Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!unlinfo.unl.edu!hoss!greg From: greg@hoss.unl.edu (Life...) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Apple ][ BBS Software Message-ID: <1991Jun15.023106.20348@unlinfo.unl.edu> Date: 15 Jun 91 02:31:06 GMT References: <1991Jun14.224208.23240@clark.edu> Sender: news@unlinfo.unl.edu Organization: GBBS/ACOS Sysop Support Lines: 144 Nntp-Posting-Host: hoss.unl.edu apollo@pro-hindugods.cts.com (Amrit Chauhan) writes: >apollo@pro-hindugods.cts.com (Amrit Chauhan) writes: >>greg@hoss.unl.edu writes: Er, that's backwards. apollo@pro-hindugods.cts.com (Amrit Chauhan) writes: >greg@hoss.unl.edu (Life...) writes: >>apollo@pro-hindugods.cts.com (Amrit Chauhan) writes: You were attributing text to me that you had written, which is wrong. :-) Just automate the thing. Have code which will (1) output the new attribution of the post you are replying to, (2) go line by line, adding a > to every line, copying it into whatever you use for an editor, and (3) enter the editor. Everything from then on SHOULD be straightforward. >Well, ok...maybe you don't have to agree with the 95% but my point is that >there are MANY more BBS's out there that run off more than just a 5.25" >Drive, and a 3.5, and a RAM disk. Can you agree with that? I won't make any >estimations, but there are many more. >>But it is nice to have the option. You can't deny such systems exist. >I'm not denying that. It is nice, but for the most part, Bulletin Boards run >off of larger disks and almost all of them on Hard Drives. Considering only the non-networked, message-only systems, is the space they use capable of being put onto a minimal IIgs system (3.5", 5.25", 1.128 MB)? Or a standard //e configuration of 2 5.25"? My point is that one does not need a hard drive to run a BBS. More is not always better. Also, you can't be having 50 systems, all with downloads and tied into the same networks. With all in the same local-calling-area, you have a bunch of systems which give you nothing in the sense of differences. >I don't know of >ANY in my local area...that's only MY local area that run off of anything >less than a Hard Drive. Again, my point is that there are many more that run >off hard drives than smaller storage devices. >>>want to run a SMALL board, then don't buy ProLine...ProLine was not meant to >>>be used as a very, very, very SMALL board. If you don't want networking >>>capabilites, and a very limited message base, then go with GBBS. >>You are getting insulting again. Your repeated use of "very" implies a >>system which is only capable of storing two messages, one of which is >>feedback. Also, I would not classify the message system of GBBS as "very >>limited". >Get off it Greg. I'm not insulting anything. Please don't start taking me >out of context here. Sorry, it is bad net.behaviour to include an entire article just to make sure that you aren't taking people out of context. >I'm sorry you get insulted so easily, and I'm sorry >"very" has negative conotations for you. I was only making a point. Yeah, but one which even you should be able to see can be taken as a very degrading comment toward another system. "Very" in itself is not inheritantly negative. Its use to emphasis "SMALL" and "limited message base" is. >My >conference system runs off my hard drive because it has over 4 MG of messages >in it. How do you fit that into a 3.5 inch disk? I don't plan to network on a 3.5" disk. Wait, how about I define it as a single node network? Volume of posts and projected disk usage is much more controllable and predictable in such a small network. >Compared to my >configurations, a 3.5 or even a 5.25 disk drive would be VERY VERY VERY >small. Your configuration, yes. I want to reconfigure so that I can get it into 1600K. (Amazing how fitting it into 1600K is much more difficult than fitting it into 1024K, which I have done before, although it is very impractical.) >That is what my point is. You have missed my point every time, or >taken me out of context. Please don't do that. I check what I am including carefully so that I respond only to what is the pertinent lines of the previous message. This requires editing. I do my best to keep the original context intact with the smallest amount of data transferred. >>I reread the ProLine manual. Very little of the manual is about ProLine >>itself. Most of it is just a listing of all the shell commands available. >What do you think ProLine is?! ALL of ProLine's commands are the shell >commands. Without a manual that covered that, how would you know how to use >it!? Chapter One: Getting Started pages 1-17 Chapter Two: Creating Accounts 19-22 Chapter Three: Using ProLine 23-34 Chapter Four: Networking 35-39 Chapter Five: System Manual 41-219 Appendix: 221-238 Index: 239-242 With all that, there is still insufficient information for a new sysop to make significant chnages to the ProLine core code. To find out how to use the ModemWorks and AmperWorks utilities, you need to buy ModemWorks, and get that manual. Or you can get MD-BASIC, getting the AmperWorks docs, but nothing on ModemWorks. Again, I can only recommend ProLine to those with the money and hardware which would allow them to modify the system. That means an over $300 investment in software, list. Nothing in the ProLine manual suggests that the manuals are available separate from the software. In effect, the whole of the documentation about what I consider ProLine itself is telling you to "explore". Browsing through a file tree is not using a BBS. >What else do you want the manual to say? It does talk about >ProLine. Your's is an invalid point. What would you have the ProLine manual >describe? How would you describe "ProLine itself?" And it's not a >listing...it is a VERY comprehensive explanation of EACH command...for a >total of over 180 pages or so! But absolutely nothing about how to program the damn thing. The "& /", "& \", and "& <" instructions are hardly intuitively named. >ProLine: apollo@pro-hindugods | Amrit S. Chauhan >Internet: apollo@pro-hindugods.cts.com | Voice: 313/644-2971 As to figuring out the code, from the MD-BASIC manual, chapter 4, page 45: "If the program is optimized, attempting to make sense of the listing is equivalent to dropping into the machine-language monitor (the * prompt) to debug a machine language program by studying the hexadecimal codes." -- /// ____ \\\ "The major problem--one of the major problems, for there are | |/ / \ \| | several--one of the many major problems with governing \\_|\____/|_// people is of whom you get to do it, or more to the greg \_\\\/ hoss.unl.edu point, who gets people to let them do it to them."