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| Author | Tiny Teaser (Read 575 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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fogWraith
64 MB  Posts: 71 
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on: August 25, 2026, 08:53
Well it's not System 7, but I reckon it runs on it. Here we have an emulated environment, it should be the equivelant of a Macintosh SE, top of the line 8 MHz 68000 processor with 1 MB of RAM, since I couldn't afford more memory (prices are crazy) And what are we doing today? We're having a look at an application, which so far can do things. Anyways, got to go, important business call from wall street on my modern cellular phone. Those are wireless, by the way. |
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rbdr
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8 MB Posts: 9 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #1 on: August 25, 2026, 11:57
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Exciting! I’m hoping I can run this on the SE/30. The clients are pretty big, even the old official hotline. Looking forward to trying it out! What are you building this with?
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 2048 MB  Posts: 2101
Reply #2 on: August 25, 2026, 13:06
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Wow! A Hotline client for a low end System 6 (and 7) Macintosh? That sounds really neat!
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lauland
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512 MB Posts: 710 Symtes 7 Mewconer!
Reply #3 on: August 25, 2026, 15:01
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You are such a tease! But, do answer your nokia...
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fogWraith
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64 MB Posts: 71
Reply #4 on: September 05, 2026, 16:27
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Sorry Lauland, ran out of battery and I was stranded in a Starbucks! Even so, there is some good news! Liteline development release 1 is available for download and testing. Sort of feels like a world first achievement, a Hotline Client for System 6. There may be bugs, such as accidental funneling of your trust funds to a secret offshore bank account. There are two downloadables available, a DSK containing the binary, a Downloads folder (if you don't have this, every download asks where to save the file - it's actually a feature) and Servers folder (containing 2 bookmarks). The second option is a HQX file containing only the binary. Naturally, both files are also available on my own Hotline server, hotline.vespernet.net if the web is much too advanced. System Requirements Macintosh 68000 /w 1MB RAM System 6.0.5 MacTCP
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 2048 MB Posts: 2101
Reply #5 on: September 06, 2026, 20:09
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Gave this a brief test run under System 7.1 on a IIci. (Trying to access the website using Netscape 3 results in error code 1010. I got the file using MacLynx.) I connected to hotline.system7today.com successfully and tried the various options from the Liteline menu: Board: Wouldn't display the board, but exited gracefully with a message: "Board is larger than this client can display." News: Displayed the Hotline server's news just fine for me. The "Back" button is somewhat difficult to spot at first. Perhaps adding a separate "Back" button would help? Chat: Couldn't really test this. I was able to send a message and have it appear in the chat, but nobody was answering at the time, so I didn't really get to chat. It appears to work fine, though. Files: I was able to browse through the file list and get information on the files. It correctly told me that I don't have permission to create a folder or delete a file when I tried (rightly so!). One thing that confused me is that, while there is an upload button, there isn't a download button, which gives the impression that you can't download files with this client. I tried both drag-and-drop and double-clicking an entry. The latter does seem to start a download, or at least attempts to. If you double-click too many times, it'll tell you something along the lines of "Hey, wait for that other download to finish." It doesn't seem to actually download anything, though, and no download activity is displayed in "Tasks", so I presume this feature hasn't been implemented yet. All in all, this is very impressive! It closes a gap that has existed for years on classic Macs by allowing people with slower 68k Macs to participate in Hotline. You can presumably use Liteline on a Mac SE running System 6 and chat the evening away on Hotline servers—which is quite an achievement!
Last Edit: September 07, 2026, 06:11 by Bolkonskij
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fogWraith
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64 MB Posts: 71
Reply #6 on: September 07, 2026, 07:29
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I have an inkling of what the client looks like on a more modern system, like 7.1  Liteline was built with compact machines in mind, so those are the constraints I set for myself, which led to some ... perhaps ... questionable UX decisions. Board: possibly fairly easy to resolve, I found that loading data over a certain size made it highly unstable, so it does what I intended for now - a younger server with less amount of data being delivered works better. News: Here's one of those questionable design decisions in action! I will look into making it easier to navigate without inflating everything too much. Chat: Hopefully works as intended, there were some last minute changes prior to release, but should work just fine. Files: This is probably the biggest experimental area, button placements and sizes. Just like in any other normal client, double click to start a download, it should appear in Tasks either immediately or after a little while, showing progress until (hopefully) done. I ran into issues when testing in the Snow emulator, so the ability to upload / download files and such is appreciated if more people tested under varying conditions. A note on the Tasks list, it works just like in any other client, actions are registered as they go on the wire and removed once completed. Still, a work in progress, and I'm quite happy with the results so far.
Last Edit: September 07, 2026, 10:51 by fogWraith
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fogWraith
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64 MB Posts: 71
Reply #7 on: September 10, 2026, 19:35
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Version 0.1d2 is now available for general consumption! This version addresses some of the issues found previously (but not all of them). Explore, have fun! Also, I still have not bothered with testing this on anything but System 6 (yet).
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fogWraith
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64 MB Posts: 71
Reply #8 on: September 11, 2026, 16:48
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Rolling out the violet carpet for Version 0.1d3, which should address some of the issues reported that I had entirely missed previously. Downloads are found in the usual places.
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lauland
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512 MB Posts: 710 Symtes 7 Mewconer!
Reply #9 on: September 13, 2026, 01:33
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You aren't a tease at all when you deliver, which you consistently do! I don't have the time and am heavy into other projects, but would love to try this out with vespernet one day. It sounds like it'd work very well and be incredibly useful for chatting on ancient hardware.
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 2048 MB Posts: 2101
Reply #10 on: September 13, 2026, 11:53
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All in all, it's pretty impressive. I've been running it on my Mac IIci under System 7.1 for a couple of hours now. Its footprint is so small that you can actually run it in the background while doing other stuff. Just yesterday, I had Liteline running in the background, SoundTrecker playing some MOD files, all while I was reading an old Mac e-zine. All on a 68030-based IIci, too! (Running on a DayStar PowerCache @ 40 MHz accelerator, though.) Only thing I'd wish for was some kind of sound notification when somebody writes something in the chat while Liteline runs in the background. That'd be a pretty neat feature. But all in all, it's pretty darn good — stable and solid. Downloads work for me now, and chat seems to work as well. This is a keeper. Thank you!
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fogWraith
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64 MB Posts: 71
Reply #11 on: September 13, 2026, 13:42
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And I shall continue delivering until a version 1.0 is here, Laulaaaaand! Sounds good Bolkonskij, I'll investigate sound capabilities, that's something I haven't bothered with yet (or looked deeper into). Probably something that I'd want as well if possible. There's still a little bit of tweaking and fiddling to do, but I reckon there may be two versions of this down the line, something capable enough up to where OpenTransport is available, and where HotStuff can take over. First version should remain lightweight while the second may have a bit of improvements in the UX department and a bit more for colour users. Update: I might have some crazy ideas on how to do a few things and stuffs, we'll see!
Last Edit: September 13, 2026, 20:57 by fogWraith
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 2048 MB Posts: 2101
Reply #12 on: September 14, 2026, 09:24
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Ran into an error when trying to access files on the hotline.system7today.com server. When browsing Files, I was going to Uploads [UL] -> Latest Hotstuff. It wouldn't open the folder, but instead complained about it being nested too deep: Click me for error screenshot I quit Liteline and increased the RAM from the standard to 1 1/2 MB. After restarting Liteline, it would open up the folder just fine. Don't know if it's a "I-ran-out-of-memory" issue or not, but thought I'd report it here.
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fogWraith
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64 MB Posts: 71
Reply #13 on: September 14, 2026, 17:01
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Thanks for the report! Added it to the queue, got a rather "hefty" update in the works (like reading the full message board!) and hopefully some other items on the list to overcome some limitations. It should definitely not be a "ran-out-of-memory" issue, the action is far from the largest memory-consuming functions 
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fogWraith
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64 MB Posts: 71
Reply #14 on: September 14, 2026, 19:57
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Alright! Open wide here comes the choo-choo train! Or is it just Liteline version 0.1d4? Get it while it's still lukewarm. Bolkonskij's desired sounds are in (off by default, toggle in Windows menu). The nested too deep issue *might* be fixed. It's also possible to render over 500 users in the userlist (yeah, like that's ever going to happen!), the full message board can be read (as much as the Hotline protocol is capable of delivering), folders with over a thouuuuusand files can be navigated! Really stretching the boundaries here, but hopefully a stable step towards 1.0. The TextEdit windows (where applicable) now use a text engine modified from TE32K by Roy Wood, this is to go beyond the text window limitations (32K), and is how it's possible to get all those glorious message board entries! A few other misc. fixes and updates as well, but nothing very noticeable.
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