• Interested in starting out

    From thunderoxx@21:2/150 to All on Thursday, December 01, 2022 13:56:25
    Hello all!

    As I am almost in my early twenties, I did not have opportunity to see BBSes in their full glory.

    Luckily, scene still exists (no matter how big or small) and I would be interested to contribute as I have some nifty ideas atleast, but don't know with what language & lib to start.

    Paulie @20fB gave me some nudges, but we both figured it would be much better to ask here on fsxNet.

    You can usually find me hanging out on aBSiNTHE BBS or on 2o f0r beeRS.

    -thunderoxx (Filip)

    ... Don't let the bastards grind you down --U2

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to thunderoxx on Thursday, December 01, 2022 14:09:38
    Paulie @20fB gave me some nudges, but we both figured it would be much better to ask here on fsxNet.

    To help any responders, he was looking for any door kits; like RefDoor, but more in depth. I know there are several available, and forgot the main one to suggest...

    I think you'll find some responses here, thunderoxx. cheers, r0ckstar.



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

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)
  • From esc@21:4/173 to paulie420 on Thursday, December 01, 2022 14:42:38
    To help any responders, he was looking for any door kits; like RefDoor, but more in depth. I know there are several available, and forgot the
    main one to suggest...

    Ah, gotcha. Yeah that makes sense :) But it would help to understand target platform. DOS/Windows games? Or linux? ..?

    jack phlash uses xdoor for darkness which is a DOS game, and apam has built something called magidoor which works fantastically for linux (and windows though I have only personally tested building linux things iwth it).

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/11 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)
  • From aLPHA@21:4/158 to paulie420 on Thursday, December 01, 2022 19:33:24
    To help any responders, he was looking for any door kits; like
    RefDoor, but more in depth. I know there are several available, and
    forgot the main one to suggest...

    I just wrote about am old-skool door kit:

    https://retroshed.us/bbs-door-dev-1/

    Love this community!



    |04a|12LPHA
    |03Alpha Complex |15- |11alphacomplex.us:2323

    --- Talisman v0.46-dev (Linux/x86_64)
    * Origin: You are in Error, fsxNet. No one is screaming. (21:4/158)
  • From thunderoxx@21:2/150 to esc on Friday, December 02, 2022 01:48:08
    Cool!

    Magidoor sounds cool to me, but I had tough time finding it, is it available online or can be found here on some BBS?

    Also, target platform has also been my dilemma, since there are many choices and I'm not sure which would be (most) appropriate for a simpler project to get the boots wet :D

    Thank you all for advice, it's really appreciated :)

    -thunderoxx (Filip)

    ... I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)
  • From apam@21:1/182 to thunderoxx on Friday, December 02, 2022 20:00:03
    Magidoor sounds cool to me, but I had tough time finding it, is it
    available online or can be found here on some BBS?

    Magidoor isn't documented, as I really wrote it for my own use - you're
    welcome to use it though, it's here:

    https://gitlab.com/magickabbs/magidoor

    If you're writing in C or C++ though, OpenDoors is a much more feature
    full kit, and it's well documented. It also runs on linux / win32.

    https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/tree/master/src/odoors

    Andrew


    --- Talisman v0.46-dev (Windows/x64)
    * Origin: Smuggler's Cove - Private BBS (21:1/182)
  • From thunderoxx@21:2/150 to apam on Friday, December 02, 2022 06:44:30
    Thank you so much!

    I will try to play with it, certainly looks like a fun project.

    All the best,
    -thunderoxx (Filip)

    ... "Kryton, remove that Troyian pig." Elaan

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)
  • From NuSkooler@21:1/121 to paulie420 on Friday, December 02, 2022 20:09:57

    On Thursday, December 1st paulie420 said...
    Paulie @20fB gave me some nudges, but we both figured it would
    be much
    better to ask here on fsxNet.
    To help any responders, he was looking for any door kits; like RefDoor, but more in depth. I know there are several available, and forgot the main one to suggest...

    My advice: don't. Look for *terminal kits* instead, and us stdio. This works in all the modern boards (and can be wrapped for any older softs easily). There are nice term kits for pretty much any language out there.

    With the above you end up with a 'door' that's generic enough to pretty much work on any system, but uses modern terminal kits and techniques making life easier there as well.

    ...ofc, if you want to do it oldschool for the true feel, I've had success with FPC and some of the Pascal kits floating around, but I can't remember their names :D


    --
    |08 ■ |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of fear|07"
    |08 ■ |03xibalba|08.|03l33t|08.|03codes |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08)
    |08 ■ |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE |08| |03ACiDic
    --- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.13-beta (linux; x64; 16.16.0)
    * Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (21:1/121)
  • From NuSkooler@21:1/121 to aLPHA on Friday, December 02, 2022 20:11:01

    On Thursday, December 1st aLPHA said...
    I just wrote about am old-skool door kit: https://retroshed.us/bbs-door-dev-1/

    Dope article, thanks!


    --
    |08 ■ |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of fear|07"
    |08 ■ |03xibalba|08.|03l33t|08.|03codes |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08)
    |08 ■ |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE |08| |03ACiDic
    --- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.13-beta (linux; x64; 16.16.0)
    * Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (21:1/121)
  • From apam@21:1/182 to NuSkooler on Saturday, December 03, 2022 14:32:16
    With the above you end up with a 'door' that's generic enough to
    pretty much work on any system, but uses modern terminal kits and
    techniques making life easier there as well.

    You could do that, but you'll have to implement dropfile handling,
    connection timeouts and time-left handling yourself.

    It's really the learning curve you want to go with, if it's something
    like ncurses, you can use the knowledge elsewhere.

    For magidoor, it's pretty much some convienence functions, dropfile
    handling and writing to either a socket or stdio depending on OS, plus
    the timeout handling - I wonder if you could then use ncurses on top of
    that for window drawing etc.

    Andrew


    --- Talisman v0.46-dev (Windows/x64)
    * Origin: Smuggler's Cove - Private BBS (21:1/182)
  • From thunderoxx@21:2/150 to apam on Saturday, December 03, 2022 01:26:48
    Thank you both NuSkooler & apam, this is insightful!

    Now I understand why the languages can be used in such a variety (considering you know how to handle some things as well).

    I will definitely expand my programming language knowledge and hopefully I'll manage to build something!

    You've all been very helpful and I appreciate it the most, especially for such a niche/small(er) scene in today's world (who knows why that's good actually).

    -thunderoxx (Filip)

    ... SYSTEM ERROR 1303: POWER NOT ON

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)
  • From NuSkooler@21:1/121 to apam on Saturday, December 03, 2022 10:39:40

    On Sunday, December 4th apam said...
    You could do that, but you'll have to implement dropfile handling, connection timeouts and time-left handling yourself.

    Dropfiles are so basic, and many of the values don't make sense any longer (or are dummy values & ignored anyway), so I guess I don't see this as a blocker. Connection timeouts are generally handled by the BBS: If the connection drops, the board drops the door PID.

    Time left... I guess. I'm not sure who's actually using that any longer. Perhaps on older systems on original hardware where resources are very limited.



    --
    |08 ■ |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of fear|07"
    |08 ■ |03xibalba|08.|03l33t|08.|03codes |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08)
    |08 ■ |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE |08| |03ACiDic
    --- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.13-beta (linux; x64; 16.16.0)
    * Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (21:1/121)
  • From NuSkooler@21:1/121 to thunderoxx on Saturday, December 03, 2022 10:40:38

    thunderoxx around Saturday, December 3rd...
    Thank you both NuSkooler & apam, this is insightful!

    To be clear, we all have our opinions, but I don't think anyone is really "right". The real goal: Have fun :)



    --
    |08 ■ |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of fear|07"
    |08 ■ |03xibalba|08.|03l33t|08.|03codes |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08)
    |08 ■ |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE |08| |03ACiDic
    --- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.13-beta (linux; x64; 16.16.0)
    * Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (21:1/121)
  • From Bugz@1:0/0 to aLPHA on Saturday, December 03, 2022 14:42:00
    aLPHA wrote to paulie420 <=-

    I just wrote about am old-skool door kit: https://retroshed.us/bbs-door-dev-1/

    Ah ha! another gopher! If I could get comfortable with go versioning
    I'd get my library released. You can check out my demo door on
    Smuggler's Cove. Apam was nice/brave enough to put it on his BBS.

    I think it's a good example of what go does best (go routines).

    Take care,
    bugz

    ... I was up all night wondering where the sun went, but then it dawned on me. === MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: Red-Green BBS - bbs.red-green.com (0:0/0)
  • From Bugz@1:0/0 to apam on Saturday, December 03, 2022 15:06:00
    apam wrote to NuSkooler <=-

    For magidoor, it's pretty much some convienence functions, dropfile handling and writing to either a socket or stdio depending on OS, plus
    the timeout handling - I wonder if you could then use ncurses on top of that for window drawing etc.

    I think I looked at ncurses. The biggest thing with that was getting a
    proper "termio" (terminal capabilities). There's some out there, ansi-bbs,
    but it didn't seem to work for me.

    Optimizing screen writes is what ncurses does very well, but it isn't a
    feature I look for anymore these days. ;)

    Take care,
    bugz

    ... Line noise provided compliments of Southern Bell!
    === MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: Red-Green BBS - bbs.red-green.com (0:0/0)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to NuSkooler on Saturday, December 03, 2022 15:20:35
    My advice: don't. Look for *terminal kits* instead, and us stdio. This works in all the modern boards (and can be wrapped for any older softs easily). There are nice term kits for pretty much any language out
    there.

    Nice advice, Nu... I am a GREEN HORN but learning more and more about Python... I'd LOVE to be able to write to the terminal/user w/ it; you don't gotta go into detail, but you think I could use your method in Python for outputting to the term?



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

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)
  • From paulie420@21:2/150 to thunderoxx on Saturday, December 03, 2022 15:22:46
    You've all been very helpful and I appreciate it the most, especially
    for such a niche/small(er) scene in today's world (who knows why that's good actually).

    Told ya they'd have better answers. :P We've got an awesome community here in bbSland.



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

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)
  • From esc@21:4/173 to NuSkooler on Saturday, December 03, 2022 17:21:03
    I just wrote about am old-skool door kit: https://retroshed.us/bbs-door-dev-1/

    Dope article, thanks!

    Indeed! I read this on a flight yesterday, am eagerly awaiting more :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/11 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)
  • From esc@21:4/173 to apam on Saturday, December 03, 2022 17:24:30
    You could do that, but you'll have to implement dropfile handling, connection timeouts and time-left handling yourself.

    I take for granted doorkits handle all of this, which is nice. That said, stdio games seem to work as expected when the user drops carrier and they close. I suppose that's the bbs handling it somehow, I have no idea really.

    It's really the learning curve you want to go with, if it's something
    like ncurses, you can use the knowledge elsewhere.

    I will say that working with ncurses directly is like a step backwards in time, and not in a good way :P doorkits have /much/ better implementation strategies for the things we intend to do with writing characters and colors on a screen. ncurses is industry standard for good reason, but we've got some better optimized code for our purposes in doorkits.

    For magidoor, it's pretty much some convienence functions, dropfile handling and writing to either a socket or stdio depending on OS, plus
    the timeout handling - I wonder if you could then use ncurses on top of that for window drawing etc.

    I wrote a roguelike (very basic) in c over the past several days using ncurses. I've been thinking about porting it over to a very simple, lightweight, stay-out-of-your-way doorkit. I may experiment with magidoor as well as others and write up my experience.

    Nevertheless I think the doors /you/ have made, which use magidoor, all work quite well and feel snappy and seemingly run without any major issues. So kudos to you for that!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/11 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)
  • From apam@21:1/182 to Bugz on Sunday, December 04, 2022 12:47:00
    On Sat Dec 3 14:42:00 2022, Bugz wrote to aLPHA <=-


    aLPHA wrote to paulie420 <=-

    I just wrote about am old-skool door kit: https://retroshed.us/bbs-door-dev-1/

    Ah ha! another gopher! If I could get comfortable with go versioning
    I'd get my library released. You can check out my demo door on
    Smuggler's Cove. Apam was nice/brave enough to put it on his BBS.

    Heh, it's a really well done door kit. I hope you do release it sometime, I'm pretty sure Alpha would like it, being a Go person.

    But... probably best to point people to your bbs (Red Green BBS) as mine is private (just that it has a new user password - if people want to visit i'm happy to share it, but not publicly, I got tired of trolls)

    Andrew

    === TitanMail/linux v1.1.6

    --- Talisman v0.46-dev (Windows/x64)
    * Origin: Smuggler's Cove - Private BBS (21:1/182)
  • From apam@21:1/182 to NuSkooler on Sunday, December 04, 2022 12:43:00
    On Sat Dec 3 10:40:00 2022, NuSkooler wrote to thunderoxx <=-



    thunderoxx around Saturday, December 3rd...
    Thank you both NuSkooler & apam, this is insightful!

    To be clear, we all have our opinions, but I don't think anyone is really "right". The real goal: Have fun :)

    This.

    I think it's just a matter of take what you want and work out what you're comfortable with. Things are a lot easier / more flexible these days without having to worry about serial communications, memory limitations etc.

    Andrew

    === TitanMail/linux v1.1.6

    --- Talisman v0.46-dev (Windows/x64)
    * Origin: Smuggler's Cove - Private BBS (21:1/182)
  • From apam@21:1/182 to esc on Sunday, December 04, 2022 12:41:00
    On Sat Dec 3 17:24:00 2022, esc wrote to apam <=-


    You could do that, but you'll have to implement dropfile handling, connection timeouts and time-left handling yourself.

    I take for granted doorkits handle all of this, which is nice. That said, stdio games seem to work as expected when the user drops carrier and they close. I suppose that's the bbs handling it somehow, I have no idea really.

    Sorry, when I said connection timeouts I was thinking user timeouts, like the "Hey are you still there?" then exiting if they are not.

    Yeah, as nu and you point out if the connection drops they close.

    It's really the learning curve you want to go with, if it's something like ncurses, you can use the knowledge elsewhere.

    I will say that working with ncurses directly is like a step backwards in time, and not in a good way :P doorkits have /much/ better implementation strategies for the things we intend to do with writing characters and colors on a screen. ncurses is industry standard for good reason, but we've got some better optimized code for our purposes in doorkits.

    I've not done much with Ncurses, so can't really comment on that.

    For magidoor, it's pretty much some convienence functions, dropfile handling and writing to either a socket or stdio depending on OS, plus the timeout handling - I wonder if you could then use ncurses on top of that for window drawing etc.

    I wrote a roguelike (very basic) in c over the past several days using ncurses. I've been thinking about porting it over to a very simple, lightweight, stay-out-of-your-way doorkit. I may experiment with magidoor as well as others and write up my experience.

    Oh nice. I've wanted to make a rogue like in ages. Had been playing with libtcod but it doesn't seem to be very portable. Also had tried a rust tutorial, but still haven't got my head around that language (though haven't really done much lately).

    Nevertheless I think the doors /you/ have made, which use magidoor, all work quite well and feel snappy and seemingly run without any major issues. So kudos to you for that!

    Thanks.

    Andrew

    === TitanMail/linux v1.1.6

    --- Talisman v0.46-dev (Windows/x64)
    * Origin: Smuggler's Cove - Private BBS (21:1/182)