23 Dec 97 17:39, Roger Scudder (1:273/404{at}fidonet) wrote to Thomas Winter:

 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.

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

 > 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.

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

Unfortunately porting the video code to use NCurses is difficult - much
more difficult than the kludge that I put together to get the Windows 95/NT
video output code working (except for mouse support) under Msged.  The
video output code used by Msged really needs a rewrite, which means any
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.

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

-- randy{at}zws.com

--- Msged/386 4.20 beta 4