Re: check out the custom multi-function shell at grudgedu.synchro.net
By: Mro to LaRRy LaGoMoRpH on Sat Mar 22 2014 01:56 pm
there's nothing wrong with what you're doing. you're making it fun
cool, glad you enjoyed it, we actually butted heads a bit when i first got on dovenet talking about resurrecting bbs'ing. my ideas have shifted somewhat, although i still think it is possible. i'm still trying to make it so someone who's never been on a bbs before will find it accessible and cool, but i know how do it, just got to reach the point where i can do it.
i'm not sure if it's up yet for download, but there's a virtual keyboard demo for the html 5 term using css now, which will mean more mobile compatibility. i can't claim credit for this idea, but eventually if no one else gets around to it, i'd like to put it up on the site but using an opacity effect to layer the keyboard on the terminal so you can access it on your smart phone. maybe someone better suited to that can or is working on it. but i haven't found a great way to access an ansi bbs from a phone yet, and if it could be done in the browser in a slick way, booyah-shaka!
i've got one big project i'm thinking about right now, and it's the one that really crosses that big bridge between what i'm trying to do with the website and the bbs. it's a pretty unique idea, such that i'm actually more inclined to keep it close to the vest at this point, since i haven't started working on it while i finish up a couple things that i'll probably release to the public:
1. A Javascript door game version of the Oregon Trail that I am trying to port from a BASIC version in a computer magazine from 1977
2. I think I might make my shell available, as it's been pretty stable for a while now. I've designed it to be modular and customizable as far as the look and feel and a bunch of options such that it needn't look the same at all from BBS to BBS. The color and layout stuff is in a separate file from menu options and RSS feeds etc. What's holding me back is that I need to write docs and break things down a little better for the generic BBS, as well as the fact that I couldn't program worth a damn 3 months ago (although I was ok for a kid with a macintosh in 1992) and there are some things that maybe should be done (like enabling node messages, etc) that i'm not in a hurry to do. But my reasons for releasing it would be I built it out of neccessity because I couldn't find a shell that anyone would make available that would work the way I wanted it to. I saw some shells that inspired me by a lot of the coa members, tried to figure out what was going on (I still haven't figured it all out), looked at shells in cvs, searched for bits of code here and there. Anyhow, it'd be fine by me to give it out because if people use that shell and connect to the same chat server, it makes chat more exciting, and i'm hoping to make it well document and modular enough that it shouldn't look too similar from BBS to BBS if you understand how to tweek it. so i guess the reason i'd put it out there is i'm not super protective of it because it's mostly just a collection o a bunch of cherry picked code with my own lemon twist, but my concern is whether or not putting it out there will make me have to invest a lot of time working on the project after for my own purposes it is mostly done for the time being, and time is of the essence, for I must move onto the next project, which is elaborate, secret, yet entirely possible and yet hopefully not too complicated, but I've got to learn a little PHP for the next phase.
Whee, that was a rambling #2, I think I need to eat something. I should really browse these forums in a Web browser so I don't write these long winded messages that are hard to edit, but such is the glory of BBS'ing. I forgot I just typed this to see if the CTRL-A codes work. (almost aborted my message trying to do it in the editor)... hopefully in the tag line. <ramble> <ramble>
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