History

Legacy/X BBS design started January 2017, when I decided I was going to run a BBS again. The design was to leverage my CodeRunner product from Modern Pascal Solutions, LLC. CodeRunner is a multithreaded socket server (listens for Internet connections) and has an embedded instance of the Modern Pascal script engine. In short, this meant I only need to focus on the functionality as all communications and threading is handled by CodeRunner.

One of the features of Modern Pascal, is the ability to store variables in memory and run another script. Producing what Turbo Pascal 3.0 had, called CHAIN. Modern Pascal has a Chain object for storing, retrieving, and running. So, I decided, why not make a BBS package, that as I finished part of the workflow (login for example), I could unload that excess code, and load the main menu code for example. This would produce a very small memory foot-print, and allow one computer to support up to 65,000 concurrent users. (We have tested up to 50,000 without problem).

The difference between CHAIN and EXECUTE, is shared memory in the same process, whereas, EXECUTE spawns a new process with new memory references. The interest in using CHAIN was more than just a small foot-print, as a developer, I could test a step in the workflow, make changes, and chain right back to itself and see the changes instantly.

Most of 2017:

• Spent implementing the BinkP protocol so I could support Fidonet.
• Developed my own tosser (the process to move messages from Fidonet to/from BBS)
• Developed an NNTP Server so I could participate in messaging (no BBS yet)

Most of 2018:

• Worked with another developer to make sure my BinkP was robust.
• Joined a couple other Fidonet type networks
• Built the first generation of the new BBS
  • Found many challenges in limited Terminals for Mac OSX.
  • Developed my own basic ANSI Terminal for Mac OSX.
• I received a registration request for the Motor City Doors we acquired in 96.
  • Had to setup an environment to recompile all of the old code
  • I was asked since I owned PCBoard 15 source - if I would make a new build.

Early 2019:

• I seriously got distracted by from my project - making PCBoard v16
• Due to many having an unjustified negative attitude about me using the name PCBoard I changed the name of the project to Professional BBS. This later became PRoBBS.
  • After releasing Alpha-1 and Alpha-2 to the Alpha team - I scrapped PRoBBS.
  • November - I started developing Legacy/X BBS from scratch

November 26th 2019:

• I went out and bought the domain ryobbs.com to be a repository/Wiki
• Downloaded DokuWiki source - debated about porting to Celerity instead of PHP.

November 27th 2019:

• After much deliberation - I decided my time is better spent coding Legacy/X BBS not a new Wiki engine.

December 24th 2019:

• Released the first official Alpha Release of Legacy/X BBS
• Art work was provided by MaDDoG (aka md!)
• Legacy Krew from the Art Scene offered to do all art work for Legacy/X BBS

January 2020 - February 2020:

• We now have 7 Alpha Testers, with 6 of them running Public BBSes
• We now have a fully working BinkP Mailer and Polling System
• We have 7 Built-in Protocols including YModem-G
• We are building the 7th round of Alpha Code - before we start a Beta Team