RIP graphics

Hi, folks,

Do any of you remember or know anything about RIP (Remote Imaging Protocol)?

This is a text-based graphical protocol which was becoming popular on BBS
programs just as the Internet became so accessible and the BBS world largely
went the way of the dinosaur. RIP allowed DOS-based programs to display
menus that were entirely a mouse-driven GUI (depending on how thoroughly the
BBS software supported the RIP features).

Telegrafix, the company that created and is still developing RIP graphics,
has a plugin for NN and IE which allows the browsers to display RIP. Not
only that, but they have a program called RIPTel, which is a telnet client
that displays RIP. Use it to telnet to a BBS and interface grahically
instead of via a command-line.

I've telnetted a bit with RIPTel and haven't been able to locate any nicely
RIPed BBSs and am very disappointed with the demo site Telegrafix has up. I
know, though, that there have been some very nice RIP graphics in the past.

One advantage of RIP is that because it is text-based, the graphical
interface is downloaded as text. It is quite fast compared with conventional
WWW protocol and format.

There are a couple issues I'm bringing under consideration. One is that a
graphical Telnet would provide some very fast Internet meeting sites with
powerful features of a good BBS program which are simply not easily achieved
on the web. Consider the clutsy interface of the hwg classes, for example. I
could set up a telnet bbs site which would be lightening fast and extremely
flexible and powerful for a classroom forum. This would far surpass what is
being used in terms of user friendliness, class participant interaction,
etcetera. A mouse-driven telnet site would be not so different than the
web - except faster and better for _some_ things.

Another issue is that RIP graphics can be embedded in HTML documents and
viewed by users providing they have the plugin for NN and IE. Has anyone
done anything along this line? Here again, speed of page transmission would
be enhanced because of the text-based nature of RIPscrip. Well-implemented
CSS probably could/would do better for some things. But buttons and "hot
mouse" areas are native to RIP and are simply part of the text-based gui
rather than separate images. See the possibilities relating to speed?

No, this is not an advertisement for RIP. In fact, I'm not so sure I can
_believe_ in the possibilities for the web, simply because RIP isn't
mentioned or used by anyone anywhere that I know of on the web. I'm not real
impressed by what Telegrafix is doing to PR for RIP, either
(http://www.telegrafix.com). However, if it is as good as it could be and is
used well, it stands to reason that it would be a good thing for many
purposes.

I used to operate a BBS which was the most RIP-supportive of any BBS
software out there. It was very nice, and it's not hard for me to envision
that there are some uses for RIP in the web and telnet areas that would be
beneficial to us.

So - just wondering if there is anyone out there familiar with RIP who can
speak of its strengths and weaknesses and possible application especially to
the web. (Telnet is really a no-brainer; RIP would be very successful
there.)

Michael Gerholdt

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