Skypix

Skypix is the name of a markup language used to encode graphics content such as changeable fonts, mouse-controlled actions, animations and sound to bulletin board system. The system was written by Michael Cox on the Amiga in 1987, and first hosted on the Atredes BBS system, which was later renamed Skyline.

Scott Lee writes: "Skyline BBS, for the Amiga, was originally marketed under the name "Atredes BBS". It was written by someone named Michael Cox who lived in El Paso, TX in the mid/late 80s. He had contracted with a company, which I can't remember the name of, to market and sell the software and they did so under the name Atredes. Michael Cox eventually wound up selling the software himself and he renamed it Skyline. After about two years he grew tired of working on it and looked for a buyer. During that search, I did maintenance and housekeeping on the code for a few months before a user of the software that ran Omnilink BBS in Queens, NY bought the rights."
"It was, BTW, cool software which allowed for plain text, ANSI graphics, as well as a proprietary graphical point and click "SkyPix" UI using special terminal software ("SkyTerm"). This was all around the '87 time frame which I think pegs it as the first graphical point & click BBS UI..."

Skypix allowed BBS sysops to create interactive BBS systems with graphics, fonts, mouse-controlled actions, animations and sound.

Skypix used an extension of the ANSI graphics system that added new instructions. The graphics were normally created using Skypaint, which could generate Skypix files directly from a familiar-looking paint program. The files could be placed in the system and any Skypix-enabled terminal program would notice the encoding and recreate the graphics.

The underlying BBS software could be programmed in the ARexx language (a variant of REXX for the Amiga). This resulted in an enthusiastic group of Skypix hobbyists.

Skypix was available only on the Amiga computer, hosted on the Skyline BBS and accessed using the Skyterm terminal emulator. Skypix support was later implemented in JR-Comm by Johnathan Radigan. At one time over a thousand Skyline systems were operating the world over. Amiga inventor Jay Miner himself ran a Skyline system for a time.

With the terminal program JR-Comm, other BBS software programs started to support Skypix. C-Net Amiga Pro BBS Software was one of them. Today there are several of these boards still alive using Telnet. One of these boards still offers Skypix graphics when using JR-Comm.

References

External links

"BBS: The Documentary, An Overview of BBS Programs", expanded view. This document is part of the making of the DVD.
*[http://issuu.com/adpware/docs/mc097 MC MIcroComputer Magazine issue nr. 97, June 1990, Italy; PDF Collection of Computer Magazine MC-Microcomputer (In Italian Language) citing briefly Skypix as emerging promising language for BBS.]
"Computers are no fun anymore", a discussion of 2003 on [http://forums.randi.org/forumindex.php JREF Forum] (James Randi Educational Foundation) featuring the author of Skyline BBS participating the discussion.Ansi/Skypix Specs and Tutorials
at Amiga Aminet official repository (in AmigaGuide and text format).
* Official Website fo
Sky99 Exch

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