He would like to still be somewhat involved with ProBoards future, but he wants someone else to do all the work.

He is prepaired to make ProBoard 3.0 Freeware, but not the current 2.16 version. He is willing to hand over the entire 3.0 source code (including the incomplete 32-bit PEX code)to the new developer only, but he will not make it open (GPL) source.

He is not willing to release the PEX portion of the DOS source as he feels the DOS PEX interface is unique and highly advanced. He did not want to discuss the DOS version further, but did state that there should be a Y2K fix for version 2.16 (DOS).

The Telnet code is 99% finished, and the only thing it currently can not do is run DOS doors. It will be possible for the code to support DOS doors in the future however.

The 32-bit PEX code has been fully thought out, but has not been implemented in code yet. HE did not indicate how much work is needed.

Tom Torfs has offered to port the DOS version of ProBoard over to a OS/2 text mode version. He told Philippe that he does not need the DOS PEX source code to accomplish that, since he has already reverse-engineered the PEX code. Tom Torfs has also offered to port the PBUTIL to both Win32 and OS/2 console programs, and Philippe responded that he never said he would give Tom the full source code.

A guy known as cricetus offered Philippe $1000 for the source, and Philippe said he would consider it.

Tornado News

Tornado BBS author Konstantin Klyagin informed me that he has not given up on Tornado after all. His web site is currently down due to trouble with his internet provider, but it should re-appear shortly.

EleBBS News

EleBBS has been an exact clone of RemoteAccess up untill now, (with OS/2 and Windows versions available) but this month the author of EleBBS is expected to start adding new features that will make even the DOS version of EleBBS noticably better then RA. During a recent IRC chat, he has agreed to implement internal lightbars to EleBBS, so that external doors will not be needed to use the cursor keys to navigate the menus as RA and other BBS's require. A new set of beta's are expected this week. Future plans include full internet intergration.

SearchLight News

Searchlight BBS software was sold to TeleGrafix on July 31st.

TeleGrafix plans to fully intergrate its RIPscrip graphic interface into future versions of Searchlight and forsees this creating new types of customized Internet services, such as on-demand publishing, that feature lightning-fast graphics.

Searchlight was originally developed and owned by Frank LaRosa, and is one of the few 32-bit Windows BBS's to offer a functional telnet support built in, which is compatible with all fossil driven DOS doors. The terms of the sale was not disclosed. Why did Frank LaRosa sell his BBS? His company is shifting their focus to becoming a systems integrator of Internet commerce applications.

Searchlight BBS is still one of the 5 most popular BBS programs in the world. While the number of BBS systems has declined in recent years due to the popularity of the World Wide Web, TeleGrafix estimates that about 40,000 BBS systems are operating around the world. BBSing remains a popular means of online access in markets outside of North America, especially in areas where Internet service is expensive.

JAM MsgBase News

The JAM Message database has now become the BBS industry standard, used in the majority of todays BBS programs. The JAM format was developed in 1993 by Joaquim H. Homrighausen, Andrew Milner and Mats Wallin, which is how it got it's name.

JAM supports approximately two billion messages per area and as many message areas as your hard disk can accommodate. Each area is a separate database which may reside on any drive.

Prior to the JAM messagebase, sysops used other formats such as Squish, Hudson, and propritary formats. Earlier BBS's used more primitive message bases, such as the .MSG format which uses a seperate file for each message.