Subj : Re: New terminal program
To   : Omnibrain
From : boraxman
Date : Wed Dec 07 2022 22:30:33

 Om> At least it's not that bad as some people think. If we would be in 1992
 Om> I would vote to replace ZModem with something more efficient - as said
 Om> YModem-1kG should beat ZModem. And ZModem has many flaws. Like a buggy
 Om> crc16 implementation and the ability to execute arbitrary commands on
 Om> the remote computer (didn't implement that for icy_term btw.) and a too
 Om> complex communication system.
 Om> 
 Om> That leads to:
 Om>  bo> For BBS's, sometimes it just doesn't work.  IT may pause, give errors
 Om>  bo> or fail completely, or not even start.
 Om> 
 Om> Implementing ZModem isn't easy - it's easy to break and as said it's too
 Om> complex. That's why so many variants exists like 4k/8k, PDZModem,
 Om> FastZModem or LeechZModem etc. a good protocol should be as simple as
 Om> possible (but not simpler) IMO.
 Om> I don't think it's a suitable protocol for the 90' or now -
 Om> however it's working and it's not as bad as ppl think. However it's
 Om> widespread and anyone can use that. The killer feature back in the days
 Om> - for me - was that I could continue transfer with that.
 Om> 
 Om> I agree that these days the best way for BBS would be to allow http(s)
 Om> downloads. However a good ZModem implementation can get ok speeds. 
 Om> But the benefit for the http downloads is that they're on a different
 Om> channel and users can do BBSing and downloading at the same time. So it
 Om> would be really nice to have that in these days.
 Om> 
 Om> But if there are BBSes out there that use for example the HYDRA file
 Om> transfer protocol (FSC-0072) I would be tempted to implement that and
 Om> try it out. (I don't know much about that protocol - don't ask). Or
 Om> JModem or one of the bi directional ones. Probably get some real world
 Om> data.
 Om> 

I don't use the HTTP downloads because copy and paste in syncterm isn't that great.  If you are willing to get up telnet capability, you can have a client which can download and still browse a BBS at the same time.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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