Waffle still in use today?

Martin Burmester

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Jul 31, 2014, 1:48:38 PM7/31/14

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Hi,

is there still anybody out there using the original Waffle? Can it stil
be used, or are there Y2K or other issues that make it impractical?

Cheers,
Martin

Peter Hoffman

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Dec 12, 2020, 11:36:25 AM12/12/20

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Wow, here I am in December of 2020, looking to get an instance of Waffle BBS running again! I'm using VirtualBox 6.1.16-140961 and FreeDOS 1.2 on Windows 10 in this effort, which has just started this morning.

If that turns out, I hope to use NetFoss RC 1.24 to get UUCP-over-TCP/IP working.

I don't know what it is about Waffle but it just felt so comfortable, with just the right amount of quirkiness to make operating a site feel like being part of a secret club. Good times!

I wish the source code could still be bought...

— Peter.

Peter Hoffman

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Jan 14, 2021, 9:41:55 PM1/14/21

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To get started ASAP, I found that WAFFLE will run on vDOS from https://www.vdos.info/

I expect it will eventually need to run on something that's an actual DOS but it's pretty exciting to see the old "Dark Side of the Moon ... darkside.com ........ 408/245-SPAM" show up!

Good times...

I've been watching "BBS the Documentary" at https://youtu.be/nO5vjmDFZaI and WAFFLE was *very* briefly mentioned in that at https://youtu.be/nO5vjmDFZaI?t=5843 I didn't know Tom Dell had gone by the name "Soylent"? Or was that him at all? Such a mystery... How can the source code be unavailable? People bought copies so it has to be somewhere.

— Peter.

David L. P. Solimano

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Jan 16, 2021, 8:20:17 AM1/16/21

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Peter Hoffman wrote:
>
> To get started ASAP, I found that WAFFLE will run on vDOS from https://www.vdos.info/
>
> I expect it will eventually need to run on something that's an actual DOS but it's pretty exciting to see the old "Dark Side of the Moon ... darkside.com ........ 408/245-SPAM" show up!
>
> Good times...
>
> I've been watching "BBS the Documentary" at https://youtu.be/nO5vjmDFZaI and WAFFLE was *very* briefly mentioned in that at https://youtu.be/nO5vjmDFZaI?t=5843 I didn't know Tom Dell had gone by the name "Soylent"? Or was that him at all? Such a mystery... How can the source code be unavailable? People bought copies so it has to be somewhere.
>
> — Peter.
>

Hopefully someone will show up with source, but a lot of old software
just sort of disappears as people pass away, disks stop working, etc. A
few weeks ago I was reading an article about trying to reconstruct the
source for a 70s UNIX utility
(https://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20210102/#tu), widely distributed in its
day but the only source code anyone could find was in an erased block on
a disk.

More on topic though, starting your own BBS is great fun, hopefully in a
few years I'll have the time to tackle the project myself!

--
David Solimano
da...@solimano.org

b...@ripco.com

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Jan 16, 2021, 9:52:19 AM1/16/21

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David L. P. Solimano <da...@solimano.org> wrote:

> Hopefully someone will show up with source, but a lot of old software
> just sort of disappears as people pass away, disks stop working, etc.

Does anyone remember how it was distributed?

I know we (ripco.com) purchased it back in the day but don't remember if it
was source code or a bunch of shell scripts. I know we were running a sys5r4
like the Dell one back then and I think the only others around in the day
was bsd and sco, to a lesser degree, the apple a/ux. None of those were for
the "shell" box, so it was likely sys5r4 compatable.

Not even sure if it was received on 5.25 or 3.5 floppies.

I'll dig around if I can figure out what to look for.

-bruce
b...@ripco.com

Peter Hoffman

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Jan 16, 2021, 12:01:55 PM1/16/21

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That's true and it's painful. For space reasons, I threw out a lot of stuff about ten years ago. It took up about eight herby-curbies and really hurt.

I saved the 8-bit stuff I have but all the square-spine Computer Shoppers went, all the issues of BYTE, hundreds of other magazines (Dr Dobbs, Computer Language, etc), swag from the 1990s, a bunch of floppies, tapes, and old PC hardware went too. At that time and in this area, there was absolutely no one who was interested in adopting it. Writing about it, I feel as if I'm the one who burned the Library of Alexandria.

I had a really hard time giving away my VAX 11/730. A guy kept promising to come pick it up but after two years he hadn't. Luckily, I found a guy at Georgia Tech would would come get it. Funny thing was the first guy got mad when he heard about it!

Anyway, I hope you'll set up a BBS! I feel that there's a movement growing to get away from a corporate Internet experience. Facebook et alia are OK but it's like eating at a chain restaurant. There's room in the world for that diner with the amazing blue plate specials too.

— Peter.

Peter Hoffman

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Jan 16, 2021, 12:10:34 PM1/16/21

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It seems the first public release of WAFFLE was December 1989 so I'd guess it was 3.5" diskettes but I was still using 5.25" diskettes in the late 1990s, for some things.

If you can find a copy, that would be absolutely fantastic! I'm running on DOS but that implies a TCP/IP to COM port issue and it would be so much cleaner not to have to have that.

I really don't know what it is about WAFFLE that makes it feel like an old pair of shoes that fit just right but there's something.

Thank you,

— Peter.

Avon Kerr

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Feb 22, 2021, 3:05:51 AM2/22/21

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Peter Hoffman <peterhol...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Anyway, I hope you'll set up a BBS! I feel that there's a movement
> growing to get away from a corporate Internet experience. Facebook et
> alia are OK but it's like eating at a chain restaurant. There's room in
> the world for that diner with the amazing blue plate specials too.
>
> Peter.
>

Hi Peter... I’m running a bbs now albeit not waffle... I used to run waffle
and also wondered about availability of software. I’d be keen to try the
Unix version also if it were available.

Did you end up setting anything up? Just wondering how you’re getting on?

--
Agency News | news.bbs.nz

Beckley Crackers

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Aug 24, 2021, 10:38:59 PM8/24/21

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Peter,
A few years ago, I was running Waffle on FreeDOS on a 486. The connection was over a Lantronix, to switch the TCP/IP to Serial, & Waffle believed it was connecting via Modem. However I tinkered with running QD or DQ, that I could run multiple "nodes" of Dos, one TCP/IP the other with a modem over VOIP. This pushed the limits of the systems memory & was very unstable.

The version of Waffle that I downloaded was from Jason Scott's archive :
http://software.bbsdocumentary.com/IBM/DOS/WAFFLE/

Best of luck! It's always neat for me to see others also using the TCP/IP -> COM method, & running vintage software.

-#2pencil-