• whatnot

    From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Wed Oct 1 05:21:26 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    i've been tinkering with PCBoard source to try and see why it takes so
    much CPU on WinXP ... looks like it tests for Win95 and only gives up
    the timeslice every 8 iterations, to prevent some idle problem with
    Win95 ... so i patched that and it stopped hogging the CPU ... but only
    when using a COM port, not fossil ... fossil still hogs the CPU

    so i thought of using Turbo Profiler to find the reason ... PCBoard is
    too big to run on the same box with the profiler ... you have to set up
    remote debugging via serial cable ... got that working with a little
    test program

    then i tried PCBoard ... it's too big to compile with debugging symbols
    on all modules ... so i left out dbase and fido, then it compiled, but
    the .exe was still 1.5 meg ... got that partly working, using passive
    mode which gives a big picture of CPU use ... but to get more detail you
    must use active mode ... and that crashes turbo profiler every time ...
    don't know if it's because PCBoard is too big, or weird things CDC did
    (they patched the Borland startup code) ... so much code, so little time

    it's obvious CDC made poor design choices ... they packed too many big
    features into one huge executable and relied on Borland's VROOM overlay
    manager squeeze it all into 640k ... makes debugging and/or profiling
    difficult if not impossible

    their bad design painted them into a corner ... with no way out, i can
    see why management took the money and ran


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From stbenedictmission@stbenedictmission@gmail.com to alt.bbs.pcboard on Fri Oct 3 07:42:12 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 10:21:26 PM UTC-7, Trifle Menot wrote:
    i've been tinkering with PCBoard source to try and see why it takes so

    much CPU on WinXP ... looks like it tests for Win95 and only gives up

    the timeslice every 8 iterations, to prevent some idle problem with

    Win95 ... so i patched that and it stopped hogging the CPU ... but only

    when using a COM port, not fossil ... fossil still hogs the CPU



    so i thought of using Turbo Profiler to find the reason ... PCBoard is

    too big to run on the same box with the profiler ... you have to set up

    remote debugging via serial cable ... got that working with a little

    test program



    then i tried PCBoard ... it's too big to compile with debugging symbols

    on all modules ... so i left out dbase and fido, then it compiled, but

    the .exe was still 1.5 meg ... got that partly working, using passive

    mode which gives a big picture of CPU use ... but to get more detail you

    must use active mode ... and that crashes turbo profiler every time ...

    don't know if it's because PCBoard is too big, or weird things CDC did

    (they patched the Borland startup code) ... so much code, so little time



    it's obvious CDC made poor design choices ... they packed too many big

    features into one huge executable and relied on Borland's VROOM overlay

    manager squeeze it all into 640k ... makes debugging and/or profiling

    difficult if not impossible



    their bad design painted them into a corner ... with no way out, i can

    see why management took the money and ran

    weird.
    maybe a port to another bc version would open more ram.
    or 32bit. but that would be a huge job.
    wonder what the old version 10 basic looked like.

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Fri Oct 3 18:01:45 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Fri, 3 Oct 2014 07:42:12 -0700 (PDT), stbenedictmission@gmail.com
    wrote:

    maybe a port to another bc version would open more ram.

    I have Borland C++ 4.52, but it needs Windows (3.1 or higher) to run. I
    want PCBoard to compile on DOS, so that means getting Borland C++ 3.1 to
    work.


    or 32bit. but that would be a huge job.

    Yes, more time than I have.

    After more testing, I've isolated the Turbo Profiler crash. I can
    profile MODEM.C in active mode, but MODEMFOS.C crashes. Seems like
    MODEMFOS.C is getting (mis-)compiled in some way that Turbo Profiler
    can't cope with. CDC put a comment in MODEMFOS.C about "errors" if you
    don't build it with #pragma inline, but they didn't mention what the
    "errors" were. Probably some compiler bug.

    Well at least I have the problem narrowed down to one source file. That
    should make it easier to find a work around.


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From corey blake@ainewslv@gmail.com to alt.bbs.pcboard on Fri Oct 3 11:14:22 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 10:21:26 PM UTC-7, Trifle Menot wrote:
    i've been tinkering with PCBoard source to try and see why it takes so

    much CPU on WinXP ... looks like it tests for Win95 and only gives up

    the timeslice every 8 iterations, to prevent some idle problem with

    Win95 ... so i patched that and it stopped hogging the CPU ... but only

    when using a COM port, not fossil ... fossil still hogs the CPU



    so i thought of using Turbo Profiler to find the reason ... PCBoard is

    too big to run on the same box with the profiler ... you have to set up

    remote debugging via serial cable ... got that working with a little

    test program



    then i tried PCBoard ... it's too big to compile with debugging symbols

    on all modules ... so i left out dbase and fido, then it compiled, but

    the .exe was still 1.5 meg ... got that partly working, using passive

    mode which gives a big picture of CPU use ... but to get more detail you

    must use active mode ... and that crashes turbo profiler every time ...

    don't know if it's because PCBoard is too big, or weird things CDC did

    (they patched the Borland startup code) ... so much code, so little time



    it's obvious CDC made poor design choices ... they packed too many big

    features into one huge executable and relied on Borland's VROOM overlay

    manager squeeze it all into 640k ... makes debugging and/or profiling

    difficult if not impossible



    their bad design painted them into a corner ... with no way out, i can

    see why management took the money and ran

    true. seems most of their mess is to fix borlands errors.

    woah, I see rick parrish is making a 32bit port of shotgun.

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Fri Oct 3 18:42:56 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Fri, 3 Oct 2014 11:14:22 -0700 (PDT), corey blake
    <ainewslv@gmail.com> wrote:

    true. seems most of their mess is to fix borlands errors.

    Yes but it's their own fault; CDC's design locked them into Borland.

    Many of their source files contain #ifdef _MSC_VER, to compile with a
    Microsoft compiler. But the executable is so huge, there's no way it
    can run without Borland VROOM. Any idea of independence from Borland
    was silly. All that #ifdef code is useless baggage.


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Sat Oct 4 18:38:33 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Fri, 03 Oct 2014 18:01:45 +0000, Trifle Menot
    <triflemenot@protocol.invalid> wrote:

    Well at least I have the problem narrowed down to one source file. That >should make it easier to find a work around.

    Or maybe not.

    After more testing, it seems Turbo Profiler locks up with other source
    files too. Like GIVEUP.C. It selects which type of multitasker you are running on (each one needs different code) and gives up time slices.

    In it, CDC has a generic giveup() function with about 25 asm NOP codes
    to make space, and then they use assembler to copy the multitasker code
    bytes over the NOP code, so all callers can call the generic giveup()
    function without actually knowing which specific multitasker is in use.
    IOW, they modify the code segment while running, and the source code no
    longer matches the bytes in memory.

    What an abomination! They should have used function pointers, which
    offer similar dynamic function selection, without ruining the executable
    for profiling.

    I wrote a tcp fossil wrapper to use with PCBoard. It's not ready for
    release yet, but I tested it with a comm program called terminat (has
    fossil support). My fossil wrapper makes a TCP connection to a linux
    test system on the echo port, and then spawns terminat. The terminat executable is huge, about 1.5 meg, so it creates memory pressure like
    PCBoard.

    When I profile my fossil wrapper with terminat loaded, Turbo Profiler
    active mode works fine. So I surmise there is something funny going on
    inside PCBoard that Turbo Profiler does not like.

    I don't know if I can find it before Kingdom come, though. We'll see.


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Sun Oct 5 15:14:26 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:38:33 +0000, Trifle Menot
    <triflemenot@protocol.invalid> wrote:

    I surmise there is something funny going on inside PCBoard that
    Turbo Profiler does not like.

    Or maybe not.

    I tried running two VMs in Virtual PC 2004 (and 2007). Crash, crash,
    crash, just like on real hardware. Then I tried two VMs in Virtualbox
    4.3.16, and it worked, I got results in active mode.

    Seems like my CPUs are too fast for Turbo Profiler vintage 1992, which
    relies on timing to take measurements. Looks like Virtualbox slows down
    a DOS VM enough, so Turbo Profiler can run without locking up.

    To make it work on real hardware, you probably need two machines running
    CPUs of 200MHz or less. CPUs and motherboards that old are hard to find
    on Ebay now.


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Tue Oct 7 19:55:13 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Sun, 05 Oct 2014 15:14:26 +0000, Trifle Menot
    <triflemenot@protocol.invalid> wrote:

    I tried two VMs in Virtualbox 4.3.16, and it worked, I got results
    in active mode.

    But that was only profiling a few modules at a time. To see the big
    picture, you need to profile every routine in every module, all in one
    run.

    I tried that, but it failed to load: not enough memory for symbol table. Virtualbox does not have enough free UMBs for an EMS page frame, so you
    don't get EMS support, which Turbo Profiler needs for large programs.

    Then I tried VMWare which gives you an EMS page frame. Unfortunately it
    failed to communicate across the serial port named pipe. It was able to
    send the program across the serial port, but produced no results after
    waiting 10 minutes. Fail.

    So back to Virtualbox, the closest I got to a fully working solution so
    far. I googled for Virtualbox EMS and mostly found people with the same complaint, lack of EMS support in vbox. Right.

    But there was one person who had EMS problems on real PC hardware and
    they fixed it by forcing emm386 to load its page frame over the memory
    area of an option ROM. Sounded dangerous, but it got me wondering why
    MSD showed so much option ROM memory, even though I disabled all the
    extra stuff like network, sound card, etc. Maybe vbox reserves those
    areas even if the options are not used.

    So I thought, let's see what happens by forcing the EMS page frame onto
    the E000 page. When I rebooted, emm386 warned about the presence of ROM
    memory at that location. But when I checked the memory map with MSD, it
    showed that area having an EMS page frame. Yikes! Maybe emm386 assumes
    you know what you're doing when you force the page location. As long as nothing else writes to that area, it should work, despite the danger.

    So I started Turbo Profiler with all debug symbols, and it loaded. Then
    I then hit F9 to start the run. It was slow to start, but after a while
    (less than a minute) PCBoard stared running. I watched the clock on the
    call waiting screen for 30 seconds or so, and then hit ESC to quit.

    After another short delay, the Turbo Profiler screen went from "running"
    back to "ready". I hit Alt-F10 to display counts instead of time, and it worked, no lockups. Whoa!


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Wed Oct 8 15:46:14 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Fri, 3 Oct 2014 11:14:22 -0700 (PDT), corey blake
    <ainewslv@gmail.com> wrote:

    I see rick parrish is making a 32bit port of shotgun

    At https://www.randm.ca/bbs/gunshot/ he says:

    I work on it in my spare time when I don't feel like working
    on anything else, which pretty much means not that often

    IOW,

    It would be nice to finish it as some point

    A nice daydream, though one that will never materialize.

    But I'm glad you mentioned it, because I found the shotgun source code
    in a BBS torrent I have. I don't know who put the torrent together, but
    it's large, about 440 meg, and has most any BBS software you could want.

    I don't usually keep the torrent online, but if you want it, let me
    know.


    aa4re
    abbs
    acit
    acropolis
    adtbbs
    affinity
    afterhours
    aibbs
    asgard86
    astrodome
    atlas
    auntie
    aurora
    autobbs
    axis
    b0badel
    backdoor
    baphomet
    bbasm
    bbbs
    bbs4c
    bbsx
    blacklightning
    boyan
    brandx
    captains
    celerity
    centauri
    charisma
    choice
    chost
    cirron
    citadel+
    citadel++
    citadel86
    citadel86e
    citadelk2ne
    collie
    colossus
    concord
    coopcitadel
    coppercit
    crisis
    cyanide
    darkside
    darkstar
    dci
    delta5
    dementia
    desire
    disorder
    dlx
    dndbbs
    dominion
    dos
    dragcit
    dragonsoft
    eazihost
    ebbs
    edibbs
    edlx
    eis
    elebbs
    elegia
    emulex
    eternity
    evilbbs
    express
    ezbbs
    ezycom
    falken
    faq
    fbb
    feathernet
    felony
    fido
    fora
    force
    fornax
    fortresspc
    forum
    fredscitadel
    freespeech
    frontier
    fusion
    gap
    genesis
    genesisdeluxe
    genocide
    ghost
    ghostship
    grapevine
    gremcit
    gsbbs
    gtalk
    gtpower
    harmony
    havok
    helmet
    host
    hype2
    hysteria
    ibbs
    idccom
    ideatree
    illusion
    imajica
    impulse
    infinity
    infusion
    iniquity
    innovation
    insanity
    insomnia
    instinct
    interbbs
    inversex
    jbbs
    jdrbbs
    jetbbs
    k2ne
    kbbs
    kiss
    kitten
    kwikbbs
    liquidbbs
    lorabbs
    lsdbbs
    lucid
    lync
    mach10
    macrobbs
    magpie
    majorbbs
    mavencit
    maximus
    megahost
    metropolis
    microcosm
    miniking
    mode
    monarch2
    morpheus
    mubbs
    multiboard
    mutant
    mystic
    mysticdos
    nanobbs
    neocitadel
    nexus
    nightcit
    nochange
    novaboard
    novucivitas
    oblivion2
    olecompro
    omega
    onyx
    opus
    oracomm
    orion
    orkadel
    osiris
    otera
    overcit
    paradigm
    paragon
    pcboard
    pcconnect
    pcexpress
    pcpn
    pegasys
    phoenix
    phoenixrcs
    pics
    pilot
    pipeline
    powerbbs
    powerboard
    ppoint
    pppbbs
    proboard
    proflex
    prophecy
    pup
    pyroto
    qbbs
    qbbs2
    qhost
    quantum
    quickbbs
    quiver
    raptor
    rat
    rbbs
    realmofchaos
    remoteaccess
    renegade
    revelation
    roboboard
    ros
    rybbs
    sam
    sapphire
    sauron
    seadog
    searchlight
    secrecy
    shadow
    shockwave
    shotgun
    silicosis
    simplex
    slbbs
    slick
    socrates
    sphynx
    spitfire
    squiggle
    starempire
    stonehenge
    subbs
    superbbs
    swiftbbs
    synchronet
    synergy
    system75
    systemx
    tachyon
    tag
    tbbs
    tcomm
    tcs
    telaviv
    telegard
    tempest
    terminate
    tinyhost
    tinyhostplus
    topquark
    tornado
    tox
    tpbbs
    tpboard
    tribbs
    tritel
    turboard
    turbobbs
    turbocit
    twitcit
    twoam
    ultimate
    ultrabbs
    varitale
    vbbs
    virtualadvanced
    visblast
    visio
    vision
    vision2
    visionx
    void
    waffle
    wbbs
    wildcat
    wme
    worldgroup
    wrbbs
    wwiv
    xbbs
    zbbs
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  • From stbenedictmission@stbenedictmission@gmail.com to alt.bbs.pcboard on Sat Oct 11 06:51:30 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    but how much source code is in there?
    most old source code I found don't even work anymore.
    and the little that does is not y2k compatible.
    one I played with said I was 65556 years old.
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Sat Oct 11 16:25:49 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Sat, 11 Oct 2014 06:51:30 -0700 (PDT), stbenedictmission@gmail.com
    wrote:

    but how much source code is in there?

    All of shotgun when it was released as open source I suppose


    most old source code I found don't even work anymore.
    and the little that does is not y2k compatible.
    one I played with said I was 65556 years old.

    Yep it's an archaeological dig. The joy, or lack thereof, depends on
    what you want from it. If you like hacking on source code it's fun, but
    if you want a running BBS, maybe not so much.

    But why run a BBS nowadays? msmacbbs.com (telnet only) is a PCBoard
    system, maybe the only good one running now, but has very few callers.

    Have you used the FIDO support in PCBoard? FIDOnet is so moribund I
    wouldn't bother joining it, but you could use FIDO technology and give a
    new name to a network of your own creation.

    It only takes two, to start a network.


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From corey blake@ainewslv@gmail.com to alt.bbs.pcboard on Mon Oct 13 10:00:57 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 10:21:26 PM UTC-7, Trifle Menot wrote:
    i've been tinkering with PCBoard source to try and see why it takes so

    much CPU on WinXP ... looks like it tests for Win95 and only gives up

    the timeslice every 8 iterations, to prevent some idle problem with

    Win95 ... so i patched that and it stopped hogging the CPU ... but only

    when using a COM port, not fossil ... fossil still hogs the CPU



    so i thought of using Turbo Profiler to find the reason ... PCBoard is

    too big to run on the same box with the profiler ... you have to set up

    remote debugging via serial cable ... got that working with a little

    test program



    then i tried PCBoard ... it's too big to compile with debugging symbols

    on all modules ... so i left out dbase and fido, then it compiled, but

    the .exe was still 1.5 meg ... got that partly working, using passive

    mode which gives a big picture of CPU use ... but to get more detail you

    must use active mode ... and that crashes turbo profiler every time ...

    don't know if it's because PCBoard is too big, or weird things CDC did

    (they patched the Borland startup code) ... so much code, so little time



    it's obvious CDC made poor design choices ... they packed too many big

    features into one huge executable and relied on Borland's VROOM overlay

    manager squeeze it all into 640k ... makes debugging and/or profiling

    difficult if not impossible



    their bad design painted them into a corner ... with no way out, i can

    see why management took the money and ran

    hmm. I can get some of shotgun to compile now.
    but I cant find the genus vga librarys it needs for the vga engine.
    it needs all of the genus dos librarys.
    it sort of looks like Darkstar started to look.
    but this actually works.
    but the gui client dialup program needs to be converted to 32bit.
    cause no one would want to setup a 16 bit system to call a svga bbs.

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Mon Oct 13 18:29:57 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Mon, 13 Oct 2014 10:00:57 -0700 (PDT), corey blake
    <ainewslv@gmail.com> wrote:

    no one would want to setup a 16 bit system to call a svga bbs

    IDK, I have a multiboot system that boots DOS, WinXP, or linux. When
    booting DOS, most things work, but the CPU is too fast for some things
    (like Turbo Profiler).


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Mon Oct 13 20:56:57 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Sun, 05 Oct 2014 15:14:26 +0000, Trifle Menot
    <triflemenot@protocol.invalid> wrote:

    I tried running two VMs in Virtual PC 2004 (and 2007). Crash, crash,
    crash, just like on real hardware. Then I tried two VMs in Virtualbox 4.3.16, and it worked, I got results in active mode.

    I went back and tried Virtual PC again; one machine running 2004 and the
    other 2007.

    On both, I installed OS/2 Warp 4. I wanted to know if Turbo Profiler
    would work in an OS/2 DOS box. A small test program showed that it
    does. Turbo Profiler can also do remote profiling over NetBIOS, so you
    don't need serial ports and a null modem cable. Just two OS/2 VMs with networking set up.

    Then I tried profiling the bad boy, PCBoard and modemfos.c. Crashed
    again. But OS/2 gave me a nice crash message that told me which program failed: tfremote.exe. Maybe tfremote is buggy with NetBIOS (it worked
    with Virtualbox when using serial ports). So I tried a later version of tfremote from Borland C++ 4.52.

    But it failed because tfremote did not match the version of tprof. So I upgraded tprof, but then it complained that rtm.exe was missing (DPMI is required for tprof 4.52, while 3.1 uses EMS). So I fixed that, and then tfremote and tprof started up the link, but since pcboardm.exe was built
    with the linker from 3.1, it complained about a wrong linker version. To
    use Turbo Profiler 4.52 you must use the linker from 4.52. Bah!

    With little to lose, I tried the 4.52 linker on the old objects compiled
    with BC 3.1, and it worked. WHOA! So then I tried profiling again, and
    this time, no crash. The tfremote from 4.52 works over NetBIOS, but the
    3.1 version does not.

    Borland says tprof 3.1 needs Novell NetBIOS (over IPX), but that's not
    true; it works with NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Despite that fact, tprof 3.1
    tests for IPX anyway, and refuses to load without it. In version 4.52,
    they removed that bogus test, and now, NetBIOS over TCP/IP works fine.
    At least on OS/2; as for Windows, I wonder ...

    It's been a journey.


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From mro@mro@eob-bbs.com.remove-4te-this to Trifle Menot on Sat Oct 25 09:07:14 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    To: Trifle Menot
    .,: This is something about Re: whatnot,
    Trifle Menot said it to alt.bbs.pcboard on Fri Oct 03 2014 06:01 pm --ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ-ÄÄÄÄ---ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ---ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ--ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

    maybe a port to another bc version would open more ram.

    I have Borland C++ 4.52, but it needs Windows (3.1 or higher) to run. I
    want PCBoard to compile on DOS, so that means getting Borland C++ 3.1 to work.


    or 32bit. but that would be a huge job.

    Yes, more time than I have.



    it would probably be best for someone with the skills and time to make a
    clone of pcboard; one that has all the aspects of pcboard, but none of the drawbacks. a windows, *nix flavor, something modular, something nice with
    none of the issues. a clone that works with all the pcboard mods.

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From mro@mro@eob-bbs.com.remove-4te-this to corey blake on Sat Oct 25 09:07:55 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    To: corey blake
    .,: This is something about Re: whatnot,
    corey blake said it to alt.bbs.pcboard on Fri Oct 03 2014 11:14 am --ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ-ÄÄÄÄ---ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ---ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ--ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
    woah, I see rick parrish is making a 32bit port of shotgun.


    i thought he was done with it. he then went on to port rg to 32bit

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From mro@mro@eob-bbs.com.remove-4te-this to Trifle Menot on Sat Oct 25 09:12:33 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    To: Trifle Menot
    .,: This is something about Re: whatnot,
    Trifle Menot said it to alt.bbs.pcboard on Wed Oct 08 2014 03:46 pm --ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ-ÄÄÄÄ---ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ---ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ--ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
    I see rick parrish is making a 32bit port of shotgun

    At https://www.randm.ca/bbs/gunshot/ he says:

    I work on it in my spare time when I don't feel like working on
    anything else, which pretty much means not that often

    IOW,

    It would be nice to finish it as some point

    A nice daydream, though one that will never materialize.


    rick is a really good programmer and gets a lot done in a short time.
    he's not like the usual guy who announces something and it never comes to fruition.

    he has done a LOT of work with ftelnet/htmlterm, renegade32 and my.ftelnet website and android app in a very small window of time.

    in a BBS torrent I have. I don't know who put the torrent together, but
    it's large, about 440 meg, and has most any BBS software you could want.

    I don't usually keep the torrent online, but if you want it, let me
    know.


    aa4re abbs acit acropolis adtbbs affinity afterhours aibbs asgard86 astrodome atlas auntie aurora autobbs axis b0badel backdoor baphomet
    bbasm bbbs bbs4c bbsx blacklightning boyan brandx captains celerity


    that looks like one of the bbswarez torrents. people should know where to
    find them. considering how many people leech it from me, i think almost every bbs enthusiast has it by now.

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From stbenedictmission@stbenedictmission@gmail.com to alt.bbs.pcboard on Mon Oct 27 06:58:09 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 10:21:26 PM UTC-7, Trifle Menot wrote:
    i've been tinkering with PCBoard source to try and see why it takes so
    much CPU on WinXP ... looks like it tests for Win95 and only gives up
    the timeslice every 8 iterations, to prevent some idle problem with
    Win95 ... so i patched that and it stopped hogging the CPU ... but only
    when using a COM port, not fossil ... fossil still hogs the CPU

    so i thought of using Turbo Profiler to find the reason ... PCBoard is
    too big to run on the same box with the profiler ... you have to set up remote debugging via serial cable ... got that working with a little
    test program

    then i tried PCBoard ... it's too big to compile with debugging symbols
    on all modules ... so i left out dbase and fido, then it compiled, but
    the .exe was still 1.5 meg ... got that partly working, using passive
    mode which gives a big picture of CPU use ... but to get more detail you
    must use active mode ... and that crashes turbo profiler every time ...
    don't know if it's because PCBoard is too big, or weird things CDC did
    (they patched the Borland startup code) ... so much code, so little time

    it's obvious CDC made poor design choices ... they packed too many big features into one huge executable and relied on Borland's VROOM overlay manager squeeze it all into 640k ... makes debugging and/or profiling difficult if not impossible

    their bad design painted them into a corner ... with no way out, i can
    see why management took the money and ran

    someone did start a pcboard clone once. some French hacker group.
    but they never finished it. I think it was just a core engine to run the ppes. and everything else the bbs had had to be a ppe format.

    heck, even wwiv is 32bit now.
    and some of it even works too

    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From Trifle Menot@triflemenot@protocol.invalid to alt.bbs.pcboard on Mon Oct 27 15:35:11 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Mon, 27 Oct 2014 06:58:09 -0700 (PDT), stbenedictmission@gmail.com
    wrote:

    someone did start a pcboard clone once. some French hacker group.
    but they never finished it. I think it was just a core engine to run the ppes. and everything else the bbs had had to be a ppe format.

    heck, even wwiv is 32bit now.
    and some of it even works too

    A true PCBoard clone? It would take one person decades to comprehend
    the huge amount of code and make it all work on 32 bit; it's highly DOS
    and 16 bit dependent. Though it might be fun, I don't have that much
    time.

    And if I did, I would port it to linux/BSD, not Windows. Microsoft
    platforms are a bad investment, they pull the rug out from under you.


    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108
  • From corey blake@ainewslv@gmail.com to alt.bbs.pcboard on Mon Oct 27 15:44:38 2014
    From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.pcboard

    On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 10:21:26 PM UTC-7, Trifle Menot wrote:
    i've been tinkering with PCBoard source to try and see why it takes so
    much CPU on WinXP ... looks like it tests for Win95 and only gives up
    the timeslice every 8 iterations, to prevent some idle problem with
    Win95 ... so i patched that and it stopped hogging the CPU ... but only
    when using a COM port, not fossil ... fossil still hogs the CPU

    so i thought of using Turbo Profiler to find the reason ... PCBoard is
    too big to run on the same box with the profiler ... you have to set up remote debugging via serial cable ... got that working with a little
    test program

    then i tried PCBoard ... it's too big to compile with debugging symbols
    on all modules ... so i left out dbase and fido, then it compiled, but
    the .exe was still 1.5 meg ... got that partly working, using passive
    mode which gives a big picture of CPU use ... but to get more detail you
    must use active mode ... and that crashes turbo profiler every time ...
    don't know if it's because PCBoard is too big, or weird things CDC did
    (they patched the Borland startup code) ... so much code, so little time

    it's obvious CDC made poor design choices ... they packed too many big features into one huge executable and relied on Borland's VROOM overlay manager squeeze it all into 640k ... makes debugging and/or profiling difficult if not impossible

    their bad design painted them into a corner ... with no way out, i can
    see why management took the money and ran

    and when they do fix the bugs,
    they up the version and want you to buy a new license.
    --- Synchronet 3.17a-Linux NewsLink 1.108