Copyright 1990, Fido Software. All rights reserved. Duplication
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Table of Contents
1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1
FIDOCON 1990 REGISTRATION FORM ........................... 1
The new BASIC Echo ....................................... 5
Announcing DIGITRON echo ................................. 8
New Echo for Those Interested in Florida_USA! ............ 9
Rumors, Rumors, Rumors.. jeez! ........................... 10
2. COLUMNS .................................................. 15
Talk Me Through It, Honey ................................ 15
3. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 17
Latest Software Versions ................................. 17
4. NOTICES .................................................. 20
And more!
FidoNews 7-11 Page 1 12 Mar 1990
The Secret Sysop Society presents __
*** Conclave '90 *** / \
The SYSOPS Convention /|oo \
Home of FidoCon 1990 (_| /_)
Lyndhurst, New Jersey _`@/_ \ _
August 1-5, 1990 | | \ \\
| (*) | \ ))
______ |__U__| / \//
/ Fido \ _//|| _\ /
(________) (_/(_|(____/ (tm)
Rate Plan Schedule: Before 6/1/90: Before 4/1/90:
-------------- --------------
A. Single Occupancy.......$595.00 $545.00 $495.00
B. Double Occupancy.......$450.00 $400.00 $350.00
C. Conference w/ meals....$300.00 $250.00 $200.00
D. Conference w/ Banquet..$205.00 $155.00 $105.00
E. Conference only........$175.00 $125.00 $ 75.00
F. Banquet only...........$130.00 $80.00 $ 30.00
(All rate plans except plan F include all conference and hotel
fees. Those registering before 4/1/90 get a $100.00 discount,
those registering before 6/1/90 get a $50.00 discount.)
You must pay by Check, Money Order, or Credit Card. Please send
no cash. All monies must be in U.S. Funds. Checks should be
made out to: "Conclave '90"
The following registration form must be completed and mailed to:
PO Box 12
Lyndhurst, NJ 07071
You may register by Netmailing this completed form to 1:1/90 for
processing. Rename it to ZNNNXXXX.REG where Z is your Zone
number, N is your Net number, and X is your Node number. US Mail
confirmation is required within 72 hours of electronic filing.
If you are paying by credit card, please include the required
information. For your own security, do not route any message
with your credit card number on it. Crash it directly to 1:1/90.
The official Conclave '90 airline is American Airlines.
American offers a 5% discount the lowest applicable round-trip
fare, including 1st class travel, subject to availability of
inventory. All fare rules and restrictions apply. In addition,
American offers 40% off their round trip unrestricted day coach
fare. International travelers qualify for special benefits,
including complimentary admittance to the Admiral's Club Lounge
at any American Airlines terminal. Newark is an American Air-
lines city with direct flights to most major cities. When making
reservations, you must call American's Toll-free reservation
FidoNews 7-11 Page 2 12 Mar 1990
number at 800-433-1790, and reference Star number 13704F.
FidoNews 7-11 Page 3 12 Mar 1990
C O N C L A V E '90 R E G I S T R A T I O N F O R M
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FidoNews 7-11 Page 5 12 Mar 1990
Brice Fleckenstein
Sysop, 1:231/190
And now, by popular demand, we introduce:
AREA: BASIC - the BASIC Echomail Conference
(My cat is with me as I type this....)
The Purpose of the BASIC Echo
-----------------------------
This conference was created in responce to the constant
fustration expressed in the QUIK_BAS echo that there was no
viable place to discuss all of the various OTHER BASIC variants
out there, from the original Dartmouth to the current crop of
non-MicroSoft Compiled BASICs. I saw a need, so I set out to
fill it.
Valid postings in the BASIC Echo
--------------------------------
Valid messages for this conference should deal with programming
tricks, features, "how to", problem reports, interesting
applications, interaction with other products, and other such
related topics.
Product reviews and comparisons are also appropriate topics of
discussion, but "This BASIC is better than this other BASIC"
flames will NOT be permitted.
Who should be reading the BASIC Echo
------------------------------------
Anyone who programs in BASIC, or any potential BASIC programmer,
should access the BASIC echo.
Addressing the question: Who died and left YOU boss?
----------------------------------------------------
Someone had to be Moderator. I elected myself, as nobody else
seemed more willing to start an echo like this.
My qualifications
-----------------
FidoNews 7-11 Page 6 12 Mar 1990
I first learned to program on a DEC PDP-11/70, in BASIC+ under
RSTS/E. I have since programmed in BASIC+2 on various other
PDP-11's, MBASIC on several CP/M machines, Level I and II BASICs
on the TRS-80 models 1/3/4, Commodore's BASIC 2.0 and the BLITZ!
Compiled BASIC on Commodore C64's, Commodore BASIC 7.0 and the
Abacus Basic-128 compiler on C128's, BASICA/GWBASIC and Turbo
BASIC and Quick BASIC on various IBM XT/AT Clones. I've also
"played" with about 10 other BASIC dialects not listed here over
the years.
Just to keep things balanced, I've also programmed in a few
FORTRAN dialects, COBOL, 6502/6510/8502 assembler, MACRO-11,
TECO, MASM, JRT Pascal, Z80 assemblers, and played around in
another 5 - 10 other languages.
Getting a feed
--------------
Send Net Mail to "Sysop" at 1:231/190, and I'll put you in the
distribution list. I'm going to be HOLDing for all of you for
now, as I can't afford the outgoing calls. Once the message
traffic builds up, I plan to link BASIC into the Backbone.
The Rules
---------
Here, I blatantly cribbed from Vince's BinkleyTerm Code of
Conduct - basically, the rules are simple. Stay on the subject,
leave the politics and the flamethrowers at home, and have an
enjoyable and (hopefully) informative time.
What about the QUIK_BAS echo?
-----------------------------
QUIK_BAS is a usefull and informative echo - it does what it's
intended to do, which is to discuss MicroSoft's QuickBASIC and
it's close relatives BASICA/GWBASIC and BASCOM. (I'm not sure
where Basmark's UNIX ports of QuickBASIC fall, as the question
hasn't come up yet.) I intend to continue to be a participant
and carry QUIK_BAS. I just wanted a forem where I could talk
about the OTHER dialects of BASIC I use or have used in the
past - and several other folks expressed the same desire.
BASIC is not intended to supplant QUIK_BAS - it's intended to
reduce the off-base traffic there by providing a PROPER forem
for some of the valid but off-topic QUIK_BAS traffic.
If any of you have ANY other questions about the BASIC echo,
feel free to send me mail.
FidoNews 7-11 Page 7 12 Mar 1990
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FidoNews 7-11 Page 8 12 Mar 1990
George Adam Stanislav
1:129/39
Digital Electronics Circuit Echo
I love getting at the root of things. By the same token, I love
getting as much out of my computer as possible. That is probably
why I program mostly in assembly language.
Lately I came to the realization that assembly language is still
pretty high level for my personal preference. :-) At any rate, I
started playing with my old love, electronics, more specifically
digital electronics. I will probably not be satisfied until I
design my own microchips.
At this point I have more questions than answers, so I started
looking for an echo where I could ask them without being
considered weird. I could not find it, so I decided to start
one.
By the time you are reading this, DIGITRON should be readily
available at the backbone. The echo will deal with all aspects
of digital electronics. By that I do not mean "How do I put a
hard disk controller in my computer", but more something along
the line of "How do I design a hard disk controller".
The echo is not restricted but should attract those who like
keeping thier computer without a cover and close to their
soldering pencil. If you subscribe to Circuit Cellar Ink or to
Micro Cornucopia, you are the kind of person this echo has been
designed for.
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FidoNews 7-11 Page 9 12 Mar 1990
Christopher Baker
MetroFire, 1:135/14, Miami_FL_USA
Barbara O'Keefe
Ramblin' Roots, 1:135/54, Miami_FL_USA
FL_LIVING Echo
We have a local Echo [FLA_CUISINE] that has changed names
and content and become Extralocal that you and your Users
may be interested in.
FL_LIVING is Hosted and Moderated by Barbara O'Keefe at
1:135/54 and is dedicated to the discussion of all aspects
of Florida Living including but not limited to: dining;
recipes; weather; housing; regional specialties; tourist
information; entertainment; fishing forecasts; real estate
info; or anything else you can think of in the State of
Florida!
This Echo is not restricted to Florida systems and ALL
Region 18 AND FidoNet systems EVERYWHERE are invited to
participate. This Echo may be of interest to anyone
considering moving or retiring to Florida or those just
interested in the Sunshine State. [grin]
If participation picks up, it may become available on the
Backbone. It should be available at REC18 by the time you
read this.
In the meantime, contact Barbara O'Keefe at 1:135/54 or me
at 1:135/14 for a link. We hope that more Florida systems
will join in so we can get the perspective of the middle
and northern parts as well as the southern viewpoint.
That's the general idea. [grin]
The Echo label is FL_LIVING. In addition, Florida systems
should have their Florida city in their origin line so
everyone knows what part of Florida you are talking about
and if you mention a specific place or area, you should
define it as if people outside your immediate area are
reading it [as they will be]. This ain't a 'local' Echo
anymore! [grin]
TTFN.
Chris
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FidoNews 7-11 Page 10 12 Mar 1990
Joaquim Homrighausen
1:135/20
Aaaarrrgh!
All environments where people don't stay in personal contact
have the same disease, misinformation. Unfortunately, some
people in FidoNet and OtherNet(probably tm) has always taken
it upon themselves to uphold the BIRS (Bullshit Information
Retrieval System). I usually don't give a damn about rumors,
but enuf is enuf.
I didn't really feel like writing this article until I spoke
to a local SysOp over the phone. He had read in the Wildcat!
conference that "Yes, Joaquim is in Australia" and this was
supposed to be on "good authority". Someone else claims that
I'm going to Australia to work on RemoteAccess full-time, that
I stole source code from Adam Hudson's QuickBBS, and that I
put it in RemoteAccess. I don't know who's spreading these
rumors, and I don't really care - unfortunately, other people
seem to believe them.
I'm moving to Australia on the 12th of March. I've always
wanted to see Australia and I was (am) getting bored down
here in Miami. Whether or not my Australian Adventure(tm)
:-) will be a permanent thing, I don't know. This does have
some impact on things I'm involved in at the moment.
1) I have No, Nada, Zip, Zilch, Njet, Inga, Nix intention of
quitting the development of FrontDoor, TosScan and/or AirMail,
my pet project. I know this is hard for some people (no names)
to swallow, but: while(!believe_me), read_fact(1);
2) FrontDoor 1.99c has been released by the time you read this.
And is hopefully working like it should. My main concern is (of
course) whether or not it talks properly to SEAdogs so Phil
Buonomo doesn't have to start his FDECHO polution again.
2a) There will ALWAYS (read it again to make sure you get it),
be a free for noncommercial use version of FrontDoor.
3) TosScan 1.10 will go into beta testing two or so weeks after
I've arrived in Australia and found all the bars in town (hmm,
that could take three weeks I guess..). Whether or not I'll be
able to add TBBS/PCBoard support for 1.10 is something I don't
know at the moment. But they're included in my plans at least.
4) Both FrontDoor and TosScan (and most likely AirMail) will be
available for OS/2 and Xenix towards the end of 1990 hopefully.
FidoNews 7-11 Page 11 12 Mar 1990
5) I will be polling 1:260/340 once or twice per day as well as
picking up some echomail (FDECHO, etc.) from his system. I also
have a private system listed in Net-260 (1:260/20) which will
be routed via 1:260/340 (which is the host system). So mail
will always reach me in or less than a day.
6) People who have ordered the commercial version of FrontDoor
will be receiving it in the near future. That's my top priority
when I get down under.
7) Before spreading rumors, read 1-6.
8) See 7.
Too all FrontDoor and TosScan users, and the KoolDudes(tm),
hang in there.. it only gets better. To all the others, have
no illusions, I'm not even getting close to a burn-out. It's
party time!
Thanks for your attention,
Joaquim Homrighausen
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FidoNews 7-11 Page 12 12 Mar 1990
MSGID / REPLY
A proposal for unique message identifiers
and reply chain linkage
INITIAL DRAFT
06 March 1990
jim nutt
1:114/30@fidonet
From a message originally posted in the NET_DEV conference
The following is a brief description of the proposed standard for
generating msgid/reply 'kludge' lines in a message. Msgids have
a number of uses besides simply being a unique message
identifier. They can be used for dupe killing and reply linkage
as well.
MSGID
A MSGID line consists of the string ^AMSGID: followed by a
space, the address of the originating system and a serial number
unique to that message on the originating system. i.e:
^MSGID: zone:net/node.point@domain serialno
It is not the intent to limit the address field of the msgid to
fidonet style addresses, they are used here simply for
illustration, messages originating from other types of systems
should use an address appropriate to the originating system. The
serial number may be anything the developer's little heart
desires, AS LONG AS IT IS UNIQUE, NO TWO MESSAGES ON A SYSTEM MAY
SHARE A SERIAL NUMBER!! The serial number is formatted as an 8
character hexadecimal integer, i.e. a 32 bit word. since this
yields in the neighborhood of 4 billion unique numbers, I don't
think it will be a limit for most systems. A common choice for
the serial number is the number of seconds since 1 jan 1970
00:00:00 gmt, this is unique on a single user system and
relatively easy to generate. A more elaborate system will
doubtless be necessary in the case of a multi-user system.
REPLY
A REPLY line looks similiar to a MSGID line, and is in fact, very
close. REPLY lines are generated using the MSGID line of the
message being replied to. The ^AMSGID: string in the MSGID line
is replaced with ^AREPLY: and then written to the text of the
new message. i.e.:
^AREPLY: msgid of original message
Again, this is very simple and as non-compute intense as possible
FidoNews 7-11 Page 13 12 Mar 1990
GENERAL
For best results, MSGID and REPLY lines should be the first two
lines of the message after extended addressing lines (FMPT, TOPT,
INTL, DOMAIN), with MSGID appearing above REPLY. This makes it
unlikely that a MSGID will be damaged by something that doesn't
destroy the binary message header as well. As mentioned above,
it doesn't really matter what method is used in generating the
serial number, as long as it produces an eight digit hexadecimal
number UNIQUE TO THE ORIGINATING SYSTEM. Finally, a MSGID SHOULD
BE GENERATED ONLY AT MESSAGE CREATION, IT SHOULD NEVER, EVER BE
STRIPPED FROM A MESSAGE NOR SHOULD ONE BE ADDED TO A MESSAGE
PASSING THROUGH A SYSTEM (whew, all those caps wore me out!).
This is essential for a msgid to be useful, without this
restriction, msgids are useless or worse.
RATIONALE
Finally, what you've all been waiting for (I'm entering this in
sixty line mode and the top has scrolled off...) WHY you should
use msgid and reply kludge lines. Good question and one that has
several answers, which I will cover one by one...
1) They eliminate the need for origin lines. A msgid contains
all the information an origin line is technically there for.
It is in a safer place than an origin line and much less
likely to be truncated or destroyed while leaving the rest of
the message intact.
2) Is related to 1) above, a msgid makes private replies to
echomail via netmail a trivial process, you know exactly what
system originated the message without worrying about parsing
out the origin line (and we all know how much fun THAT is..)
3) True reply linkage is possible in echomail because you know
exactly which message the reply is to. You just look for a
message whose msgid matches the reply in the current message.
And you already have a database of msgids for dupe killing
(more later). This also lets you track replies ACROSS
echomail conferences.... some fascinating possibilities
there, eh?
4) Annoying messages can be tracked more accurately. Because
msgids are a 'hidden' line and therefore not normally visible
or creatable by your average user, they are considerably more
difficult to forge than an origin line (forging which is a
trivial task). Admittedly this isn't going to stop a twit
sysop, but that 8 digit serial number is going to be a problem
for him... If he copies one that already exists, the message
will be killed as a dupe, if he makes one up, chances are
fairly good that that will be a dupe as well, so it does make
FidoNews 7-11 Page 14 12 Mar 1990
forgery a bit more difficult.
5) Accurate dupe killing is possible. By maintaining a database
of msgids one can easily check to see if a message is a
duplicate of one already entered. If it is stipulated that
msgids must be sequential, it becomes, once again, trivial...
simply store the highest serial number that has come from a
particular address, any messages that come in with a serial
number lower than that can be assumed dupes and killed.
6) Tracking of dupe generators is possible. Since msgids are
never stripped and never added, the only msgid on a message
should be the one of the originating system...
7) Simplicity. MSGID and REPLY kludgelines are very simple to
generate, they require no complex calculations and are easy to
parse. And they give you all the benefits above. So why NOT
use them?
FINALLY
Your questions and comments are welcome and will be responded to
as time permits. This is only the initial draft, there are a
number of proposed extensions to this specification already.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FidoNews 7-11 Page 15 12 Mar 1990
"CASE enters mid-life crises." No I didn't read it, I just
wanted some continuity. Hopefully, Computer Aided Software
Engineering has been sufficiently exposed for the HOAX it
really is. It's one of those "You haven't come a long way
enough yet baby" industries.
The trouble with CASE programs is that you could spend as much
time learning the tool and using it as you could spend just
writing the required programs. The unfortunate thing about
software generation tools is that they are so terribly
imperfect. You spend too much time fixing at the source level.
The 'life cycle' documenter style tools are generally worthless.
You really think your executives look at that stuff ?
The worst part is that even when they work, CASE tools are
bereft of learning potential. The methodologies are lost in
the tool implementation. CASE is a waste of time.
BBS For Sale --
A way back, ( Mr. Wizard ), I wrote a line protocol drivers for
banks and airlines that ran in a Motorola 6800. My pride and
joy was a 600 line front-end to a Big Blue bookkeeping system.
Due to line tariffs imposed by the Danish government run Data
Network, a minimum 5 second line charge was the driving factor
in network operation. Now bank transactions tend to be pretty
short and sweet, so the connect rates peaked in the 100 per
second range. The system had 1500 users.
Well, now after 8 years the system has been replaced by Big
Blue's own hardware and 2 man years worth of custom software.
My little mail system handled well over 3 BILLION CALLS; now
it's gone.
The hardware was sold to Air Canada, to add to their existing
reservation system. Ah, Winnipeg in the spring...
FidoNews 7-11 Page 16 12 Mar 1990
The Salesmanship Club --
"Just don't say NO". Have you noticed the layered approach to
Big Blue's sales force? I have proof of TECHNICAL SALES,
Management Sales and Executive Sales. There are probably more.
In my profession, I see a lot of Technical Salespersons. If
they think they are losing you, they call up Management Sales
who talks to your boss. If you have explained to your boss why
Big Blue's latest box won't help, and he passes this on to
Management Sales, then here comes Executive Sales.
The most efficient method to employ is to keep Technical Sales
happy by never, repeat NEVER, mentioning that you are not 100%
for their proposal. Some good leader lines include : We are
analyzing our software to determine the best method for
porting; We are discussing a merger with Department B and need
a better definition of storage requirements; We are awaiting
your announcement on <insert appropriate vaporware here>. You
get the picture.
Danish for Honey --
Honey wants to write momma a letter on WHOSE machine ?
Let's see now, KEYBDA for the keyboard : oh no, where's the
slash key ? OK now how do I set the screen fonts ? Darn. Well
let's print it, anyway. Oops, let's try this character set.
"Look, real Danish characters!" <whew>
"I want a typewriter."
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FidoNews 7-11 Page 17 12 Mar 1990
Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by
reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list
all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.
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FidoNews 7-11 Page 20 12 Mar 1990
