From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
Newsgroups: comp.bbs.misc
Subject: Re: Searchlight (Bidirectional Flame)
Date: 28 Jul 92 01:10:55 GMT
Organization: Right Bleedin' Church of Libertine Obfuscatology

In <1992Jul26.195127.24773@klic.rain.com> keithl@klic.rain.com (Keith Lofstrom) writes:

>I started reading this group about a week ago, gathering information to 
>select BBS software for a friend's organization.  I started reading the
>"Searchlight" thread, and learned the following four important facts:

As far as what can be learned from this thread alone you are slightly off
the mark:

>1) Many people love Searchlight.

true.

>2) Many people hate Searchlight.

one person hates Searchlight.

> What specific features are unique?  

The user interface.  Searchlight is remarkable because it is intuitively
simple to use, providing as much hand-holding as you need on-line while
still providing killer features for the power user.

In the old days you would log onto a BBS system and it would ask you for
your name.  You would then have to wait for the system to do a SEQUENTIAL
search of the user database only to discover that you weren't a valid user.

Searchlight was the first to store the user database in a binary tree.
Perhaps not as much of a big deal nowadays with 386 workhorses and 19,200
baud modems, but when all there was were xt's at 1200 baud it made a
difference.  All the menus that searchlight sends can be aborted if you
don't want to see them again.  If you think twice about any time consuming
command you can abort it with a ^C.  Even the most up to date versions of
PC Board and Wisebyte force you to wait for it's main menu to redraw after
every operation.  Unless you choose "expert mode"  where you get a prompt
like this:

Enter Command <a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l>: 

What will it do?

It will do anything that the others do.  Network mail (not USENET yet,
sorry), Run Doors, Messages, Files, etc.

The Message Threading on Searchlight is superior to any product on the
market. When a message comes up, there is an indicator of the number of
replies to it.  You can read these replies without losing your place.  You
can jump up the thread, or across the thread very easily.

>What important features is the software missing?  

Some of the weaknesses of the software, are that it doesn't quite provide a
lot of information to the sysop about activity on the bbs.  For example the
screen that is shown while waiting for logins provides very little
information about what has transpired.  Many sysops originally wanted more
activity logs.  They wanted to be able to see who logged in and who did
what.  The decision was made not to incorporate such information because

1) it rapidly fills up disk space   and
2) it is contrary to the author's philosophy of BBSing.  That is Frank
didn't really go for "The Sysop as big brother"

>Are there regular upgrades?  

Yes, although not as frequently as some people (myself included) would
like. However this will soon change as Searchlight Software has recently
expanded its staff.

>What problems have there been with past upgrades?

From what I gathered from our sole major vocal opponent of Searchlight in
private e-mail transactions, the problem is that after the first major
upgrade, they cost $25.  (This naturally excludes maintenence releases)

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Newsgroups: comp.bbs.misc