Volume 4, Number 25 6 July 1987 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. Copyright 1987 by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA. Six Weeks to FidoCon! Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 A word from the Broadcast Echos .......................... 1 National EchoMail Conference List ........................ 3 FREEWARE: The End of Amateur Programming? ................ 14 Once Upon the Future ..................................... 16 New EchoMail Area for Mainframe Folks .................... 18 More Talk About PK vs. ARC ............................... 19 Mail Relays .............................................. 20 Turbo C - V 1.0 - A Product Review ....................... 22 Does IFNA Matter Outside the USA ? ....................... 25 The creation of FUN ...................................... 27 US Naval Observatory Time Now Available .................. 28 NEW FIDO(tm) OPUS(tm) SEADOG(tm) UTILITY ................. 29 2. COLUMNS .................................................. 31 Borland's Turbo C: Review, part 1 ........................ 31 The Regular Irregular Column ............................. 34 3. FOR SALE ................................................. 38 COMPUTER PACKAGE FOR SALE ................................ 38 4. NOTICES .................................................. 39 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 39 regarding fnews424 ....................................... 39 Latest Software Versions ................................. 39 International FidoNet Conference Registration Form ....... 41 IFNA Order Form .......................................... 42 FidoNews 4-25 Page 1 6 Jul 1987 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Glen Jackson Fido/SEAdog 100/517 Updates and such First of all, It's sure good to be back into the net. We went down around May 10th for our big move, and with the move came a new phone number. Please, if you are at all interested in the Broadcast Echos, jot this number down. 100/517 is now at 1-314-928-2501. We're slowly growing in our little echo. We now carry three seperate message areas dedicated the broadcast industry. They are 1)Conversations for the public and broadcasters, 2) Jobs and situations in the broadcast industry, and 3)for Broadcasters only. To keep you up to date, these nodes carry the echos. If you would like to participate, drop us netmail at 100/517, and we will co- ordinate you into the topology. PLEASE - we would prefer to do the co-ordinating so we can keep track of this echo. Here is who currently participates: 113/1 Small_Biz_Net Honolulu, HI 501/4697 SVT_Public_TV Stockholm, Sweden 135/1 Ram_Soft Miami, FL 104/69 Metroplex Denver, CO 151/301 BNC_Connector Boone, NC 125/406 KLOK_FM San Francisco, CA 151/108 Drums_Opus Cary, NC 11/107 Bourbonnis_BBS Bourbonnis, IL 19/3 Dark_Cavern Lawton, OK 150/614 Charis_TBBS Philadelphia, PA 135/11 FL 104/108 Micro_Link Littleton,CO 969/500 NY 150/600 Philadelphia_Hub Pydal, PA We currently set aside the time between 1:15 AM and 1:45 AM (Central) for polling. Since we now have SEAdog, polls can be accepted at any time. NEXT - MSGDB Recently we introduced a new utility, MSGDB. This is for OPUS and FIDO sysops that want to do full message bit editing in all of their message areas, or move a message from one area to another. It can be file requested from either 100/510 or 100/517. The file to ask for is MSGDB.ARC. FINALLY - another BBS interface FidoNews 4-25 Page 2 6 Jul 1987 We are also working on a full implementation of a WWIV BBS network interface. If any of you have had experience with WWIV, or logged on to a WWIV system, you know that this is a good message base BBS. When we finish, WWIV will be able to handle all netmail and echomail capabilities. If you have any comments on this, just leave me a note. NOW - the soapbox Short, but sweet. This week I dropped the SYSOP ECHO. After not being on the network for 6 weeks, I picked up all of my back logged sysop echomail. Nothing has changed much. No sense in carrying the same old same old and wasting disk space with it. LET'S FINISH We have a few TV people on the Broadcast echo that are asking for more participation. It seems like the radio people do all the talking. Is the reason the TV people are so quiet on the echo because they want to be seen as well as be heard? Let's hope not. I want to thank all of you for the support you've been over the last few weeks. I certainly enjoy the network! Give us a shout with any comments, etc at 100/517! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-25 Page 3 6 Jul 1987 This is the FIDONEWS version of the ECHOLIST. A more detailed version showing networks served, secondary "contact" nodes, approximate traffic volume, number of participating nodes and more can be File Requested as ECHOLIST.ARC from 107/316 Thomas Kenny 107/269 Mitch Kessler We hope that more SEAdog running BBSs will want to help distribute the ECHOLIST. Ideally such a board would allow first time callers to File Request or download the list at 2400 Baud. There's been a bit of a change in the format of the FidoNews version of the list this month: proposed conferences are at the end of the list in their own section, and ECHOS that do not name a moderator or coordinator are not listed. **************************************************************** AA_NA (Recovery) David Dodell 114/15 Abled David Dodell 114/15 Handicapped forum ADAM Discussion Bill Freads 11/700 ADAM Technical Bill Freads 11/700 ADS Tracy Graves 138/39 THIS CONFERENCE IS DEAD. Adults Adults only conference. (John Penberthy 129/28) AFNA Australian FidoNet Association AI Richard Clark 107/222 Artificial Intelligence conference. AIDS/ARC Bob Kovach 125/31 Amateur Radio John Dashner 133/10 Amiga Grey Mist 124/206 Amiga Prog Richard Clark 107/222 Amiga programmers technical information Animation Mike Bader 120/17 Conference for animation info & discussion includeing Japanese animation. APL Chris Lincoln 107/103 FidoNews 4-25 Page 4 6 Jul 1987 Apple Bob Abbott 157/511 Apple II Gary Vedrick 102/2801 Asian-American Arnold Chu 107/16 Asian-American Community happenings ASM Barry Dobyns 102/140 Astronomy Don Epand 114/18 alias StarNet AT&T Mark Pinkstone 150/613 Poll/Pickup from Host (138/39, 0150-0225 PDT) Atari Gary Vedrick 102/2801 Atari technical conference Audio Advisor Larry Digioia 129/17 Automotive Marcel Schmelzer 129/42 Beyond War Andy Kanter 101/301 National peace issues forum. Bible Bob Hoffman 129/34 Bible forum Bicycles Mike Talbot 151/103 Bicycle use in sports, touring, racing & transportation. Bitch Jim Bacon 103/507 Bloom Net Sysops Bob Stubbings 127/60 Books, Great Jim Bacon 103/507 Broadcast Glen Jackson 100/517 Radio engineering, programming & marketing. Broadcasting Jobs Terry Travis 104/69 Broadcasting jobs/situations. Business & Economics Randall Kobetich 150/130 Business information conference Buy&Sell Jim Deibele 105/3 Bylaws Bob Hartman 132/101 Only for Bylaws committee members? Bylfedbk Tom Marshall 107/324 FidoNews 4-25 Page 5 6 Jul 1987 DISCONTINUED C Language Ed Rauh 141/215 Career Discussions Lee Johnson 125/612 Host will poll/pickup Christ Net Baddlard Shackleford 108/70 Christian BBS only by coordinator approval. A non-argumentative forum for Bible study, prayer requests and fellowship. Cincy Jesse Armontrout 108/64 Local sysop conference COCO Echo Brian Bream 112/3 Tandy Color Computer Commodore Marv Shelton 107/311 C64 & C128 technical conference Commodore (local) Gary Vedrick 102/2-801 Conejo For Sale Gary Vedrick 102/2801 Conejo Music Gary Vedrick 102/2801 Conejo Tech Gary Vedrick 102/2801 Consulting Tracey Graves 138/39 Business of consulting. Cosmopolitan Hal Duprie 101/107 Boston Metro Area: Books, Food & Good Things of Life dBASE Alex Hartley 100/500 dBASE users forum Debate *NONE* Detroit, Chicago, Colorado. There may be to separate conferences!? DEC Rainbow Dave Rene 101/27 Host is 101/27 who polls all the nodes. DesqView Bob Spivack 143/3 DesqView users forum Doggies Tracy Graves 138/39 Fido clones & compatibles confernce, i.e. SEAdog, Collie, Guardian, etc. FidoNews 4-25 Page 6 6 Jul 1987 Dr Debug's Laboratory Larry Digioia 129/17 Questions/answers on all computers & software (mostly IBM compatibles). Dungeons & Dragons Eric Daymo 102/2803 Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. Echomail Coordinators Jon Sabol 124/210 For echomail coordinators only Educators Tracy Graves 138/39 Feminism Kim Storment 100/523 FireNet Christopher Baker 135/14 Fire/Rescue/EMS news and information exchange. Fish Net Leo Bores 114/14 Conference for Aquarists & fish keeping hobbyists. Fortran Barry Dobyns 102/140 Forum Tracey Graves 138/39 Private personal communications/sharing. Freemess Barry Dobyns 102/140 Los Angles Chatter Gaming Robert Plamondon 143/12 Role playing games conference. Gammaw Peter Kranz 102/2802 Gamma World role playing game. Genealogy Ken Whitaker 143/26 The national genealogy conference (NGC). Grand_Rounds (Mednet) David Dodell 114/15 Medical Related Discussions, primarily health care professionals. HACK, PC Kurt Reisler 109/483 *NET_109* PC HACK Q&A and war stories conference. HAM Eric Daymo 102/2803 Ham radio technical conference. Health David Page 109/604 Health related issues (MDs participating) There is also a larger group that exchanges files only. Healthnet David Dodell 114/15 FidoNews 4-25 Page 7 6 Jul 1987 Heath/Zenith Joe Rock 128/15 Heath/Zenith series 89, 90, 100-120 (not for Zenith 150 & up series) Help Wanted Eunhee Hunter 109/626 HOWSWA Bill Bertholf 107/102 How's the weather in WA state! HP3000TALK Tracy Graves 17/43 HP3000 conversations. Hunger Chris Irwin 108/68 IFNA Policy & Politics Ken Kaplan 1/10 International Fido Net Association. Restricted to SYSOPs only. INTERPER Randall Kobetich 150/900 Opinion forum: moral, ethical, social issues. Jobs Tracy Graves 138/39 Computer-related Employment Echo (Job Listings, etc.) JR-MSG Phil Kaiser 104/904 PC jr conference Laptops Ej McKernan 15/20 Laptop technical conference Law Mark Pinkstone 150/613 Lawyers technical/substantive forum Literature Steven Barnes 138/49 Conference about writers & writing. Lotus Randy Van de Loo 124/110 Lotus users forum MacIntosh (local) Eric Daymo 102/2803 MacIntosh technical conference MacIntosh Leo LaPorte 125/2 MacIntosh technical conference. Magick Brad Hicks 100/523 Merged with Alternative Religion conference. Meadow Chuck Lawson 124/102 Opus Sysop's conference. Mensa Jim Kay 109/612 National conference of Mensa run boards or where there is substantial membership interest. Menasn only Christopher Baker 135/14 FidoNews 4-25 Page 8 6 Jul 1987 Restriced to Mensa members. Metroforum Don Daniels 107/211 *NET_107* help conference for users Metronet Don Daniels 107/211 *NET_107* Sysop Conference Miaminet David Gilbert 135/1 *LOCAL_MIAMI* information exchange forum MIDI Bruce Oblander 161/594 Mindset PC James Pallack 16/635 Conference was dissolved but is back to life now! MOD1000 Neal Curtin 138/14 Tandy Model 1000 technical conference (Tandy T1K). Modula-2 Randy Bush 105/6 Modula-2 programming language conference Net 102 For Sale Barry Dobyns 102/140 *NET_102* Net 108 Chatter 108/68 THIS CONFERENCE IS DEAD. Net 108 Forsale Steve Sullivan 108/75 *NET_108* Net 108 Programmer Jesse Armontrout 108/64 *NET_108* Net 109 Astronomy Rick Ward 109/635 *NET_109* Net 109 Classifieds Alexander Wall 109/606 *NET_109* advertising, items for sale. Net 109 dBASE J Liebsch/A Griffin 109/605 *NET_109* dBASE users conference. Net 109 General chatter Alexander Wall 109/606 *NET_109* user chatter Net 109 Help Jim Kay 109/617 *NET_109* User questions & answers. Net 109 Lotus Jim Kay 109/617 *NET_109* Lotus users conference. Net 109 Meeting J Liebsch/A Griffin 109/605 *NET_109* 12 Step Program - Experiences. FidoNews 4-25 Page 9 6 Jul 1987 Net 109 Mensa Jim Kay 109/617 Metro Washington DC Mensa conference. Net 109 Opinion/Oratory Robert Rudolph 109/628 Net 109 Politics Glenn Ford 109/658 *NET_109* Net 109 Recovery Rick Ward 109/635 *NET_109* 12 Step Program - Chatter. Net 109 Reviews Kurt Reisler 109/74 Reviews of "anything". Net 109 Seniors Brian Hughes 109/634 Senior Citizens conference. Net 109 Sysop Kim Wells 109/652 *NET_109* Net 109 sysop conference. Net 124 Sysop Jon Sabol 124/210 Net 133 Sysop John Dashner 133/10 Net 138 Sysop Steve Butler 138/3 Net 138 Team Steve Butler 138/3 Net 143 Sysop Todd Looney 143/27 Net 161 Sysop Butch Walker 161/2 Networking Dave Oshea 107/35 NY Mets Jean Coppola 107/301 NY Mets baseball team conference. Officers Ric Wentz 138/39 Conference about & for law enforcment professionals. Ohio Phil Ardussi 157/502 Park Richard Clark 107/222 US National Park Service only PIB Bob Klahn 150/1 Pitt Fido Sysop Stu Turk 129/26 Pittsburg area Fido sysop conference. Policy Jim Bacon 103/507 Conference for discusion of the FidoNews 4-25 Page 10 6 Jul 1987 create of the policy4 document. Politics Bill Bertholf 107/102 Politics and public policy forum Political (local) Stu Turk 129/26 *LOCAL_PITTSBURGH* religion & current events debate forum Programming Butch Walker 161/2 Programmer's conference. Prolog Barry Dobyns 102/140 QNX Ken Mcvay 340/10 Quantum Software's QNX Operating System Questions & comments Gregg Zegarelli 129/29 Questions & comments concerning current issues. RBASE Leo Bores 114/14 RBASE User's Forum Real Estate Al Arango 107/323 Real Estate and finance Records Roger Smith 18/14 Record collecting and music in general Region 15 David Dodell 114/15 *REGION_15* general news/info Region 17 Sysop Rob Barker 138/34 Region 17 Sysop conference Region 17 Tech Steve Butler 138/3 Rights Steve Butler 138/3 Shareware author rights, information exchange. THIS CONFERENCE IS DEAD Robert Arnz show Glen Jackson 100/517 Robert Arnz call in radio talk show. Science Fiction Authors David Dyer-Bennet 14/341 Science Fiction and Fandom. Discussion of science fiction movies, television, book, comics, and all other media. Doctor Who, Star Trek, Hitchhiker's Guid to the Galaxy, Zelazny, Moorcock, Asimov, Danger Mouse, Battlestar Galactica, etc! Science Fiction/Fantasy Mike Jacobs 150/900 Conference for fans of science fiction and fantasy. Scuba Rod Lamping 104/610 FidoNews 4-25 Page 11 6 Jul 1987 Shortwave Listening Larry DiGioia 129/17 Sirius Bob Klahn 150/1 Sirius users forum. SMART Neal Curtin 138/14 SMART Software System package from Innovative Software SOBnet Anne Capola 107/107 Adult HotChat by Coordinator approval Non-argumentative uncensored adult topics SOCAL Barry Dobyns 102/140 Software Careers Lee Johnson 125/612 Merged into Career Discussions. Spark Beta Spark Software Beta testers Sports Ed Meloan 360/1 All national sporting events. Sysop Jon Sabol 124/210 *NATIONAL* THE National Sysop conference. Fido bugs/fixes, news and sysop chatter. Restricted to Sysop's ONLY! TBBS Dave Dodell 114/15 Tech Butch Walker 161/2 *NATIONAL* *TECHNET* Telecomm Hal Duprie 101/107 Telecommunication conference. Telix Rob Benner 148/1 UNIX Mike Johnson 170/329 Merged into C_ECHO. USA Wide Rick Ward 109/635 Small national general chit-chat conference. VAX Barry Dobyns 102/140 DEC VAX technical conference. Vietnam Vets Todd Looney 143/27 Vietnam Vetern's conference. Wildlife Richard Clark 107/222 Discussion of nature, outdoors, hunting, fishing, conservation. **************************************************************** FidoNews 4-25 Page 12 6 Jul 1987 PROPOSED CONFERENCES -------------------- Applications (James Deibele 105/3) 10/17/86 Autocad (Jim Quiesner 104/18) Aviation Net (Mark Stappenbeck 14/609) Airline & General Aviation Boating (Paul Esterle 157/697) Desktop Publishing (Larry Kayser 102/2800) Divers (Rod Lamping 104/610) EQUUS (Mark Indictor 104/606) Equestrian related topics. Fido Developers (Jim Ryan 141/9) Share source code for FidoNet Compatible systems Fossil (Vince Perriello 141/491) Health Net, Allied (Bill Hliwa 260/10) IEEE (Bill Wilkes 107/211) Lifestyle Alternatives (Adam Selene 107/269) Polyfidelity, Family Synergy, Celibacy, Feminism, Communalism, Single Parenthood, Foster Parenting, ... For anyone whose lifes path is not "mainstream". Packet Amateur Radio (Jim Brooker 124/13) Photography (Bill Thomas 132/225) Portables (John Penberthy 129/28) Region 19 (David Drexler 147/1) Star Trek (Eric Daymo 102/2803) Turbo Pascal (Bob Klahn 150/1) get ECPROG for this topic Users (Tom Baughman 119/13) Womens Space (Gillian Boardman 107/269) By and For Women WordLore (Hilda Stubbing 127/70) Discussion of word usage, nuances, grammer, etc. WordPerfect (Mark Pinkstone 150/613) FidoNews 4-25 Page 13 6 Jul 1987 Writing (Christopher Baker 135/14) ***************************************************************** ** Echomail Conference List, Issue 1, Number 2 (6/4/87) ** ** Copyright 1986,87 by Thomas E. Kenny. All rights reserved ** ***************************************************************** -- ATTENTION ECHOMAIL COORDINATORS AND CONTACTS -- -- PLEASE send updates to IFNA node 107/316 -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-25 Page 14 6 Jul 1987 FREEWARE: The End of Amateur Programming? ----------------------------------------- "Why aren't there very many new programs being uploaded any more?", she asked after looking over the file areas on the board. "Now that's a good question.", I replied. "I really don't know. It looks as if nobody is writing any of their own programs anymore. I wonder why....." That is a part of the conversation that prompted this article. I don't know if the rest of you are noticing a similar lack of original software being uploaded by your users but it is certainly very evident here at The Power Station. Now, that is not to say that there are no uploads, just that there is no uploading of local, original software. It doesn't seem that long ago (not more than 2 or 3 years) when almost EVERYBODY who owned a computer was writing software for it. Most of the programs were written in BASIC and were kludgy and slow as molasses in the spring, but all that aside, the programmer was PROUD to have contributed something and couldn't wait to share their offering with others. All of that seems to have changed, now. The reason.... FREEWARE / SHAREWARE / User Supported Software! There is an abundance of good (in fact EXCELLENT) software available to do almost anything a person needs or wants. This software is of sufficient quality to rival a large portion of the commercial software available at a fraction of the cost (for those who choose to pay for it - but that's a different story). Why would anybody want to slave away for hours (or days) piecing together a program to do something when there is a FREEWARE package readily available that does the same thing faster and easier? The tremendous amount of software available is largely responsible for more and more computer systems being purchased by people with no desire to learn to program. These people view the systems as tools to be used to make a job easier or faster just like any other tool. We are becoming "users" as opposed to the computer "hobbiests" and "enthusiasts" that used to be the norm! This is becoming increasingly evident by the number of program requests and "wish lists" being passed around. Those of us who do still take the time to "patch together" the occasional utility in BASIC, are ashamed to show it to anybody else because we cannot compete with the software readily available and are afraid of being ridiculed for our "obvious" lack of programming skills. Don't get me wrong, I am very pleased with the vast selection of quality software available and would probably not be a part of FidoNet without it, but I can't help feeling a little sorry for FidoNews 4-25 Page 15 6 Jul 1987 all the "average" programmers out there that will never get the chance to experience the joy associated with sharing their efforts and, in some small way, being recognized for it. FREEWARE: The End of Amateur Programming? Think about it the next time somebody uploads something that is less than perfect! Bob Swift The Power Station (140/24) Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-25 Page 16 6 Jul 1987 James Zachary 115/537 "Once Upon the Future" (c) 1986 James Zachary The location is an unnamed park, in an unnamed Midwestern city, sometime in the future. A young boy approaches an old man sitting on a park bench. "Mister..." The young boy is insistent. "MISTER!" The old man looks around nervously then puts a finger to his lips to silence the child. He then takes his thermos of coffee and pours it over the bracelet on his left wrist. After a few moments of wincing from the pain, he speaks. "The only way to knock off the protein bio-chip in these dang monitor bracelets is heat, a LOT of heat. The government still hasn't figured how to fix that glitch. Dang things let them know where you are and everything you say. You'll be required to wear one as soon as you turn 13. NOW, we have only about 15 minutes to talk before "The Monitors" pull up to find out why my bracelet went dead. I'll just say I spilled the coffee by accident. When you see a strange vehicle or person approaching, just stop talking and walk away. Talking in public is not allowed ya know, especially to an old person..." he winks, "we remember too much of the past that they want forgotten." "Mister, why don't they let people say what they think? Did people talk much in the old days?" Leaning back on the park bench with his face glowing from pleasant memories, the old man answers. "Surely they did, child! Back even before my time, long ago when the country was still young, towns used to have meetings in the square for folks to talk. They had debates and arguments. No topic was taboo. Then telephones came along and you could talk to anyone, anywhere in the world that also had a phone. Nowadays, you have to have a license for a phone and anything you say is digitally recorded and checked for "subversive" talk by those super-smart computers. Television, radio and newspapers were not owned by the government back then. You could read, see and hear many facts that would help you make up your own mind as to what was going on. We also had CB and HAM radio, and something we called the BBS..." His voice trails off as he again looks around nervously. FidoNews 4-25 Page 17 6 Jul 1987 "What was a BBS, Mister?" A deep sorrowful sigh comes before his words. "Back in the 1980's the BBS was kind of a throw-back to the old town meetings. Literally hundreds of people could call a Bulletin Board computer with their personal computer and leave messages, tell jokes, chat, argue politics, make friends..." Tears fill the old man's eyes. "Then the government must have figured that so many people talking wasn't healthy, too many diverse opinions and ideas. So, they started regulating and licensing all forms of speech, all ways of thinking. Was gradual at first but they finally closed them all down. I was both a D-dialer and a BBSer! We all had real names back then instead of government numbers, but we also had handles, kind of like nicknames. Lord, I remember meeting some special, wonderful folks like Lady Galadriel, Lord Ming, Bruiser, Zap, Ingvar, Oods, K-9, Badger, Hex40, Hose, Hoagy, Mac The Navigator, Lawyer John, Grumpy, Haus Frau, Poet, By Tor and Reiny, Opti and Falcon, The Masked Twinkie, Deep Thought, Air Wolf, Double M, Boysie Oakes, Rocker, Multi, P.C. Kid, Ziggy, Prak and hundreds of others just like 'em! " "What ever happened to them all, Mister?" "Oh, the government had trouble putting them down, they were fighters! They were finally captured at the battle of Staehle's vineyards. Some say MadZax escaped from the institution," he smiles slyly, "but no one really knows for sure." "Who were you, Mister? What was your handle?" The old man makes a slight hand gesture to the child, indicating that someone is approaching. As the child begins to walk away the old man whispers a parting thought. "Don't matter who I was then, son. I'm nobody now..." ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-25 Page 18 6 Jul 1987 Steve Bonine Cope BBS, 115/777 Proposal for New Echomail Area I attended a seminar a few weeks ago which was hosted by one of the mainframe software vendors. They [the vendor] have a product which is a BBS for mainframe systems programmers. For only $2600 a year, you can call it and swap problems and solutions with your peers. The speaker at the seminar was extolling the wonders and advantages of bulletin board systems. We've been familiar with those for some time, haven't we? I'm not prepared to charge anyone, so I guess that means that any service which we might provide via echomail couldn't possibly be as valuable as what this vendor was offering. However, it did point out to me that there exists a potential market for a new echomail area. As far as I know there is nothing currently in place which addresses issues important to those of us who earn our living ministering to large mainframe-based systems. If you are in this category, please indicate your interest by sending me a netmail message on 115/777. If there is enough interest, I'll start something. This conference might even give you a legitimate excuse to call your BBS from work, or even to run a BBS sponsored by your company. Maybe the subject is too broad. After all, I'm not even sure what the definition should be for "mainframe". Maybe we'll end up with several conferences. Maybe I only THINK that many of you who participate in FidoNet are involved with mainframes. I'll handle the initial distribution, and if we grow then we'll worry about how this topology should be built. It would be helpful in the "I am interested" message if I knew whether you can accept crash mail, and what hours might be best. Any other comments are more than welcome. If something like this already exists, my project is redundant. If interest is indicated, I would like to get started around the middle of July. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-25 Page 19 6 Jul 1987 Alan D. Applegate The Entertainment Line Fido 104/36, Lakewood (Denver), CO Further Observations About PK vs. ARC It seems that the discussion about PKARC/PKXARC versus ARC will never cease. Both of these programs make our lives easier and save space on our disk drives. Much has been said about the incompatibility of PKARC's archives with ARC. Not often, if ever, is PKARC's "/oct" switch mentioned in comparative testing. The "/oct" switch simply forces PKARC to make archives that use file compression and time stamping techniques that ARC and other compatible programs will understand. When this switch is used in making the archive, either PKXARC or ARC can be used for file extraction. My underlying question, then, was whether PKARC still would make smaller files than ARC, despite the absence of the newer compression method that PKARC usually employs. The answer is yes. In my testing, I used four files with a total of 76,799 bytes, with one .DOC file, one .SYS file, one .EXE file and one .COM file. ARC made an archive of 46,523 bytes. PKARC made an archive of 45,930 bytes, a savings of 593 bytes. Time was not a tested element here; let it suffice to say that PKARC was substantially quicker. The results were not amazing, but in theory (actual results may and probably will vary) 2 megabytes of ARC's archives, if re- archived with PKARC using the "/oct" switch, would take up around 25,500 bytes less. Without the "/oct" switch, I would venture to guess that they would take up even less space. As a control, I used ARC to de-arc the archive made by PKARC, and used PKXARC to de-arc ARC's archive. Both were successful. To summarize, although PKARC performs better WITHOUT the "/oct" switch, it still appears to out-perform ARC in both speed and and archive file size categories. When PKARC is used with the "/oct" switch, substantial time savings are realized during the archiving process, without sacrificing compatibility with ARC. Direct inquiries to: Alan Applegate, Sysop The Entertainment Line Fido, 104/36 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-25 Page 20 6 Jul 1987 Mail Relays In regards to the article on overly large nodelists, I wonder if the following routing scheme might work? EXAMPLE: Mail originates from my node 137/71 bound for a node in California. Instead of direct routing, this mail would be sent to his Relay Node. 137/71 160/33 160/20 (A) Origin ------->Relay ------->Destination The thought behind this is that the originating station calls the Relay station, this Relay station would be in the same city as the destination station, where a long distance call is not required to reach the destination Node. If you have 30 nodes in one city, then one of them will be the Relay Node for the other 29. That eliminates 29 Nodes from the Nodelist and this is just one city! It would eliminate a lot of Nodes from the Nodelist and get it back down to a reasonable size, which would be much easier to work with. What about Crash Priority Mail, or mail with attached files? No problem, the Relay Nodes would have a batch file written to immediately forward Crash mail to destination upon receipt of same. Attached files; same as regular mail. How will we know which Node serves which other Nodes? Publish one Master Nodelist, showing the Relay Nodes and the Nodes they serve. This would be an ascii text file and could then be updated when Relay Nodes add or drop Nodes they serve. Only the updates would be published as each Node already has the Master Nodelist. Nodes being served might have to help out the Relay station in terms of some kind of monetary help, as he might need a large hard disk for temporary message storage if he is handling a large volume of mail each night. I'm sure this could be worked out between the Relay and Destination Nodes without too much problem. They would have to have a volunteer Relay station, but there should be no problem here either, since some are already serving as inbound gates, etc. In large metro areas, two or more Relay stations might be needed. In small rural areas the Relay station might be the destination station. EXAMPLE: NET 137 FidoNews 4-25 Page 21 6 Jul 1987 137/71 is the only node in Naples, so I would be my own relay station. (1) Nodes other than Relay Nodes would have a Nodelist consisting of only Relay Nodes for the entire Network. All traffic would be routed to these Relay Nodes for forwarding to destination Nodes. (2) Relay Nodes would have a Nodelist consisting of all Relay Nodes in the Network and the Nodes they serve. Regional Coordinator duties and policies might have to be redifined to some extent to include the Relay stations, etc. Also, I wonder if all Regions/Networks/Nodes could switch to GMT time? This would eliminate the problem of different time zones. Sysops could inform their users that they were now using GMT time for mailing purposes. I don't know of any user who calls a BBS for a time-of-day check, so this shouldn't be a big problem. We wouldn't have to worry about daylight savings time, EST, CST, MST or any of the time zones, as all would be indicating the same time, year round. You asked for input, so here is mine. Keep up the good work. Sincerely, Bud Rogers, Sysop CRT Classifieds Naples, FL 137/71, 813-775-9444 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-25 Page 22 6 Jul 1987 -- Borland International Product: Turbo C (R) (Version: 1.00 ) Program: Turbo C (R) -- A C compiler Author : Borland Intl. (Address Below) Purpose: Turbo C is a C language compiler. It has a compiler, linker, integrated package, make, and libraries. Requirements: MS/PC-DOS Version 2.00 or higher, 1 - Floppy Drive or Hard Disk (Recommended) Amount of Memory to operate: 384 K (Minimum) Computers that product runs on: The MS/PC-DOS Family of Computers Program Functions: Turbo C features a full integrated development environment, as well as a command line compiler/linker/make development envronment. Some Features include: -- Full ANSI C standards -- Integrated Development (With editor) -- Command Line Compiler, Linker -- Fast Compiler using Memory instead of Disk -- Full Featured Libraries (See Below) -- Make Utility -- Lint Utility Program Upgrades: First Version Introduced. Obtaining Program: Turbo C can be purchased from Borland Intl, or most computer software stores, (mail order as well). Product Availability: Turbo C is a Commercial Program. You must purchase a copy of it. Turbo C V. 1.0 Cost: $ 99.95 Borland International (Retail) 4585 Scotts Valley Drive Scotts Valley, CA 95066-9987 1-800-255-8008 -- 1-800-742-1133 (in CA) Product Support: Borland offers various support for Turbo C. They are available on Compuserve (type: GO BOR), or by US Mail [Attn: Tech Service Dept] at above address. Program Quality -- "The reviewer's opinion of the product" FidoNews 4-25 Page 23 6 Jul 1987 After using Microsoft C (4.00) for only the period of December - May 1987, and only having that much experience with C itself, I can't say I'm very qualified to speak of a C compiler. Currently, however, I (we) have switched over to Turbo C from MSC because of the advantages of the Integrated Package. The 2 books that come with Turbo C (A "User's Guide", and a "Reference Guide" -- In Softbound book form), are easier for a novice to digest than the MSC. The User's Guide devotes a full chapter to the Turbo Pascal User who is just getting into C (a nice chapter to include!) with examples side by side of Turbo Pascal, and Turbo C. The Reference book goes through the Libraries, and the ANSI language extentions that Turbo C provides, complete with examples on selected material. I found the libraries to have more useable functions than the MSC. Such as: BIOSCOM (comm ports), BIOSEQUIP (equipment), BIOSDISK (Disk I/O), BIOSMEMORY (Memory Size), FILELENGTH (filesize in bytes), FINDFIRST (First filename in dir), FINDNEXT (next in dir) [both return a structure of the DIR information, EG: Attrib, time, date, size, name], FNMERGE (Filename Merge -- name with path), FNSPLIT (Filename split -- name and path), POKE (send value to mem), LOCALTIME (converts date/time to struct), and others..... Needed Improvements: A CodeView type Debugger, or make the code CodeView compatible. Help screens could be better written/designed, and be referenced more (EG: See xxx for more details). There are others, but lets not detract on a good review for some minor adjustments. Overall: A worthy opponent to MSC 4.00. Should be interesting to see how well the "establishment" views it. Excellent purchase for the "novice" C programmer, and for the experienced C programmer. PS: Some of those who might have assumed that this was vaporware, were wrong. There's no way that they could have put this product out that quickly, because of it's quality. FidoNews 4-25 Page 24 6 Jul 1987 Reviewer: David Gilbert (Sysop)