Xref: utzoo alt.bbs:980 comp.sys.ibm.pc:37196 news.misc:3749 comp.mail.uucp:3663
Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!amelia!dell
From: dell@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Thomas E. Dell)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs,comp.sys.ibm.pc,news.misc,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Waffle PC<->Usenet Announcement #1
Keywords: PC Unix Usenet BBS Waffle KGB CIA
Message-ID: <3618@amelia.nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 29 Oct 89 07:02:36 GMT
Reply-To: root@vox.darkside.com
Followup-To: alt.bbs,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Lines: 43

Did someone say PC<->Usenet software?

There have been a LOT of questions about PC<->Usenet software lately.
To date the only option has been to run Ufgate, which requires running
other Fido software. I won't say what my opinion of Fido software is.

Since 1985 I have been developing BBS software, as sort of a bizarre
hobby, or obsession. This has evolved into a viable PC<->Usenet link,
BBS software that runs under DOS, SCO Xenix, A/UX, BSD 4.3, SunOS, Ultrix,
and several other platforms.  You can see the fruits of this by calling
+1 408 245 SPAM and poking around (warning- the system isn't exactly 
something you would call a "normal" BBS. 60,000 calls & going strong). 

In any event, in 3 or 4 days I will release a preliminary DOS version.
It features:

    o Fully functional BBS program
    o uucico that works fairly well and is stable. It needs a bit
      more work on the error recovery stages though. Works as
      dialin (slave) or dialout (master).
    o Clean & consistent netnews and email interface that functions
      quite well with Unix & Waffle systems.
    o Clean & consistent interface with external programs
    o File transfer section that works nicely with reasonable
      external protocols

My original plans were to work on it a few more months before releasing
this. However, since there seems to be a high immediate demand for this, I
will put it up for anonymous FTP somewhere, sometime this week. Because
of this there may be some things missing in the documentation (There is over
150k of documentation). There is some functionality missing - it will not
handle compressed newsfeeds (batch is ok), it doesn't know enough about
message threads (it knows a little), doesn't do NNTP yet, and a few other 
small (big?) nits.

Waffle is a $30 piece of shareware (and well worth it). Source code
will also be available for a bit more. A multiuser Unix/Xenix 
version will also be forthcoming in the coming months (it works but there
are some logistics to work out with incoming mail).

                 Thomas Dell

                 root@vox.darkside.com