![]() The script language was introduced with version 15.0 and made this version of PCBoard even more successful than PCBoard V14.5. This allowed programmers to develop PPEs for PCBoard without having to purchase a PCBoard BBS license.Īlso optional and available by itself were the printed PCBoard manual and the printed PPLC reference handbook. It was less than $100 by itself and less than $50 in combination with any BBS license. PPEs were generated by the PCBoard Programming Language Compiler (PPLC), which was an optional tool provided by Clark Development Company and was also available for purchase as stand alone tool. A compiled interpreter script written in PPL was called PPE (PCBoard Programming Executable). The first version of PCBoard was released in 1983.Ĭlark Development Company (CDC) pioneered the FILE ID.DIZ format as well as a powerful scripting language (PPL), which supported modifications and to a large degree replacement of most standard commands and processes. Starting in 1988, the RelayNet, also known as RIME for RelayNet International Mail Exchange, allowed BBS's running PCBoard to join a network that exchanged messages with other BBS's in a system similar to the older FidoNet. The open source terminal emulator SyncTERM, available for Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris and Mac OS X can be used for example to connect to the few remaining PCBoard BBS installations that are connected to the Internet. PCBoard also supports ISDN ( Integrated Services Digital Network) and Telnet access via the Internet. Other options were internal multi-modem cards and multiple computers connected by local area network. ![]() This made multiport cards like the G-Tek "BlackBoard", "BBS550" or "SmartCard" and the "DigiCard" by Digi International popular among sysops. Standard PCs then and today have only one or two (if any) serial ports (COM ports), which are needed to connect an external modem to a computer. Windows 95 was never officially supported by CDC. Stability was critical for a BBS, which was usually running 24/7, and the early version of the Microsoft 32-bit operating system lacked it. Some sysops tried to run PCBoard on the (then) new Windows 95 operating system by Microsoft and reported mixed results. PCBoard supported the 16C550 UARTs ( universal asynchronous receiver transmitter), such as 16550 UART ("Fifo"), 16554 UART and 16650 UART, which made it possible to run multiple nodes of the BBS on a single ( multitasking) computer using either using IBM OS/2 or the DOS multitasking tool DESQview in combination with the memory manager QEMM. There were also a few tools available for PCBoard, which were specifically developed for the OS/2 2.0 and OS/2 Warp operating system. Most PCB sales were of two-line licenses additional line licenses (in ranges of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 2) were also available.Ī native 32-bit IBM OS/2 version became also available with PCB V15.22 and higher. Like many BBS companies, the rise of the Internet starting around 1994 led to serious downturns in fortunes, and Clark Development went bankrupt in 1997. PCBoard was one of the first commercial BBS packages for DOS systems, and was considered one of the "high end" packages during the rapid expansion of BBS systems in the early 1990s. Clark Development was founded by Fred Clark. That was it!Īnd, sync does live in /usr/local/bin - at any rate, SOLVED.PCBoard (PCB) was a bulletin board system (BBS) application first introduced for DOS in 1983 by Clark Development Company. I can try reinstalling the coreutils package - thanks for that suggestion, thats what I was looking for.Īnd B00M!! That fixed it I couldn't find a reference to 'sync' on any Arch sites - thanks for the coreutils suggestion. I'm new, so I don't exactly know what it was - POSSIBLY I didn't delete it from /usr/local/bin, but thought so because thats where 'syncterm' lived and I made the error by attempting to delete IT. well it was from one of the core Arch/GNOME binaries installed when I first setup the system. Oops - sorry, maybe I got a part of it wrong - the 'sync' I deleted wasn't my own addition. If you actually had a different binary "sync" in /usr/local/bin, nobody can help you because we cannot possibly know what that was and where it came from but in any event and as shard pointed out: that would have been a dumb idea to begin stay away from whichcraft -) I guess you're throwing around the "local" part a bit casually here, because you clearly removed that binary (as well) Although rarely used, /usr/bin/sync is a core utility that you will mask by doing so.
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