More on the feature:
As some of you may know 1.11 will include the embedded ANSI messaging support that I did a zillion years ago in Mystic/2. I intend to enable most of this in the very first alpha.
Basically this means you can create, upload, save, and edit ANSIs in the FS editor and save them as messages in the message bases. They're post processed by Mystic to create network friendly messages with ANSI so you can have ANSI message bases.
Another cool feature of Mystic/2 was that you can add "authors" to a message if you are the Sysop or message owner, so that anyone you gave access to the message could also edit the ANSI message...
This allowed ANSI artists to do collaborations online in a BBS message base, and then for everyone else to see their progress or request to be added in as a collaborative artist. Since its a message base you could lock it down to a group only accessible by your art group, etc.
Then using a naming scheme in the subjects of the messages, the SysOp could run a single command and it would archive and create a releasable art pack. So the idea is that artists would complete work for a pack and post it as a message. Or, as described above, they could even create the art on the BBS itself in Mystic's editor. Then when things are done and reviewed, it creates the art pack.
It would have been amazing in the years of the monthly art pack, and its
a shame I never was able to do something like this back then. Given
that so few (none?) use Mystic in the art scene anymore, I doubt I'll do the collaborative stuff and package maker but at last the ANSI stuff
will be in 1.11 and ANSI messages will work.
I'm sure no one cares but I'm still excited after all these years lol
So at the heart of this is the ability to do some good artwork then share your efforts with a wider audience using echomail - right?
Nice... could that be extended to users on other BBS looking at something posted to an echomail group or only to those local users on a BBS
working on an ANSI 'message' that may/may not be an echomail base?
Sounds like it's local to a specific BBS right? Imagine if you could somehow enable collaborative stuff between assorted systems. I'm also wondering how your original Mystic2 handled version control or was it a case of the last person to save the ANSI message 'wins'?
I can also see how it would be a fun way to get them to collaborate with each other in a public space that others could watch and perhaps engage with them.
My big question is (to Nick mostly I guess):
Would it be against the rules or undesired to post ANSI embedded messages here? I would like to post at least a test or two once some people have upgraded to work out the kinks and to see it working at least once. :)
What "rules" are you referring to? :)
This is the perfect echo to post ANSI test messages in. You must have skipped some messages in here, because others were trying to do the same
a couple months back.
Awesome test it works great here... But sadly I found the first
problem!
I didn't make the quote text work with ANSI! I'll have to work on
getting that fixed up for A2... so we can quote ANSI too.
The ANSI engine beats the shit out of TheDraw, AcidDraw, Pablo, etc, when
it comes to exporting, so it created smaller ANSIs too. This doesn't
matter as much now but it was a bigger deal in 2000.
It would have been amazing in the years of the monthly art pack, and its a shame I never was able to do something like this back then. Given that so few (none?) use Mystic in the art scene anymore, I doubt I'll do the collaborative stuff and package maker but at last the ANSI stuff will be
in 1.11 and ANSI messages will work.
I'm sure no one cares but I'm still excited after all these years lol
As some of you may know 1.11 will include the embedded ANSI messaging support that I did a zillion years ago in Mystic/2. I intend to enable most of this in the very first alpha.
Perhaps this is already answered elsewhere, but do you have a spec for this published somewhere? I'd love to incorporate support in ENiGMA 1/2.
Of course you need to program your FS editor so that it can read and write ANSI, as well as your BBS's message reader too but that part should be obvious! :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ah, I thought yall may had come up with something (kludge/otherwise) to indicate special processing by various FSE/viewers.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$ NuSkooler was quoted saying . .
Ah, I thought yall may had come up with something (kludge/otherwise) to indicate special processing by various FSE/viewers.
Most likely, when testing for kludge and origin lines, just strip ESC sequenes then test. Seems simple enough! :)
Ah, I thought yall may had come up with something (kludge/otherwise indicate special processing by various FSE/viewers.
Most likely, when testing for kludge and origin lines, just strip ESC sequenes then test. Seems simple enough! :)
it is even easier than that... control and origin lines /always/ start in column 0 (or one if you count like average joe)... that means that there is a newline immediately before them... other than maybe the first
one... there's also a newline at the end of them... there is no other
way for them to be... ansi cursor positioning be damned ;)
Mystic has to do a bunch of shit to create 3rd party friendly messages and for the most part it was working well, except when resaving an edited ANSI message. Thats fixed in A4 though so FastEcho etc shouldn't get confused anymore!
still appears garbled when using my reader's scrolling interface. So I was curious how Mystic handles ANSI in messages.
still appears garbled when using my reader's scrolling interface.
So I was curious how Mystic handles ANSI in messages.
The ANSI follows the specs of ANSI, there isn't anything special to do when reading it. You just have to create an ANSI parser to parse it, and read it in character by character like a display file.
The magic comes when you are saving an ANSI message. Mystic's FS editor is basically an ANSI editor so you can create, upload, and edit ANSI within it. But when its saved to a message base it needs to post processed to 79 chars per line, to be compatible with old software. So you have to reform for 79 chars similar to how TheDraw does it, and then account for echomail kludges and origin/tears that have to be added on teh first physical column (which can be tough when formatting the ANSI)
I'm not sure hes really talking about how to handle kludge lines but I could be wrong. I think he's asking if there is a way to identify a message as ANSI.
My answer to that is "does it have ANSI in it?" thats how I tell! :)
The challenge is that the first column in an ANSI screen is not always saved to disk in the first column of the file, and in fact, it will
almost never be when considering color and the 79 character limitation
of each "raw" save.
Mystic has to do a bunch of shit to create 3rd party friendly messages
and for the most part it was working well, except when resaving an
edited ANSI message. Thats fixed in A4 though so FastEcho etc shouldn't get confused anymore!
ok it time to save and then edit this message for 1.11A4 / 3rd party faste --- Mystic BBS v1.11 A4 (Windows)
* Origin: fluph.darktech.org (46:1/102)
ok it time to save and then edit this message for 1.11A4 / 3rd party faste
Pity those who have not made the leap to 1.11 yet thats gonna look funny compared to how we see it. Looks great!
It looks like it passed with flying colors. No re-tear from FastEcho
and the ANSI looks/works great!
For now I am going to close the book and assume the ANSI embedded stuff
is good to go!
I'm not sure hes really talking about how to handle kludge lines but I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
could be wrong. I think he's asking if there is a way to identify a
message as ANSI.
My answer to that is "does it have ANSI in it?" thats how I tell! :)
This was mostly what I was asking. It seems to me it would be good to identify ANSI messages in some way and how they should be processed.
I almost think it would be better to send this stuff as base64 or
similar with a ID kludge. That way, all the various mailers can bork the thing all they want but at the end of hte day the base64 can be easily reassembed and decoded into a proper ANSI.
I made a point to go through the ANSI's people have been posting in various BBS softs (by way of various boards I'm a member of). So far, I can view them in *recent* versions of Mystic, and WWIV. No others have displayed them correctly.
This says to me that simply sending ANSI's isn't the answer as systems *already* have a problem displaying them. The systems that do display
them correctly are in active development.
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