Date   : Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:07:03 +0000
From   : samwise@... (samwise)
Subject: Beeb Networking - Was: No wonder CompSci graduates

> Now that's an interesting concept!

Thanks.  :)

> ? 1. User interface. Too many programs could be troublesome to navigate,
> ? ? ?especially if your favourite program is in the middle of a long
> ? ? ?list!
>
> ? 2. Where would user data (documents, settings, user scores, etc) be
> ? ? ?written?

Well, my theoretical idea is that this would work just like a
traditional econet - so that real beebs could mix with emulated ones
so to that extent, I'd expect the answers to these sorts of questions
would be driven by how an original econet would work - and there are
clearly ppl who understand such things better than I.

However, from memory:

1) Yes, this would be a big menu.  I would expect to subdivide it into
categories of software, and then have menus perhaps sorted
alphabetically or by company (maybe even have a variety of options).
Obviously a challenge to put that together, but not impossible.  I
still have the menu system we used to use at school which was setup
like this - a BASIC menu program which included an internal editor.  I
think it was called SXMENU.  Similar menus are in use I think to allow
you to launch all the images available on a flash disk with the
various modern filing systems, I think.

2) I wasn't actually considering giving everyone a user account, I was
kinda hoping that it would be possible to use a guest account to
access the read-only fileserver.  Unless someone really wanted to go
crazy and start trying to get some econet games working that needed it
... CAVE maybe?

Dunno.  I'm really just brainstorming here ... I don't have the
time/capabilities to realise it atm.  I'm just throwing the idea out
there - if a virtual econet ever becomes a possibility, I'd be happy
to get involved where I can trying to set something like that up.  We
have a nice server capable of running custom stuff over at *./RS which
might prove useful.

Peter.