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allowed the communications software programmers to spend more time on the actual applications instead of the depths and details of how to talk to the serial ports and the modems connected to them. Sending communications data across a modem link was a lot more involved than sending data to a serial printer which was basically all that was originally capable of being done with the existing serial port software support.
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to run DOS-based BBS software under
Windows. BNU and other similar drivers were not limited solely to being used in the BBS world. The enhanced capabilities they offered were also used to easily communicate with other serially connected devices for the same reasons that the FOSSIL specification and
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The name "BNU" was originally a rip-off of AT&T's "BNU UUCP", and in that context meant "Basic
Networking Utilities". The author of BNU, David Nugent, felt that the acronym was particularly apt for BNU's function. BNU was also called "Bloody Nugent's Utility" because it was written by David
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software. The reason for BNU and other similar enhanced serial port drivers was to provide better support for serial communications software than what was offered by the machine's BIOS and/or DOS being used on the machine. Having serial port support as provided by BNU and other similar drivers
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FOSSIL drivers were originally created. That reason, as noted above, was to separate the details of serial port communications from the actual application. The software's programmers only needed to talk to the serial driver in a standardized way to send and receive their data.
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specification. David released BNU to the public in 1989 and its use in the BBS world spread rapidly. BNU was one of only two or three available FOSSIL drivers for the IBM PC compatible hardware and
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designed to provide enhanced support for serial port communications. The BNU serial port driver was specifically targeted for use with early (late 1980s - 1990s)
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used to be posted in the
Fidonet BNU support echo by the author. This saved text file is the last official posting of this FAQ by David Nugent, BNU's author.
65:(BBS) software written in the late 1980s to mid-1990s. It is not used by Windows-based BBS software, but BNU can be used under Windows
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Nugent as one of his many BBS related utilities and it was not known at the time what the acronym "BNU" actually stood for.
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BNU was written by David Nugent as an experimental driver for serial communications following the
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operating system. Because of this, BNU has been one of the most widely used
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120:. David Nugent via BNU support echo on Fidonet. Archived from
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100:"Fundamentals of FOSSIL implementation and use"
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102:. Fidonet Technical Standards Committee.
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26:is a high-performance communications
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61:BNU was mainly used with DOS-based
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98:Moore, Rick (February 11, 1988).
116:Nugent, David (April 16, 1993).
58:FOSSIL communications drivers.
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124:on September 29, 2007
63:Bulletin Board System
18:BNU (disambiguation)
16:For other uses, see
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128:December 9,
144:Categories
85:References
118:"BNU FAQ"
34:-based
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79:BNUFAQ
56:MS-DOS
52:PC DOS
48:MS-DOS
44:FOSSIL
67:NTVDM
130:2006
77:The
36:BBS
32:DOS
24:BNU
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108:^
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