echicken wrote:
>   Re: Synchronet questions
>   By: Robbie Whiting to All on Fri Mar 05 2021 07:10:12
> 
>  RW> - Baja vs. javascript. My understanding is baja approach (compiled) is
>  RW> more comprehensive than the js approach. Any recos here?
> 
> Baja is sufficient for simple mods and command shells, and sysops with less programming experience find it easier to pick up.

I agree. It was pretty easy to midify the default menus and with a limited
command it was easy enough to find what I needed to do in the manual.

 
> Javascript offers many more options and far more comprehensive data about and control over the BBS.

For sure. The good thing about javascript menus are that they are dynamic and
don't have to be reloaded by logging out like the Baja scripts. At least
that's how it seemed to me. 


> In general I would say to just go with JS, since it'll do everything Baja can do and more. However, it really depends on your background and aspirations.
 
>  RW> - There doesn't seem to be a ton of examples in the wild, or
>  RW> tutorial-esque material, of how to do theming/programming of command
> 
> There are lots of examples in the Synchronet git repo, especially in the exec/ and xtrn/ directories, but there's not much/any material explaining it. You pretty much need to read through a script, see what it does, make some changes, see what happens.

There's a JS version of the default.src with an interesting note "this is not
a good exmaple of how to write a menu" or something like that. For me, it
worked perfectly fine and all the others seem to be based off it. It might be
easier to take that simple chat_sec.js as a starting point. It isn't as
complicated as the others.

 
> We could probably do with some tutorials, but I'm not sure what people would like to see. Articles? Videos?

I've programmed in a few languages, but not JS untill I came to Synchronet, so
it was a learning curve in relation to the objects, mostly and trying to
remember to JS syntax rather than the perl or bash or whatever I've been
using. I think people will find something about the jsobj stuff, the userdefs
and sbbsdefs files, when to use load or require, etc.

>  RW> shells. Does that mean most Synchronet sysops just run the 
>  RW> default/included shells? Has anyone compiled tips/tricks beyond what's
> 
> Depending on how much customization you want to do, you can get away with using one of the default shells and replacing some "graphics" and some strings in text.dat, and maybe making small edits to the shell's source. I imagine this is what most sysops do.

*raises hand*. I got rid of the "synchronet" header on the menu menu to start
with and then fiddles with the time/date display. It took over a year before I
really made any significant changes. I really didn't have a vision of what I
wanted plus I really suck buckets with graphics and art in general so coming
up with something innovative was a bit of a strech, as I'm sure anyone who
logged into my BBS can attent :)

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