Date   : Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:14:14 +0000
From   : jgh@... (J.G.Harston)
Subject: Beeb Networking - Was: No wonder CompSci

Mark Usher wrote:
> 1) With Econet enabled there is a lot of software that will no longer run

With <foo$bar>FS enabled there is a lot of software that will not run
due to the annoyingly large numbers of numpty programmer who refuse to
write their programs in a way that will actually allow other people to
use them.

One of the whole **POINTS** of writing software is the showing-off of
other people using your software. Deliberately going out of your way
to ensure that your software doesn't work on other people's machines
just completely and utterly destroys the whole point of writing
programs.

> 2) Econet is not one of the most robust or secure networks (security in the
> sense that it is easy to hack and delete files)

That's the fileserver's security, not the network's security.

> 3) The linux resembling package idea is a great concept. Doesn't MAME have
> something like this already? That would be a far better way to do the
> download/install of games / roms / software as packages. Fairly simple to
> do. Just bundle them up in XML. Even with the load addresses etc.

You just have to decide what you want to implement at the BBC end.
A network, over which a fileserver's filesystem is accessed, or a
filesystem.

The pre-existing NetFS filing system uses the pre-exiting NetFS protocol
to use the pre-existing Econet protocol to communicate with a fileserver
over the network of your choice. What you need to implement is a system
to assemble and disassemble Econet packets into/from suitable packets
for the other network and route them appropriately.

Implementing a network solution means that you have access to the full
networking system - data transmission and reception, communication
to other networked stations, non-file client/server communications,
peer/peer communications, etc.

The pre-existing Tube protocol exposes a filing system interface. You
then just implement a system that responds to filing system requests
and access data on a file server.

Implementing a filing system solution means that you only have access
to a filing system - no non-file client/server communication, no
peer/peer communication, no generic data packet transmission and
reception.

What you want to implement is up to you. I've implemented the Tube
protocol over a single byte channel (eg a serial port) in Z80, I
can quickly translate it to 6502. Various systems like LinkFS,
65Link, LapLink, etc have also implemented the remote file access
paradigm.

PS: Shouldn't we drop the Was:... bit from the subject line now?

-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...