NetWorld

If you've got HiSoft BASIC or STOS and are looking for a way to connnect 
to the Internet, look no further... Paul Jones shows off his new 
extension...

...one small step for man...

Ever since STiK came out, I've wanted to use HBASIC with it. Unfortunatly 
for me, and other HiSoft BASIC programmers the "STiK DevKit" contains only 
bindings for the programming languages GFA BASIC, assembly and C, all of 
which useless to the humble HBASIC programmer.

That's what my NetWorld extension does, it allows you to interface with 
STiK to connect to the Internet with HiSoft BASIC or STOS! Unlike the 
other interfacing technics with the other languages, NetWorld is the only 
extension. All the routines were programmed in 68000 machine code and act 
as a fast communication with the ST Internet Kit and the BASIC. The 
commands are also a direct conversion of the original C names.

"What's one of those then?..."

There are two versions of NetWorld, one for HBASIC and another for STOS - 
The Game Creator. In the HBASIC version I have included in the extension 
distributing archieve two include files, the first, a conversion of the 
TRANSPRT.H file which contains the return value and their names, and the 
second a BASIC include file. The include file takes out the work of 
tedious things like intinizing the extension, checking to see if STiK is 
installed correctly and for getting STiK's internal strings. For example, 
the command

get_err_txt ()

which is in the extension, will return the address of the start of a 
string containing the text version of a error code. In the include file

gerrtxt$ ()

which returns the string version.

There are other commands like this, which get the transport layer author, 
version, NetWorld version, and others which connect to domain name 
quickly.

The good news is that this include file, and even the extension will work 
on both version 1 and 2. Version 1.23 (which came on the Reader Disk) will 
also work with it!

The STOS version is still under development, and because of STOS's command 
handling routines, some command names have been changed. If you wanted to 
create a GEM internet client with the STOS version, you would have to use 
NetWorld along with the GEMMA extension.

...one giant leap for mankind...

You can do many things with NetWorld, including several Internet clients: 
email, news readers, FTP transfer program, IRC programs and HTML browsers. 
You could also show off to your PC friends, saying you can create programs 
which 'surf' the 'Net!

The NetWorld pack

The NetWorld pack consists of several files. First, there is the 
extension itself, then docs on the commands. For the HBASIC version, 
supplied is the include file and revelent docs on it. The full version 
may even come with RFCs.


CFCs, RFCs?

RFC stands for Request For Comment, and defines the standard protocol for 
many things including the most popular HTTP, SMTP, newsgroups, FTP and 
IRC. RFCs come in ASCII format and tell the reading what is needed to be 
sent and received to get a fully connected system.


** Clip art images/captions **
** NETWORLD.JPG **
Logo: NetWorld is a easy-to-use addition to HBASIC/STOS to let you use 
STiK with it.

** SAT.JPG **
Picture of a satellite: One of these is orbiting above your head right 
now!

** SAT2.JPG **
Picture of a satellite: I wonder if you can see my house from here?!