Text 758, 77 rader
Skriven 2007-03-24 12:26:06 av Michael Cassidy (28.ftscpubl)
Ärende: Fidonet, XML, Internet
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Hello, everyone.  I have been out of Fidonet for a while, and am just recently
trying to become a more active member in having a local community (virtual),
which is what I believe a BBS really is, that is also internationally
connected, which is what I believe Fidonet is and should be -- a means for
connecting smaller communities and connect parts of them to make more (virtual)
international communities.

That being said, I would like to make a statement which may get me flamed, but
I think needs to be said.  I have a young teenage daughter and when I try to
get her interested in the BBS, it just doesn't hold the captivating interest
the mysapce and other internet communties (virtual) can hold.  If we really
want Fidonet to begin to grow again and flourish (I know I do), we have got to
adjust to the future.  This means we have got to find a way for BBS systems and
message networks to "grow up" a little bit.

As I re-enter this virtual community, I see that their are some folks doing
things to try to do this on the BBS system end.  Synchronet has many features
to allow someone to become a member of my personal virtual community (except
for the bbs doors) without ever having to use a command shell and a telnet
application or a modem dialup program.  This functionality has been added by
gating, and I know there are many other types and kinds of gating the exisiting
(tedious and outdated IMHO) message and file transmissions to more internet
accepted standards.  If I, as a software architect and developer, wish to add
my talents to the mix, I will need to do a lot of study and trial and error to
be able to deal with these "old" technologies.  I have considered this subject
before, and I always ask myself -- "Why hasn't fidonet moved to adopt some of
the new technologies, which would allow people such as myself to enter the
arena and provide functionality and capabilities without having to go back and
re-learn/re-member old technologies that I have left behind?".

In my current type of development strategies there is one technology that I
consider absolutely essential and paramout -- XML.  I program in both java and
.NET visual basic, and I find that if I develop applications and systems using
XML as a basis, I will have a much higher chance of interconnecting with other
systems that are written in other languages and running on other platforms.
When I am using .Net, I can represent these bundles of information as datasets
and have a whole slew of tools to transform and manipulate this data, and can
focus on the business logic of what I am trying to do, and not have to worry as
much about where the data came from, how it got to me, and what may happen with
it eventually, when a consumer (person, app, etc) down the line receives it.
The only requirement is that everyone in the chain agrees on what the structure
of a particular bundle of information is.

It seems to me, that there are many different types of bundles of information
used throughout fidonet that could (and IMO should) be upgraded to an XML
format.  This could and probably would interest MANY more developers in
breathing life blood back into Fidonet, and I would definitely be in the front
group of the pack.  There are so many upsides to this, that I don't even feel
it worth it atm to mention them.

So, I guess I should at least mention my perspective of the downside.  First it
would require that XML schemas be developed and agreed upon to represent the
bundles of data (no small task by any means).  Then it would require a
completely new set of software be developed to handle the new schemas.  It is a
large undertaking and when started, the new Fidonet would be very immature at
first.  Some people might get fed up and leave.  But with enough foresight and
patience and endurance, new people could and probably would become interested
in helping out.  Look at all of the work that goes into myspace pages and wiki
pages by people who want a place (virtual) to call home and want to be
involved.

In closing I will say that I am not suggesting doing away with the BBS or point
system, or opening up fidonet to full anonymous internet access.  I am only
suggesting that its technologies are what is keeping it from growing and
staying alive, and I believe starting with the core issue will provide a means
to start in the direction to allow other things such as the URL issues to be
handled at a future date in a way that might satisfy many of the posting
parties that I have been reading.  Having a nodelist and nodediff in XML (as an
example) would me my vote for a first "tackle" and I would be happy to help out
with a translator that would translate the xml version back into the current
style for mailers, etc until new ones can be written.

Greetings to you all...

Michael Cassidy
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