Outpost Packet Message Manager

Program Restructuring

Outpost v3.0 Release Highlights

Outpost v3.0 delivered a program restructuring (thus the revision change to 3.0) to accommodate how users reported how they use the program. The big 3 changes are listed below. See the Release Information for a list of all changes included in v3.0. 

Message size limitation removed 
Outpost's 10,000 character limitation is gone. To make this happen, the actual message text is no longer stored in Outpost.odb, but in a separate text file now located in the msg.d directory. A pointer to this file is still maintained in Outpost.odb.

Considerations
The good news is that this change allows users to now send and receive larger files. Zipped+uuencoding files can now be sent (poor Mans Attachments). The bad news is that this will be a problem for packet teams operating on 1200 baud. Along with this change comes the need for local teams to develop operational policies for how they will deal with large file transfers.

Data File Restructuring 
Another big change was the move away from TncInfo.dat, BbsInfo.dat, and AddrInfo.dat as total subject data files to individual text files -- tnc_name.tnc, bbs_name.bbs, and addr_name.addr -- located in a tnc.d, bbs.d, and addr.d directory respectively. Additionally, BBS Path data (previously in bbs_name.pth files) are now stored in the .bbs file.

Considerations
The upside is the ability to share configurations a lot easier between operating teams by just sending files (automatic management is not there yet... is this even useful?). HOWEVER, the same rules apply as before... DO NOT EDIT these files directly!

This change also created the opportunity for a tighter integration of the TNC command lists and the newly introduced BBS command list capability

Split out the TNC Session Manage from Outpost 
The biggest headache came with breaking out the TNC Session Manager functionality (the window that shows the conversation with the BBS) into a separate program. This now allows the Session Manager (opsessn.exe) to run either in front as before, or minimized leaving the user to continue to use Outpost as before.

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updated:  March 23, 2015