Hello andrew.

31 Dec 97 02:30, andrew clarke wrote to Roger Scudder:

TW>>> I want to compile MSGED 4.2B2 for Linux.

>> It's not going to compile out of the box.  You're going to have
>> to make a number of modifications.

ac> I don't think it will take much to recompile it under Linux.  But to 
ac> actually end up with a UNIX version that's as easily used as the 
ac> DOS/Windows/OS/2 versions will require significant modifications and 
ac> additions to the code.


 Well, I was assuming he doesn't want to compile anything that
 is not easy to use. :-)   From my experience, I would say he
 is looking at quite a bit of work to get the whole program working.
           
>> A good portion of the mods will be in the video output code.  You
>> will have to decide on which screen handling library for Linux to
>> use.  I have done some porting of DOS apps to Linux and I can tell
>> you that text mode programing for Linux leaves a lot to be desired.
>> Unless you have root privileges, you are restricted in what you can
>> do.  For example, you can't do direct screen writes.  Though, if
>> you don't care that root is required to run your version than you
>> will have an easier go of it.

ac> I think the general idea seems to be to use NCurses so there's no 
ac> requirement to operate it as the root user.  I wouldn't like to see a 
ac> version of Msged that required the user to operate as root - anything run 
ac> as root is a bit of a security hazard, in the least.  Not to mention if you 
ac> do funky things with the hardware that won't work unless you're the root, 
ac> you won't be able to use Msged via telnet, etc.

 Yes, but ncurses doesn't perform anywhere near as well as you would
 expect.  It's fine when it is doing it's buffered routines.  When you
 need to get rapid single character output from it, WoW!.. is it slow.
 A lot of the DOS code I've worked with relies heavily on the fact that
 single characters can be output at blinding speed under DOS.  Code
 like that needs a lot of changes to get good performance under Linux.
 
ac> Unfortunately porting the video code to use NCurses is difficult - much 
ac> more difficult than the kludge that I put together to get the Windows 95/NT 
ac> video output code working (except for mouse support) under Msged.  The 
ac> video output code used by Msged really needs a rewrite, which means any 
ac> code that uses the new video output code will need modifying too...

TW>>> has anyone here arleady compiled Msged 4.2 with Linux?

>> I think I read somewhere that Paul Edwards is working on it right
>> now.  I'm sure that paul will give us a solid version.

ac> Unfortunately Paul was excommunicated from FidoNet several months ago, and 
ac> I believe he has little interest in software development for the network.  
ac> I understand he is writing a public domain operating system of some sort.  
ac> He can be e-mailed at avon{at}matra.com.au.

 Wow!  that sucks... another fidonet programmer gone for good.


Roger

... Tower case? Nah, fell off the desk and landed that way.

--- Msged 4.20 beta 2
(1:273/404{at}fidonet)