Re: MINI-FAQ: PHOST and the Portable Host Project

From: cg@primenet.com (mystro)

Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 00:00:00 +0000

In article <4c93ja$mtp@news.eecs.umich.edu>,
   asterian@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Andrew Sterian) wrote:
>This is an informational posting describing the latest set of VGA
Planets
>programs made available by the Portable Host Project. This
information is
>mainly intended for new readers of the alt.games.vga-planets
newsgroup but
>is also useful for others who wish to keep track of the latest
programs and
>program versions (this version information can be found at the
bottom of
>this FAQ).
>
>For more information about PHOST and the Portable Host Project,
please visit
>our WWW site:
>
>
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~asterian/phost.html
>
>All of our programs are available at this site. Our programs are
also available
>at the following FTP sites:
>
>
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/pc/msdos/games/vgaplanets/phost
>              ftp://ftp.teleport.com/users/goldman/VGAP/phost
>              mailto:goldman@teleport.com (use a SUBJECT line of
'sendme help')
>
>and may also be available at other common VGA Planets WWW and FTP
sites.
>
>The Purpose
>-----------
>
>The purpose of the Portable Host Project is to produce VGA Planets
programs
>and utilities that are high-quality, fast, bug-intolerant, and
portable to
>hardware systems other than IBM PC's. All of our programs are
free, there is
>no cost to either players or hosts.
>
>By "bug-intolerant" we mean that we try to make our programs as
bug-free as
>possible, and in the event that bugs are discovered, we fix them
as quickly
>as possible.
>
>By "portable" we mean that these programs will run on non-DOS
systems. We
>currently support 12 hardware-software platform combinations
including
>DOS (of course), SunOS, Sun Solaris, DEC Alpha, IBM RS/6000, NeXT,
DEC Ultrix,
>Linux, FreeBSD, BSD/386, HP-PA, Windows NT/Win32, and OS/2.
>
>The Programs
>------------
>
>* PHOST 3.2
>  This is a replacement for the HOST.EXE program version 3.2.
>
>* PHOST 3.15
>  This is a replacement for the HOST.EXE program version 3.15.
This program is
>  being maintained with bug fixes only (no new features) and will
soon be
>  phased out. Hosts using this version of PHOST are encouraged to
begin using
>  PHOST 3.2.
>
>  Please note that you cannot use the WinPlan client program with
PHOST 3.15.
>
>* Portable Add-ons
>  Our add-ons are a set of programs that are meant to enhance the
game in
>  various ways. These programs will work with both PHOST and HOST
(some
>  may require the 3.2 version of these programs) and all are
portable to
>  the platforms that PHOST supports. Our add-on programs are:
>
>          PWRAP    -- Implement a wrap-around universe. Ships fly
off one
>                      edge of the map and reappear on the other
side.
>
>* PUTILS
>  These are a set of common utility programs that have been ported
to run
>  on non-DOS systems. A distribution for DOS is also available.
The PUTILS
>  currently comprise the following programs:
>
>          CRACK    -- display player passwords
>          SENDMESS -- send messages to players
>          KILLRACE -- remove a race from a game
>          PTSCORE  -- Thomas Voigt's alternate scoring program
>          PMASTER  -- portable version of the MASTER program
>
>* PDK
>  The Portable Host Development Kit (PDK) greatly simplifies the
task of
>  developing host-side applications and utilities. Consisting of a
library
>  and an include file, the PDK allows C/C++ programmers to read,
write, and
>  modify the game data files without needing to know the layout or
contents
>  of the files. Working example programs demonstrate how easy it
is to write
>  host utilities using the PDK. In fact, all of the PUTILS
programs were
>  written with the PDK.
>
>  Please note that the PDK is of absolutely no use to programmers
who want
>  to write player-side utilities.
>
>Versions
>--------
>
>The latest versions of our programs are as follows:
>
>       * PHOST 3.2:   version 2.10  (last released November 20,
1995)
>       * PHOST 3.15:  version 1.9   (last released November 23,
1995)
>       * Add-ons:     version 1.0   (last released October 6,
1995)
>       * PUTILS:      version 2.1   (last released July 1, 1995)
>       * PDK:         version 2.5   (last released October 22,
1995)
>
>This FAQ has been brought to you by the Portable Host Project and
the
>letter 'P'. You can contact the Portable Host Project by sending
e-mail
>to phost@novellnet.gensys.com.