[255D[0;1m
[32mBAJA PROGRAMMING



[10C[35m* [33mSymbolist's Sysop Journal, 1 December 1994 [35m*

[17C[33m__[35mTrue "Rooms" for Synchronet[33m__
[32C[36mor
[12C[32m"How I go schizo from 10 p.m. 'til 2 a.m.
[13C(and we're both still fine, thank you.)"

[28C[34m**********

[37mI worked for a long time to find a way to have discrete "[36mrooms[37m" or
"[36mforums[37m" on my [34mSynchronet BBS[37m, [33mCOMM*Net[37m. In general, I like the form of
Compuserve's forums in that I can go into a topic-driven area and find
[32m*everything* [37mon that topic. And while [35mBBSes [37min general allow this in
separate message areas and file areas, etc..., as a new user I found
this cumbersome and confusing. Plus, in my view, an online environment
needs to approximate understandable models for as broad a user-mind
base as needed. So - [0;36mI wanted rooms[1;37m.

Now, I know that [34mmany sysops and some power users won't like rooms[37m. They
like speed and know how to get it out of the boards they use. However,
this "[32mroom[37m" concept is priceless for many uses, plus, [33mI'm stubborn and
used to think that I have a quick learning curve[37m, and getting "rooms"
was stuck in my head (most of you know *that* feeling). [35mI had to solve
it[37m.

I am not a [32mprogrammer[37m, which will be abundantly obvious to any better
skilled person than I, and I'm sure many others could have (and may
now) [33mseen this as a silly, easy problem[37m. But there sure are a lot of
[35msysops [37m(a [32mcouple are successful programmers [37mtoo) who haven't done it,
and I was getting nowhere asking for help. So I plugged ahead...

[It's easy to spot me in a crowd. I'm the one with the [31mbrick-patterned
imprint [37mon my forehead.]

[29C[33m-------------

[29C[35mRooms Defined

[8C[32mI define a room as a BBS area that can have every capability of
[8Cthe BBS itself, but may also have very limited capabilities[37m;
[8C[35mmessage areas[37m, [35mfile areas[37m, [35mchat[37m, [35mtext files[37m, [35mbulletins[37m, and
[8Cany [35mdoors [37mor other external services I want.

[8CThis [34mdoesn't sound too unique [37mexcept that [36mnone of the room
[8Ccontents can be visible or scan-able from outside the room [37min
[8Cthe main board, and vice-versa. That means it is isolated
[8Ctotally and users in the room can do a [33mnew_scan_all [37mand NOT have
[8Cthe rest of the board scanned too. And, users outside the room
[8Ccan't see or access any of the room's functions.

[8CPlus, to be the best modification, it needs to be integral to
[8C[34mSBBS [37mand not have the [32mlags and clumsiness [37mI associate with
[8Cdoors and some other external applications I've seen.


[21C[35mThe Benefits I Want From Rooms

[8C[31m1. [37mIf I want to run a [32mtotally separate BBS [37mfor a certain
[8Cfunction, user group, or whatever, I want to do that from [36mINSIDE
[8C[37mmy existing command shell, without running separate instances of
[8Csome other [34mBBS [37mas a door. It should be able to have [34mEVERY SBBS
[8C[37mfunction within itself without interacting with the [34mMAIN [37mboard.

[10CThat means that users can go into the [33mReal Estate Online [37mroom
[10Cand have [35mmessage groups[37m, [35mfile Libraries[37m, [35mchat channels[37m, [35mtext
[10Cfiles[37m, [35mdoors[37m, and anything else that they want and won't get
[10Cany place else on the board. The [33mReal Estate Club [37m(or
[10C[32mwhatever[37m) can meet in privacy, even have membership access,
[10Cconfigured in [0;35mbaja[1;37m.

[8C[31m2. [37mThe rooms can be either [32mpublic [37mor [32mprivate[37m.

[8C[31m3. [37mA room may only have a [34mmessage base[37m, or [35mfile area[37m, or [33mdoor[37m,
[8Cand not need the full [32mBBS shell [37mto function.

[8C[31m4. [37mIt should have it's on [34mascii/ansi/rip [37m"[32mWelcome to the
[8Cblah-blah club[37m", and "[33mThank You for Visiting the blah-blah
[8CClubhouse, come again soon![37m" login and logout screens.

[8C[31m5. [37mIt should have its own [34munique menus [37mand be able to function
[8Ccompletely differently than the [33mBBS [37mif that's what I want.

[8C[31m6. [37mIt should not stop [34moffline reader users [37mfrom their [33mQWK
[8C[37mfunctions.
[0m
