• PCBoard v16 (Pre-Alpha)

    From Ozz Nixon@1:1/123 to All on Sun Apr 21 12:01:38 2019
    See www.saltairbbs.com

    PCBoard v16 (currently) is online so people can see how far we are in
    the rewrite. Attempts were made to migrate from MSC to GCC without
    success. Stepping back and looking at the project, and our other
    efforts, the decision was made to port the code to a different language
    and framework. v16 is now written using Modern Pascal, and designed
    using the Modern Pascal Coderunner framework. Modern Pascal is
    available as a command line compiler and interpreter, along with an
    Apache Mod, allowing you to code web scripts. Coderunner is a socket
    server that processes your code. Coderunner is self-threading and
    manages memory allocation per thread. Allowing developers to focus on
    their code, somewhat like a modern DOOR-KIT.

    PCBoard v16 file structures are being revised also. v15 and older were
    limited in scope. For example, having an array in the USERS for
    LastRead means the larger your site the slower and bulkier your USERS
    file was and the memory requirement also increased. With this said, we
    have migrated v16 to using the JAM message base. It has a superior
    design from other message bases, while keeping the flexability
    introduced by PCBoards MSGS extended headers. Currently we have build a
    NNTP (Newsgroup Server) as part of PCBoard v16 Registered Suite. It
    allows the sysop and users to access the message areas using their
    logon credentials, from Desktop and Mobile devices. * It also allowed
    us to seriously stress test the JAMmb engine before swapping MSGS for
    JAM sturctures. JAM also tracks per user per message area the LAST READ
    - reducing the memory requirements that previous PCBoard USERS records introduced.

    PCBoard v16 is being released as Open Source. We are doing this as it
    is a complete rewrite from scratch. NO previous code is used for this
    new design. Opening the rights so we can release as Open Source. Note
    Open Source does not mean we wave the rights to the source in any way.
    PCBoard v16 is (c) Modern Pascal Solutions, LLC. PCBoard v16 is still
    marketed as a commercial product. The source is being offered to help third-party developers produce new PCBoard modifications. We have
    removed the kludge script engine PPE. Instead the whole produce is now
    a Coderunner script. So if, for example, you had written a replacement
    for the prompt... you can do it again replacing doPrompt.inc with your fancy/ANSI version.

    PCBoard v16 uses the built-in features of TStringList to extend
    PCBTEXT. A previous limitation was PCBTEXT allowed up to 60 characters
    per prompt. This meant fancy/ANSI animations or color sequences for
    prompts had to fit into 60 bytes. For some this was impossible, so they
    had to embed PPE links for prompt. In the modem age, the latency was
    not notable, in todays gigabit Internet age, it was noticable. So.
    v16's PCBTEXT is BYTE 1 = FG color (1 to 15) (0=last color or no color change), followed by as many characters you want and terminated with
    EOL (Carriage Return and/or Line Feed - depending upon your Operating
    System). This change in itself truly extends the capability of making
    an iCE or ACiD looking BBS... while reducing all of the overhead of PPE scripts as prompts. What if you want to replace a prompt with a script
    for even more control? You simply modify the associate *.inc file with
    your requirements. Coderunner uses a JIT (Just In Time) compiler, and
    will merge your code change on the next connection it handles.

    *** What if their is a bug in my new mod? ***

    Simply start Coderunner in a terminal - using a different terminal
    telnet to your BBS - the error will show on the previous terminal. We
    have tried to make sure all error messages include the line number
    (even relative to the *.inc file(s)), and character position on that
    line - with a description of what is wrong with said line. Example:
    * Invalid evaluation at line 133, column 1 in file "/var/www/BBS/pcboard/main.p"

    Usually that means you forgot to put a semicolon at the end of the
    previous line, or you have a stray character/invalid syntax at the
    start of this line.

    *** Uptime/Downtime Schedule ***

    SaltAirBBS.com is linking right to our in-house source code. So, there
    will be periods where you are unable to connect. Or you may be
    disconnected while we rollout a change. We work on the source code 7
    days a week. Once we achieve Beta status, we will move pre-alpha to a different port on the servers. This way (like the old modem days) you
    can access the stable release, or the cutting edge release - depending
    where you connect on our servers.

    * IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO A TERMINAL - WWW.EXCHANGEBBS.COM
    DEFAULTS TO THE ALPHA CODE IN A BROWSER *

    --
    .. Ozz Nixon
    ... Author ExchangeBBS (suite)
    .... Since 1983 BBS Developer

    --- ExchangeBBS NNTP Server v3.1/Linux64
    * Origin: (1:1/123)
  • From Paul Hayton@3:770/100 to Ozz Nixon on Mon Apr 22 08:09:55 2019
    On 21 Apr 2019 at 12:01p, Ozz Nixon pondered and said...

    See www.saltairbbs.com

    PCBoard v16 (currently) is online so people can see how far we are in
    the rewrite. Attempts were made to migrate from MSC to GCC without

    perhaps x-post into fsx_bbs also Ozz?

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)
  • From Dan Clough@1:123/115 to Ozz Nixon on Sun Apr 21 15:22:00 2019
    Ozz Nixon wrote to All <=-

    See www.saltairbbs.com

    PCBoard v16 (currently) is online so people can see how far we
    are in the rewrite.

    <SNIP>

    Wow! This is AWESOME! Just connected and looked around, and it
    looks fantastic!

    Thank you for all the effort on this, look forward to seeing it
    evolve!



    ... Beware of programmers who carry screwdrivers.
    === MultiMail/Linux v0.51
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    * Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (1:123/115)
  • From Ozz Nixon@1:1/123 to Dan Clough on Sun Apr 21 19:17:14 2019
    On 2019-04-21 15:22:00 +0000, Dan Clough -> Ozz Nixon said:


    Wow! This is AWESOME! Just connected and looked around, and it
    looks fantastic!

    Thank you for all the effort on this, look forward to seeing it
    evolve!

    Thank you Dan! Kudos means a lot. I spent most of last year rewriting
    the setup program... and until 3 weeks ago - it felt like this was
    never going to happen - mainly with the struggle of keeping the code
    backward compatible. Then I said who cares!? Why be compatible with
    1996 (23 yrs ago!)...

    That truly helped me get a jump on getting the PAE edition to where it
    is over the past 21 days (22 days ago I deleted everything and started
    from scratch)... so what you saw is 3 weeks of passion!

    Public Alpha is expected June 15th, Beta July 1st, Official Release by August.

    Right now, I am trying to figure out what is causing a serious CPU
    spike when a new user creates there account...

    --
    .. Ozz Nixon
    ... Author ExchangeBBS (suite)
    .... Since 1983 BBS Developer

    --- ExchangeBBS NNTP Server v3.1/Linux64
    * Origin: (1:1/123)
  • From Charles Stephenson@1:226/17 to Ozz Nixon on Fri Apr 26 18:02:48 2019
    Re: Re: PCBoard v16 (Pre-Alpha)
    By: Ozz Nixon to Dan Clough on Sun Apr 21 2019 07:17 pm

    Thank you Dan! Kudos means a lot. I spent most of last year rewriting
    the setup program... and until 3 weeks ago - it felt like this was
    never going to happen - mainly with the struggle of keeping the code backward compatible. Then I said who cares!? Why be compatible with
    1996 (23 yrs ago!)...


    Yeah, I connected to it too, looks really good! Brought back some great memories!
    Regards,
    KrUpTiOn
    --- SBBSecho 3.07-Linux
    * Origin: The New Frontier ][ BBS(frontierbbs.net) - [Ohio] (1:226/17)