Subj : Are QWK packets still the way?
To   : Alan Ianson
From : Maurice Kinal
Date : Sat Dec 27 2025 10:06 pm

Hey Alan!

> I don't have a programmer or developer bone in my body so I can't
> share any of that.

Near as I can tell you don't require either.

I started doing fidonet way back when (DOS) before discovering linux.  My main 
experience with development came from hacking before I knew what hacking was, 
first on VAX/VMS and later unix (solaris).  My DOS hack was abandoned once I 
found slackware.  Switching to linux was the smartest thing I've ever done.  
Back then there were zero ftn capable apps so I was forced to grow my own 
rather than do something foolish like running a BBS under dosemu or other such 
nonsense.  That is when things like squish, jam, qwk, bluewave etc. went the 
way of the dodo bird for me.

As for programming software, the only thing I can think of worthwhile pursuing 
would be a ftn capable widec ncurses based user interface, which would make 
this more of a traditional DOS-think interface except with utf-8 compatibility. 
 Personally I don't really need it but I have to admit it would be nice.  Right 
now I am using vim as my offline editor which has no issues as far as utf-8 
text is concerned.

Дуже груви, 
Maurice

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