• Qodem in public domain

    From Kevinl@VERT to All on Saturday, May 30, 2015 21:18:00
    (Reposted, I think the first one went to BBS-local message group,
    oops.)

    A month ago I started working on qodem again, with the goal of taking
    it from the barely-working 1.0alpha to a solid reliable 1.0beta
    release.

    This is after a very long three-year gap in development, driven by
    multiple work-related moves in my meatspace life. This is the longest
    such gap but certainly not the first: there have been many gaps
    spanning from 6 to 18 months since I started qodem in 2003. It is
    time for me to recognize that the unusual events in my life between
    2003-2006 that supported qodem's development are unlikely to happen
    again. So I have decided to do several things for qodem and the wider
    BBS / command line terminal community:

    1. I am paying off nearly all of qodem's technical debt. The code
    base has gone through a monstrous update including code style,
    internal documentation, cleaning up loose ends, and performing most
    of the big refactorings that I have been putting off. The new code
    base is much easier to read and (crossing fingers) easier to
    maintain for the long haul.

    2. I have made Windows a top priority. The 1.0beta will feature full
    feature parity between Windows and Linux (including serial ports)
    and a Windows installer that will include the most recent Internet
    BBS list. I am using Borland 5.02 for now, but will also verify
    that the code will work with Visual C++ 6.0. The goal is to work
    with all versions of Windows since Windows 95.

    3. As of May 26, 2015, the qodem code base has been dedicated to the
    public domain. (CC0 for those jurisdictions that don't recognize
    public domain.) This is as "free" as one can make anything: anyone
    who wants to make commercial closed-source products out of this
    code is now legally free to do so.

    The qodem github repository is here: https://github.com/klamonte/qodem

    If you are a developer who finds something interesting and I didn't
    document it well enough to figure out quickly, please let me know and
    I will try to do better.

    The 1.0beta is still another 4-8 weeks out, but it is on the way. I
    have about a dozen real bugs to fix, a revert back to cryptlib, a new
    autoconf build system (with corresponding updates for the deb and rpm
    builds), and a few other minor things.

    The one thing it will not have is the ability to answer the phone for
    host mode. If someone out there has an ssh-accessible landline and
    modem I could test with, I could probably get that in. qodem 1.0beta
    would then be a complete superset of Qmodem 5.0 (well, scripts are
    different but that is by design).

    - Kevin Lamonte

    ... MultiMail, the new multi-platform, multi-format offline reader!
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.49
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Kevinl on Saturday, May 30, 2015 23:25:47
    Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Kevinl to All on Sat May 30 2015 21:18:00

    BBS list. I am using Borland 5.02 for now, but will also verify
    that the code will work with Visual C++ 6.0. The goal is to work
    with all versions of Windows since Windows 95.

    Just curious as to why you want to support Windows versions back that far? I doubt there are many people still using Windows 95 these days. Doing a quick search online for the oldest versions of Windows still in use, it seems most sites don't even list anything older than Windows XP. XP is quite a bit old now, having been released in 2001.

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From Tempo Rubato@VERT/CRYSTAL to Nightfox on Sunday, May 31, 2015 09:16:00
    Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Nightfox to Kevinl on Sun May 31 2015 12:25 am

    Just curious as to why you want to support Windows versions back that far? doubt there are many people still using Windows 95 these days. Doing a quic search online for the oldest versions of Windows still in use, it seems most sites don't even list anything older than Windows XP. XP is quite a bit old now, having been released in 2001.
    My BBS is running on Win 98 (upgraded from 95). I keep thinking about changing computers but the setup seems exquisitly stable since all it does in run Synchronet.

    Spencer

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ << Crystal Aerie >> Va, USA Telnet://crystal-aerie.com
  • From Poindexter Fortran@VERT/REALITY to Nightfox on Sunday, May 31, 2015 07:43:10
    Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Nightfox to Kevinl on Sat May 30 2015 11:25 pm

    I doubt there are many people still using Windows 95 these days. Doing a quick search online for the oldest versions of Windows still in use, it seems most sites don't even list anything older than Windows XP.

    Yeah, I'm not sure if the Y2K patches are still around. Makes for an entertaining VM, but I only have heard of one person using it nowadays -- someone on the WINDOWS95 echo.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From Hylian@VERT to Poindexter Fortran on Sunday, May 31, 2015 19:14:25
    Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Poindexter Fortran to Nightfox on Sun May 31 2015 07:43 am

    Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Nightfox to Kevinl on Sat May 30 2015 11:25 pm

    I doubt there are many people still using Windows 95 these days. Doing quick search online for the oldest versions of Windows still in use, it seems most sites don't even list anything older than Windows XP.

    Yeah, I'm not sure if the Y2K patches are still around. Makes for an entertaining VM, but I only have heard of one person using it nowadays -- someone on the WINDOWS95 echo.


    Wow.. seriously

    I would never have guessed that anyone was using win 95 as their main OS...

    It's a fun nostalgia thing, but I can't imagine running it as my use everyday machine.

    Blown away,
    -Denny
    Denny's Computers - "Not profit seeking" PC Repair - http://dpccom.blogspot.com

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Hylian on Sunday, May 31, 2015 20:39:59
    Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Hylian to Poindexter Fortran on Sun May 31 2015 19:14:25

    I doubt there are many people still using Windows 95 these days.

    Yeah, I'm not sure if the Y2K patches are still around. Makes for an
    entertaining VM, but I only have heard of one person using it nowadays
    -- someone on the WINDOWS95 echo.

    Wow.. seriously

    I would never have guessed that anyone was using win 95 as their main OS...

    It's a fun nostalgia thing, but I can't imagine running it as my use everyday machine.

    It's funny to think that back when Windows 95 came out, it seemed like the coolest thing ever at the time; and there were long lines of people at computer & software stores waiting to get in to buy a copy. Come to think of it, it's funny to think of a Microsoft product causing that effect these days - People seem to only stand in line for Apple products these days.

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From Kevinl@VERT to Nightfox on Monday, June 01, 2015 07:24:00
    Nightfox wrote to Kevinl <=-

    Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Kevinl to All on Sat May 30 2015 21:18:00

    BBS list. I am using Borland 5.02 for now, but will also verify
    that the code will work with Visual C++ 6.0. The goal is to work
    with all versions of Windows since Windows 95.

    Just curious as to why you want to support Windows versions back that
    far? I doubt there are many people still using Windows 95 these days. Doing a quick search online for the oldest versions of Windows still in use, it seems most sites don't even list anything older than Windows
    XP. XP is quite a bit old now, having been released in 2001.

    Mainly because that's what my compiler targets by default, so getting
    it working there means we should get Win95+ for "free". I have only encountered two minor APIs (getaddrinfo and finding My Documents) that
    would be easier with WinXP+, but have workarounds already.

    Plus PuTTY and WinSCP advertise that they support all Win32 platforms
    going back to Win95. So if someone already has putty working but now
    they need "putty + zmodem" then I would like qodem to be able to work
    for them too.

    -Kevin Lamonte

    ... MultiMail, the new multi-platform, multi-format offline reader!
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.49
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net
  • From Hustler@VERT/REALITY to Kevinl on Monday, June 01, 2015 18:42:35
    Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Kevinl to All on Sat May 30 2015 09:18 pm

    A month ago I started working on qodem again, with the goal of taking
    it from the barely-working 1.0alpha to a solid reliable 1.0beta
    release.

    Great to hear you're back on Qodem. I swear by it and enjoy using it daily. Kepp up the good work!

    HusTler

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From Poindexter Fortran@VERT/REALITY to Hylian on Monday, June 01, 2015 11:42:00
    Subject: Re: Qodem in public domain
    @MSGID: <556DF728.12046.dove.dove-gen@realitycheckbbs.org>
    @REPLY: <556BC001.81307.dove-gen@vert.synchro.net>
    @TZ: c1e0
    Hylian wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

    Wow.. seriously

    I would never have guessed that anyone was using win 95 as their main OS...

    It's a fun nostalgia thing, but I can't imagine running it as my use everyday machine.

    I've played with Windows 95 in a VM. I could do the majority of the
    work I do now on it -- Office 95 was a decent app suite.

    Where it falls short is connecting to the rest of the world. People
    send Office 2007 and Office 2010 docs and modern web browsers aren't
    supported on it.



    ... Powered By Celeron (Tualatin). Engineered for the future.
    --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.50
    þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
  • From Hylian@VERT to Poindexter Fortran on Tuesday, June 02, 2015 20:55:43
    Re: Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Poindexter Fortran to Hylian on Mon Jun 01 2015 11:42 am

    Subject: Re: Qodem in public domain
    @MSGID: <556DF728.12046.dove.dove-gen@realitycheckbbs.org>
    @REPLY: <556BC001.81307.dove-gen@vert.synchro.net>
    @TZ: c1e0
    Hylian wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

    Wow.. seriously

    I would never have guessed that anyone was using win 95 as their main OS...

    It's a fun nostalgia thing, but I can't imagine running it as my use everyday machine.

    I've played with Windows 95 in a VM. I could do the majority of the
    work I do now on it -- Office 95 was a decent app suite.

    Where it falls short is connecting to the rest of the world. People
    send Office 2007 and Office 2010 docs and modern web browsers aren't supported on it.



    ... Powered By Celeron (Tualatin). Engineered for the future.

    Exactly. Since it's so old I doubt much in the way of modern internet based software would function on it.

    As interesting as it is to pull netscape navigator out of mothballs to see just how much can be done, it's not interesting enough to make it my main use OS.

    (Or maybe mosaic?? :)

    -Denny
    Denny's Computers - "Not profit seeking" PC Repair - http://dpccom.blogspot.com

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Poindexter Fortran on Wednesday, June 03, 2015 07:37:08
    Re: Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Poindexter Fortran to Hylian on Mon Jun 01 2015 11:42:00

    I've played with Windows 95 in a VM. I could do the majority of the
    work I do now on it -- Office 95 was a decent app suite.

    Where it falls short is connecting to the rest of the world. People
    send Office 2007 and Office 2010 docs and modern web browsers aren't supported on it.

    This reminds me of an article I saw where someone connected an old Mac Plus to the internet: http://www.keacher.com/1216/how-i-introduced-a-27-year-old-computer-to-the-web/

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From Hylian@VERT to Nightfox on Wednesday, June 03, 2015 15:21:11
    Re: Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Poindexter Fortran to Hylian on Mon Jun 01 2015 11:42:00

    I've played with Windows 95 in a VM. I could do the majority of the work I do now on it -- Office 95 was a decent app suite.

    Where it falls short is connecting to the rest of the world. People send Office 2007 and Office 2010 docs and modern web browsers aren't supported on it.

    This reminds me of an article I saw where someone connected an old Mac Plus to the internet: http://www.keacher.com/1216/how-i-introduced-a-27-year-old- computer-to-the-web/

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

    ohh man is that cool. sure it took the mac 4 minutes to render a page, but still, it's a ma classic or mac pro fanboys dream!

    wow, what a rigamarole he had to go through to get it to work though!
    -Denny
    Denny's Computers - "Not profit seeking" PC Repair - http://dpccom.blogspot.com

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net
  • From Kevinl@VERT to Hustler on Thursday, June 04, 2015 19:07:00
    Hustler wrote to Kevinl <=-

    Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Kevinl to All on Sat May 30 2015 09:18 pm

    A month ago I started working on qodem again, with the goal of taking
    it from the barely-working 1.0alpha to a solid reliable 1.0beta
    release.

    Great to hear you're back on Qodem. I swear by it and enjoy using it daily. Kepp up the good work!

    Thank you! I really appreciate it.


    ... MultiMail, the new multi-platform, multi-format offline reader!
    --- MultiMail/Linux v0.49
    þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net
  • From Mro@VERT/BBSESINF to Nightfox on Saturday, June 06, 2015 03:10:33
    Re: Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Nightfox to Poindexter Fortran on Wed Jun 03 2015 07:37 am


    This reminds me of an article I saw where someone connected an old Mac Plus to the internet: http://www.keacher.com/1216/how-i-introduced-a-27-year-old-computer-to-the-w eb/


    sounds like a lot of work with little payoff.
    ---
    þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::
  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Mro on Saturday, June 06, 2015 07:52:15
    Re: Re: Qodem in public domain
    By: Mro to Nightfox on Sat Jun 06 2015 03:10:33

    This reminds me of an article I saw where someone connected an old Mac
    Plus to the internet:

    sounds like a lot of work with little payoff.

    Some people just like the challenge of a project like that. Even if there isn't much payoff, sometimes it can be just cool to see something like that actually working.

    Nightfox

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
  • From ROBERT WOLFE@VERT/OTHETA to HUSTLER on Friday, June 05, 2015 06:33:00
    A month ago I started working on qodem again, with the goal of taking
    it from the barely-working 1.0alpha to a solid reliable 1.0beta
    release.

    Great to hear you're back on Qodem. I swear by it and enjoy using it daily. Kepp up the good work!

    Hey! :) Nice to see the qodem developer participate on the BBSes :)

    ... A penny saved is a Congressional oversight.
    --- Wildcat! v6.4.454.2 (Nov 17 2011), Editor Mod v1.7
    þ wcQWK 6.4 ÷ Omicron Theta BBS * Memphis, TN * winserver.us