Formosa BBS (or NSYSU Formosa BBS) was one of the earliest
telnet
Telnet (sometimes stylized TELNET) is a client-server application protocol that provides access to virtual terminals of remote systems on local area networks or the Internet. It is a protocol for bidirectional 8-bit communications. Its main ...
-based
Bulletin board system
A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running list of BBS software, software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user perfor ...
s (BBS) to have
Chinese language
Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...
capability. Work used from creating Formosa was combined with the open source Pirate BBS to create Eagle BBS from which the more user friendly Phoenix BBS was derived. The open source Phoenix BBS was the parent of the widely used Firebird BBS and Maple BBS.
Taiwanese BBS software
Formosa BBS
Formosa BBS established in October 1992 by Professor Nien-Hsing Chen of the
National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU). The objective was to provide a means for professors, universities and students to communicate.
Eagle BBS
In developing the Formosa BBS Chinese language interface Professor Chen used code from the open source Pirate BBS. The developed code was returned to the Pirate BBS developers who created Eagle BBS as an open source BBS with a Chinese language interface.
Phoenix BBS
Phoenix BBS was development of the Eagle BBS but incorporated a more user-friendly interface.
Firebird BBS
Firebird BBS is one of two main
telnet
Telnet (sometimes stylized TELNET) is a client-server application protocol that provides access to virtual terminals of remote systems on local area networks or the Internet. It is a protocol for bidirectional 8-bit communications. Its main ...
-based
Bulletin board system
A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running list of BBS software, software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user perfor ...
s developed in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
.
It is also gained popularity in
mainland China
"Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...
and was adopted by most sites there.
Several derived BBS systems are based on its source code.
Some popular sites like
SMTH BBS and
HKiBBS are using the derived system of the Firebird.
Maple BBS
Maple BBS is one of two main
telnet
Telnet (sometimes stylized TELNET) is a client-server application protocol that provides access to virtual terminals of remote systems on local area networks or the Internet. It is a protocol for bidirectional 8-bit communications. Its main ...
-based
Bulletin board system
A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running list of BBS software, software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user perfor ...
s developed in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
, the other being Firebird BBS.
In Taiwan most BBS adopted Maple or its descendants in preference to Firebird BBS.
Several BBS systems are based on its source code.
In Taiwan Maple BBS and its descendants generally gained market share from FireBird BBS.
References
See also
*
Chinese input methods for computers
Several input methods allow the use of Chinese characters with computers. Most allow selection of characters based either on their pronunciation or their graphical shape. Phonetic input methods are easier to learn but are less efficient, while g ...
Bulletin board system software
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