Chat synopsis 16/07/2006

[Blacklord]

First talk session around the new BBS package has just been completed.

In attendance were myself, Ozone, Brendon, plbyrd & dnelsonfl. Duration of the chat was 1 hour & 50 minutes.

We hammered out the following main points:

1: No support for dialup, consensus was that telnet should be the only protocol supported as very few people use dial up anymore. This would also be handled by a piece of custom software on the PC sidethat would look after all connections (incoming telnet & pass thru to the C128)

2: Supported PC platform would be Windows with much of the framework being done under .NET 2.0 & C#.

3: The supported platforms would be a real Commodore 128 running with either two 1571's or one 1581. Support for the 1541 would not be included as burst mode was decideed to be a requirement. VICE would also be the preferred emulation platform. The software will only run in 2MHz 80 column mode with no fallback to 1Mhz. This will allow us to take advantage of that modes faster processing power.

4: Additional modules could be developed to handle expanded hardware as required by the end sysop. Modules would be called from a single location hard coded into the BBS.

5: Coding for the 128 side would be restricted to CA65 & CC65 only.

6: The design would be highly modular. Most functions will be done by utilising a scripting langauge in plain text making it easy for users to design their own modules. This will provide a high degree of flexibility. The resulting code will then be compiled via custom software.

7: The codebase would also contain a debugger.

8: the code would have three layers :

  i) Core, speed essential functions in CA65 assembler.
 ii) BBS framework and a scripting language in C
iii) A Basic-like interpreted script that allows sysops to customize their systems

These were the salient points to be agreed on. Further discussion revolved around items such as multiple connections to more than one 128 or multiple instances of VICE. It was also decided that existing telnet server software would not be an option.

Further discussions will take place at the same time & location next week.

Lance

[OzOne]

Thanks Lance, I reckon we managed to accomplish quite a bit. Looking forward to next week.

[xlar54]

Sorry I missed this one - work had some critical issues come up and I had to focus on that this evening....im still awake and not everything is resolved (yay)... anyway, glad to see consenus.  Ive been poking around with some proof of concept stuff, and hope to have some things to bring to the next discussion.

[OzOne]

Sorry I missed this one - work had some critical issues come up and I had to focus on that this evening....im still awake and not everything is resolved (yay)... anyway, glad to see consenus.  Ive been poking around with some proof of concept stuff, and hope to have some things to bring to the next discussion.

My turn to miss next weekends due to the same reson, bummer!

Oz

[David Nelson]

Hey all, what'd I miss last night (7/22/06)? I got called out and didn't get back in until after 12.
-David

[Blacklord]

Hey all, what'd I miss last night (7/22/06)? I got called out and didn't get back in until after 12.
-David

'twas a no show - we'll re-schedule.

cheers,

Lance

[Guest]

I apologize for missing the chat.  We had to go out of town and didn't get back until late.