Hello All!

There is a new UTF-8 capable FTN editor around and I run into a mismatch between the areas.bbs file produced by Fmail and this new goAtEd thing.

Fmail creates an areas.bbs that that starts like this:

2:280/5555 ! Michiel van der Vlist
; Created by FConfig-W32-2.0.1.2 - Thu Apr 04 22:44:12 2019
!\FIDO\JAM\ALLFIX ALLFIX_HELP 2:203/0 280/464 55 !\FIDO\JAM\BBACHCONINFO BBACH.CON.INFO 2:280/5003 5555.1 !\FIDO\JAM\BINKD BINKD 2:203/0 221/6 280/

Note the first line. Goated interpretes it as an area definition and creates an
area with a tag of "!". Obviously not what was meant. If I put a ';' in front of that first line, all is well.

So who's got it right? Should Goated ignore that first line, or should Fmail put a ';' in front of it?


Michiel


--- goAtEd-windows/386 1.0.5-154-a1826692
* Origin: (2:280/5555)

On 2019 Apr 04 23:09:24, you wrote to All:

So who's got it right? Should Goated ignore that first line, or should Fmail put a ';' in front of it?

the semicolon solution...

FWIW: fastecho created its areas.bbs with three lines at the top... all three with a semicolon in the first column...

eg:
;
; Created by FastEcho-Setup 1.46
;
X:\FD\MAIL\LOOP @_LOOP-OT
X:\FD\MAIL\SUSPECT @_SUSPECT-OT
!X:\JAM\FIDO\NETMAIL FIDONETMAIL
!X:\JAM\LOCAL\NEWFILES NEWFILES
!X:\JAM\LOCAL\POSTOFFI POSTOFFICE


)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey
Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it wrong...
... One good turn gets all the blankets!
---
* Origin: (1:3634/12.73)

04 Apr 19 23:09, Michiel van der Vlist wrote to All:

MvdV> Fmail creates an areas.bbs that that starts like this:

MvdV> 2:280/5555 ! Michiel van der Vlist
MvdV> ; Created by FConfig-W32-2.0.1.2 - Thu Apr 04 22:44:12 2019
MvdV> !\FIDO\JAM\ALLFIX ALLFIX_HELP 2:203/0 280/464

[ ... ]

MvdV> Note the first line. Goated interpretes it as an area definition
MvdV> and creates an area with a tag of "!". Obviously not what was
MvdV> meant. If I put a ';' in front of that first line, all is well.

MvdV> So who's got it right? Should Goated ignore that first line, or
MvdV> should Fmail put a ';' in front of it?


Maybe the first few lines of my Areas.Bbs will give you a clue...

________


; Like all standard AREAS.BBS files, the first NON-COMMENT line should
; be the name of your system, followed by an exclamation point, and then
; your name. This name will be used when adding origin lines to messages
; which were created on your system.

Somewhere in New Hampshire's White Mountains ! Fred Riccio

_________



MvdV> --- goAtEd-windows/386 1.0.5-154-a1826692
MvdV> * Origin: (2:280/5555)

That's why your origin line line looks like it does

--- Msged/NT 6.0.1
* Origin: Somewhere in New Hampshire's White Mountains (1:132/174)

Hello Michiel,

So who's got it right? Should Goated ignore that first line, or should Fmail put a ';' in front of it?

Well... If the majority of software that might read/import the areas.bbs file that Fmail generates would read that first line inappropriately. Then I would say that Fmail should comment out that first line. Additionally, I would see a problem if Goated would mistakenly ignore a first line that was actually a valid area listing.

Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-4
* Origin: Fidoneet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN -bbs.ouijabrd.net (1:282/1031)

Hello Michiel!

04 Apr 19 23:09, you wrote to all:

There is a new UTF-8 capable FTN editor around and I run into a
mismatch between the areas.bbs file produced by Fmail and this new
goAtEd thing.

Fmail creates an areas.bbs that that starts like this:

2:280/5555 ! Michiel van der Vlist
; Created by FConfig-W32-2.0.1.2 - Thu Apr 04 22:44:12 2019 !\FIDO\JAM\ALLFIX ALLFIX_HELP 2:203/0 280/464 55 !\FIDO\JAM\BBACHCONINFO BBACH.CON.INFO 2:280/5003 5555.1 !\FIDO\JAM\BINKD BINKD 2:203/0 221/6 280/

Note the first line. Goated interpretes it as an area definition and creates an area with a tag of "!". Obviously not what was meant. If I
put a ';' in front of that first line, all is well.

So who's got it right? Should Goated ignore that first line, or should Fmail put a ';' in front of it?

My personal inclination is that Fmail should put a ';' in front of it, as that line is not a valid area definition.

Andrew

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Phoenix BBS * phoenix.bnbbbs.net (1:320/219)

Hello Fred!

04 Apr 19 22:12, you wrote to Michiel van der Vlist:

________

; Like all standard AREAS.BBS files, the first NON-COMMENT line should
; be the name of your system, followed by an exclamation point, and
then ; your name. This name will be used when adding origin lines to messages ; which were created on your system.

Somewhere in New Hampshire's White Mountains ! Fred Riccio

_________

Interesting. This is a leftover from the Opus/Maximus era, I believe. For maximum compatibility, GoaTED should support this method of defining the default origin line, and not interpret this line as an area definition.

In the meantime, adding a semicolon to comment this line out will allow GoaTED to function correctly.

Andrew

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Phoenix BBS * phoenix.bnbbbs.net (1:320/219)

Interesting. This is a leftover from the Opus/Maximus era, I believe.

For

maximum compatibility, GoaTED should support this method of defining the default origin line, and not interpret this line as an area definition.

There are some more "definitions" in a true AREAS.BBS, that maybe GoatED doesn't support too? This is what the first lines in my AREAS.BBS (originally from 1989) looks like:

West Swedish Host * 46-31-944907 ! Bjorn Felten
;
-POINTNET=9300
;
S:\UTMAIL ROUTETHRU
S:\BAD_MSGS BAD_MSGS
;




..

--- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; sv-SE; rv:1.9.1.16) Gecko/20101125
* Origin: news://eljaco.se (2:203/2)

05 Apr 19 02:08, Andrew Leary wrote to Fred Riccio:

04 Apr 19 22:12, you wrote to Michiel van der Vlist:

________

; Like all standard AREAS.BBS files, the first NON-COMMENT line
should ; be the name of your system, followed by an exclamation point,
and then ; your name. This name will be used when adding origin lines
to messages ; which were created on your system.

Somewhere in New Hampshire's White Mountains ! Fred Riccio

_________

Interesting. This is a leftover from the Opus/Maximus era, I
believe.

I think it goes back further than that. I remember QMail, the first tosser I used back when I was a point used that line too.




For

maximum compatibility, GoaTED should support this method of defining
the
default origin line, and not interpret this line as an area
definition.

Agreed. It's an undocumented standard from long ago.

In the meantime, adding a semicolon to comment this line out will
allow GoaTED to function correctly.

As long as a proper origin line gets attached to his messages.

--- Msged/NT 6.0.1
* Origin: Somewhere in New Hampshire's White Mountains (1:132/174)

I think it goes back further than that. I remember QMail, the first tosser I used back when I was a point used that line too.

ConfMail was probably one of the first mail processors widely spread. From the documentation in my copy, I read this:

Conference Mail System Revision 4.00 August 23, 1988

CONFIGURATION (AREAS.BBS) FILE

The Configuration File for the Conference Mail System is usually
called AREAS.BBS.


And further down:

2. Board name ! Sysop name - this line is the first line of the
file other than comment lines.


http://eljaco.se/FILES/BBS/CONF_400.ZIP



..

--- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; sv-SE; rv:1.9.1.16) Gecko/20101125
* Origin: news://eljaco.se (2:203/2)

05 Apr 19 14:45, Björn Felten wrote to Fred Riccio:

I think it goes back further than that. I remember QMail, the first
tosser I used back when I was a point used that line too.

ConfMail was probably one of the first mail processors widely
spread.

At one point I used that one too. Written by Bob Hartman, formerly NC132 and NEC132.

http://eljaco.se/FILES/BBS/CONF_400.ZIP

Thanks!

Filed away under "FidoNet programs with historical significance"

--- Msged/NT 6.0.1
* Origin: Somewhere in New Hampshire's White Mountains (1:132/174)

http://eljaco.se/FILES/BBS/CONF_400.ZIP

Thanks!

Filed away under "FidoNet programs with historical significance"

Nice!

Here's another gem that revolutionized Fidonet; a program by a Swedish teenager -- the very first version of FrontDoor:

http://eljaco.se/FILES/BBS/FD100.ZIP



..

--- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; sv-SE; rv:1.9.1.16) Gecko/20101125
* Origin: news://eljaco.se (2:203/2)