Text 110, 64 rader
Skriven 2012-07-09 12:52:32 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
     Kommentar till text 81 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: .fidonet
================
Hi Bob,

>> There might be a good reason that Kim Heino didnt use JAM, SQUISH,
>> HUDSON or MSG message base??

I'm not really sure, but I think that may have had to do with when the original
package was written (like well before the above type message base systems..).
BBBS was around well before I even heard of it, that's for sure.

> The only one I can think of is to bind customers (I assume BBBS was either
> shareware or outright payware).

BBBS is shareware.. but it's got the best type of agreement for that type
product. For instance, if you buy the Windows version, you can run the Linux
version with the same key.. or the OS/2 version.. or whatever OS you like where
Kim has a version availble (and there are quite a number of them <g>).. And you
don't have to limit even the version you run to just one system.

> I originally used Maximus, but if I remember
> correctly, that was open source. At any rate, it was freeware.

The original version of Maximus was released with source code and that is why I
used it.. the first thing I did was incorporate ansi colors in the message
areas because I really loved that about Telegard <g>.. but subsequent versions
of Maximus were not released with source.  That was a bummer.. I'm not sure,
but I think I still have the original 1.0 version of Max in my file areas
someplace or other <grin>.. I remember downloading it from Compuserve (wow
<grin>).  Scott did finally release the source code to the lastest version of
Maximus more recently.. but that didn't do people much good, sadly enough.

>> BBBS isnt alone, PXWINS has its proprietary msgbase format..

> "Love" those proprietary solutions - and when the programmer is gone and/or
>doesn't release the source code, which unfortunately is common, those customer
> are left in the lurch.

Yes, that often happens.  Kim is still updating BBBS though as much as he can.
There as some things though that would not be practical for him to do of
course.

But don't think that just because a program like Max has now been released with
source code that means that just anyone can pick up the pieces and move forward
with it.. Yes, there are those who can take pieces of it and use them like the
husky guys and squish etc., but certainly not the whole package.  We just don't
have the developers we once had, and often the packages that are subsequently
released in source are not notated, or commented and may be complete spaghetti
code <grin>.

>I recently learned that a program I use - Maxlist by Wilfried Brinkmann (who i
> long gone from fido and did _not_ release source code) - no longer works with
>eComStateion 2.0 (still OK with version 1.1, which I'm using). Such stuff is a
> royal PIA.

Understand what you mean there..

Well our software "base" is one of the reasons I like to encourage young people
to get involved in Fidonet.. the hope being that someone will enjoy this hobby
enough to help it continue by coming up with new ideas and solutions.

Take care,
Janis

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Dada-1
 * Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38)