RBBS-PC
Encyclopedia
RBBS-PC was a public domain
, open source
BBS
software program. It was written entirely in QuickBASIC
by a large team of people, starting with Russell Lane and then later enhanced by Tom Mack and including Ken Goosens and others.
It supported messaging conferences, questionnaires, doors
(through the DOORDEF.DAT dropfile
), and much more.
by Russell Lane. The first major release of this effort, RBBS-PC CPC09, in May 1983 was written in interpreted BASIC and included the Xmodem file transfer protocol added by Jordan. In June 1983, Jordan turned over maintenance and enhancements to Tom Mack and Ken Goosens. The first release under Mack, version 10.0, was released July 4, 1983. New versions and features were released steadily throughout the rest of the 80's. The final complete version, 17.4, was released March 22, 1992.
Since version 17.4 at least four other code paths have developed. Some work has been done to unify the code paths and to develop version 18.0. Dan Drinnons CDOR Mods and Mapleleaf versions were further enhanced by Beta testers Mike Moore and Bob Manapeli using Ken Goosens LineBled program to manipulate the source code to endless variations of the program.
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
, open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
BBS
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
software program. It was written entirely in QuickBASIC
QuickBASIC
Microsoft QuickBASIC is an Integrated Development Environment and compiler for the BASIC programming language that was developed by Microsoft. QuickBASIC runs mainly on DOS, though there was a short-lived version for Mac OS...
by a large team of people, starting with Russell Lane and then later enhanced by Tom Mack and including Ken Goosens and others.
It supported messaging conferences, questionnaires, doors
BBS door
A door is a computer program, on a bulletin board system, that runs outside of the main bulletin board program. Sometimes called external programs, doors are the most common way to add games, utilities, and other extensions to BBSes. From the 1990s on, most BBS software had the capability to...
(through the DOORDEF.DAT dropfile
Dropfile
A dropfile is a simple binary or text file used by a bulletin board system to pass information about the BBS itself and the current user to an external BBS door.-Formats:...
), and much more.
History
In 1982, Larry Jordan of the Capital PC Users Group started modifying some existing BBS software that had been ported from CP/MCP/M
CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...
by Russell Lane. The first major release of this effort, RBBS-PC CPC09, in May 1983 was written in interpreted BASIC and included the Xmodem file transfer protocol added by Jordan. In June 1983, Jordan turned over maintenance and enhancements to Tom Mack and Ken Goosens. The first release under Mack, version 10.0, was released July 4, 1983. New versions and features were released steadily throughout the rest of the 80's. The final complete version, 17.4, was released March 22, 1992.
Since version 17.4 at least four other code paths have developed. Some work has been done to unify the code paths and to develop version 18.0. Dan Drinnons CDOR Mods and Mapleleaf versions were further enhanced by Beta testers Mike Moore and Bob Manapeli using Ken Goosens LineBled program to manipulate the source code to endless variations of the program.
Philosophy
From the beginning of RBBS-PC's development, the authors of the software had two goals as stated in the [ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/rbbs/r174-doc.zip RBBS-PC documentation]:- To show what could be done with the BASIC language and that "real programmers can/do program in BASIC."
- To open a new medium of communication where anyone with a personal computer the ability to communicate freely. This idea was summarized as "Users helping users for free to help the free exchange of information."