WWIV - The Switch To C++

The Switch To C++

After Borland released Turbo Pascal 4.0 and changed the structure of how compiled programs behaved — which made "chained" sub-programs such as the popular game Trade Wars II and Geopolitik impossible to run — Bell switched to Borland C++, which allowed for remote shell operations and easy porting of the old games and utilities written for the Pascal versions. Until WWIV version 5.x, WWIV was written in C. For the open source release, WWIV was converted to C++.

Bell also modified the base source so that multiple instances of the BBS could be running on the same system, with nonconflicting access to the various user databases. This was done to not only allow multiple-line BBSs to exist using WWIV, but to allow all WWIV sysops to access their own BBS without having to wait for a user to log off and/or be rude and kick them off. One other side-effect of the multi-line capability was that IBM's OS/2 — specifically the Warp version — became a popular choice for some WWIV sysops, as the default two instance configuration could easily run under the most basic OS/2 system with ease. In the BBS world, WWIV was referred to sometimes as the "only killer app for OS/2, and it wasn't even written for it!". WWIV did run well even in Microsoft Windows, though — often better than Windows-native BBSs —because DOS applications ran preemptively, even with Windows 3.1. WWIV also ran well under Quarterdesk's DESQview and DESQVIEW/X multitasking shells.

The switch to C also allowed for Bell to implement a rather flexible BBS network, WWIVnet, allowing all WWIV boards to link to each other. Bell also took the opportunity to try and make some small amount of money back for his efforts. Starting with the C version, those who paid a registration fee, as high as $80 in 1994, received copies of the source code to modify and recompile. The ability to modify WWIV as a sysop saw fit was one of its selling points — something that RBBS, Opus, Genesis, and many of the other BBS programs of the era refused to provide, usually on the basis of the perceived security risk. Nevertheless, source code availability was not lost on the thousands of WWIV sysops, who had begun to regard Bell as a cross between a father figure and a revolutionary. Registration also was required for membership in WWIVnet, which encouraged the growth of alternative WWIV-based networks.

This also generated a subculture of unregistered WWIV boards, which at its peak represented a multiple of the number of officially registered boards, and even passed around pirate copies of the source code, as well as forming their own networks.