I was thinking of how we could use VICE to test, and thought up an idea...
Consider if we write a modem emulator, say in C# or something, that listens on two ports. One port might be 23 (Telnet) and the other might be 232 or something. VICE will connect to the 232 port, and incoming connections would connect to the telnet port. Upon connection, the modem emu would send a RING (in integer) to VICE, allowing the BBS to answer and respond. For carrier detection (dropped calls, is really what we are checking for), have the modem emu send a very specific series of bytes that the BBS will interpret as "carrier loss". Certainly a user could potentially send the same series of bytes, but it wouldnt do them any favors to do so....
Im thinking carrier detection will need to be implemented with the I/O code, when the BBS is awaiting input from the caller. Either way, switching out to the above method instead would allow us to test in VICE, with the added bonus of having a fully telnet-able BBS system under VICE. Putting CD detection in the I/O code rather than an interrupt would allow us to switch to either method pretty easily.
Also,
Assuming we used an overlay system as I put out there, we could have the system configurable so that modules can be swapped out even at runtime as in:
ExampleConfig.config:
#This is a comment line
#command, description, overlay filename, drive
MB, Message Boards, prg.MessageBrds, 8
UD, Upload / Downloads, prg.UD, 8
VB, Voting Subsystem, prg.Voting, 8
#EM, Old Email System, prg.Email, 8
EM, New Email Subsystem, prg.SuperEmail, 9
So with this setup, a sysop can mod a program, save it, and then tell the config file that this is the new EM command and where its located, etc.
Just some ideas. Feedback?
Quote from: xlar54I was thinking of how we could use VICE to test, and thought up an idea...
Consider if we write a modem emulator, say in C# or something, that listens on two ports.
You'll be reinventing the wheel, NetSerial (on Windows) will already do this.
cheers,
Lance
Quote from: adminQuote from: xlar54I was thinking of how we could use VICE to test, and thought up an idea...
Consider if we write a modem emulator, say in C# or something, that listens on two ports.
You'll be reinventing the wheel, NetSerial (on Windows) will already do this.
cheers,
Lance
As will TCPSER4J.
Yes, TCPSERJ was exactly what I was thinking. Should work fine for what we are doing, with some modifications.
Quote from: xlar54So with this setup, a sysop can mod a program, save it, and then tell the config file that this is the new EM command and where its located, etc.
Sounds promising.
Quote from: xlar54Yes, TCPSERJ was exactly what I was thinking. Should work fine for what we are doing, with some modifications.
NetSerial is by an order of magnitudes MUCH easier to work with IMHO.
cheers,
Lance
Quote from: adminQuote from: xlar54Yes, TCPSERJ was exactly what I was thinking. Should work fine for what we are doing, with some modifications.
NetSerial is by an order of magnitudes MUCH easier to work with IMHO.
Is NetSerial open source? Not that I'm against non-open source, far from it, but we may need to make some hacks, and I'm pretty damn familiar with the TCPSER4J source after my modifications to make it work for DMBBS.
Hi Payton.
Quote from: plbyrdQuote from: adminQuote from: xlar54Yes, TCPSERJ was exactly what I was thinking. Should work fine for what we are doing, with some modifications.
NetSerial is by an order of magnitudes MUCH easier to work with IMHO.
Is NetSerial open source? Not that I'm against non-open source, far from it, but we may need to make some hacks, and I'm pretty damn familiar with the TCPSER4J source after my modifications to make it work for DMBBS.
No, but the author (Mike Ehlert) has proven very quick at implementing changes & fixes requested by the group of beta testers (of which I'm one). To join the beta test, drop an email to him at mike@pcmicro.com
cheers,
Lance
Quote from: adminHi Payton.
Quote from: plbyrdQuote from: adminNetSerial is by an order of magnitudes MUCH easier to work with IMHO.
Is NetSerial open source? Not that I'm against non-open source, far from it, but we may need to make some hacks, and I'm pretty damn familiar with the TCPSER4J source after my modifications to make it work for DMBBS.
No, but the author (Mike Ehlert) has proven very quick at implementing changes & fixes requested by the group of beta testers (of which I'm one). To join the beta test, drop an email to him at mike@pcmicro.com
cheers,
Lance
OK, this gets us back to a point I was making earlier, and the consensus was that we'd build a single tool for modem emulation and SQL access. I'm personally all for using two programs, one for modem emulation and one for SQL access, but that's going to require two RS232 adapters, but it also allows us to run the software on seperate PCs if so desired.