Board:   [fsxNet] BBS Software Development/Support
Subject: RE: New (proposed) door drop file format, for review and discussion
From:    Digital Man(21:1/183)
Date:    Wed Sep 30, 2026 18:56

  Re: RE: New (proposed) door drop file format, for review and discussion
  By: NuSkooler to Digital Man on Wed Sep 30 2026 08:32 pm

 > 8. FILE_UTF8 is yes/no, so any text that isn't UTF-8 must be CP437.
 >    CP866 (Russian Fido), CP850/CP865 and Amiga Latin-1 doors can't be
 >    served. Suggest a FILE_CHARSET key that uses the COMM_CHARSET names
 >    and defaults to CP437.

Seems like feature creep: are there actual hosts (BBSes) and doors that use those charsets and couldn't be upgraded to UTF-8? Seems unlikely to me.

 > 9. TERM_TYPE has no "avatar" (AVT/0, still used by Fido-era doors)

AVATAR seems like a blip and not supported by any modern terminals. I could add a definition, sure, but it just seems like more unused bloat.

 >    and
 >    no "atascii" (the Atari 8-bit scene is active). COMM_CHARSET has no
 >    ATASCII either.

Due Atari-native boards/doors even use drop files? Have no problem defining it, but would really want to insure it has a consumer/tester first.

 > 10. No terminfo name. Native curses doors need the terminal type from
 >     Telnet TTYPE or the SSH pty request (xterm-256color etc.).
 >     TERM_NAME is "as the terminal reported it", but doesn't say which
 >     report. Suggest TERM_TERMINFO, or naming TERM_NAME's source.

Noted.

 > 11. Screen size is a snapshot. A socket door never hears about a
 >     Telnet NAWS or SSH window change during the session. Worth saying
 >     so, and that a door can query the size again if it cares.

Yeah, I don't really consider dynamically sized terminals, but it is a thing, so good point. Thanks.

Thanks for *all* the feedback, I'll review and update accordingly.
--
                                            digital man (rob)

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