TalkerOS 4.x

family

NUTS

derived from

NUTS 3.x (version 3.3.3)

On its surface, TalkerOS was a basic NUTS 3 clone. Its focus was to build a codebase that was easier to modify for beginners with less coding experience, and to add support for newer technologies such as the Pueblo/UE client for Windows.

Its notable features included:

Embedded pictures and audio

Chaco’s Pueblo/UE MUD and Talker client supported inline display of still images (JPEG) and embedding audio (WAV, MIDI) inside a normal Telnet text stream. The talker could send special HTML-like markup, after detecting the client, to instruct it to download and display or play files from HTTP URLs. Existing or special text elements could be turned into hyperlinks to allow the user to, for example, navigate by clicking room exits instead of typing commands.

One command loaded and displayed a picture (given an HTTP URL), which proved quite popular with some adult talkers. Another could play a (MIDI) song from a “jukebox”. All image and song files had to be publicly accessible for users’ clients to download, and files were hosted using other HTTP servers, not streamed from the talker itself.

Talker “Firewall”

Though not really a firewall in the truest sense, security and account takeover was a concern in the late 90s when there were dozens of talkers (with their owners) hosted on the same server. Each talker owner usually had a separate shell account, but sometimes an account’s files could be read by other shell accounts.

When enabled, accounts over a certain level threshold must be listed in the source code (and compiled) or else an adverse action – such as an automatic disconnection – would occur. Each account could be associated with up to two(2) IP addresses or domain names, and if used from a different address then access could be temporarily limited.

“Plugin” API and architecture

Talker modifications were traditionally performed by directly modifying the core code. This meant that one person’s enhancements were difficult to extract and translate to another talker, even when all parties were cooperating rather than “stealing”.

TalkerOS defined a C function naming and calling convention to allow small snippets of functionality – usually in the form of one or more commands – to “hook” into the talker with minimal modifications to the core code files. The API supported events fired when a user was loaded (after signing in) and also when user files were saved (usually upon logout), in addition to regular system “heartbeats”.

Sharing commands was made easier, though adding or removing a “plugin” still required minor code modification and recompiling the talker.

Development timeline

Chaco Communications later released Pueblo as an open-source project.

Parts of TalkerOS were borrowed and integrated into other codebases. Notably, the Slovakian Lotos borrowed the TalkerOS “plugin” API and the Pueblo hyperlinks and multimedia features.