# Is there such a thing as a message board emulator? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 15, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738 "2003-01-15T14:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/21 "2003-01-18T23:37:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by erislover \* > \*\*Neat stuff, **Mangetout** , I’ve been thinking about doing this with just some simply JavaScript for a while now but laziness interfered. You won’t happen to make the source public, eh? 🙂 \*\* Oh absolutely, not that it will be anything to be proud of. ---
**Author:** ![fury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@fury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fury)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/22 "2003-01-19T20:44:05Z")
I don’t need to do offline post editing, being on cable, but since my site is sometimes slow to respond at the moment, I like to use this tool for instant previewing. It functions kind of like Word where you can select text and apply an effect to it. [http://www.x2software.net/download/bbtool.zip](http://www.x2software.net/download/bbtool.zip) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/23 "2003-01-19T21:56:39Z")
That’s a nice little app **fury** - I _almost_ decided to trash my emulator project when I saw it, but mine (if it turns out like I hope) will render smilies and lists better, as well as being configurable as new tags arise, so I’ll keep on at it for now. ---
**Author:** ![fury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@fury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fury)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/24 "2003-01-20T00:07:11Z")
Yeah, it does kinda lack that but I usually memorize the smilies I want to use and I rarely use lists so this tool pretty much r0x0rz to me. I especially like the gradient and rainbow option. It’s cool. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/25 "2003-01-20T00:28:34Z")
Yes, I already had half a mind to include that in my own, thinking it was an original idea… ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/26 "2003-01-20T00:35:14Z")
I bet you could just do it with Dreamweaver, if you happen to have that, or another HTML program. ---
**Author:** ![fury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@fury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fury)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/27 "2003-01-20T03:30:34Z")
I don’t think Dreamweaver does BB code formatting, HTML is disabled here and at most other forums on the net so that won’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/28 "2003-01-21T00:07:47Z")
Update: It’s looking good; the only coding left is the bit to convert to a list item within list tags; I expect to finish it today, then I’ll spend a little time debugging… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/29 "2003-01-21T00:47:18Z")
Be sure to post the source code here. We’re all interested. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/30 "2003-01-21T12:56:18Z")
OK, it’s almost done; I’m just adding buttons and code to automatically insert common tags in/around the cursor position. So now the mostest stupidest…est question of all; What do I call this program? - I quite like ‘bbBuddy’, which doesn’t turn up any relevant hits on Google, but I can’t quite believe it hasn’t been thought of before… ---
**Author:** ![Janx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Janx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janx)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/31 "2003-01-21T13:09:50Z")
\*\* Mangetout\*\* wrote > [@](#): > > That’s a nice little app fury - I _almost_ decided to trash my emulator project when I saw it, but mine (if it turns out like I hope) will render smilies and lists better, as well as being configurable as new tags arise, so I’ll keep on at it for now. I thought that was pretty slick as well, especially the gradient tool, that is way neat! But I think what you have going sounds more complete especially the smiles and graphics tags, use full on other boards. I hope you do decide to add the gradient/rainbow thing! \*\*Mangetout \*\* wrote [quote] Update: It’s looking good; the only coding left is the bit to convert [li] to a list item within list tags; I expect to finish it today, then I’ll spend a little time debugging… [/li][/quote] I, for one, can hardly wait! Intrusting side bar here, I ran this post through that BBtool and found a bug. It read the [li] from **Mangetout’s** post as a quote tag.[/li]I’ll still wait for **Mangetout’s** masterpiece ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/32 "2003-01-22T16:57:14Z")
I’ll be uploading V1.0 tonight; I’ll post a link… ---
**Author:** ![Janx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Janx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janx)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/33 "2003-01-22T18:57:38Z")
WOOOOOOOOoooooooo HOOOOoooooooo! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/34 "2003-01-22T23:09:48Z")
OK, it’s called _ **bbBuddy** _ and it’s [here](http://mysite.freeserve.com/Mangetout/bbBuddy/bbBuddy.htm). (Be gentle with the criticism folks, please…) ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/35 "2003-01-23T01:58:38Z")
Hmmm… is it left in debug mode build? It is looking for an OCX file. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/36 "2003-01-23T02:25:51Z")
Well, I installed VC++ 6.0 and it opened, telling me it is trying to find a VB DLL file. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/37 "2003-01-23T02:30:14Z")
But I should mention… otherwise, I[color=#A72C54] ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/38 "2003-01-23T02:31:20Z")
But I should mention… otherwise, I absolutely love it! 🙂 Dang… first thing to add: ctrl+A = select all. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Janx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Janx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janx)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/39 "2003-01-23T14:59:55Z")
**The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dawg.** _The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dawg._ The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dawg. \*\*Janx \*\* wrote > [@](#): > > The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dawg. The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dawg. **The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dawg.** Man oh man this is super COOL, I just cant figure out how to use the gradient tool. \*\* Thank you SO MUCH mangetout \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738/40 "2003-01-23T15:07:08Z")
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but why does it say that it cannot load “VB5DB.DLL” when I start it? Also, you say this in your readme: > [@](#): > > For copyright reasons, it has not been possible to distribute any smilies with the program and in any case… Can you tell me exactly who is asserting copyright over the default smilies? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-message-board-emulator/148738.md?page=3)