14 Apr 16 06:39, you wrote to me:   
      
    ml>> you'd be better off using JAM for everything... then you   
    ml>> won't have to worry about any of the limitations of HMB at   
    ml>> all... 200 areas is a limitation of HMB... then there's   
    ml>> also that all areas share the same 16Meg limitation and   
    ml>> that only a certain number of posts can even exist in   
    ml>> HMB... in its day, HMB was the shizz but that has long   
    ml>> since passed...   
      
    DD> This is something I wanted clarified in the documentation.   
      
   i don't know that it has ever been documented anywhere... coders working with   
   the HMB would know these limitations because of the raw structure of the   
   format...   
      
    DD> So are you saying that HMB in total is limited to 16 mb ? or are you   
    DD> saying   
    DD>    
   that HMB is limited to 16 mb per area ? - in which case it's worse than   
    DD> *.MSG,    
   because *.MSG is unlimited depending on OS.   
      
    DD> What's the limit for posts ? and is it per area or in total of HMB ?   
      
   the HMB is made of five files... one that holds the message text (MSGTXT.BBS)   
   and the others containing indexes and pointers into the message text file...   
   the limits are   
      
     200 maximum areas   
     32k total messages   
     16M maximum size of message data file   
      
   other than the 200 area limit, these values are dictated by the structure of   
   the format... in pascal, a string is a 256 byte array of characters... the   
   zeroth byte (programmers always start counting from zero and yes, zero is a   
   number) contains the length of the string which is 0 to 255... there is always   
   256 bytes allocated for a string... even if there's only one character in it...   
      
   eg:   
     1a   
       -  1 is the zeroth byte and says there's one character in the string.   
       -  'a' is the one character in the string.   
      
     10applesauce   
       - 10 is the zeroth byte and says there's ten characters in the string.   
       - 'applesauce' is the ten characters in the string.   
      
   NOTE: if you were to use a hex editor, you would not see the 1 or the 10 in   
   the zeroth byte position, instead you would see the actual ASCII ^A (#1) and   
   ^J (#10) characters... if the string was 32 characters long, the first byte   
   would be the space character (#32)... 64 characters would be the @ (#64)   
   character...   
      
   MSGTXT.BBS is a huge file of string records, each record is 256 bytes in size   
   and contains up to 255 characters... the largest value a word (two bytes) can   
   hold is 65535 and a word is the size of the indexes and pointers used... so   
   256 * 65535 = 16Meg... there was simply no way to have a file any larger than   
   that at that time... 32767 was the largest positive number an integer could   
   hold... that gives us the 32K limit of total messages... 200 areas? probably   
   could easily have been 255 but 200 was a nice round number and what BBS ever   
   had a need for more than 200 areas, right? ;)   
      
     type                 range            size   
     ==========================================   
     shortint |        -128..127        |  8bit   
     integer  |      -32768..32767      | 16bit   
     longint  | -2147483648..2147483647 | 32bit   
     byte     |           0..255        |  8bit   
     word     |           0..65535      | 16bit   
      
      
   so now, you could easily have 200 areas defined and have one message taking up   
   the entire message base... that one message only need use all 65535 records of   
   the MSGTXT.BBS file... yeah, it is a huge message but that's how it works...   
   no single area can have more than 32K messages as that is the total maximum of   
   the entire structure... if ANY of these limits are passed, the message base is   
   corrupted and the only recovery is to delete the files and start over...   
      
      
    ml>> they all are quite busy with activity... they wouldn't even be   
    ml>> available any more if i weren't specifically keeping them listed and   
    ml>> at least posting the rules monthly...   
      
    DD> Is there some automated purge on inactive echoes somewhere high up in   
    DD> the    
   chain of command ?   
      
   the backbone removes echos without a certain amount of traffic over a certain   
   period... that's a manual process... there's nothing automated about it...   
      
    DD> Also those monthly rules are annoying. Instead of posting every month,   
    DD>    
   can't you find a tool that only posts rules after a certain period of   
    DD>    
   inactivity ?   
      
   no... they are called monthly rules for a reason... plus when you see them   
   arrive, then you know that you're still connected and a link hasn't been   
   broken cutting you off from the echo ;)   
      
   )\/(ark   
      
   Always Mount a Scratch Monkey   
      
   ... There does not seem to be a whole lot of straight vegan males.   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:3634/12.73)