🚀 go-pugleaf

In <77823-8...@mindlink.bc.ca>, Eugen_...@mindlink.bc.ca (Eugen Woiwod) writes:

>Everything else he run's is pretty much OS/2 util's. OS/2 may be dead or
>getting close to it, but OS/2 is great for running a large bbs like David
>Poon's. Although i'd love to see WIN95 try and handle 700 message bases and
>midnight maintenance for a large bbs like that :-)

    This has very little to do with the operating system at all.  700 messages
bases on Remote Access would probably be in the JAM format.  The best, hands
down, JAM tosser/scanner is GEcho and the assoiated utilities, MBUtils.  DOS
only applications with OS/2 versions in the works.

    But as I was saying.  Handling the message bases on that system is the
domain of the tosser/scanner and associated utilities, not of the OS.  About
the only aspect of the OS that really plays a roll in this is the file system
that it is running.

    This is because those file areas take up space and cannot be accessed
while they are being purged/packed.  So if the machine is dedicated to the BBS
there is maybe a few tasks going, but nothing serious.  An industrious SysOp
would launch all the door maintainence at once along with the message base
packing and purging, but there really isn't a need.

    So multi-tasking capabilities when related to that really doesn't play in.
However, like I said, file system does.  Win95 and VFAT, OS/2 with HPFS.  VFAT
is nothing more than FAT with long-filenames.  It is still as prone to
fragmentation as FAT was.  HPFS uses a binary-tree search for faster disk
access, especially on larger drives, and also works to prevent fragmentation
as much as possible.  This is because HPFS tries to fit a file into a space
big enough for it instead of a little bit here and a little bit there
whereever there is room.

    That is about the only advantage OS/2 gives in maintaining such a large
system of message bases.  And it really isn't that much.  Because the message
bases are continually growing and shrinking.  Althuogh HPFS tries not to
fragment files, when they have behavior like a message base does for the
typical BBS hooked into any net some fragmentation will occur.  Not as much as
with FAT or VFAT, but it will happen.

Steve 'Rava' Lamb - PGP 1024/1DE8B981 | My thoughts, my actions are my own.
            The Underground           | I need not worry if others do not
 Anime - RPG - Doors - Babylon 5 - etc| like them.  For they are me, there
BBS: (916) 631-8743  2400-v.FAST 28.8k| is no changing that.
BBS2: (916) 631-8653  2400-v.32b 14.4k| ------------[Team OS/2]------------