NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/bbs/8131

Text File | 1993-01-23 | 1.6 KB | 38 lines

Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Path: sparky!uunet!world!adamg
From: [e-mail] (Adam M Gaffin)
Subject: Re: GIF Menus on BBSs
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <h0k3p![e-mail]>
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 04:18:07 GMT
Lines: 27

There's already a way to do this: NAPLPS.  This is the graphics format
used by Prodigy, but one can do a lot more with it than they do.  NAPLPS
is much better than GIF, IMHO, because its files tend to be *A LOT*
smaller (especially if you're talking about something like menus).  And it
has the user-end processing you're talking about; i.e., a NAPLPS menu is
really a set of directions to your telecom program to draw something on
the screen, rather than a full-fledged graphics file.

The format's been around for awhile, but hadn't gone too far until
recently.  Microstar, the major NAPLPS developer, however, has released a
shareware version of its drawing tool kit as well as its terminal program,
which is, unfortunately, really poor (it doesn't support file transfers
for example).

But Dave Hughes of Colorado, probably *THE* NAPLPS advocate, is currently
working with a team of Russian programmers to develop a decent terminal
program; word is it will be released soon.  Randy Harris, a Massachusetts
programmer has developed a really nifty system to integrate NAPLPS into
TBBS -- it automatically switches between NAPLPS, ANSI, etc., and he's
designed some really beautiful menus and templates.


--
Adam Gaffin
Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass.
[e-mail]
Voice: [phone]. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: [phone].