<s>
Maximus	B-Protocol
is	O
a	O
bulletin	B-Application
board	I-Application
system	I-Application
,	O
originally	O
developed	O
by	O
Scott	O
J	O
.	O
Dudley	O
through	O
his	O
company	O
,	O
Lanius	O
Corporation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
software	O
was	O
first	O
written	O
and	O
released	O
for	O
both	O
MS-DOS	B-Application
and	O
OS/2	B-Application
,	O
with	O
later	O
versions	O
supporting	O
32-bit	B-Application
Windows	I-Application
operating	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
MS-DOS	B-Application
version	O
interfaced	O
with	O
the	O
serial	O
port	O
(	O
and	O
thus	O
the	O
modem	O
)	O
through	O
a	O
FOSSIL	B-Protocol
driver	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
source	O
code	O
for	O
Maximus	B-Protocol
and	O
its	O
companion	O
utilities	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
Squish	O
,	O
was	O
released	O
under	O
the	O
GNU	B-License
General	I-License
Public	I-License
License	I-License
in	O
2002	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
has	O
since	O
been	O
ported	O
to	O
run	O
under	O
Linux	B-Application
,	O
and	O
other	O
Unix-like	B-Operating_System
operating	I-Operating_System
systems	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
default	O
,	O
Maximus	B-Protocol
provides	O
a	O
relatively	O
basic	B-Language
interface	O
for	O
BBS	O
callers	O
rendered	O
in	O
either	O
ANSI	B-Protocol
or	O
ASCII	B-Protocol
,	O
compared	O
with	O
other	O
BBS	B-Protocol
software	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
When	O
BBS	O
systems	O
were	O
popular	O
,	O
Maximus	B-Protocol
often	O
appealed	O
to	O
system	O
operators	O
who	O
wanted	O
a	O
system	O
that	O
appeared	O
light-weight	O
,	O
but	O
also	O
to	O
those	O
who	O
wanted	O
great	O
flexibility	O
in	O
their	O
ability	O
to	O
customise	O
their	O
system	O
's	O
looks	O
and	O
behaviour	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Maximus	B-Protocol
configuration	O
is	O
entirely	O
through	O
editing	O
text	O
files	O
,	O
prior	O
to	O
running	O
a	O
compiler	B-Language
to	O
convert	O
the	O
text	O
files	O
to	O
binary	O
configuration	O
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Maximus	B-Protocol
has	O
supported	O
two	O
independent	O
programming	O
languages	O
for	O
system	O
operators	O
to	O
customise	O
their	O
BBS	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Both	O
are	O
compiled	B-Language
to	O
Maximus-recognised	O
byte-code	O
before	O
being	O
used	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
MECCA	O
language	O
is	O
primarily	O
display-oriented	O
,	O
providing	O
basic	B-Language
tokens	O
to	O
indicate	O
actions	O
such	O
as	O
colour	O
changes	O
for	O
text	O
displayed	O
to	O
a	O
user	O
,	O
and	O
simple	O
functionality	O
for	O
designing	O
things	O
such	O
as	O
menus	O
that	O
require	O
user	O
input	O
,	O
or	O
writing	O
certain	O
information	O
to	O
files	O
on	O
disk	O
to	O
exchange	O
information	O
with	O
BBS	B-Protocol
door	I-Protocol
programs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Since	O
the	O
release	O
of	O
version	O
3.0	O
of	O
Maximus	B-Protocol
,	O
in	O
December	O
1995	O
,	O
the	O
MEX	O
language	O
is	O
a	O
more	O
structured	O
,	O
Turing-complete	B-Algorithm
programming	O
language	O
,	O
that	O
borrows	O
ideas	O
from	O
C	B-Language
,	O
Pascal	B-Application
,	O
BASIC	B-Language
,	O
and	O
a	O
selection	O
of	O
similar	O
languages	O
.	O
</s>
