9; later 2009-09 — V31 N05 mentions 100K-post milestone (2009)
- Raesly's TCS authority extends from this 1987 tutorial to the 1991 "History of the WAP TCS" (1991-11 — V13 N11)