CDOOR MODS, Released August 1996. Modifications to the 17.4 Code coordinated and coded by Dan Drinnon with input from various RBBS mod authors. Dan has put together and excellent collection of enhancements, including built in netmail and internet E-mail. Dan can be reached through his BBS at (301) 352-7213, Fidonet 1:109/331.

CDOR9602.ZIP 652K CDoor mods RBBS 17.4 (PDS7/VBDOS)
CDSP9602.ZIP 716K Supplemental progs for Cellar Door
CDCP9602.ZIP 338K 286+ math co, non-overlay version
CDCV9602.ZIP 354K 286+ math co, overlay version
CDEX9602.ZIP 338K 286+ no math, non-overlay version
CDEV9602.ZIP 355K 286+ no math, overlay version
CDXT9602.ZIP 341K XT's and up, non-overlay version
CDXV9602.ZIP 357K XT's and up, overlay version

BUSIMODS, Released April 1994. Modifications to the 17.4 Code coordinated and coded by Richie Molinelli. Richie has done some excellent work providing many enhancements such as support for CD-ROM and OS/2. Richie can be reached through his BBS at (516) 579-7929, Fidonet 1:2619/172.

BM0406A.ZIP  613K Busimods for RBBS v17.4, 1/3
BM0406B.ZIP  625K Busimods for RBBS v17.4, 2/3 286+
BM0406C.ZIP  399K Busimods for RBBS v17.4, 3/3 XT+
BMBETA16.ZIP 343K Latest Busimods Beta Updates

RBBS 17.5 BETA, Released February 1995. Incorporated many of the modifications and is labeled as the next official release. However, from talking with others this release appears to have many bugs not found in the Busimods or CDOOR mods, see RBBS 17.5 Beta Bug List. The code has been recently supported by Richie Molinelli, however Ken Goosens is considered the person in charge of releasing "official" versions of RBBS. Ken can be reached through his BBS at (703) 978-6360.

175B220C.ZIP 175K CONFIG.EXE and online help
175B220M.ZIP 240K RBBS-PC.EXE 80386+, mathco
175B220X.ZIP 245K RBBS-PC.EXE XT-Class machines
175B220U.ZIP 464K Free utilities for upgrading
175B220T.ZIP  68K Documentation since 17.4
175B220S.ZIP 432K Source code for PDS or VB/DOS

RBBS 18.0 Proposal
The following are the details of the proposed solution. This solution is based on the premise of starting with the CDOOR mod package soley due to the long list of enhancement which has been made and the continued support the past few years. The Busimod package is another excellent piece of work and would most likly work equally as well as a starting point.

• START WITH THE 17.4 CDOOR MODS - this code base appears to be farthest along and due to the 4 years of effort Dan put into it would be a major undertaking to incorporate many of its features into any other release of RBBS.

• ENHANCE WITH BUSIMOD AND RBBS 17.5 BETA CODE - as discussed above there are features in each version which does not exist in other versions. For example the excellent Assembly based OS/2 support Richie developed in Busimods and the RBBS 17.5 Beta. (CDOOR used a BASIC GiveBack routine to save on Code Segments). This is most likly required for several RBBS sysops and would be a welcome addition to any official code release. Richie's involvement would most definitly be key in such an effort, and hopefully he will find the time to accomplish our goal of a single release.

• REMOVE UNPOPULAR CODE - EXE size, Buffers, and Code Segments are all critical resource parameters being pushed to there limits with RBBS. A possible solution would be to remove the RCHAT (chat between multiple nodes) and develop this functionality as an external DOOR. This would allow for a much more sophisticated chat feature and at the same time reducing resource requirements for RBBS. Dan Traczynski has offered to customize his Chat Door program for RBBS Users, see "Current RBBS Development Efforts" presented below.

• CONFIG.EXE UPGRADE - there were many improvements made to the CONFIG program in the 17.5 Beta which would need to be incorporated into the current config program used in CDOOR. I myself would be willing to make this contribution if we decide to go through with a consolidated effort.

• DOCUMENTATION - an upgrade to the documentation would be required. There was an excellent effort started by Danny Turner a while back but never materialized due to lack of support. Hopefully, Danny could start this up again with the intention of just being able to get something better but not necessarily perfect. Many supplemental documents would need to be incorporated into the old 17.4 documentation and a certain degree of organizing would be necessary. Though a complete rewrite would be nice, it would be very difficult finding the resources to perform this task at this time.

Obtain Support From Key Players
Within the next few weeks I will be trying to get support from the key individuals for this effort, Dan Drinnon, Ken Goosens, and Richie Molinelli displaying their attitutes here for all to see. If this effort fails there is really not much else that can be done. For those disappointed about the results I really don't know what else can be said.

"Take whoever's mods and call it stock. I would be proud to see the Cellar Door Mods or BusiMods become stock, I know how much time I've spent on them, imagine Richie has too, and either set of mods work much better than stock, has the appeal and support."
Dan Drinnon, 08/22/96

Disadvantages of RBBS 18.0
With any effort like this you will not be able to please everyone. The following are preceived liabilities for a few RBBS followers.

• UPGRADE CONVERSION - Changing from existing RBBS installations to any new system will require some effort modifing configuration files. Since each version of RBBS discussed has some unique configuration parameters all sysops will require some amount of setup modification. Writing a configuration utility to support all possible conversion will most likly be a big hassle which would be difficult finding anyone to support. Thus, many may need to print out their current configuration file screen by screen in their existing CONFIG program and re-enter many of the parameters. However, the additional effort should most definitly be appreciated since this will once again organize all new development and bug fix efforts on a single version.

• OBSOLETE CODE REMOVAL - Due to RBBS 18.0 based largly on CDOOR modifications the fact that Dan removed some code which is considered obsolete by 99% of the market it may no doubt cause some problem for a very few individuals. However, without this change the long term effort of RBBS would be dead anyway thus to move forward there really seems to be no way around this issue.

Individuals Expressing Interest to Help
Some have expressed great interest in getting back to a single "best" RBBS release and are willing to contribute their valuable time and effort if the key individuals responsible for RBBS distribution can agree on fixing the current situation. Here is a list of individuals who have expressed interest in helping with obtaining a consolidated version of RBBS.

• Chat Door - An external chat door developed and maintained by Dan Traczynski is being customized for RBBS. However, Dan is forced to customize this program for all the different RBBS versions out there. By getting back to a single RBBS version the integration between Dan's door and RBBS could be greatly enhanced.

• Config Program - All the RBBS versions also have various versions of the accompanying config program. I will be glad to consolidate these features into a single config program should we get agreement on the RBBS 18.0 Proposal. By consolidating the RBBS effort we will be able to much more easily incorporate some of the utilities to deal with CDROM file structures and mail message maintenance into a single source code version of config.exe. In addition Dan Traczynski has done some work in this area and his efforts could also possibly be used.

• Documentation - As mentioned above hopefully Danny Turner could start up his documentation effort again. Pete Fedrico has offered to help with this effort. You can also contact Pete at the Personal Business BBS at (609) 291-1119.

Additional RBBS Stuff on the Web
If your not aware, the excellent RBBS add on product Mail Manager, by Chip Morrow and Doug Wilson is also available on the web at the Makai Software web page. The two most popular RBBS mail processors are RBBSmail by Jan Terpstra and MsgToss by Mike Zakharoff and Warren Muldrow. Hopefully, these products will soon appear on the web with some form of support for reporting bugs. In the mean time two excellent resources for downloading RBBS Utilities are Simtel and Coast file collections.

You may also want to check out the NCAP product which includes a couple RBBS utilities such as CALLER File Viewer and USER/MESSAGE File Conversions. You can always find the latest version of NCAP at http://netmation.com/files.htm. If there is interest I have other utilities I use which I can integrate into the NCAP product at a later date. Inaddition, if you have any BASIC source code for an RBBS utility I can integrate it into NCAP if you wish to share your utility with others.