• ANSI file format & BBS creation..

    From paulie420@21:2/150 to All on Tue Aug 4 21:40:43 2020
    Just updating some users of the new tool I'm using for editing (well, really for viewing, but..) ANSI files now.

    Moebius is a great ANSI editor however if you're searching thru TONS of ANSI files, its not the best. It doesn't remember the folder and is cumbersome to just quickly flip thru ANSIs; I used to use a DOS version of ACiD View...
    like 4.0 or something.

    However, I found that ACiDs newest viewer was 6.0 for Windows. I use Linux.

    I have WINE installed, but ACiD View failed due to DLL issues. So, you grab WineTricks and enter in: 'winetricks mfc42' at the shell prompt. (Or, copy
    your error code if 'wine acidview.exe' gives you one and figure out the DLL that you need to enter into winetricks.)

    After that, 'wine ACiDView.exe' loads up the Windows version of the app. You can obviously add a launcher menu item so you don't have to type it into the terminal. Or, if using terminal just use the CLI command...

    ACiDView 6.0 for Windows is pretty awesome because with one arrow key tap it advances to the next ANSI file in VGA mode, or others, and you can scan
    through directories full of ANSI really quickly.

    Just dropping this here, because for a year I haven't had a GREAT option. ACiDView DOS was OK but DOSBOX isn't the best, and the Windows version is
    even quicker with the GUI menus for folder selection.

    Bringing me to THIS question:

    What tools do YOU use for ANSI creation and... the process.

    Bonus question:

    I *still* don't have a good option for ANSIi displaying correctly in my terminal shell. I use a tool, acdu or... ansdu... where I type in ansu -i FILENAME.ANS or ansu FILENAME.ANS and it will show the file in a cat
    format... mostly correctly. However, if I could make my linux terminal shell display ANSIs just as well as a DOS shell.... boy, I'd be in hog heaven.
    Do you have a fix for this? What work arounds do you use?



    |07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
    |08.........

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: American Pi BBS (21:2/150)
  • From Al@21:4/106.1 to paulie420 on Tue Aug 4 22:49:29 2020
    On 04 Aug 2020, paulie420 said the following...

    Bonus question:

    I *still* don't have a good option for ANSIi displaying
    correctly in my terminal shell. I use a tool, acdu or... ansdu... where
    I type in ansu -i FILENAME.ANS or ansu FILENAME.ANS and it will show the file in a cat format... mostly correctly. However, if I could make my linux terminal shell display ANSIs just as well as a DOS shell.... boy, I'd be in hog heaven. Do you have a fix for this? What work arounds do
    you use?

    What problems do you have displaying ansi? Is it a problem of viewing cp437
    on a utf8 terminal? I use...

    iconv -f cp437 -t utf8 filename.ans

    and that usually works for me.

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Equinox BBS - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to Al on Wed Aug 5 10:56:48 2020
    What problems do you have displaying ansi? Is it a problem of viewing cp437 on a utf8 terminal? I use...

    iconv -f cp437 -t utf8 filename.ans

    and that usually works for me.
    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    Tee hee... you know, Al, I used this command as an alias some time ago - on a Raspberry Pi system or somewhere down the line...

    Theres another problem of just aliasing it and forgetting: you never actually learn the commands.

    Your way works perfectly, and allows me to view even in RPi quickly...
    thanks. I still like ACiDView 6.0 Windows for a menued program to view MANY files in one sitting... but your iconv command will now live in my brain forever. THANK YOU!!



    |07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
    |08.........

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: American Pi BBS (21:2/150)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to paulie420 on Wed Aug 5 13:08:40 2020
    paulie420 wrote to All <=-

    I have WINE installed, but ACiD View failed due to DLL issues. So, you grab WineTricks and enter in: 'winetricks mfc42' at the shell prompt.
    (Or, copy your error code if 'wine acidview.exe' gives you one and
    figure out the DLL that you need to enter into winetricks.)

    After that, 'wine ACiDView.exe' loads up the Windows version of the
    app. You can obviously add a launcher menu item so you don't have to
    type it into the terminal. Or, if using terminal just use the CLI command...

    I have never tried AV but it sounds interesting. :)

    ACiDView 6.0 for Windows is pretty awesome because with one arrow key
    tap it advances to the next ANSI file in VGA mode, or others, and you
    can scan through directories full of ANSI really quickly.

    What tools do YOU use for ANSI creation and... the process.

    TheDraw for DOS in a dosemu window under linux. I have mobeus installed
    but find it a little difficult to use.

    I *still* don't have a good option for ANSIi displaying
    correctly in my terminal shell. I use a tool, acdu or... ansdu... where
    I type in ansu -i FILENAME.ANS or ansu FILENAME.ANS and it will show
    the file in a cat format... mostly correctly. However, if I could make
    my linux terminal shell display ANSIs just as well as a DOS shell....
    boy, I'd be in hog heaven.
    Do you have a fix for this? What work arounds do you use?

    If I need to view one, I usually use dosbox to view them...
    TYPE filename.ans



    ... Tell me, is something eluding you, Sunshine?
    --- MultiMail
    * Origin: Possum Lodge South * possumso.fsxnet.nz:7636/SSH:2122 (21:4/134)
  • From Alpha@21:4/158 to paulie420 on Wed Aug 5 21:24:14 2020
    Just updating some users of the new tool I'm using for editing (well, really for viewing, but..) ANSI files now.
    Bringing me to THIS question:
    What tools do YOU use for ANSI creation and... the process.

    I'm using PabloDraw on Windows, and since my BBS runs on the same Win machine in WSL2 (essentially a headless Ubuntu VM), I can easily navigate to the
    files via Windows explorer and open/edit/save them.

    Otherwise, I'd need a Linux based editor that doesn't rely on X. I've tried SyncDraw binary but couldn't get it to run - there's a note on the site that says 'NOTE: *nix binaries aren't statically linked due to Linux hating it' - but no idea what that means in terms of getting it to run :)

    Cheers,


    |14Þ |07Alpha
    |14ÜÝ |13Card & Claw BBS
    |06Þ |05cardandclaw.com:8888

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/04/26 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Card & Claw BBS (21:4/158)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to Blue White on Wed Aug 5 20:54:19 2020
    Do you have a fix for this? What work arounds do you use?
    If I need to view one, I usually use dosbox to view them...
    TYPE filename.ans

    Very well.. the post that was given earlier for folks in linux is great... type:

    iconv -f cp437 -t uft8 filename.ans

    Check that out for doing so in our terminal, without DOSBOX...



    |07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
    |08.........

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: American Pi BBS (21:2/150)
  • From apam@21:1/126 to paulie420 on Thu Aug 6 16:10:19 2020
    Very well.. the post that was given earlier for folks in linux is great... type:

    iconv -f cp437 -t uft8 filename.ans

    That will only work if you have a utf8 terminal, many do these days, but
    some don't.

    Andrew


    --- TitanFTN (Linux/x86_64)
    * Origin: Wunderlust BBS - wunderlust.ddns.net:2023 (21:1/126)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to paulie420 on Thu Aug 6 14:23:14 2020
    Do you have a fix for this? What work arounds do
    you use? If I need to view one, I usually use dosbox to view
    them... TYPE filename.ans

    Very well.. the post that was given earlier for folks in linux is
    great... type:

    iconv -f cp437 -t uft8 filename.ans

    Check that out for doing so in our terminal, without DOSBOX...

    I assume you type the same command every time you view the same ansi
    file, or once you do it once does it convert it somehow?

    #

    --- MagickaBBS v0.15alpha (Linux/armv7l)
    * Origin: Possum Lodge South * possumso.fsxnet.nz:7636/SSH:2122 (21:4/134)
  • From Al@21:4/106 to Blue White on Thu Aug 6 20:14:16 2020
    Hello Blue,

    iconv -f cp437 -t uft8 filename.ans

    Check that out for doing so in our terminal, without DOSBOX...

    I assume you type the same command every time you view the same ansi
    file, or once you do it once does it convert it somehow?

    If you want to save the file in utf8 format you can give an output filename..

    -o filename1.ans

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    --- GoldED+/LNX
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to Alpha on Fri Aug 7 02:00:27 2020
    I'm using PabloDraw on Windows, and since my BBS runs on the same Win machine in WSL2 (essentially a headless Ubuntu VM), I can easily
    navigate to the files via Windows explorer and open/edit/save them.

    Otherwise, I'd need a Linux based editor that doesn't rely on X. I've tried SyncDraw binary but couldn't get it to run - there's a note on the site that says 'NOTE: *nix binaries aren't statically linked due to
    Linux hating it' - but no idea what that means in terms of getting it to run :)

    Yes, I've used some of the off-brand tools around the BBS community... on windows, you could use ACiDView 6.0 for windows; i like pablodraw- it is the moebius of windows... one extra tip, for any *nix box, your ubuntu, the following command works to display ANSI in the terminal - and anywhere if you're logged into that terminal/ssh/wherever:
    iconv -f cp437 -t uft8 filename.ans

    Thanks for your setup... :P



    |07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
    |08.........

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: American Pi BBS (21:2/150)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to Blue White on Fri Aug 7 02:03:14 2020
    iconv -f cp437 -t uft8 filename.ans
    Check that out for doing so in our terminal, without DOSBOX...
    I assume you type the same command every time you view the same ansi
    file, or once you do it once does it convert it somehow?


    well, this is for linux, and i just edit my .bashrc and create an alias..
    alias ans ='iconv -f cp437 it utf8' and in terminal 'ans filename.ans' works for me...

    APAM pointed out, your linux must be using utf8 but most amatuer linux
    installs are.

    :P



    |07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
    |08.........

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: American Pi BBS (21:2/150)
  • From Alpha@21:4/158 to paulie420 on Fri Aug 7 09:31:45 2020
    Yes, I've used some of the off-brand tools around the BBS community... on windows, you could use ACiDView 6.0 for windows; i like pablodraw- it is the moebius of windows... one extra tip, for any *nix box, your ubuntu, the following command works to display ANSI in the terminal - and
    anywhere if you're logged into that terminal/ssh/wherever:
    iconv -f cp437 -t uft8 filename.ans

    I'll give it a try, thanks for the tip!


    |14Þ |07Alpha
    |14ÜÝ |13Card & Claw BBS
    |06Þ |05cardandclaw.com:8888

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/04/26 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Card & Claw BBS (21:4/158)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to paulie420 on Fri Aug 7 22:32:23 2020
    windows, you could use ACiDView 6.0 for windows; i like pablodraw- it is the moebius of windows... one extra tip, for any *nix box, your ubuntu,

    Wait, what? The Windows version of Moebius is the Moebius of Windows.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to Adept on Fri Aug 7 17:42:29 2020
    windows, you could use ACiDView 6.0 for windows; i like pablodraw- it the moebius of windows... one extra tip, for any *nix box, your ubunt

    Wait, what? The Windows version of Moebius is the Moebius of Windows.

    ahhh... Pablodraw doesn't work on my linux system, so I just assumed that Pablodraw was the windows one- I didn't realize that Moebius was on Windows too... thats all. I prefer Moebius over Pablodraw, but they are both pretty similar.



    |07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
    |08.........

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: American Pi BBS (21:2/150)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to paulie420 on Sat Aug 8 04:57:51 2020
    Windows too... thats all. I prefer Moebius over Pablodraw, but they are both pretty similar.

    I'm not sure on the differences -- it seems like there's a variety of things
    I became aware of over time with Moebius, that I didn't use with Pablodraw
    but may exist.

    E.g., painting with half blocks, and having a background reference image.

    But, obviously, whatever works for anyone, even if it's using TheDraw through whatever emulators needed. (and, heck, that's the only ANSI program I'm aware of where fonts are easy.)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)