Hi Neil,



Sorry for the delay, there was some system upkeep going on on this

computer and I couldn't get access over the weekend. Tho the status now

is still worse than the one before -- or maybe not: I will have to do

all my work on the basement computer (slower and not connected to the

internet), but the computer has finnaly been fixed and is happily

running Windows 95 and Visual Basic 6.0 on a compressed disk. I will

probably be able to debug ICI on this computer as before tho.



Neil Nelson wrote:

> Thank you for your messages each morning (5:15am).  I am inspired to get

> working on the ICSA again.  I was working on it after midnight last night

> (but of course not all day).



Working on ICI, I get constant suprizes on how easy it can all be done

the ICI way. It is this that gives me the inspiration to keep on working

on various functions. It's quite fun to see it all work when it's

finnished.



> But from the user's perspective the communication and organization

> details, other than I want to do this and let me do it as easy as I can,

> become more of a confusion and usage difficulty.  Anything that can be

> avoided by the user in getting what they want done, should be hidden or

> transparent.  Some users will be interested in looking more carefully at

> and perhaps personally managing the details and then our perspective

> would be: how do we package the system to make the most of the interests

> and different capabilities of those users.  That is, we would then likely

> provide progressive layers of difficulty that could be selected, if those

> abilities could be reasonably useful to some user.  But in general the

> easier to use the better.



One of the things about ICI is that it's made to be about equaly easy to

use for the user and the programs. I have put togather the standard

interface modules (could be compiled to DLLs) for accessing ICI info

transfer files and databases and instructed my programs to store most of

what the user can input into databases.



This not only means that settings stay even if the program is

terminated, but also that any other app can change them. 



The current version of the chat-forum is made in a way that

communication is automatic, but more advanced stuff, like creating a

seperate forum requires the user to manualy create entries in the

Function Server. After I introduce a common database standard to the

Function Server, the chat-forum app will have access to reconfigure the

Function Server automaticaly.



The ICI Console information path is a standard: Environ$("TEMP") +

"\ICIC" or environment variable TEMP value (temporary files directory) +

directory ICIC



> [snip]



The add-on applications can allow the user to use them to the full

extent as long as the Console is running. These applications can have

their own User Interfaces (like the MSDOS batch "ICI.Bat" which provides

a ICI command line).



Help will be provided with snapshots, so there is really no problem at

this end



> And so on this new application I suggesting that you look at it from a

> user perspective.  How do we get your parents or friends who may

> want to chat or use email to use your software.  What would they want

> to see and do?  What does software in this application area usually do?



Currenty the screen has 1 list box, 3 text boxes and 2 buttons,

everything else is automatic. I could hardly imagine anything being

simpler than that. The one list box is a list of threads; one text box

is for the forum name, one for the text of a thread and one for typing

in; the first button creates a new thread out of the text typed in and

the second replies the text to the thread selected in the list. There,

simpler than using a cell phone. 



Of course I understand I will have to make it look nicer and fill it

with graphics.



> I rewrote the socket send and receive area about four times yesterday in

> trying to get a best approach that would be efficient yet make sure that

> all TCP packets in a transmission were sent in order, were each complete,

> and that all packets had been received.  And then I did a rewrite of the

> local command file parser to additionally use the received socket data.



The command file infromation storing standard would be welcome at my

side.



> I was also mulling over the problem of that will likely occur when the

> sending computer is faster than the receiving computer and, say, during

> a file transfer the send channel backs up with packets.  



Hm, well I picked up some such programs at start too, but before

starting on the Console I determined where all does the program require

to be flexible, so I did not encounter too much problems later. 



The only one currently is how to know who requested what information. In

our case, this was not a problem because only you were in my cluster and

when you asked the MSDOS box for some information, it was sent to the

computer that last sent something (TargetIP setting), but if for

example, I talked with Harold over ICI while you made requests to my

MSDOS box, some of my answers to Harold would go to you and some of the

MSDOS return would be sent to Harold. Naturaly, ICI language includes

originator information in [square brackets], which could be used with

most apps, but how the heck should I explain what an originator is to a

MSDOS box??? And we may not have to be doing this for the MSDOS box, but

at any point in time we could have an equaly restricted app that we

would like to use with ICI.



> *** Encryption



As you mentioned that the government has the hardware to decrypt a SSL

encoded message at any time, I more and more think that in the massive

and untitled communication of an ICI cluster of about a 100 computers,

their hardware dosen't stand a chance in even finding the encrypted

message(s) they are looking for. =]



Also, you can solve the what-message-what-key problem by including a

unencrypted computer ID header. And I agree that downloading an XY

Internet available file for additional lenghtening of the key is a very

good idea.



--



Don't feel bad about asking/telling me anything, I will always gladly

reply.



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