Subj : Talisman v0.39 out now
To   : All
From : apam
Date : Sat Jun 18 2022 04:04 pm

Hi

Talisman v0.39 is out now.

New features include:

  * font loading at login, so you can define all your custom fonts in fonts.toml and have them loaded ready for use at login on a supported terminal.

  * font short codes, in your GFILES you can switch fonts using @FONT:slot@ (for the default font, theres also short codes for blinking, bold and both.)

  * font shortcodes also work with the standard built in fonts in terminals - so @FONT:42@ will switch to topaz.

 * SIXEL short code, this allows you to "embed" a sixel image into a gfile. So your gfile can contain @SIXEL:/path/to/image.sixel@ and at that position it will load image.sixel

 * SIXEL short code could also potentially be used for any file you want sent without being parsed through the gfile parser.

 * New User Password, it's now possible to define a new user password in talisman.ini which will be required to be entered by anyone who tries to create an account. So you can now easily run a private BBS. (I was actually suprised I hadn't added this already)

SIXEL files and font loading will only happen on terminals talisman detects can handle it, currently I know of two that will pass the detection and that's newish syncterm and magiterm from 1.1.14. Other terminals may support it but not be detected. The detection works in two ways, for magiterm it just takes the terminal type, if it's magiterm it supports it (not entirely true, there are a couple of versions of magiterm that will send the terminal type magiterm and not support it) also via a cterm non standard extension that syncterm does to indicate what it supports. (I don't do syncterm via term type because there are many versions of syncterm that don't support sixel)

Font switching will happen regardless of detection, so netrunner will still be able to use the amiga fonts etc. Terminals that don't support font switching should just silently ignore the codes.

I've moved all the old versions to an "old_versions" folder on the server, it was getting a bit hard to spot the latest version.

Another side note, I intend on switching happyland bbs off at the end of this month. I'm working on a new talisman bbs hosted at home for testing and may or may not remain private. I'm doing this as my heart's not really in happyland anymore and I can't justify paying the monthly fee for something I'm not really using. Happynet will continue to run but the hub has changed addresses as those on happynet will know. If you're looking to get an example of a talisman BBS, checkout Alpha Complex, Tiny's BBS or 6th Choice core (There's more out there but I can't remember the names off the top of my head). Or just install the windows version on your desktop, installation takes a minute and you have a running (albiet stock) BBS.

Andrew

=== TitanMail/linux v1.1.5
     

--- Talisman v0.38-dev (Windows/x86)
 * Origin: Tiny's BBS II - tinysbbs.com:4323/ssh:4322 (21:1/222)

.