Re: OS/2

From: Kirby Vandivort (kvandivo@umr.edu)
Date: 04/21/95


On Thu, 20 Apr 1995 22:18:04 -0700 (PDT) you wrote:

This was just so juicy that I had to respond...

>
>
>On Fri, 21 Apr 1995, Belgian Underground Mud wrote:
>
>> Hi.
>> 
>> Is there anyone who got the mud running under OS/2?
>> 
>> Bug.
>> 
>
>I had it running under OS/2 for a while. However there was major errors 
>in the port. IBM wanted me to pay $400 for the TCPIP programers 
>developers kit for OS/2 so I discontinued running it under OS2. I 
>currently run it under linux and it runs 100 times faster. Some of the 
>problems with the port was,
>
>   1) all the syslogs where messed up
>   2) all the help files where messed up
>   3) Renting would mess up all the affects of objects.
>   
>I attempted to contact the person who ported it, but the person's E-Mail 
>account was not valid. 
>
>If you can, don't run it under OS/2. It's too slow.
>


About... 2 or 3 months ago, I was looking over the ftp archives for os/2, and I noted that they had circle.zip there.  This is the zip that you are talking about.  So, I downloaded it, and got circle 2.2 up and running.  I also noted the problem that you did with the renting.  That was a big bug, and that is the reason that I switched to circle 3.0 bpl7.  As far as the syslogs.. that was an error in the autorun.cmd file, I believe..  And the help files needed you to delete a " or something like that at the very first of them...

At any rate, I too noted that TCP/IP programmers development kit was WAY expensive!  So, i had heard some rumors on the net that gnu+emx had a 'free' sockets implementation.. And, me being the cost-conscious person that i am, I decided to try it out.

To make a long story abit shorter..  It has worked 'pretty well' great!  I had a time getting it set up, because I wasn't too awfully familiar with the whole bit.  But, I now have it working close to perfect, and I'm quite pleased with it.  It runs very fast (granted, I don't have 50 users on...) and it was free, and I get to use 'gcc' to compile, which is handy for portability reasons.

Now, back to that little problem that i was mentioning..  It is a socket problem.  I am pretty sure that it is in emx, and after mailing the author of emx, I'm still working on getting it fixed.  The problem is that the sockets sometimes get assigned to the wrong descriptor, so people on the mud suddenly lose control of their keyboard (ie, can't type.. don't see anything, etc) and a person who just tried to log on has 'taken over' their control..  But, it isn't just that they have taken over the other person.. They are actually playing 'both'.. But, because of the way that the sockets work, it is kind of random about which chars go to each socket/descriptor. 

But, I have found a very effective way around this problem, so it isn't that big of an issue.  I can easily get it so that it doesn't have the problem, and other than that, os/2 is great for this!  I just wish i could have direct ethernet connections ALL the time instead of just during the school year.

At any rate, if you wish to try out Circle 3.0 bpl7 (plus a few of my little things that I've added) running completely under os/2 warp, give it a try at:   131.151.29.9 4001

Later,


----
Kirby Vandivort
kvandivo@umr.edu



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