******** CITANEWS/A national newsletter for room-based BBS systems ******** Issue No. 2 June 1987 Compiled and sort of edited by Steve Yelvington (George Jetson @ The Lake US 612 426 1374) In this issue: * NETWORKING GOES INTERNATIONAL * AN EIGHT-BIT ATARI CITADEL WORK-ALIKE * A LOOK AT CITADEL-286 * NEWS FROM DALLAS/FORT WORTH * A NEW VERSION OF THE ST CITADEL * PLANS FOR CITADEL TO "TALK" TO USENET BUT FIRST, A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR This is the second issue of CitaNews, which we hope will continue as a monthly publication for all room-based BBS systems. Submissions for the next issue may be made at the Lake (US 612-426-1374), which maintains somewhat erratic hours but is up most of the time. The Lake is in networking mode (C86-compatible) from 3 a.m. to 3:45 a.m. daily, and can handle net-uploads and downloads. We had more stuff than would fit in this issue, so you can be sure there will be another. Now, on with the show.... CITADEL NETWORKING CROSSES WORLD'S LONGEST UNDEFENDED BORDER Hue, Jr.'s Citadel-86 network (now supported by STadel and Amigados Citadel-68k) "went international" when the first recorded network mail crossed the Canada-U.S. border with this message: 87May16 4:55 am from Bruce MacKay @BOA! in Mail> to George Jetson Hi Steve. Going to try this net again. Let me know if this gets through OK. George Seto tells me that 3.0c is in testing. FANTASTIC!!! I'm going to sit up and watch this one go through tonight. Can't sleep. Talk to you later. Bye. (Getting my 5 min. Warning message.) See you later. So, the isn't much, but then, Alexander Graham Bell had to make do with "Watson, come here...." The message is mail from Bruce's system near Halifax, Nova Scotia, sent to the Lake in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The process was reversed a few days later with netmail sent from Images at Twilight in Bloomington, Minnesota, to Bruce's system. BOA! and the Lake are Atari ST systems running Orc's STadel; Images is an Amiga 1000 running Jay Johnson's Citadel-68K. Nova Scotia now sports three Atari ST Citadels (BOA!, Lair and STuBBS), sharing rooms via the network. TAKING THE LONG ROUTE Last month, we mentioned that a message-routing scheme was being tested at Hue, Jr.'s Citadel-86 Test System (US 612-866-1804). We're happy to report that it's working just fine, allowing a group of New York State Citadels to share a private room for sysops' discussions with a group of Minnesota Citadels. Here's how it works: Messages posted on a local network node are shared with other local nodes in the usual point-to-point fashion. A regional "spine" system forwards all the messages it collects from local systems to another "spine" in another region. The second "spine" then distributes the messages to its local affiliates. Thus a message from an Atari ST system in New York would wend its way through two Citadel-86 systems before arriving at Images at Twilight, an Amiga system in Minnesota. Currently, only Citadel-86 systems can be "spines," but any Citadel supporting the C86 network can participate as a "peon." If you're interested in participating (on your nickel, of course), contact Test System. Sysops can visit the shared room and enter networked messages by contacting the sysop of any participating Citadel. Among them are: Utica College, New York (US 315-792-3187) Spies in the Wire, New York (US 914-666-3997) Images at Twilight, Minnesota (US 612-884-7951) Pell, Minnesota (US 612-377-9239) The Lake, Minnesota (US 612-426-1374) KEEPER OF THE GREAT LIST Andy Meyer is assembling the all-time world's record list of Citadels (a list that tends to grow on you). If you're putting up a Citadel, or if you're not on the current CITADEL.LST file, contact Andy at Sony Technical Citadel, US 201-930-6483. He also can be contacted through the shared sysops' room mentioned above. Andy wants to know the system's name, number, hours, policy (open, closed, etc.), and software including version number. A CITADEL WORK-ALIKE FOR EIGHT-BIT ATARIS ATKeep is a Citadel-like BBS system for eight-bit Ataris. We visited ATKeep #1 several weeks ago and found it to be very un-Citadel-ish, but we had logged in as an inexperienced user. Brent Barrett, author of the software, advises that the "expert" level is highly similar to the CP/M version of Citadel. ATKeep runs under SpartaDOS and requires BASIC XE and 128K of RAM. ATKeep 1 is US 916-726-4989; ATKeep 2 is US 916-723-4585. The following is condensed from the official ATKeep history: ----- Brent Barrett, newly out of high school and *very* interested in the new telecommunications world he had found, discovered a "different" type of BBS. This BBS was called a "Citadel" and it was such a unique experience for him that he decided he just *had* to have it for his machine. Owning only a TI-99/4A and an Atari 800Xl, he opted for the Atari, since he had more support hardware for that machine. Spending hours, even days at a time coding the original "shell" of the BBS, he sprang forth with MBBBS version 1.0 on March 24th, 1986. MBBBS (Message Base Bulletin Board System) was very primitive when compared to ATKeep 7.0, or even 4.0 for that matter. MBBBS was changed to Atari Keep, or, ATKeep for short, around version the time version 4.0 was released (June 15, 1986). The name was given to the system by Robert Louis Zeppa, who, unfortunately, passed away not to long after that time. ATKeep went through version changes very quickly, let me try to run down what each version was like: 1.0 (MBBBS): This system was *extremely* bare-bones. Its entire command set consisted of: hat nter msg oto nown rooms sg to SYSOP ew read ead sequentially erminate menu <.G>oto The system was limited to 25 rooms, and the sysop needed to take the system down and use a text editor to set up each room. MBBBS was written to work with the Atari 1030 or XM301 modems, and no others. 300 baud. 2.0 (MBBBS): An aide "menu" was added, and so was the kip command (although it functioned differently from Citadel's skip, and still does). 3.0 (MBBBS): ATKeep code was rewritten and a few bells and whistles were thrown in. 4.0 (ATKeep): <.E>nter oom was added, as was a cosysop menu level which allowed, amung other things, the changing of account names (a *very* complex process back then). <.E>nter

assword was also added to allow password changes. 5.0 (ATKeep): More extended commands, such as <.T>erminate and <.R>ead were added. You no longer had to <.G>oto a hidden room each time you wanted to visit it with 5.0. 6.0 (ATKeep): Another major code re-write, and all the extended commands were put into the system. All <.R>ead options and all <.E>nter options (cosysops still had to make name changes, however). Still limited to 300 baud and the 1030 or XM301. 7.0 (ATKeep): This is the version (7.20) currently running. 7.0 finally took the aide and cosysop commands out of a menu section and put them into extended commands, where they belonged. It also added a SYSOP level command set. Users were no longer "users" "aides" or "cosysops," they had become level "A" (SYSOP) through level "Z" (READ ONLY). The system had become extremely complex. Public, hidden OR password protected PRIVATE rooms. Each room now had its own access level (thus keeping people of lower level from getting in EVEN if they knew the room name). Each room was assigned a RWRT (or Read WRiTe status), which determined who could enter messages in it, and whether or not public or private messages, or both were to be allowed. The biggest improvment of all: the system was no longer limited to the 1030 or XM301 modem -- it had been rewritten to accomodate the 850 or PRC interface allowing use of ANY Hayes compatible modem. Thus, ATKeep went 1200 baud for the first time. Version 8.0 is currently under construction, its main feature will be its modular design. It will allow the "chaining" of programs limited only by the individual system's storage space. ----- CITADEL-286, A COUSIN FROM OUT EAST Farokh Irani @ Electronic New York submitted the following description of his BBS system: Citadel-286 is based on Hue, Jr's Citadel-86. I picked the name Citadel-286 mainly because I wass writing it on an IBM PC/AT (even though there is nothing that requires the 80286 cpu) and because Epson came out with the FX-286 as the replacement to the FX-100, so... There's a lot of major changes that I did that are behind the scenes, so I'll spare you'all from reading about it. Major visible changes: Citadel-286 requires both a name and a password in order to log in. I also changed the command parser so that it is now possible to backspace over uncompleted commands. IE, if you wanted to press ".Read" and instead you pressed ".Enter", the backspace will wipe out the "Enter", leaving you at the ".". You can also back up over that, if you like. Editing text that you are entering is now easier. While entering the text, ^w (control-w) wipes out the previous word and ^u (control-u) wipes out the previous sentence. Citadel-286, can, at the Sysops choice, be a "dating" board. It's not super, but it's there, and it works, and while there's always people saying get rid of it, others say keep it. Well it's there, but no one is forced to use it (unlike the good ol' DYMs of yore). Citadel-286 can have "voting" rooms. Users can read and enter votes that the Sysop makes available. Votes can be one-shot or can be taken as many times as a user wants. There are currently four BBS running Citadel-286. One is mine, called Electronic New York @ (914) 735-9362. The others are AfterImages System "A" @ (516) 661Ä9284, Utopia BBS @ (516) 669Ä8885, and The Generic BBS @ (201) 389-8473. As for the future, I am looking into adding Hue, Jr's latest network code into Citadel-286. But, instead of merging the code into the system, I'm going to make a stand alone program. Then, multi-user. Now, that'll be fun :-). ------ NOTES FROM THE LONE STAR STATE What's it like to move from lush Seattle, where it virtually rains Citadels, to the relative BBS desert of Texas? Maher Maso, sysop of The Gates of Mordecai and The Fifth Dimension, wrote an account for CitaNews. Take it away, Maher: Running Citadel since mid-'82 in Seattle, it was disturbing to me to have to take my System down to move to Texas. The Gates of Mordecai Citadel ran from mid-'82 to July '83. In the one year of operation, The Gates ran as a private/limited access system. It had a lot of the Citadel sysops in the area as well as the more adult users. It was one of the best BBS systems that I have seen then and now. The users of the Gates were one of a kind. Most were 'original' modem users (remember, way back, when no one knew what a modem was?). Anyway, let me get on with it. If you wish to see a history of systems back then, there is a file on some of the systems that was written by T'an T'u that does a good job (you can find it on The Gates by typing .Hhistory) Needless to say, I moved down to Dallas and took Citadel with me (Bill Williams took over the Gates, renamed it The Hermitage and basically had the same system/users). Well, Dallas is a nice place, but guess what? Most of the people down here have never heard of a 'room system'. The first few months of running The Gates was very difficult. To someone that was used to using Fido and RBBS's, Citadel was a whole new concept. Took a while for most of the users to understand it (some just gave up). The Gates of Mordecai stayed private through the move, and I felt a need for a public system. So, The Fifth Dimension was created. Both the Gates and The Fifth Dimension first ran on Kaypro's. Now, the Fifth Dimension runs on an IBM compatible, has 64 megs of files and runs Ms-dos Citadel (not to be confused with Citadel-86). During this time, I was involved in putting up 4 other systems, one of which is now down and the other is a business only system. So, we have my 2 systems and 2 other systems in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Below you will find the info and numbers for them. The Gates of Mordecai: First Texas Citadel (or room system). Runs on a Kaypro 10 at 300/1200/2400, has a 22 meg hard drive, and is very very modified. It runs with bye (KMD, GOTO'S, online Games, LUX, etc..) and has some extra features. Don't want to list them all, but the main ones are: Verbose options, .EE in any room, .RH or .EH commands (hangs up after a certain event), .RP (read program descriptions). This is modified from the original cp/m Citadel. Most modifications can be found on Bob Perigo's or Kerry Kyes systems in Seattle. Both of these sysops along with myself have made most of the modifications to our code. Limited networking between the three systems takes place. (214)416-6382 24hrs 300/1200/2400 cp/m private. The Fifth Dimension: This is my other system. MS-DOS, 64 megs, 2400 baud, and many other features. This is an open system and any user can log in. It has a 1.2 meg message base, limited access hallways and groups and soon to have networking. Complete hallway devoted to upload/download rooms. Xmodem and ymodem capable. (214)416-6833 300/1200/2400 24hrs MS-DOS public. Westide: This is Fort Worth's first Citadel. Runs on a Tandy 1000 at 300/1200. Same software as The Fifth. Has uploads/downloads also. (817)244-3885 300/1200 24hrs MS-DOS public. Polaris (not to be confused with the old Seattle Polaris by T'an T'u. Gaming type CP/M Citadel. Version from Minni. Lots of features stripped out. 300/1200 baud. (214)750-6374 300/1200 24hrs CP/M private. ----- ATARI ST CITADEL GOES INTO VERSION 3.0C Version 3.0c of Citadel-68(st) (known to its close friends as STadel) has moved up to version 3.0c. We haven't seen it yet here at the Lake, but there will be a full report in next month's CitaNews. The program is available from downloading in STadel] at Pell (US 612-377-9239) or in ST Citadel] at the Lake (US 612-426-1374), or it can be obtained on 3.5-inch microfloppies for $5 by contacting orc in Mail> at Pell. Some networking bugs are squashed, some feeping creatures have moved in (including the +/- command from Stonehenge), but the most important change is "event handling." Without getting technical, here's the gist of it: Orc (David Parsons) has added to STadel an ability to "time out," run external programs, then restart itself. Multiple timeouts can be scheduled, for multiple external programs. This eventually will allow the networking code to be removed from STadel, keeping the basic executable code very small. It also will allow alternative networking -- and not necessarily Citadel networking. With those hooks in place, we move to..... A USENET INTERFACE FOR CITADEL Usenet is the national computer network used by Grand Poobahs of the Inner Technoid Circle. It automatically transfers messages, documents and programs as Unix systems around the country call each other nightly under control of a program called UUCP (Unix --> Unix Copy Program). (Unix is a multitasking operating system for minicomputers that comes from AT&T.) Usenet has gateways to the scientific community's ARPAnet and BITnet. Dalnefre' (Dale Schumacher) is working on a preliminary UUCP "clone" interface that may be used in conjunction with STadel. A test version now exists. When it works, orc @ Pell (US 612 377 9239) will (hopefully) also have a Usenet address: ihnp4!meccts!zeke!stag!pell!orc The plan is for the program to be ported to MS-DOS and work with Citadel-86 as well. We hope. Here is Dale's description of the process, from a message he prepared for Usenet: The gateway will work is as follows... The Citadel BBS will exit to a batch process which will execute the CITUMAIL mail server program. Citadel already supports a network of its own, so the UUCP gateway will simply be a virtual Citadel net node called "UUCP". Citadel will never try to call this node, but will create the normal networking control file. The mail server will use this control file to extract outgoing mail messages from the Citadel message base, add UUCP headers to them, and create the control file that UUCP expects to see. The mail server, as a master, will call a normal UUCP node and deliver the mail. It then allows role-reversal and accepts incomming mail. The server reformats the mail message according to Citadel conventions and uses the control file to deliver the mail by intergrating it into the Citadel message base. Citadel messages are currently limited to 7500 characters, so messages must be kept small. Later upgrades will support dumping large messages into an external file and sending an appropriate message to the intended recipient, but for now long messages will be truncated. One last note... Since many of the Citadel systems will not initially be registered nodes, use of explicit bang-paths is strongly encouraged. When the gateway has been tested and appears to work properly, a version of STadel which includes this feature will be distributed through as many channels as possible. You may also want to call Pell (STadel) directly at (612) 377-9239, 300/1200 baud, 24hrs (except when orc is programming). ----- Dale Schumacher may be contacted via Usenet at: zeke!stag!syntel!dal AMIGA SYSTEMS GET FRIENDLY Sy Borg, sysop of Images at Twilight, an Amiga-based Citadel in Bloomington, Minnesota (US 612-884-7951), sent us this note: Images is room sharing with two systems halfway across the country. The Amiga! room is presently being shared by Compucations of Santa Barbara, California, and Saint of Kansas City, Missouri. This is an experiment to find out differing attitudes towards the machines in different areas of the country and to speed the dissemination of the latest software and hardware news nationwide. We are also sharing the Want Ads room, as well as a room that is dedicated to the discussion of Compact Disc digital audio systems. So far we have had pretty much successful results and, phone bill permitting, we will continue with the nationwide room sharing. Meanwhile, at the Phoenix (US 612-459-8095), home of the Amiga version of Citadel, Jay Johnson (Stallion) reports that he's going to take it easy this summer and see what the world looks like away from the keyboard. Thus no major changes in the program are expected soon. If you want to try your hand at it, the source code is available in Aztec and Lattice C versions from the Phoenix. COMING SOON IN CITANEWS * A look at NeoCitadel, a Turbo Pascal program for PC clones. We'd also like to hear from anyone associated with Acropolis, also a Turbo system. * A report from New Jersey, if one can make it past the tin cans they use for telephones out there. Line noise? You don't know the half of it. * Floors, hallways and the amazing disappearing mailroom: Mutant Citadels stalk the landscape. Stay tuned.... ------------------------------------------------------------------ (end of file)