• Pascal rolecall!

    From James Coyle@1:129/215 to All on Sunday, April 07, 2013 04:04:08
    Are there any other Pascal heads still out there other than me?

    --- Mystic BBS v1.10 A30 (Windows)
    * Origin: Sector 7 [Mystic BBS WHQ] (1:129/215)
  • From Vince Coen@2:250/1 to James Coyle on Sunday, April 07, 2013 15:59:36
    Hello James!

    07 Apr 13 04:04, you wrote to All:

    Are there any other Pascal heads still out there other than me?

    Used to, last was re-issuing FileMgr now left on sourceforge as Open Source. Written in TP. Did consider migrating it over to Free Pascal but decided it was
    to complex for my old brain !!



    Vince

    --- Linux/Mbse/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20120229
    * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK (2:250/1)
  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12.42 to James Coyle on Sunday, April 07, 2013 15:28:05

    Are there any other Pascal heads still out there other than me?

    yuppers! ;)

    )\/(ark

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  • From James Coyle@1:129/215 to Vince Coen on Sunday, April 07, 2013 16:04:35
    Used to, last was re-issuing FileMgr now left on sourceforge as Open Source. Written in TP. Did consider migrating it over to Free Pascal but decided it was to complex for my old brain !!

    Free Pascal isn't so bad coming from TP. They have a lot of nearly compatible Units that work like TP counterparts (DOS, CRT, etc). Those units can really help soften the transition.

    I think you can find a lot of similar string functions in SysUtils (to help replace all of those TP assembler string functions that just about everyone
    was using back in the day!)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.10 A30 (Windows)
    * Origin: Sector 7 [Mystic BBS WHQ] (1:129/215)
  • From Vince Coen@2:250/1 to James Coyle on Monday, April 08, 2013 14:13:32
    Hello James!

    07 Apr 13 16:04, you wrote to me:

    Used to, last was re-issuing FileMgr now left on sourceforge as
    Open Source. Written in TP. Did consider migrating it over to
    Free Pascal but decided it was to complex for my old brain !!

    Free Pascal isn't so bad coming from TP. They have a lot of nearly compatible Units that work like TP counterparts (DOS, CRT, etc).
    Those units can really help soften the transition.

    I think you can find a lot of similar string functions in SysUtils (to
    help replace all of those TP assembler string functions that just
    about everyone was using back in the day!)

    That was my main reason for not migrating, as my pascal is rusty and there is lot of assembler both in & outline.

    The code was taken over from the original programmer after I said I would move it to OS however that said I do not think many people use it eg, 10 < so any effort by me would be wasted as no doubt it would take a lot of time tryinmg
    to remember Pascal and to look for suitable replacement string functions to slip in.

    Of course if I was not rusty it could be done in under a day.

    As you may note from my tags I run mbse under Linux which has the source code.

    I did take a look at mystic and at one point had a test system up but now a days will not use any programs unless I have the source. If nothing else in case I wish to tinker but more importantly so the code can be checked for holes
    etc.

    With mbse one item is missing, and that is a editor for changing the file descriptions that are loaded to a database. I find these day that programmers seem to want to write a book as a description with a lot of boxes and such.

    This type of thing always seems to need changing which I admit is a bit time consuming!

    I did use a BBS system called Adept running on OS/2 and that had some good tools but is written in C++, not a language I know but I have now released all of the source code for it from a 3/4 programmers that all had their own variations.

    [Avaiable from my BBS at http://applewoodbbs.mine.nu and download area 21].

    It runs to around 50Mb archived and when I had a look at it even with my limited knowledge of C++ think it will migrate to Linux without major issues.

    More of a case of, is it needed these days :)




    Vince

    --- Linux/Mbse/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20120229
    * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK (2:250/1)
  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12.42 to James Coyle on Monday, April 08, 2013 16:19:36

    Used to, last was re-issuing FileMgr now left on sourceforge as
    Open Source. Written in TP. Did consider migrating it over to Free
    Pascal but decided it was to complex for my old brain !!

    Free Pascal isn't so bad coming from TP. They have a lot of nearly compatible Units that work like TP counterparts (DOS, CRT, etc).
    Those units can really help soften the transition.

    yup!

    I think you can find a lot of similar string functions in SysUtils
    (to help replace all of those TP assembler string functions that
    just about everyone was using back in the day!)

    you can say that again... it seems like they took all of those additional library routines that we all used to reinvent and such and placed them into the
    library that comes with FPC so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel again...

    the bigest problem i'm having is uninventing that wheel... finding the routines
    that are duplicated and using the new one that comes with FPC... the trouble is
    that the names are not always close or similar... i've even come acrossed a few
    that have the same name but the variables are passed differently and/or the new
    routine doesn't do what the old one did... there's a lot of code diving that has to be done to make sure everything gets converted correctly ;)

    i've slowly been working on converting mark may's mksmg library to FPC...

    )\/(ark

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  • From Andy Ball@1:261/38 to James Coyle on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 20:42:54
    Hello James,

    JC> Are there any other Pascal heads still out there other
    > than me?

    I'm here.
    -Andy Ball

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Dada-1
    * Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38)
  • From Vince Coen@2:250/1 to mark lewis on Thursday, April 11, 2013 17:35:47
    Hello mark!

    08 Apr 13 16:19, you wrote to James Coyle:

    i've slowly been working on converting mark may's mksmg library to
    FPC...

    Please advise when that is ready for use as some of my old stuff uses the original !


    Vince

    --- Linux/Mbse/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20120229
    * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK (2:250/1)
  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12.42 to Vince Coen on Thursday, April 11, 2013 15:51:13

    i've slowly been working on converting mark may's mksmg library to
    FPC...

    Please advise when that is ready for use as some of my old stuff
    uses the original !

    i hear ya!

    the original original or have you applied any of the fixes?

    i've gotta dig out the original original and then diff all my changes so i know
    what they are/were...

    i'm looking to set up something, CVS or SVN or GIT, for the project but... i really really do much prefer SVN's revision numbering over the stuff i've seen on the others... it sure makes it easier to display in the software version info...

    project foo v1.3.2.4 r3425

    i especially want to have the original original and then the next revision would be the diffs for each of the files from my stuff... from there we then go
    on to the changes/alterations for free pascal... that's my idea, anyway ;)

    )\/(ark

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  • From Vince Coen@2:250/1 to mark lewis on Friday, April 12, 2013 18:17:13
    Hello mark!

    11 Apr 13 15:51, you wrote to me:


    i hear ya!

    the original original or have you applied any of the fixes?

    Nope no fixes.



    Vince

    --- Linux/Mbse/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20120229
    * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK (2:250/1)
  • From James Coyle@1:129/215 to Vince Coen on Friday, April 12, 2013 19:04:26
    I did take a look at mystic and at one point had a test system up but
    now a days will not use any programs unless I have the source. If
    nothing else in case I wish to tinker but more importantly so the code
    can be checked for holes

    Mystic is open source. :)

    I've done quite a bit of the TP to FPC dance over the years, so if anyone has questions or problems maybe I can offer insight based on my experiences or something?

    --- Mystic BBS v1.10 A30 (Windows)
    * Origin: Sector 7 [Mystic BBS WHQ] (1:129/215)
  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12.42 to Vince Coen on Saturday, April 13, 2013 03:15:16

    i hear ya!

    the original original or have you applied any of the fixes?

    Nope no fixes.

    so mksm106.zip from october 96 ??

    )\/(ark

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  • From Vince Coen@2:250/1 to James Coyle on Saturday, April 13, 2013 14:01:57
    Hello James!

    12 Apr 13 19:04, you wrote to me:

    I did take a look at mystic and at one point had a test system up
    but now a days will not use any programs unless I have the
    source. If nothing else in case I wish to tinker but more
    importantly so the code can be checked for holes

    Mystic is open source. :)

    Oh, I have not seen a location for the current releases of the source code.

    I am looking for what others have done regarding a file description editor.

    I've done quite a bit of the TP to FPC dance over the years, so if
    anyone has questions or problems maybe I can offer insight based on my experiences or something?

    I have release FileMgr to Open source some 4-5 years ago in sourceforge but have no idea of the volume of downloads but I suspect not many.
    It uses a fair few assembler modules as well as inline code and my Pascal these
    days is very rusty.

    It does not help that my eyes have a problem that really restricts close looking at the monitor at times so I am limited to when I can do any programming these days and at the moment I am trying to issue a new release of my Accounting Software that was written in Cobol using the Open Cobol compiler.
    Coming to think about it more to do with rewritting the manuals for the various
    system and that is taking far longer than it would normally .



    You are more than welcome to download FileMgr and have a quick look as it could
    well link into Mystic for file processing / tossing etc.

    The primary issues are get rid of the assembler and more that processing back into Pascal. Obviously when originally written the functionality was not available in Pascal units but hopefully all that has changed with FPC.
    With that done I am 'assuming' migration should be very simple and that would allow Filemgr to be easily made available for the different platforms.

    Vince

    --- Linux/Mbse/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20120229
    * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK (2:250/1)
  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12.42 to Vince Coen on Saturday, April 13, 2013 16:21:14

    I did take a look at mystic and at one point had a test system up
    but now a days will not use any programs unless I have the
    source. If nothing else in case I wish to tinker but more
    importantly so the code can be checked for holes

    Mystic is open source. :)

    Oh, I have not seen a location for the current releases of the
    source code.

    sourceforge and you have to be logged in to get to the source code tab...

    I am looking for what others have done regarding a file description editor.

    RemoteAccess has such as a function of its file manager... i hit F2 and it pops
    up another text window with the description in it... edit it as desired and ESC
    to exit... save it if you want... it isn't anything all that fancy...

    )\/(ark

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