BBSkit version 2.00

                         Communications toolkit for Turbo Pascal

                                                 by Steve Madsen

Copyright

BBSkit, associated utilities, source code, and documentation are
copyright (c) 1991, 1992 by Steven Madsen.  All rights reserved.

The purpose of BBSkit

     Ever since I became involved with telecommunications in the
mid  1980's, I have been very interested in writing applications
that  work  with the serial port.  Particularly, I like  writing
bulletin  board systems.  The only problem was that I  found  no
communications  packages that met my standards,  which  included
being usable under Turbo Pascal 6.0.  Thus, BBSkit was born.
      My  main  idea in creating BBSkit was to provide the  most
seamless  environment  for a BBS author to  create  his  or  her
application.   BBS  applications  require  certain  things  that
terminal programs do not, such as being able to route input  and
output,  having  support to handle all kinds of terminals,  from
slow  terminals  requring nulls to keep up with transmission  to
new  ones  that  have  advanced terminal emulation  as  standard
equipment.   Users  have grown along with the technology.   They
want  power, speed and beauty in the systems that they frequent.
But  the most important thing was creating a toolkit that  would
meet  my needs, and also meet those of people like me that  were
having  the same difficulty finding toolkits that would  do  the
job for them.
     Think of BBSkit as a shell program.  Everything you need to
use  your  modem  or  communicate through your  serial  port  is
already there.  You can route input and output, send and receive
files,  emulate  over  10  different  terminals.   Now  you  can
concentrate  on  writing your application, not on  communicating
with your serial port.

What's new in version 2.0?

      Version  2.0  is a tremendous enhancement to the  original
package.   Version 1.0 was robust when compared to many  of  the
other  shareware  or freeware packages I still find  on  systems
today, but 2.0 will easily surpass that.  With 2.0 I have  added
more complete VT-100 style terminal emulation directly into  the
package.  This means no more ANSI.SYS!  All of the file transfer
protocols  have  been  recoded  and  are  now  much  easier   to
understand since the source follows the same style as  the  main
units.  Ymodem and Ymodem-G have also been added to our list  of
protocols.  To keep things more close to home, I have  rewritten
my serial support in 100% assembly language.  You no longer need
a  FOSSIL  driver  to  communicate with your  system,  and  that
reduces  the  amount  of memory taken up by device  drivers  and
leaves more for your app.  Of course, as a registered user,  you
have  all  of  the  source  code to  BBSkit  available  on  your
registration disks.
      Perhaps the most important announcement comes in the  form
of  the  BBS  Session Protocol.  Lately everyone has been  going
crazy  over  the  incredible changes user interfaces  are  going
through.  Mouse support is becoming standard, graphics are being
found everywhere.  And Windows is responsible.  Well... wouldn't
it be great to have this kind of support over a normal telephone
line?   BSP gives it to you!  Mouse support and graphics,  in  a
form  of terminal emulation that can be used in conjunction with
any  of  the  provided templates.  Now you  can  add  mouse  and
graphics  support  to  your app, and the remote  end  will  take
advantage  of it if it can.  Otherwise, the user will experience
no change from a normal session.

Where's Zmodem?

     Some of you who saw or used the first version of BBSkit may
be  wondering where Zmodem is in the new package.  The reason is
actually quite simple, although it is a very disappointing  one.
During the development of BBSkit 2.00 I looked long and hard for
the  latest Zmodem specifications, to be assured that  my  users
would  receive the latest Zmodem implementation, coded according
to  Omen  Technology's  most current  Zmodem  documentation.   I
became  very  disappointed  when I could  not  find  any  recent
specifications on local BBSes, or anywhere in the world  through
Internet ftp access.  This led me to actually call Omen's BBS  a
few  times,  searching diligently for these  specifications.   I
could  not find any later than 1987, and these were done in  the
typical  Omen  fashion, which pretty much kept me from  doing  a
good  implementation of their protocol.  To top things off, when
I  read  through Omen's BBS, I found something called the Zmodem
Developer's Kit (which convienently comes with C source  code!).
Apparently  Omen has taken Zmodem out of the public domain  with
their  introduction of MobyTurbo.  So, sorry, but Zmodem is  not
going to be included in this (or probably any future) release of
BBSkit.   If  you  don't  like this (I don't),  please  complain
directly to Omen Technology, because I cannot do anything  about
it from where I stand.
      As the author of whatever software you write using BBSkit,
I would suggest that you do your utmost to promote Ymodem-batch.
This protocol is fast, safe (CRC-16 error checking) and probably
more  efficient than Zmodem.  The reason for this is that Zmodem
is  one of those "do everything" protocols, so it tries to  make
file  transfers safe across all platforms.  This includes packet
switching  networks which gobble up certain characters.   Zmodem
protects  these  characters by prefixing them.  The  problem  is
that  it  turns  one offending character into two  non-offending
characters, which slows down the overall speed of the  transfer.
Ymodem  doesn't even try to do this, so it sends all  characters
as  they are, which can speed up transfers.  Plus, you still get
batching  capability.   The  only thing  you  lose  is  transfer
recovery,  but  this could be fixed with a proprietary  protocol
for all BBSkit applications.  If there is any interest in such a
thing,  please  let  me know.  I would make  all  specifications
public domain and implementations of the protocol royalty  free,
without the complexity of Zmodem.

Contacting Technical Support

     Technical support is available to all registered users free
of charge from the time that registration is received.  By "free
of  charge" I mean that I will provide as much help as I can  in
any  way  that  I can, so long as it does not cost  me  lots  of
money.   Support is available over the phone (no  collect  calls
will   be   accepted),  through  United  States  Mail,   through
CompuServe, through the Internet, or through BITNET.
      As  a  college student, my address away at school  changes
with  each  year.  Since this something that can be a bother  to
users, I am taking it upon myself to inform registered users  of
my  change of address at the beginning of each school year.  The
address  for that school year and the telephone number  will  be
provided  in  a  mailing sent to all users  through  U.S.  Mail.
Additional  information may be included with this mailing  about
technical support.

     Current addresses are as follows:

U.S. Mail (at home): Steve Madsen
                  BBSkit Technical Support
                  1888 Edith Marie Drive
                  Beavercreek, OH  45431-3377
CompuServe:       INTERNET>sjmadsen@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
Internet:         sjmadsen@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
BITNET:           sjmadsen@miavx1


          Steven Madsen
          1888 Edith Marie Drive
          Beavercreek, OH  45431-3377