Re: How did multi-node boards work?

On 4/17/24 17:18, Marc Lewis wrote:
> Greetings, Grant.

Hi Marc,

> When someone logs into the system via Telnet (or my local node) it's 
> assigned to a specific sub-directory in the \MAX directory relative 
> to the order the call was received in.  E.g., if I log into the system 
> locally (not telnet) it's automagically Node 0 and my user info appears 
> in that subdirectory. The next person that logs in via telnet will end 
> up in either \1, \4, or \5. \2 is dial-up. \3 is a special purpose one 
> that is seldom used, though if I had another available node in VModem, 
> it would be used for that, but the license is for 3 nodes. Of course 
> VModem isn't utilised for dial-up.

Okay.  Thank you.  I think I get that it's literally a directory named 
"0", "1", "2", "3", "4", or "5" and that it's sort of (roughly) akin to 
phone line number (for an analogy) and not specific to a user.

> It's all part of the Maximus program, where it can "see" the other 
> users and whether or not they are available for chat (not in an 
> external program like a game or editing a message.)  On the Main 
> Menu there is a Who command that shows (W)ho is on [one presses 'W' 
> to get to that.] And yes, inter-node chat is in real-time. I am sure 
> that other BBS systems can do something similar.

ACK

> I've not given too much thought to precisely how the system does 
> real-time, but with a system like OS/2 (and probably certain versions 
> of Windows that are genuine multi-tasking/multi-threaded it would 
> be possible.)

:-)

> On Maximus, everything is internal to the BBS program. It know 
> precisely what is available to whatever. There probably *are* some 
> internal intra-node "protocols", but, not being a programmer, I don't 
> actually know how it is accomplished... It just works. <grin>

ACK

> Hopefully that sheds a tiny bit more light on my somewhat antiquated 
> but still operating BBS system.

Yes, it does.  Thank you.

Being an OS / systems person I find early multi-user / multi-system 
communications systems like BBSs interesting and I enjoy learning about 
them and how they worked.

Thank you for indulging my curiosity Marc.  :-)



-- 
Grant. . . .