Re: PPPkit 2.0 (was: Importance of "W" f

[q-funk@citenet.net (Martin-Eric Racine)]

 >>  >Yes, how many "average-joe" users really need a multi-user system? I
 >>  >certainly see no need for it.
 >> 
 >> Multi-user is a growning industry, on the PC side, so why not here?
 >> Typically, this involves a whole family or small office connecting
 >> to the internet using the best-featured machine and other machines
 >> using it as an IP masking device.
 >
 >"Multiuser" on the PC (i.e. Windows) isn't anything like "multiuser"
 >as it's used in MiNTOS. On the PC it simply means that the person
 >using the web/mail/news-browser can type a username (and optionally a
 >password) to use their own setup for a particular session.

1) This is completely wrong. Even Toad Computers now sell local
   networking kits to allow what I described. So it's not just a
   "load a new user profile and get mail" thing. 
   It's beyond that. It's a: "kid in bedroom A surfs, while kid
   in bedroom B chats, and father in bedroom C checks out porn 
   sites; all linked to the father's souped-up P300 whose modem
   connects to the ISP".

2) Is that a lame excuse for NOT developping a masquerading device
   for MiNTnet?  If Ronald Anderson figured one out for STiNG, I'm
   sure it can be done on MiNTnet.
   
3) Average Joe don't need a "Telnet & commandline" system, a la UNIX.
   He just wants to use Netscape on machine B while only machine A is
   connected to his ISP.
   
 >> I am currently writing a GEM mail/news client that will first run
 >> as a MiNTnet client (STiK version later).
 >
 >Peter Rottengatter is working on a BSD-like library for STiNG which
 >should make porting much easier. It won't work with older versions of
 >STiK or STinG though, as the STinG API has to be extended a bit to get
 >full BSD-functionality. 

I am fully aware of Peter's efforts and I support them, but if
this means clients written using those BSD extensions won't be
able to work on STiK, then I won't use it for the STiK version.

Already, Peter's Transport.H is better-featured than the original
STiK binding (because it fully implements the STiK 1.13 structure)
so this is what I'll use.

I'm also working on a patch to GlueSTiK and PPPD that will use this
expanded Transport.H and some new routines to correct the Client_IP
bug that crashes Atari/Frac IRC clients on GlueSTiK. 
I'm waiting to retrofit a larger HD in my TT, so I can install GCC,
before I can proceed, but I got all the maths figured out already.


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From: Martin-Eric Racine FUNKYWARE http://www.megacom.net/~q-funk
Atari TT030 12/48 NVDI 4.11r0, MiNT 1.14.5, N.AES 1.1.0, GlueSTiK
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