FTN Nodelist Editor

A PyQt6 desktop application for Linux to create, view, edit, and maintain FidoNet-style (FTN) nodelists, including Fido, FSX, and RetroNet formats.

This tool is intended to assist network coordinators in maintaining accurate and consistent nodelists, as well as bootstrapping new FTN networks.

• Read existing FTN nodelist files
• Display nodelist hierarchy in a tree view
• Edit node information via structured editor fields
• Validate common FTN constraints
• Save modified nodelists back to disk
• Generate new nodelists for new networks

• Fido-style nodelists
• FSX extensions
• RetroNet conventions
• Comment preservation

• Menu bar
  • File → New
  • File → Open
  • File → Save
  • File → Save As
  • File → Exit

• Editor panel (top)
  • Address fields (Zone / Net / Node / Point)
  • Sysop
  • Location
  • Flags
  • Misc data

• Tree view (bottom)
  • Zone
    • Region
      • Net
        • Node
          • Point

• Action buttons
  • Save
  • Cancel

• Load and parse existing nodelists
• Structured in-memory data model
• Tree-based navigation
• Field-based editor panel
• Add / delete nodes via context menu
• Validation:
  • Required fields
  • Duplicate addresses
• Unsaved-change detection
• New nodelist creation

• Undo / Redo
• Diff preview
• Multiple output formats
• Template system
• NODEDIFF generation

ftn-nodelist-editor/
├── app.py
├── ui/
├── model/
├── parser/
├── validation/
└── resources/

• UI operates on structured objects, not raw text
• Parsing and serialization are isolated
• Errors are non-fatal and reported to the user
• Future formats supported via parser modules

• Target platform: Linux
• Toolkit: PyQt6
• Encoding awareness required (CP437 vs UTF-8)
• Preserve comments and ordering on save

• Network-wide statistics view
• Echomail announcement generator
• Export node blocks
• Visual diff viewer
• Plug-in validation rules

• Planning: IN PROGRESS
• Initial parser:*