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107-454: Quarterdeck's predecessor to DESQview was a task switching product called Desq (shipped late April or May 1984), which allows users to switch between running programs. Quarterdeck revamped its package, bringing multitasking in, and adding TopView compatibility. DESQview was released in July 1985, four months before Microsoft released the first version of Windows . It was widely thought to be

214-447: A LAN . In the late 1980s, a handful of BBS developers implemented multitasking communications routines inside their software, allowing multiple phone lines and users to connect to the same BBS computer. These included Galacticomm's MajorBBS (later WorldGroup), eSoft The Bread Board System (TBBS), and Falken . Other popular BBS's were Maximus and Opus, with some associated applications such as BinkleyTerm being based on characters from

321-449: A computer terminal after inserting a coin, and offered a "pure" bulletin board experience with public messages only (no email or other features). It did offer the ability to tag messages with keywords, which the user could use in searches. The system acted primarily in the form of a buy and sell system with the tags taking the place of the more traditional classifications . But users found ways to express themselves outside these bounds, and

428-464: A mainframe computer and was accessed through terminals located in several San Francisco Bay Area neighborhoods. The poor quality of the original modem connecting the terminals to the mainframe prompted Community Memory hardware person, Lee Felsenstein , to invent the Pennywhistle modem , whose design was influential in the mid-1970s. Community Memory allowed the user to type messages into

535-425: A pre-emptive multitasking system, the scheduler may also switch out processes that are still runnable. To prevent other processes from being starved of CPU time, pre-emptive schedulers often configure a timer interrupt to fire when a process exceeds its time slice . This interrupt ensures that the scheduler will gain control to perform a context switch. Modern architectures are interrupt driven. This means that if

642-978: A CD-ROM drive to make the files available. Advanced BBSes used Multiple CD-ROM disc changer units that switched 6 CD-ROM disks on demand for the caller(s). Large systems used all 26 DOS drive letters with multi-disk changers housing tens of thousands of copyright-free shareware or freeware files available to all callers. These BBSes were generally more family-friendly, avoiding the seedier side of BBSes. Access to these systems varied from single to multiple modem lines with some requiring little or no confirmed registration. Some BBSes, called elite, WaReZ , or pirate boards, were exclusively used for distributing cracked software , phreaking materials, and other questionable or unlawful content. These BBSes often had multiple modems and phone lines, allowing several users to upload and download files at once. Most elite BBSes used some form of new user verification, where new users would have to apply for membership and attempt to prove that they were not

749-411: A FidoNet-capable BBS would be bundled into one or more archive files over a set time interval. These archive files were then compressed with ARC or ZIP and forwarded to (or polled by) another nearby node or hub via a dialup Xmodem session. Messages would be relayed around various FidoNet hubs until they were eventually delivered to their destination. The hierarchy of FidoNet BBS nodes, hubs, and zones

856-516: A big 80386 machine certainly does". The magazine that year listed version 3.0 as among the "Distinction" winners of the BYTE Awards, stating that "unlike OS/2, DESQview lets you run the programs you've already paid for ... Many users will find that DESQview is all they need". Context switch In computing , a context switch is the process of storing the state of a process or thread , so that it can be restored and resume execution at

963-507: A context switch is equivalent to a coroutine yield, which is only marginally more expensive than a subroutine call. There are three potential triggers for a context switch: Most commonly, within some scheduling scheme, one process must be switched out of the CPU so another process can run. This context switch can be triggered by the process making itself unrunnable, such as by waiting for an I/O or synchronization operation to complete. On

1070-510: A context switch to move between user mode and kernel mode tasks. The process of context switching can have a negative impact on system performance. Context switches are usually computationally intensive, and much of the design of operating systems is to optimize the use of context switches. Switching from one process to another requires a certain amount of time for doing the administration – saving and loading registers and memory maps, updating various tables and lists, etc. What

1177-433: A conventional handset. Internal modems could be software-controlled to perform outbound and inbound calls, but external modems had only the data pins to communicate with the host system. Hayes' solution to the problem was to use a small microcontroller to implement a system that examined the data flowing into the modem from the host computer, watching for certain command strings. This allowed commands to be sent to and from

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1284-412: A desire to connect systems together to share messages and files with distant systems and users. The largest such network was FidoNet . As is it was prohibitively expensive for the hobbyist system operator to have a dedicated connection to another system, FidoNet was developed as a store and forward network. Private email (Netmail), public message boards (Echomail) and eventually even file attachments on

1391-1031: A free call. Today, these services have moved to the Web. Some general-purpose Bulletin Board Systems had special levels of access that were given to those who paid extra money, uploaded useful files or knew the system operator personally. These specialty and pay BBSes usually had something unique to offer their users, such as large file libraries, warez , pornography , chat rooms or Internet access. Pay BBSes such as The WELL and Echo NYC (now Internet forums rather than dial-up), ExecPC , PsudNetwork and MindVox (which folded in 1996) were admired for their close, friendly communities and quality discussion forums. However, many free BBSes also maintained close communities, and some even had annual or bi-annual events where users would travel great distances to meet face-to-face with their on-line friends. These events were especially popular with BBSes that offered chat rooms . Some of

1498-573: A graphical user interface ( GUI ). While Quarterdeck did provide suites of programming libraries and utilities to support the development of software to use its features these never became widely popular. DESQview's ability to run most software with no modification and the cost of "run-time" licenses, combined with the costs of the development suites themselves made this an unreasonable combination for commercial shrink-wrapped software publishers and vendors. Microsoft released Windows 3.0 with its own memory management and multitasking features. While DESQview

1605-404: A host of features that would be difficult or impossible under a terminal-based solution, including bi-directional information flow and non-blocking operation that allowed the user to exchange files in both directions while continuing to use the message system and chat, all in separate windows. Will Price's "Hermes", released in 1988, combined a familiar PC style with Macintosh GUI interface. (Hermes

1712-415: A later point, and then restoring a different, previously saved, state. This allows multiple processes to share a single central processing unit (CPU), and is an essential feature of a multiprogramming or multitasking operating system . In a traditional CPU, each process - a program in execution - utilizes the various CPU registers to store data and hold the current state of the running process. However, in

1819-476: A law enforcement officer or a lamer . The largest elite boards accepted users by invitation only. Elite boards also spawned their own subculture and gave rise to the slang known today as leetspeak . Another common type of board was the support BBS run by a manufacturer of computer products or software. These boards were dedicated to supporting users of the company's products with question and answer forums, news and updates, and downloads. Most of them were not

1926-400: A multitasking operating system, the operating system switches between processes or threads to allow the execution of multiple processes simultaneously. For every switch, the operating system must save the state of the currently running process, followed by loading the next process state, which will run on the CPU. This sequence of operations that stores the state of the running process and loads

2033-605: A new class of BBS systems, dedicated solely to file upload and downloads. These systems charged for access, typically a flat monthly fee, compared to the per-hour fees charged by Event Horizons BBS and most online services. Many third-party services were developed to support these systems, offering simple credit card merchant account gateways for the payment of monthly fees, and entire file libraries on compact disk that made initial setup very easy. Early 1990s editions of Boardwatch were filled with ads for single-click install solutions dedicated to these new sysops . While this gave

2140-473: A number of years while various companies attempted to introduce non-standard systems with higher performance – normally about 19.2 kbit/s. Another delay followed due to a long V.34 standards process before 28.8 kbit/s was released, only to be quickly replaced by 33.6 kbit/s, and then 56 kbit/s. These increasing speeds had the side effect of dramatically reducing the noticeable effects of channel efficiency. When modems were slow, considerable effort

2247-467: A particular type of user who used the BBS as a unique type of communications medium, and when these local systems were crowded from the market in the 1990s, their loss was lamented for many years. Speed improved with the introduction of 1200 bit/s asynchronous modems in the early 1980s , giving way to 2400 bit/s fairly rapidly. The improved performance led to a substantial increase in BBS popularity. Most of

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2354-697: A popular form of communication for Taiwanese youth (see PTT Bulletin Board System ). Most surviving BBSes are accessible over Telnet and typically offer free email accounts, FTP services, and IRC . Some offer access through packet switched networks or packet radio connections. A precursor to the public bulletin board system was Community Memory , which started in August 1973 in Berkeley, California . Microcomputers did not exist at that time, and modems were both expensive and slow. Community Memory ran on

2461-673: A precursor to the modern form of the World Wide Web , social networks , and other aspects of the Internet . Low-cost, high-performance asynchronous modems drove the use of online services and BBSes through the early 1990s. InfoWorld estimated that there were 60,000 BBSes serving 17 million users in the United States alone in 1994, a collective market much larger than major online services such as CompuServe . The introduction of inexpensive dial-up internet service and

2568-422: A product named DESQview/X ( DVX ), which is an X Window System server running under DOS and DESQview and thus provides a GUI to which X software (mostly Unix ) could be ported. DESQview/X had three window managers that it launched with, X/Motif , OPEN LOOK , and twm . The default package contained only twm , the others were costly optional extras, as was the ability to interact on TCP/IP networks. Mosaic

2675-457: A set of optional utilities for DESQview, including a notepad and dialer. Later versions allow graphics mode programs to be loaded as well, but only run in full screen mode. DESQview is not a GUI (Graphical User Interface) operating system . Rather, it is a non-graphical, windowed shell that runs in real mode on top of DOS, although it can run on any Intel 8086 - or Intel 80286 -based PC. It can also use expanded memory add-ons to work around

2782-415: A single connection to be used to contact multiple services simultaneously; for example, downloading files from an FTP library while checking the weather on a local news website. Even with a shell account , it was possible to multitask using job control or a terminal multiplexer such as GNU Screen . In comparison, a connection to a BBS allowed access only to the information on that system. According to

2889-411: A single process can be faster than between two separate processes because threads share the same virtual memory maps, so a TLB flush is not necessary. The time to switch between two separate processes is called the process switching latency . The time to switch between two threads of the same process is called the thread switching latency . The time from when a hardware interrupt is generated to when

2996-572: A sophisticated memory manager . Owing to the foresight of its marketing manager, Quarterdeck marketed it as a separate product, QEMM-386 (Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager 386). It became more popular than DESQview itself, and sold steadily for many years, generating over US$ 150 million in sales from 1987 through 1994. After the release of the Intel Pentium processor, the 386 in QEMM was dropped. The combination package of DESQview and QEMM-386

3103-413: A special data segment designated the task state segment (TSS). A task switch can be explicitly triggered with a CALL or JMP instruction targeted at a TSS descriptor in the global descriptor table . It can occur implicitly when an interrupt or exception is triggered if there's a task gate in the interrupt descriptor table (IDT). When a task switch occurs the CPU can automatically load the new state from

3210-531: Is actually involved in a context switch depends on the architectures, operating systems, and the number of resources shared (threads that belong to the same process share many resources compared to unrelated non-cooperating processes). For example, in the Linux kernel , context switching involves loading the corresponding process control block (PCB) stored in the PCB table in the kernel stack to retrieve information about

3317-449: Is calculated and written in R1 as the final answer. This operation as there are sequential reads and writes and there's no waits for function calls used, hence no context switch/wait takes place in this case. Suppose a process A is running and a timer interrupt occurs. The user registers — program counter, stack pointer, and status register — of process A are then implicitly saved by

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3424-429: Is chosen from the ready queue (i.e., it may be a priority queue ). The details vary depending on the architecture and operating system, but these are common scenarios. Considering a general arithmetic addition operation A = B+1. The instruction is stored in the instruction register and the program counter is incremented. A and B are read from memory and are stored in registers R1, R2 respectively. In this case, B+1

3531-475: Is easily controlled by the user with DOS program QEMM.COM. DESQview is able to use QEMM's features far beyond just the LIM EMS API, mapping most of the "conventional" address space (below 640 KB) into multiple extended memory blocks such that each can execute transparently during its context. The main copy of DOS and any device and networking drivers have to be loaded before DESQview. The resulting space

3638-410: Is the interrupt handler that handles the interrupt from the disk. When an interrupt occurs, the hardware automatically switches a part of the context (at least enough to allow the handler to return to the interrupted code). The handler may save additional context, depending on details of the particular hardware and software designs. Often only a minimal part of the context is changed in order to minimize

3745-465: Is the largest single program that can run, but DESQview under QEMM can run as many instances of those programs as the EMS allows. So an 8 MB system can generally have a dozen full-sized DOS programs running concurrently; a 16 MB system can run over twenty, and so on. DESQview was noteworthy in that it supported all common DOS-compatible programs and achieved a degree of performance and stability that

3852-772: The Apple Macintosh platform, including TeleFinder and FirstClass , but these were mostly confined to the Mac market. In the UK, the BBC Micro based OBBS software, available from Pace for use with their modems, optionally allowed for color and graphics using the Teletext based graphics mode available on that platform. Other systems used the Viewdata protocols made popular in the UK by British Telecom 's Prestel service, and

3959-610: The Berkley Breathed cartoon strip of Bloom County . Though most BBS software had been written in BASIC or Pascal (with some low-level routines written in assembly language ), the C language was starting to gain popularity. By 1995, many of the DOS-based BBSes had begun switching to modern multitasking operating systems, such as OS/2 , Windows 95 , and Linux . One of the first graphics-based BBS applications

4066-564: The Borland Graphics Interface library. A competing approach called Remote Imaging Protocol (RIP) emerged and was promoted by Telegrafix in the early to mid-1990s but it never became widespread. A teletext technology called NAPLPS was also considered, and although it became the underlying graphics technology behind the Prodigy service , it never gained popularity in the BBS market. There were several GUI-based BBSes on

4173-571: The FidoNet Nodelist, BBSes reached their peak usage around 1996, which was the same period that the World Wide Web and AOL became mainstream. BBSes rapidly declined in popularity thereafter, and were replaced by systems using the Internet for connectivity. Some of the larger commercial BBSes, such as MaxMegabyte and ExecPC BBS , evolved into Internet service providers . The website textfiles.com serves as an archive that documents

4280-631: The Great Blizzard of 1978 , the two began preliminary work on the Computerized Bulletin Board System , or CBBS . The system came into existence largely through a fortuitous combination of Christensen having a spare S-100 bus computer and an early Hayes internal modem, and Suess's insistence that the machine be placed at his house in Chicago where it would be a local phone call for more users. Christensen patterned

4387-800: The IBM Personal Computer was introduced and MS-DOS soon became the operating system on which the majority of BBS programs were run. RBBS-PC , ported over from the CP/M world, and Fido BBS, developed by Tom Jennings (who later founded FidoNet ) were the first notable MS-DOS BBS programs. Many successful commercial BBS programs were developed, such as PCBoard BBS, RemoteAccess BBS, Magpie and Wildcat! BBS . Oopular freeware BBS programs included Telegard BBS and Renegade BBS , which both had early origins from leaked WWIV BBS source code. BBS systems on other systems remained popular, especially home computers , largely because they catered to

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4494-457: The Mosaic web browser offered ease of use and global access that BBS and online systems did not provide, and led to a rapid crash in the market starting in late 1994 to early 1995. Over the next year, many of the leading BBS software providers went bankrupt and tens of thousands of BBSes disappeared. Today, BBSing survives largely as a nostalgic hobby in most parts of the world, but it is still

4601-645: The Telnet protocol rather than dialup, or by using legacy DOS-based BBS software with a FOSSIL -to-Telnet redirector such as NetFoss . BBSes were generally text-based, rather than GUI -based, and early BBSes conversed using the simple ASCII character set. However, some home computer manufacturers extended the ASCII character set to take advantage of the advanced color and graphics capabilities of their systems. BBS software authors included these extended character sets in their software, and terminal program authors included

4708-623: The University of Southern California BBS (USCBBS) by Susan Biddlecomb, which predated the implementation of the HTML Dynamic web page . A complete Dynamic web page implementation was accomplished using TBBS with a TDBS add-on presenting a complete menu system individually customized for each user. The demand for complex ANSI and ASCII screens and larger file transfers taxed available channel capacity , which in turn increased demand for faster modems. 14.4 kbit/s modems were standard for

4815-530: The translation lookaside buffer (TLB) must be flushed. This negatively affects performance because every memory reference to the TLB will be a miss because it is empty after most context switches. Furthermore, analogous context switching happens between user threads , notably green threads , and is often very lightweight, saving and restoring minimal context. In extreme cases, such as switching between goroutines in Go ,

4922-466: The "keybindings" they might be using. DESQview was critically acclaimed and won many fans, but it never met with mass appeal, despite Quarterdeck's sustained efforts to win people over. In one area, however, DESQview was a lasting success: many multiuser bulletin board systems were based on it, thanks to its modest hardware requirements, robust multitasking, and superlative handling of multiple communication ports. Most free or inexpensive BBS software of

5029-476: The 2000s, most traditional BBS systems migrated to the Internet using Telnet or SSH protocols. As of September 2022, between 900 and 1000 are thought to be active via the Internet  – fewer than 30 of these being of the traditional "dial-up" (modem) variety. Unlike modern websites and online services that are typically hosted by third-party companies in commercial data centers , BBS computers (especially for smaller boards) were typically operated from

5136-544: The 640 KB RAM limit of conventional memory on early PCs. DESQview really came into its own on Intel 80386 machines, which are better at utilizing memory above DOS's limit. However, in either case, it runs in real mode rather than protected mode , meaning that a misbehaving program can still crash the system. To make maximum use of extended memory on Intel 80386 processors, by transforming it into expanded memory and upper memory blocks ( UMBs ) accessible to DESQview and other real-mode programs, Quarterdeck developed

5243-527: The Alt key by itself brings up the DESQview menu allowing access to the program's features: start new tasks, switch among them, mark text on the screen, paste text as input into the current task, resize or move the text windows, configure new menu items, etc. In addition a Shift+Alt combination causes DESQview to learn a set of keys as a macro. This allows DESQview to run other programs without interfering with any of

5350-494: The BBS possible for the first time, as it allowed software on the computer to pick up an incoming call, communicate with the user, and then hang up the call when the user logged off. The first public dial-up BBS was developed by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess , members of the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists' Exchange (CACHE). According to an early interview, when Chicago was snowed under during

5457-655: The BBS was in the circuit of the FidoNet organization. On the PC, efforts were more oriented to extensions of the original terminal concept, with the GUI being described in the information on the host. One example was the Remote Imaging Protocol , essentially a picture description system, which remained relatively obscure. Probably the ultimate development of this style of operation was the dynamic page implementation of

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5564-573: The BBSes that provided access to illegal content faced opposition. On July 12, 1985, in conjunction with a credit card fraud investigation, the Middlesex County, New Jersey Sheriff's department raided and seized The Private Sector BBS, which was the official BBS for grey hat hacker quarterly 2600 Magazine at the time. The notorious Rusty n Edie's BBS , in Boardman, Ohio , was raided by

5671-477: The CPU onto the kernel stack of A. Then, the hardware switches to kernel mode and jumps into interrupt handler for the operating system to take over. Then the operating system calls the switch() routine to first save the general-purpose user registers of A onto A's kernel stack, then it saves A's current kernel register values into the PCB of A, restores kernel registers from the PCB of process B, and switches context, that is, changes kernel stack pointer to point to

5778-461: The CPU requests data from a disk, for example, it does not need to busy-wait until the read is over; it can issue the request (to the I/O device) and continue with some other task. When the read is over, the CPU can be interrupted (by a hardware in this case, which sends interrupt request to PIC ) and presented with the read. For interrupts, a program called an interrupt handler is installed, and it

5885-716: The FBI in January 1993 for trading unlicensed software, and later sued by Playboy for copyright infringement in November 1997. In Flint, Michigan , a 21-year-old man was charged with distributing child pornography through his BBS in March 1996. Most early BBSes operated as individual systems. Information contained on that BBS never left the system, and users would only interact with the information and user community on that BBS alone. However, as BBSes became more widespread, there evolved

5992-441: The PCB is added to a queue of processes that are ready to run, often called the ready queue . Since the operating system has effectively suspended the execution of one process, it can then switch context by choosing a process from the ready queue and restoring its PCB. In doing so, the program counter from the PCB is loaded, and thus execution can continue in the chosen process. Process and thread priority can influence which process

6099-477: The TSS. As with other tasks performed in hardware, one would expect this to be rather fast; however, mainstream operating systems, including Windows and Linux , do not use this feature. This is mainly due to two reasons: Bulletin board system A bulletin board system ( BBS ), also called a computer bulletin board service ( CBBS ), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to

6206-416: The ability to display them when a compatible system was called. Atari's native character set was known as ATASCII , while most Commodore BBSes supported PETSCII . PETSCII was also supported by the nationwide online service Quantum Link . The use of these custom character sets was generally incompatible between manufacturers. Unless a caller was using terminal emulation software written for, and running on,

6313-427: The amount of time spent handling the interrupt. The kernel does not spawn or schedule a special process to handle interrupts, but instead the handler executes in the (often partial) context established at the beginning of interrupt handling. Once interrupt servicing is complete, the context in effect before the interrupt occurred is restored so that the interrupted process can resume execution in its proper state. When

6420-538: The audience of users running those machines. The ubiquitous Commodore 64 (introduced in 1982) was a common platform in the 1980s. Popular commercial BBS programs were Blue Board , Ivory BBS , Color64 and CNet 64 . In the early 1990s, a small number of BBSes were also running on the Commodore Amiga . Popular BBS software for the Amiga were ABBS, Amiexpress , C-Net, StormforceBBS, Infinity and Tempest. There

6527-502: The company laid off 25% of their employees and the CEO, president, and founder Terry Myers resigned. As users moved from DESQview to other platforms, notably Windows 3.x and OS/2, third party utility authors wrote utility programs that emulated some DESQview API functions to allow suitably equipped DOS programs to co-operate with these OS. The most notable are TAME (for Windows) and OS/2SPEED (for OS/2). Quarterdeck eventually also released

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6634-460: The first program to bring multitasking and windowing capabilities to DOS; in fact, there was a predecessor, IBM TopView , which shipped March 1985. Under DESQview, well-behaved DOS programs can be run concurrently in resizable, overlapping windows (something the first version of Windows cannot do). A simple hideable menu allows cutting and pasting between programs. DESQview provides support for simple editable macros as well. Quarterdeck also developed

6741-455: The following running process is called a context switch. The precise meaning of the phrase "context switch" varies. In a multitasking context, it refers to the process of storing the system state for one task, so that task can be paused and another task resumed. A context switch can also occur as the result of an interrupt , such as when a task needs to access disk storage , freeing up CPU time for other tasks. Some operating systems also require

6848-533: The history of the BBS. The historical BBS list on textfiles.com contains over 105,000 BBSes that have existed over a span of 20 years in North America alone. The owner of textfiles.com , Jason Scott , also produced BBS: The Documentary , a DVD film that chronicles the history of the BBS and features interviews with well-known people (mostly from the United States) from the heyday BBS era. In

6955-417: The information was displayed using ordinary ASCII text or ANSI art , but a number of systems attempted character-based graphical user interfaces which began to be practical at 2400 bit/s. There was a lengthy delay before 9600 bit/s models began to appear on the market. 9600 bit/s was not even established as a strong standard before V.32bis at 14.4 kbit/s took over in the early 1990s. This period also saw

7062-500: The interrupt is serviced is called the interrupt latency . Switching between two processes in a single address space operating system can be faster than switching between two processes in an operating system with private per-process address spaces. Context switching can be performed primarily by software or hardware. Some processors, like the Intel 80386 and its successors, have hardware support for context switches, by making use of

7169-465: The introduction of microcomputers with expansion slots, like the S-100 bus machines and Apple II , it became possible for the modem to communicate instructions and data on separate lines. These machines typically only supported asynchronous communications, and synchronous modems were much more expensive than asynchronous modems. A number of modems of this sort were available by the late 1970s. This made

7276-474: The kernel stack of process B. The operating system then returns from interrupt. The hardware then loads user registers from B's kernel stack, switches to user mode, and starts running process B from B's program counter. Context switching itself has a cost in performance, due to running the task scheduler , TLB flushes, and indirectly due to sharing the CPU cache between multiple tasks. Switching between threads of

7383-431: The late 1980s and early 1990s, most BBSes used ANSI to make elaborate welcome screens, and colorized menus, and thus, ANSI support was a sought-after feature in terminal client programs. The development of ANSI art became so popular that it spawned an entire BBS " artscene " subculture devoted to it. The Amiga Skyline BBS software in 1988 featured a script markup language communication protocol called Skypix which

7490-482: The market a bad reputation, it also led to its greatest success. During the early 1990s, there were a number of mid-sized software companies dedicated to BBS software, and the number of BBSes in service reached its peak. Towards the early 1990s, BBS became so popular that it spawned three monthly magazines, Boardwatch , BBS Magazine , and in Asia and Australia, Chips 'n Bits Magazine which devoted extensive coverage of

7597-420: The message's route only made one transfer call per day. FidoNet was platform-independent and would work with any BBS that was written to use it. BBSes that did not have integrated FidoNet capability could usually add it using an external FidoNet front-end mailer such as SEAdog, FrontDoor , BinkleyTerm, InterMail or D'Bridge, and a mail processor such as FastEcho or Squish . The front-end mailer would conduct

7704-498: The modem using the same data pins as all the rest of the data, meaning it would work on any system that could support even the most basic modems. The Smartmodem could pick up the phone, dial numbers, and hang up again, all without any operator intervention. The Smartmodem was not necessary for BBS use but made overall operation dramatically simpler. It also improved usability for the caller, as most terminal software allowed different phone numbers to be stored and dialed on command, allowing

7811-613: The on-line magazine Micronet 800 whom were busy giving away modems with their subscriptions. Over time, terminal manufacturers started to support ANSI X3.64 in addition to or instead of proprietary terminal control codes, e.g., color, cursor positioning. The most popular form of online graphics was ANSI art , which combined the IBM Extended ASCII character set's blocks and symbols with ANSI escape sequences to allow changing colors on demand, provide cursor control and screen formatting, and even basic musical tones. During

7918-426: The ones used by CBBS and similar early systems were usable, but generally expensive due to the manufacturer having to make a different modem for every computer platform they wanted to target. They were also limited to those computers with internal expansion, and could not be used with other useful platforms like video terminals . External modems were available for these platforms but required the phone to be dialed using

8025-420: The phone, dial a number, then press the handset into rubber cups on the top of the modem. Disconnecting at the end of a call required the user to pick up the handset and return it to the phone. Examples of direct-connecting modems did exist, and these often allowed the host computer to send it commands to answer or hang up calls, but these were very expensive devices used by large banks and similar companies. With

8132-448: The process may be using, especially the program counter , plus any other operating system specific data that may be necessary. This is usually stored in a data structure called a process control block (PCB) or switchframe . The PCB might be stored on a per-process stack in kernel memory (as opposed to the user-mode call stack ), or there may be some specific operating system-defined data structure for this information. A handle to

8239-489: The public, became available in the late 1970s and formed the online service market that lasted into the 1990s. One particularly influential example was PLATO , which had thousands of users by the late 1970s, many of whom used the messaging and chat room features of the system in the same way that would later become common on BBSes. Early modems were generally either expensive or very simple devices using acoustic couplers to handle telephone operation. The user would pick up

8346-451: The rapid rise in capacity and a dramatic drop in the price of hard drives . By the late 1980s, many BBS systems had significant file libraries, and this gave rise to leeching – users calling BBSes solely for their files. These users would use the modem for some time, leaving less time for other users, who got busy signals . The resulting upheaval eliminated many of the pioneering message-centric systems. This also gave rise to

8453-461: The same type of system as the BBS, the session would simply fall back to simple ASCII output. For example, a Commodore 64 user calling an Atari BBS would use ASCII rather than the native character set of either. As time progressed, most terminal programs began using the ASCII standard, but could use their native character set if it was available. COCONET, a BBS system made by Coconut Computing, Inc.,

8560-677: The software and technology innovations and people behind them, and listings to US and worldwide BBSes. In addition, in the US, a major monthly magazine, Computer Shopper , carried a list of BBSes along with a brief abstract of each of their offerings. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was considerable experimentation with ways to develop user-friendly interfaces for BBSes. Almost every popular system used ANSI-based color menus to make reading easier on capable hardware and terminal emulators, and most also allowed cursor commands to offer command-line recall and similar features. Another common feature

8667-415: The state of the new process. CPU state information including the registers, stack pointer , and program counter as well as memory management information like segmentation tables and page tables (unless the old process shares the memory with the new) are loaded from the PCB for the new process. To avoid incorrect address translation in the case of the previous and current processes using different memory,

8774-472: The sudden obsolescence of bulletin board technology in 1995 and the collapse of its supporting market. Technically, Internet service offered an enormous advantage over BBS systems, as a single connection to the user's Internet service provider allowed them to contact services around the world. In comparison, BBS systems relied on a direct point-to-point connection, so even dialing multiple local systems required multiple phone calls. Internet protocols also allowed

8881-469: The system after the cork board his local computer club used to post information like "need a ride". CBBS officially went online on 16 February 1978. CBBS, which kept a count of callers, reportedly connected 253,301 callers before it was finally retired. A key innovation required for the popularization of the BBS was the Smartmodem manufactured by Hayes Microcomputer Products . Internal modems like

8988-419: The system operator's home. As such, access could be unreliable, and in many cases, only one user could be on the system at a time. Only larger BBSes with multiple phone lines using specialized hardware, multitasking software, or a LAN connecting multiple computers, could host multiple simultaneous users. The first BBSes each used their own unique software, quite often written entirely or at least customized by

9095-573: The system operators themselves, running on early S-100 bus microcomputer systems such as the Altair 8800 , IMSAI 8080 and Cromemco under the CP/M operating system. Soon after, BBS software was being written for all of the major home computer systems of the late 1970s era – the Apple II , Atari 8-bit computers , Commodore PET , and TRS-80 being some of the most popular. In 1981,

9202-446: The system spontaneously created stories, poetry and other forms of communications. The system was expensive to operate, and when their host machine became unavailable and a new one could not be found, the system closed in January 1975. Similar functionality was available to most mainframe users, which might be considered a sort of ultra-local BBS when used in this fashion. Commercial systems, expressly intended to offer these features to

9309-413: The system transitions between user mode and kernel mode , a context switch is not necessary; a mode transition is not by itself a context switch. However, depending on the operating system, a context switch may also take place at this time. The state of the currently executing process must be saved so it can be restored when rescheduled for execution. The process state includes all the registers that

9416-664: The system using a terminal program . Once logged in, the user performs functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through public message boards and sometimes via direct chatting . In the early 1980s, message networks such as FidoNet were developed to provide services such as NetMail , which is similar to internet-based email . Many BBSes also offered online games in which users could compete with each other. BBSes with multiple phone lines often provided chat rooms , allowing users to interact with each other. Bulletin board systems were in many ways

9523-399: The time ran as a single- node , single-tasking DOS program. Normally, only one copy of the BBS software could run at once, limiting the host PC to running one node. DESQview allows multiple copies of these single-task programs to run at once on the same computer, allowing anyone with even unimpressive hardware to run a large, powerful, multiuser BBS out of their home. DESQview does not provide

9630-448: The true BBS experience, one can use NetSerial (Windows) or DOSBox (Windows/*nix) to redirect DOS COM port software to telnet, allowing them to connect to Telnet BBSes using 1980s and 1990s era modem terminal emulation software, like Telix , Terminate , Qmodem and Procomm Plus . Modern 32-bit terminal emulators such as mTelnet and SyncTerm include native telnet support. Since most early BBSes were run by computer hobbyists, content

9737-569: The user the illusion of being somewhere else, such as in a sanatorium , wizard's castle, or on a pirate ship . In the early days, the file download library consisted of files that the system operators obtained themselves from other BBSes and friends. Many BBSes inspected every file uploaded to their public file download library to ensure that the material did not violate copyright law. As time went on, shareware CD-ROMs were sold with up to thousands of files on each CD-ROM . Small BBSes copied each file individually to their hard drive. Some systems used

9844-491: The user to easily connect to a series of systems. The introduction of the Smartmodem led to the first real wave of BBS systems. Limited in speed and storage capacity, these systems were normally dedicated solely to messaging, private email and public forums. File transfers were extremely slow at these speeds, and file libraries were typically limited to text files containing lists of other BBS systems. These systems attracted

9951-454: Was Excalibur BBS with low-bandwidth applications that required its own client for efficiency. This led to one of the earliest implementations of Electronic Commerce in 1996 with replication of partner stores around the globe. TCP/IP networking allowed most of the remaining BBSes to evolve and include Internet hosting capabilities. Recent BBS software, such as Synchronet , Mystic BBS , EleBBS, DOC , Magpie or Wildcat! BBS , provide access using

10058-481: Was already "venerable" by 1994 although the Hermes II release remained popular. ) Skypix featured on Amiga a complete markup language . It used a standardized set of icons to indicate mouse driven commands available online and to recognize different filetypes present on BBS storage media. It was capable of transmitting data like images, audio files, and audio clips between users linked to the same BBS or off-line if

10165-529: Was also a small faction of devoted Atari BBSes that used the Atari 800, then the 800XL, and eventually the 1040ST . The earlier machines generally lacked hard drive capabilities, which limited them primarily to messaging. MS-DOS continued to be the most popular operating system for BBS use up until the mid-1990s, and in the early years, most multi-node BBSes were running under a DOS based multitasker such as DESQview or consisted of multiple computers connected via

10272-526: Was called DESQview 386 (DV386). With the introduction of the 80386, the memory management features were enhanced to allow the system to shift into protected mode but also allow the addresses to be configured in a virtual 8086 mode so that the extended memory can be mapped into addressing frames and accessible to real-mode programs such as DOS. This allows a 386 to implement the LIM ( Lotus , Intel , Microsoft ) EMS (expanded memory specification). The memory manager

10379-427: Was capable of giving the user a complete graphical interface, featuring rich graphics, changeable fonts, mouse-controlled actions, animations and sound. Today , most BBS software that is still actively supported, such as Worldgroup, Wildcat! BBS and Citadel/UX , is Web-enabled, and the traditional text interface has been replaced (or operates concurrently) with a Web-based user interface. For those more nostalgic for

10486-701: Was far faster, smaller, and more stable, it was more expensive and didn't include support for the graphical features of MS Windows. The decline of QEMM started with the bundling of a memory manager in Digital Research 's DR DOS 5.0 , released in 1990. To catch on, Microsoft included its own EMM386 in MS-DOS 5.0 , while previously the memory management functionality was only available with Windows. QEMM could still be used instead, notably with Windows 3.1x , but only for incremental benefit. Sales of QEMM declined. In August 1994, after three quarters of losses,

10593-564: Was largely technical, with user communities revolving around hardware and software discussions. As the BBS phenomenon grew, so did the popularity of special interest boards. Bulletin Board Systems could be found for almost every hobby and interest. Popular interests included politics, religion, music, dating , and alternative lifestyles . Many system operators also adopted a theme in which they customized their entire BBS (welcome screens, prompts, menus, and so on) to reflect that theme. Common themes were based on fantasy , or were intended to give

10700-456: Was maintained in a routing table called a Nodelist. Some larger BBSes or regional FidoNet hubs would make several transfers per day, some even to multiple nodes or hubs, and as such, transfers usually occurred at night or in the early morning when toll rates were lowest. In Fido's heyday, sending a Netmail message to a user on a distant FidoNet node, or participating in an Echomail discussion could take days, especially if any FidoNet nodes or hubs in

10807-485: Was ported to DVX. DVX itself can serve DOS programs and the 16-bit Windows environment across the network as X programs, which made it useful for those who wished to run DOS and Windows programs from their Unix workstations. The same functionality is available with some versions of NCD Wincenter . Internetworking company Novell developed a product called NetWare Access Server (NAS) incorporating features of DESQview 386 and pcAnywhere . The DESQview multitasking support

10914-517: Was put into developing the most efficient protocols and display systems possible. TCP/IP ran slowly over 1200 bit/s modems. 56 kbit/s modems could access the protocol suite more quickly than with slower modems. Dial-up Internet service became widely available in the mid-1990s to the general public outside of universities and research laboratories, and connectivity was included in most general-use operating systems by default as Internet access became popular. These developments together resulted in

11021-508: Was released in 1988 and only supported a GUI (no text interface was initially available but eventually became available around 1990), and worked in EGA/VGA graphics mode, which made it stand out from text-based BBS systems. COCONET's bitmap and vector graphics and support for multiple type fonts were inspired by the PLATO system , and the graphics capabilities were based on what was available in

11128-475: Was released. In the mid-1990s, Quarterdeck tried to recast itself as an Internet company, releasing a version of the Mosaic web browser. Eventually, the company was acquired by Symantec . BYTE in 1984 stated that DesQ's application compatibility was the highest of the five window managers tested. The magazine's Jerry Pournelle in 1989 noted that "while MultiFinder doesn't work very well yet, DESQView on

11235-459: Was remarkable, given the constraints of its host operating system. It also has a clever interface that is generally unobtrusive while being quickly available and very easy to learn. All normal PCs include a keyboard with three "shift" or "modifier" keys: Control, Alt, and the normal Shift keys. These keys are normally held down in combination with other keys. DESQview, by default, monitors the Alt key for isolated presses (not in combination). Pressing

11342-482: Was the use of autocomplete to make menu navigation simpler, a feature that would not re-appear on the Web until decades later. A number of systems also made forays into GUI-based interfaces, either using character graphics sent from the host, or using custom GUI-based terminal systems. The latter initially appeared on the Macintosh platform, where TeleFinder and FirstClass became very popular. FirstClass offered

11449-401: Was used to create an environment into which up to 16 PC and Macintosh clients can login remotely to access NetWare services and run DOS applications. DESQview development continued in parallel with DESQview/X. After ceasing development on DESQview/X, another version of DESQview was released. QEMM was still developed after the discontinuation of DESQview, and a version compatible with Windows 98

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