Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!motcid!king
From: king@motcid.UUCP (Steven King)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.datacomm
Subject: Re: Prodigy
Keywords: garbage, trash net, hellfire
Message-ID: <4736@orchid3.UUCP>
Date: 22 Feb 91 15:14:57 GMT
References: <1991Feb20.034644.14053@infonode.ingr.com> <1991Feb21.170825.5994@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Lines: 32

In article <1991Feb21.170825.5994@sbcs.sunysb.edu> dtiberio@csserv2.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes:
|In article <1991Feb20.034644.14053@infonode.ingr.com> hychejw@infonode.ingr.com (Jeff W. Hyche) writes:
|>	Now I have a question.  Why do we have to use their
|>software?  I know they use special software that will only work
|>with Prodigy.  But why does it have to be that way.  I can count
|>at least a dozen PD or Shareware programs for the Amiga.  So why
|>can't someone write a PD front end for Prodigy for the Amiga?
|
|  To do this testing you will need a copy of Prodigy on a Mac/IBM, and then
|hook it up to an Amiga (well, actually any computer will do). I would write
|a program that reads in all of the codes when transmitted by the other program,
|as menus or options are selected. Then, call up prodigy and enter the codes
|by hand to see what the Prodigy response codes are. Maybe this would be easier
|if an Amiga multitasked an IBM running Prodigy, and an Amiga program were
|written to intercept all data that is transmitted over the serial port.

A protocol analyzer would come in darned handy here, as would the specs for
the Teletext protocol that Prodigy is based off of.  (I could be
misremembering the name, but Prodigy's protocol is derived from an earlier
graphics/text protocol that was in limited use.  They may have added some
extensions, but it's not really a new and unique protocol.)  I think the big
problem we're up against is that most people with the resources and skill to
pull this off haven't any desire to use Prodigy, and most people with the
desire to use Prodigy haven't got the resources and skill to program a front
end to it.  I thought about trying it once, but I fall into the first
category...

-- 
---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------
Space is big.  Space is dark.                      |        Steven King
It's hard to find.  A place to park.               |     Motorola Cellular
Burma Shave.                                       |   ...uunet!motcid!king