RIPscrip

RIPscrip (or RIPscript) was one of several attempts during the BBS era of the 1980s and 1990s to introduce a standard for text-based transmission of screen layouts in text or graphic mode. Its approach was similar to that used later for SVG, but at the time (the early 1990s, late in the BBS era) RIPscrip didn't catch on because people were moving to higher-resolution graphic screens instead of text-based graphics, and the Internet instead of BBSs. HTML and inline graphics took over the function of transmitting layouts.

The Searchlight BBS software supported RIPscrip natively, and would send it to callers with terminal programs (such as RipTerm) that support it.

Format info

 * RIPscrip specs v1.52 (1993-04)
 * RIPscrip specs v1.53.00 (1993-05-12)
 * RIPscrip specs v1.54
 * RIPscrip 3.0 Technical White Paper (1996-12-06)

Sample files

 * Sample collection (1993)
 * More samples

Other links

 * BBS Documentary page on RIPscrip