bbs

Overview ¶

Package bbs interacts with legacy textfiles encoded with Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) color codes to reconstruct them into HTML documents.

BBSes were popular in the 1980s and 1990s, and allowed computer users to chat, message, and share files over the landline telephone network. The commercialization and ease of access to the Internet eventually replaced BBSes, as did the world-wide-web.

These centralized systems, termed boards, used a text-based interface, and their owners often applied colorization, text themes, and art to differentiate themselves.

While in the 1990s, ANSI control codes were in everyday use on the PC/MS-DOS, the standard comes from mainframe equipment. Home microcomputers often had difficulty interpreting it. So BBS developers created their own, more straightforward methods to colorize and theme the text output to solve this.

*Please note, while many PC/MS-DOS boards used ANSI control codes for colorizations, this library does not support the standard.

PCBoard ¶

One of the most well-known applications for hosting a PC/MS-DOS BBS, PCBoard pioneered the file_id.diz file descriptor, as well as being endlessly expandable through software plugins known as PPEs. It developed the popular @X color code and @ control syntax.

Celerity ¶

Another PC/MS-DOS application that was very popular with the hacking, phreaking, and pirate communities in the early 1990s. It introduced a unique | pipe code syntax in late 1991 that revised the code syntax in version 2 of the software.

Renegade ¶

A PC/MS-DOS application that was a derivative of the source code of Telegard BBS. Surprisingly there was a new release of this software in 2021. Renegade had two methods to implement color, and this library uses the Pipe Bar Color Codes.

Telegard ¶

A PC/MS-DOS application became famous due to a source code leak or release by one of its authors back in an era when most developers were still highly secretive with their code. The source is incorporated into several other projects.

WVIV ¶

A mainstay in the PC/MS-DOS BBS scene of the 1980s and early 1990s, it became well known for releasing its source code to registered users. It allowed them to expand the code to incorporate additional software such as games or utilities and port it to other platforms. The source is now Open Source and is still updated. Confusingly WWIV has three methods of colorizing text, 10 Pipe colors, two-digit pipe colors, and its original Heart Codes.

Wildcat ¶

WILDCAT! was a popular, propriety PC/MS-DOS application from the late 1980s that later migrated to Windows. It was one of the few BBS applications that sold at retail in a physical box. It extensively used @ color codes throughout later revisions of its software.

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"embed"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"golang.org/x/text/encoding/charmap"
	"golang.org/x/text/transform"

	"github.com/bengarrett/bbs"
)

var (
	//go:embed static/*
	static embed.FS
)

func main() {
	// print about the file
	file, err := static.Open("static/examples/hello.pcb")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer file.Close()

	s, b, err := bbs.Fields(file)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Printf("Found %d %s color controls.\n\n", len(s), b)

	// reopen the file
	file, err = static.Open("static/examples/hello.pcb")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer file.Close()

	// transform the MS-DOS legacy text to Unicode
	decoder := charmap.CodePage437.NewDecoder()
	reader := transform.NewReader(file, decoder)

	// create the HTML equivalent of BBS color codes
	var buf bytes.Buffer
	if _, err := bbs.HTML(&buf, reader); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Print(buf.String())

}

Output:
Found 11 PCBoard @X color controls.

<i class="PB0 PFF">    </i><i class="PB7 PF0"> ┌─────────────┐ </i><i class="PB0 PF7">
</i><i class="PB0 PFF">    </i><i class="PB7 PF0"> │ Hello </i><i class="PBF PF0">world </i><i class="PB7 PF0">│ </i><i class="PB0 PF7">
</i><i class="PB0 PFF">    </i><i class="PB7 PF0"> └─────────────┘ </i><i class="PB0 PF7"></i>