[comp.dcom.modems] Latest Fossil Driver

bigd@dorsai (David Shapiro) (06/10/91)

Can someone please send the latest version of the X00 fossil driver to me at 
bigd@dorsai.com, UUencoded? Thanks.

Also, can someone summarize the reasons that a fossil driver would be 
needed?


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8 David Shapiro                                 8   The Gooey (GUI) BBS    8
8 bigd@dorsai.com                               8  212-876-5885 9600 CSP   8
8 212-876-5885 9600 CSP (data)                  8   Home of GUI-Net (tm)   8
8 R/O Routable at ->GOOEY on:                   8 Home of the GUI BBS list 8
8 RIME (RelayNet), Intelec, MIDILink, GUI-Net   8  First NYC BBS with CSP  8
8 InterZone!, V-Net, TR'OL Works, NYNet, TRI-Net8      Since 12/90         8
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w8sdz@rigel.acs.oakland.edu (Keith Petersen) (06/11/91)

bigd@dorsai (David Shapiro) writes:
>Can someone please send the latest version of the X00 fossil driver to me at 
>bigd@dorsai.com, UUencoded? Thanks.

It's available from WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL [192.88.110.20]

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.FOSSIL>
 Filename   Type Length   Date    Description
==============================================
X00V124.ZIP   B  114161  910318  Interrupt-driven FOSSIL driver for BBS use

It was obtained directly from the author's BBS.

Keith
--
Keith Petersen
Maintainer of the MSDOS, MISC and CP/M archives at SIMTEL20 [192.88.110.20]
Internet: w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil    or     w8sdz@vela.acs.oakland.edu
Uucp: uunet!umich!vela!w8sdz                          BITNET: w8sdz@OAKLAND

root@zswamp.uucp (Geoffrey Welsh) (06/12/91)

In a letter to All, David Shapiro (bigd@dorsai ) wrote:

 >Also, can someone summarize the reasons that a fossil driver 
 >would be needed?

(1) The IBM PC BIOS drivers for the serial port are woefully inadequate;

(2) Wynn Wagner became frustrated with the Greenleaf communications library 
around the same time that Thom Henderson and Tom Jennings became frustrated 
with the comm libs they were using;

(3) It's nice to be able to write software for "MS-DOS plus a FOSSIL", so 
that it'll work on such nonstandard hardware as a DEC Rainbow.. provided that 
someone can be bothered to write a FOSSIL for it;

(4) Programs which communicate through a FOSSIL driver can actually share 
interrupts (programs which don't, as a rule, can't);

(5) You can update your BBS software without messing up your perfectly 
reliable serial driver, and you can upgrade your serial driver without 
messing up your perfectly reliable BBS software;

   (It just occurred to me that I could think up reasons as fast as I can 
type them up, so I'd best quit before I become truly obsessed and throw away 
what little of my life I still own the rights to)
 

--  
Geoffrey Welsh - Operator, Izot's Swamp BBS (FidoNet 1:221/171)
root@zswamp.uucp or ..uunet!watmath!xenitec!zswamp!root
602-66 Mooregate Crescent, Kitchener, ON, N2M 5E6 Canada (519)741-9553
"He who claims to know everything can't possibly know much" -me

pozar@kumr.lns.com (Tim Pozar) (06/14/91)

In article <203.2855A6B8@zswamp.uucp> root@zswamp.uucp (Geoffrey Welsh) writes:
>In a letter to All, David Shapiro (bigd@dorsai ) wrote:
>
> >Also, can someone summarize the reasons that a fossil driver 
> >would be needed?
>
>(1) The IBM PC BIOS drivers for the serial port are woefully inadequate;
   Agreed!

>(2) Wynn Wagner became frustrated with the Greenleaf communications library 
>around the same time that Thom Henderson and Tom Jennings became frustrated 
>with the comm libs they were using;
   Almost...  Tom wrote the FidoBBS program.  Tom also worked for a 
company called Phoniex software (those BIOS folks) where he was doing
work on porting MS-DOS to a number of different machines.  (Ever seen
MS-DOS run on a multibus?)  At the same time there was a number of 
clones coming out that had very different ideas of what the serial 
port should do (ie. Dec Rainbow).  Several folks asked Tom to port 
Fido over to their machines.  Tom developed a "Generic" communications 
driver.  A couple of years later (and fortunatly the Rainbow left this 
planet) Henderson and others took Tom's generic comm stuff and 
developed the FOSSIL standard.  (Basicly, it is an extension of the 
int14 IBM-PC comm hooks.)  It has become the "default" standard at 
least in the FidoNet world.

                  Tim

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