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CITANEWS.587 / A Citadel Newsletter -- May 1987
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Compiled by Steve Yelvington
(George Jetson @ The Lake US 612 426 1374)
In this issue:
* A national newsletter for room-based systems
* ST Citadels begin networking
* Feeping Creatures stalk Citadel-86
* Amiga Citadels appear across the country
... and more! Read on...
A NATIONAL NEWSLETTER?
This began last month as an update for out-of-town ST
Citadel sysops, where town == Minneapolis/St. Paul. Since
then, there has been a lot of interest expressed in a
nationwide newsletter for all room-based, Citadel-like
systems.
Is this such a newsletter? Not really -- yet. But it can
become one. We invite your participation. If you have
written or used a variation of Citadel, write a synopsis and
upload it to the CitaNews: room at the Lake (US 612 426
1374). CitaNews messages are shared with several other
Citadels via networking. If you would like to be added to
the network (Citadel-86-compatible), let us know. Our
networking time is currently 3-3:45 a.m. central daylight time.
Future newsletters may be compiled by editors in multiple
locations. Andy Meyer has expressed an interest in compiling
a newsletter. We may work out a way to collaborate, but
haven't gotten around to it yet. Is anyone else interested?
We particularly need info from Seattle.
If all this seems anarchic and disorganized, it is. But
that's Citadel for you.
Here's a note from the CitaNews room...
87Apr25 2:29 pm from Andy Meyer
Hmmm, ideas, ideas... I think y'all are too up on your new
projects. I've seen people out there who're still hacking
away at the 2.1x CP/M code. Not that that's bad, but I find
myself wishing I'd cataloged the bugs I encountered 'along
the way' as well as any 'enhancements'.
Currently I've undertaken a 'National Room-oriented
Systems' list, which includes all flavours of Citadel, plus
StoneHenge, MiniBin, IdeaTree (ugh), etc. I'm having big
troubles(!) keeping stuff straight, but I'm sure you'll
like the format.
As far as a newsletter, I've been thinking about using
some sort of electronic mail to collect submissions as well
as distribute the final product, (currently a monthly). The
'tone' should be friendly and not so technical as to scare
away newcomers, with anecdotes, hints and tips, etc. Code
fragments to explain 'fixes' are a must, but I'm afraid
y'all have modified yourselves into oblivion.
My 'major sites' are currently: Seattle (the biggest, with
about 50 room systems, naturally because that's where it
all started), the Twin Cities, the metro New York City area
(dunno about any in NYC, although K2NE's Cit-N128 is big in
area 609), Dallas/Forth Worth (Maher's Gates of Mordecai,
et. al.) and the latest "find" Sacramento, CA (which run
some strange derivatives "ATKeep", "Acropolis" and Citadel
2.5x versions).
Comments, please.
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NETWORKING NOTES
Several mutations of Citadel have an ability to exchange
messages or mail in one form or another. One such system was
implemented in version 2 of Citadel-86 by Hue, Jr., in
Minnesota's Twin Cities. The current version of that
networking scheme allows netmail, shared rooms and
sysop-requested automatic file transfers during a
prearranged networking period.
The Amiga version implemented by Jay Johnson (Stallion and
the Atari ST version implemented by David Parsons (orc) are
directly derived from Citadel-86, and both (in their current
versions) support the networking scheme. (One exception:
The ST and Amiga versions cannot yet send unrequested files
via the network, as the C-86 version can.)
NeoCitadel, a Turbo Pascal version written by Hue, Sr. (who
remarkably enough happens to be Hue, Jr.'s father),
currently supports netmail but isn't sharing rooms.
The current networking scheme works well enough, but it has
some limitations. Primary among them is that every Citadel
must contact every other Citadel individually -- data cannot
be forwarded automatically from A to B to C. This makes it
unlikely that any extensive networking can take place
outside of the confines of a single toll-free telephone zone.
Therefore Hue, Jr., is working on a message-routing scheme.
As of May 10, it works; a message from Spies (a New York
Citadel) arrived at the Lake via Test System. You'll
probably see routing in the ST and Amiga versions shortly.
For details, contact Hue, Jr. @ C-86 Test System, US 612 866 1804.
FLOOR TALK
Stonehenge and some Citadel mutations have implemented
"hallways" that can be used to connect related rooms. Such
an idea has cropped up in the Twin Cities periodically. Now
things seem to be getting serious.
Hue, Jr. has strongly backed the concept of "floors" as a
logical addition to "rooms." In his scheme, a sysop could
choose to group related rooms onto a floor, thus keeping all
the techie talk in one place, all the political discussions
in another, all the writing and poetry in yet another, etc.
A major point of this scheme is that users could choose to
either see the floor structure or to have Citadel appear "as
usual" -- that is, just a single list of rooms. Why the
option? Because although some sysops and users have asked
for the feature, others have screamed bloody murder at the
thought of complicating Citadel.
Some sort of floor scheme now seems likely to appear on
future versions of Citadel-86, Citadel-68k (Amigados) and
Citadel-68 (STadel).
Floor talk: (a shared room) exists on C-86 Test System,
Pell, Phoenix and a couple of other Twin Cities systems.
Stop by and contribute if you're interested.
Now, for system-specific news....
CITADEL-86
This winter and spring must have been good for feeping
creatures, because they're sprouting like mad. The latest
versions of Citadel-86 sport:
*Invitation-only rooms. These are private rooms that you
can't reach by guessing the roomname. (Also on ST and Amiga.)
*Anonymous rooms. No names or times on the messages, so
users can make rude noises with impunity. This is an
.aide-edit-room option. (Also on ST and Amiga.)
*Room moderators. Basically a one-room aide.
*Chat-to-disk. Good for recording chats or downloading
ASCII. Control-R toggles it.
*Outside commands. A sysop can run another program from
inside Citadel, if there's enough memory. (Also on ST).
*Remote sysoping. Full access to features normally
restricted to the sysconsole, including outside commands.
Citadel-86 runs on PC clones and the Zenith Z-100.
Source code and executables are in the public domain and are
re available from Citadel-86 Test System (US 612 866 1804)
and most C-86 sysops.
NEOCITADEL
Hue, Sr.'s Turbo Pascal version has added room moderators
and invitation-only rooms, and is netting mail. Room
archiving (which creates a plain ASCII recording of a room's
messages) and room sharing are coming Real Soon Now. For
details, contact Supercomp II, US 612 431 1107.
CITADEL-68K (AMIGADOS)
Jay Johnson's Amiga implementation has finally entered
national distribution, with perhaps a dozen installations.
It is highly similar to Citadel-86. Two features it has
contributed are extended directory listings (with file
descriptions) and the ability to insert a paragraph marker
(return-space) while editing a message.
After a few early problems, networking seems to be
debugged and fully compatible with Citadel-86 and the Atari
ST version.
A couple of tips for prospective Amiga sysops:
*You MUST have a file called CTDLBAD.SYS. Apparently there
doesn't have to be anything in it, but if it's not there,
Citadel will not run.
*You MUST tell your operating system to reserve a stack of
at least 20480.
The Amiga version runs under multitasking Amigados. You
can run Citadel, roll the Citadel screen down out of the
way, and run most other well-behaved programs (even a
compiler) so long as they do not try to use the serial port.
If you want to use the serial port, Citadel has a function
that halts the program and "unhooks" the serial port
temporarily. Thus you can use your favorite communications
program without completely "folding up" Citadel. Just don't
forget to hook things back up when you're done.
Dying to get your hands on Amiga Citadel? Home base is
Phoenix, US 612 459 8095. The program also is on CompuServe
and GEnie. If telecom charges scare you, contact Jay Johnson
in private mail at Phoenix and he can arrange for you to
obtain disks.
CITADEL-68 (ST) also known as STadel
It's here, it's there, it's even in Canada. Yes, George
Seto and Bruce MacKay have ST Citadels running in Nova
Scotia. Are there any more? Please contact us with the number.
Orc's Atari ST Citadel is now in version 3.0b, which
has just about everything that's in the current Citadel-86
(see above) including the network. Version 3.0a doesn't
network. By the time you read this, 3.0c probably will be
out, with more file-transfer protocols and other goodies.
To convert from 2.?? to 3.0, you will need some conversion
utilities as well as the program. Also, you will need to
replace (or carefully rewrite) the CTDLCNFG.SYS file. There
are numerous additions and deletions, and all numbers have
been converted to decimal (the old version used some hex
numbers). Be sure to make backups before attempting to
convert to the new software.
In CTDLCNFG.SYS, you can now choose a prompted logon for
users who don't have enough sense to hit a couple of
carriage returns after the modems connect.
For other stuff, here's orc...
87May01 1:46 am from orc
Well, here they are, fresh off the presses; 3.0b.
Aside from the network, 3.0b has chat capture (^R toggles
it -- Citadel warns the user at the other end that his chat
is being recorded.), it prints out the file PRELOG.BLB when
you log in (this file can be found in the help directory)
and it does the | format stuff with long descriptions in
.RE
Plus I've changed around the baud-rate detection code
stuff; If you set AUTOBAUD to 0, SYSBAUD will be the
baudrate of your system (0 == 300, 1 == 1200, 2 == 2400) If
you want the system to ask the users to 'type return:', do
'#define CONNECTPROMPT 1' in your ctdlcnfg.sys.
87May01 1:50 am from orc
Oops, forgot the 'coming attractions' notice for the
next release;
STadel V3.0c will have Ymodem, (possibly) WXmodem,
(possibly) Kermit, network sendfile, shared room & netmail
routing, (possibly) room moderators, and (possibly) an
arc-file-toc-reader.
floors go into V3.1a, which will be a while.
V3.0d will probably have the uucp driver, (possibly) an
arpanet driver, and (not very likely) a fidonet
interconnect. I may also look at stonehenge networking and
see if that's worth putting in.
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Well, that's enough for this edition. Next month we'll
have some info on Citadel-like programs for eight-bit
Commodores and Ataris and whatever comes in over the
transom. Once again, uploads are welcomed at US 612 426 1374.
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