KittyCat! Comm

The "about" window in KittyCat! Comm 1.0. Clicking on the cat picture causes the window to "meow" on systems with audio capabilities

KittyCat! Comm was a bulletin board system (BBS) communication program for Windows 3.1 with ambitious plans. The vision was to support traditional text-based BBS systems and RIPscrip graphics along with arbitrary data exchange between remote programs and BBS-driven SLOS scripting. This project was abandoned shortly after I started using the Internet and TCP/IP; they made KittyCat! Comm obsolete.

The implementation supports multiple telephone numbers per BBS, inter-program communication using the dynamic data exchange (DDE) mechanism in Windows, ANSI text and RIPscrip graphics rendering in its console, and a partially-implemented MeowModem file transfer program. Almost every part of the system has cat-themed names, such as its KittyDDE application programming interface (API).

Dialing Directory

The dialing directory was implemented using minimized multiple document interface (MDI) windows, which appear as icons with a title underneath on Windows 3.1. This was meant to make BBSes appear as programs as they did in the Windows Program Manager. In Windows 95 and later versions, minimized MDI windows appear as small title bars with control icons, making the dialing directory's user interface appear drastically different.

The dialing directory as it appears on a Windows NT 4 system	The BBS options page, which appears when a BBS is double-clicked on or "restored" via MDI
The properties page for a BBS. The horizontal scrollbar navigates through the BBS's telephone numbers	The modem strings configuration dialog box
The serial device and modem properties page	Output from the KittyDDE diagnostics tool