Gangplank conferencing system

This is the homepage for the Gangplank conferencing system.

Gangplank is a Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) system which supports real-time communication between users, currently using a text-based user interface. Functionally, this is similar to IRC (Internet Relay Chat), but the current user interface is patterned after CONNECT, a CMC system (pre-dating IRC) which comes from a series of CMC systems written and used at Rensselaer (RPI). Some users find the interface easier to use than IRC, others consider it too verbose! Perhaps it's a matter of what you're accustomed to.

• Log into the main Gangplank server! Guest access is allowed, and all are invited to drop in...
• (As an alternative to the link above, "telnet gangplank.org 9999" should also work on most platforms.)
• The "/help" and "/who" commands are useful for getting started.
• Look for the author, "Deven", who may or may not be around.
• A partial (but unique) name match, followed by ";" or ":" (no spaces!) is an "explicit sendlist" -- everything after the sendlist is sent to that person as a private message. ("dev;hi" will send "hi" to "Deven".)
• Messages typed without an explicit sendlist are sent to the default sendlist, which can be set or disabled with the "/send" command.
• The initial default sendlist is "A", which is the name of a general public discussion everyone joins by default.

Releases:

• Testing releases are recent development versions which are believed to be generally stable. These releases are recommended for most sites. (For convenience, releases declared "stable" will also be included here.)
• Stable releases are well-tested stable versions of the code. When a testing release has been available for a while without issues, it will be declared "stable" and re-released with a simplified version number. These releases are recommended for mission-critical sites.
• Development releases are the latest bleeding-edge versions, for sites which value features over stability. These releases are hoped to be fairly stable, but they might turn out to be unstable or buggy. (For convenience, releases declared "testing" or "stable" will be included here as well.)
• Experimental releases are used for experimental versions which most sites should avoid using. They might be fragile or broken in serious ways, or they might simply be temporary pre-release versions between normal development releases. Anything goes here. Experimental versions are likely to be temporary and may be removed at any time, without warning. Do not rely on these versions.

• There is no "stable" release yet. The most recent testing/development release is version 1.0.0.beta.11 (released September 18, 2003), which is classified as a beta test version.

The initial Open Source release of the Gangplank source code (version 1.0.0.beta.1) was made available under the Q Public License) on November 30, 2001. This was the ninth anniversary of the codebase -- initial development began on November 30, 1992. For the first nine years of its existence, the source code was never released by the author (Deven T. Corzine <deven@ties.org>) and it was only occasionally seen by a very few selected individuals.

Unfortunately, the initial release was a "brown paper bag" release that didn't compile correctly. This was due to a minor bug (related to renaming a class before the initial release) that was fixed in version 1.0.0.beta.2. That release contains additional information about the bug in the RELEASES file.

Also, a buffer overflow vulnerability was found in version 1.0.0.beta.8, which is fixed in version 1.0.0.beta.9 -- all prior versions are vulnerable.

This codebase has existed (on a private server) as a production user service (albeit with a very small user base) since at least March 5, 1993 when the initial version was checked into RCS. There have been very few problems with the server, and the host computer is typically rebooted (every few months) more often than the server code actually crashes.

Due to a rather draconian Intellectual Property agreement, no development work occurred on this codebase between July 23, 1996 and March 10, 2000.

During early development, Gangplank was simply called "conf" for lack of any real name. Initial development was in C, from November 30, 1992 until April 8, 1993. After that, the codebase was ported to C++ and redesigned as a series of object-oriended classes. This redesign was complex, and kept the codebase in disarray until the first stable C++ version was finally checked into RCS on December 8, 1993. At this point, the C version of the server was retired and the production server was upgraded to the C++ codebase. "Conf" was renamed to "Phoenix" on April 21, 1994.

The name was changed to "Gangplank" to coincide with the Open Source release on November 30, 2001. A 1.x version number was used for the initial release of Gangplank because there was already long history under the "conf" and "Phoenix" names, which could be viewed as (unreleased) 0.x versions.

What's in a name? Why "Gangplank"? Actually, the primary criterion was that a domain name was available! (Just try to find a good one these days!) Also, it was a real word that would be distinctive, memorable and easy to spell. It sounds bizarre at first, but it tends to grow on you. Regardless, nobody ever suggested a better alternative to "Gangplank", so the name stuck...

Meanwhile, Gangplank still needs more work on documentation and the homepage!