BBS systems on PDP-11s (was: Original Searchlight bbs...)

From: Christopher Smith <csmith_at_amdocs.com>
Date: Fri Feb 8 09:51:26 2002

> -----Original Message-----
> From: William S. [mailto:wilby98_at_yahoo.com]

> Does that mean you could set up a vector terminal
> like a Tektronix 4013 and and draw all kinds of
> stuff on the screen? Sounds kinda neat.

Kind of like that. :) There were a couple of trys at this,
one being a proprietary protocol used by a BBS called
"RoboBBS" or "RoboBoard" (don't remember which). This BBS
was accessible by normal methods enough to have it print
a menu and allow you to download a new "terminal emulator"
that would emulate this fake graphics terminal that didn't
really exist. :)

Once you have the graphical program, you dial back in with
that, and see pictures (vector mostly, but with bitmapped
"icons" too.

There was a later standardization effort of sorts, which
defined another graphical terminal that didn't exist. It
used a protocol called RIP (remote imaging protocol?), and
most common BBS's supported it, if configured properly,
and if you were using a terminal emulator that spoke RIP.

I think the best support I've seen for RIP is on Searchlight,
or possibly Renegade. (peesee, ms-dos)

Chris


Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL

/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
 
Received on Fri Feb 08 2002 - 09:51:26 GMT