[Ham-Mac] Re: WinLinkMac? WinLinkX?

Fri, 16 Apr 2004 21:45:31 -0500

Don and the group. I have been asking the WinLink
folk for over a year and got no reply. When I emailed
a local ham - who has been involved with the Winlink
project from the beginning - and he asked the developers.
The answer was close to Don's #3 outcome, but a bit worse.
According to Steve, K4CJX, the developer's comment was
not only no, but when you-know-where freezes over. They
had no interest in developing it outside the Windows
environment, though he did not ask specifically if the
code was available - only if another platform would
be supported in the future.

Chris, as to providing Pactor, better go for
all 3 flavors, as more and more of the maritime
Winlink user stations are going to Pactor III
due to higher throughput.

It a way seems as if they are providing a
low cost alternative to Globe Wireless, or is that
just my imagination? I wonder about the legality
of that, myself. And how many non-hams are
using it for that purpose.

Oh well, I seem to have drifted off topic a bit
toward the end, I'll hush.

Tom KA4RKT

>
>Message: 3
>From: Don Agro <[email protected]>
>Subject: Re: [Ham-Mac] Re: WinLinkMac?  WinLinkX?
>Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 08:03:44 -0400
>To: [email protected]
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>
>Hi,
>
>On Apr 16, 2004, at 7:21 AM, Tom Dove wrote:
>
>>  Add me to the list of those wanting a Mac OSX version of WinLink.
>>  WinLink is the primary communications mode for sailing hams, and I'd
>>  love to be able to use it on my boat without Virtual PC.
>
>Just a cursory look at their web site shows that:
>
>1) WinLink is a proprietary system whose protocols are closed and
>unpublished, belonging to the Winlink 2000 Development Team.
>
>2) Paclink requires the new Microsoft .NET framework
><http://winlink.org/Client.htm>
>     I am not aware of any port of the .NET framework to the Mac.
>
>3) It would be impossible, to construct a Macintosh client for Winlink
>without the permission and support of the Winlink 2000 Development
>Team.
>
>I'm not trying to be a wet blanket here, just pointing out that the
>best place to start would be to lobby the Winlink 2000 Development Team
>to determine their position on a possible Macintosh client.
>
><http://winlink.org/miscellaneous.htm>
>
>The possible outcomes would be:
>
>1) Sure - we are planning to do one.
>2) We aren't working on one but we would be glad to help with
>documentation and technical support to any team that wants to take this
>on.
>3) Macintosh ? You've got to be kidding.
>
>