BBS Door Protocol??
7 messages in this thread
Hiya…I'm one of the authors of 4D-BBS, a shareware BBS for the Amiga.
(That reminds me….the latest version of 4D-BBS (version 1.00) just came
out, and I'll be uploading the public domain version of it soon so people
can take a look at it.)
Anyway…I'm currently working on a door port for a future version of
4D-BBS, and I have a question. I came across some files on Paragon's
protocol for doors, but my question is, do other BBS's use the same
protocol? (It has been my understanding that Laser BBS does.) Or do they
use a different protocol?
It would be wonderful if there is indeed a standard protocol for doors for
Amiga BBS'! <sigh>
— Angelique Wahlstedt
Let's hope they all start including ARexx ports. Skyline does and you
can't beat that.
>Arrex port…
Yes, I will be including an Arexx port in a future version of 4D-BBS
(hopefully in the early winter of 1991). But, a standard would still be
needed if some programs are expected to run on almost all BBS's.
— Angelique Wahlstedt
I run a Citadel BBS, with Door capability. It basically goes like this:
Citadel executes the designated Door program like you would from CLI (in
fact, they often are CLI programs) with the ability to pass along some
optional command-line parameters like username, etc. The Door program being
run must either 1) be I/O redirectable from a command line or 2) access the
serial port in shared-mode on it's own.
The Door program is run under the same task (not RUN) as Citadel itself,
so the BBS is naturally idle until the Door program exits, avoiding serial
I/O conflicts.
Yep…we already have doors (such as RZ and SZ) that share the serial port
But the reason I was interested in a door port is because there's already a
pool of public domain games written for Paragon (and Laser) BBS's. And one
advantage of using a door port is that it doesn't require so much code
(which is handy if you only have 512K for example) and you can send some
information such as user's data to the door without having to know what the
user's data file looks like and so on.
— Angeli
Sending user parameters is easy in Citadel. Simply add them as command-line
paramters when you are creating the command-line entry for that door int he
config file. And even if your Door can't take the parameter on the
command-line right off, you can have the BBS run a CLi script first, which
accepts the command line parameters from Citadel and then does something
with them before running the actual program. This aproach is simple and
requires almost nothing in the way of suport code.
Angelique,
Dialog Professional BBS uses an interesting approach to doors. That
being if it runs in a CLI and is CTRL-C breakable, it'll run as a door on
Dialog. Don't know what could be easier than that! 🙂
Regards,
Allen