itstory..
evolution and stuff..

most recent version f this document will always be at
http://corz.org/osx/wire/itstory.php


		0.9


• Automatic Logging: We have this now, yes! Logs can be created
automatically in a folder of your choosing. the±wire will append chat to
whatever log, depending on which scheme you have chosen; log by connexion
(creates lots of logs), log by day, by week, by month, or finally, log by
buddy (the default).

You can use the check on the log box to toggle the actual logging process,
or if you don't enabled autologging, that control can be used it to create
individual logs as before.

° Fixed a few wee bugs in the prefs window, stuff I hadn't cleaned up when I
moved some internal prefs for the last version. Well, I never switch off the
tips!

• Still on the prefs; I needed to be able to add new keys to the preference
file with future application upgrades; as things were, this was difficult;
I'd created empty keys for every feature I planned to add, but now I realise
that not only did I not think of everything, but that I still might not have
thought of everything, and this fixed-preference file is a Very Bad Idea,
both limited, and limiting.

I reworked the prefs handling, giving me a mechanism to upgrade features and
their related preferences seamlessly, well, almost. From now on, if the±wire
finds a default preference file next to itself (or next to the binary in OS
X packages), it will use it. Once it has used this to create your
preferences, the default will be renamed to wiredefault.plist.bak. Your old
prefs are backed up too, just in case you there's something in there you
need to retrieve, that secret port number perhaps.

You can delete these .bak files if you wish. Though if anything were to
happen to your real preference files, the±wire could use these to recreate a
new set.

The downside is that when you upgrade to this new version, your preferences
will be reset, things like retry rate, help tips and so on, but in balance,
it's a worthy trade-off for the extra features. The old method sucked. Your
buddies remain untouched. Although they share the same new mechanism, if you
already have a buddyfile, it will always be used and the new default
buddylist ignored, renamed to wirebuddies.plist.bak

Once we get to final release, this sort of thing wont happen any more,
probably.

° fixed the extra spaces in the log files. they are tab-deliminated, by the
way; you can import that easily into other applications, databases,
whatever.

° fixed the extra linefeeds in the log box too, that was a weirdo.

° fixed a bug in the autocopy™, where the nick part was getting copied too.
oops. sorree!

° Mac OS: Removed the limitation with the tips. previously, if you disabled
the help tips, you would need to restart to get back any tips that you had
hovered the mouse over since disabling them. No more; now you can toggle
them on and off as required (apple/ctrl-T, also available from the help
menu). No tips are "lost". This is possible because the balloon tips are
loaded into carbon builds, even though OS X has no balloon help, so we can
load them back again from there, handy. Windoze/Linux builds don't get the
balloon help compiled in, so a restart is required.

Apparently, "Classic" Mac OS balloon help truncates the display of some of
the tips, you guys will have to either a) wait for me to do a "how-to" page
with all this info and more on it, or b) get a real operating system. I
recommend the latter.

° fixed a bug on the windoze builds where if you drag-and-drop multiple
lines of text from another application (say TextPad) or from the±wire
itself, only the first line got displayed. The others were there, just not
displayed.

° fixed those sounds so that they don't play if you have sounds disabled -
well, I wanted you to hear them!

• moved the PING response over to log box (the log box will scroll to show
you the result, regardless of the scroll setting, unless you have messages
switched off, of course) Also, there's now an audio alert for a successful
ping (when it cames back). If you disable both messages and sounds, you'll
never know if a ping was successful! - remember you can use "/ping" in the
main chat.

• fixed the time settings, pings, and other stuff will now have the correct
time, as opposed to the application launch time. oops.

• added audio confirmation when deleting items from the drag-n-send™ window
(backspace on mac, delete key on other platforms) - creating interesting
sounds is one of my favourite coffee-break activities. WARNING: this sound
is highly addictive, I can't be held responsible if you delete your whole
hard drive just to hear ot over and over.

• some minor enhancements to the nick changing - remember you can do "/nick
whatever", just like IRC, as well as use the login window for changing your
nick)

• cursor in drag-n-send™ window will now change to "hand" (Mac Carbon) or
"centre" (other OS) to reflect what action will be performed when you click
on an image too big to fit in the window.

• you can now set the jump value (the number of files you "jump" if you do
pageup or pagedown) in the drag-n-send™ window itself. The editfield itself
does simple, clever things, take note.

• the filesize of non-image files is now displayed in the drag-n-send™
window, in quasi-human terms.

• receiver now gets a file transfer progress box too, and thence, the
ability to cancel any file transfer in progress, if they so wish. note: if
either end cancels the file transfer, the "part" at the receiver's end is
deleted immediately (if possible) and the drag-n-send™ window reverts to its
previous state, either browsing some folder, or closed.

• There's now a confirmation dialog for new file transfers, before the
transfer begins, you will be asked whether you wish to accept files from
this human. If you click "yes", that buddy can transfer files to you for the
rest of the session without further dialogs.

If they are also in your buddylist, the "yes" will be remembered permenantly
(or until you delete/resave their buddylist entry/hack your plist file),
i.e. that buddy is now cleared for sending you files. (another good reason
to use their usual nickname as the entry name) Similar story for "no".

• brought back the remote address notification. When you connect, the±wire
now reports "wire with so-and-so (192.168.0.1) established", or whatever.
Useful in verifying you are chatting with who you think you are chatting
with.

• When you recall a buddy, any custom port settings you had will now be
honoured. If you need to specify a custom port for a particular buddy,
remember to set that (in the prefs) before you save them to your buddylist.

• added a couple of interesting twists to my homebrew encryption scheme.
beta testers, please ensure the person you want to chat to is also using
version 0.9, or else secure chat will be complete gobbledygook! For you
amateur cryptanalysis out there; here's that same phrase I used earlier, but
with the new encryption scheme..

(see blog!)

interesting, huh?

• nick data and suchlike now always travels encrypted as well, though with a
weaker algorhythm than the secure chat, as the keys must be known in
advance, i.e. fixed.


for now.. 



        0.8.5


I'm feeling more confident about this whole Unicode business now, in
fact, I think I actually understand what it's all about. Like most
folks, especially software developers, I was kinda hoping the whole
thing would just go away. It wont.

Here's something crazy; Windows uses UCS2 as its standard string type,
for the OS (XP/2K/2003/etc) and Visual Basic, COM, etc; nothing wrong
with that, UCS2 is a useful encoding; yet RealBasic, which compiles, and
always has compiled applications for Windows, has no UCS2 support!
Supports just about every other text encoding on the planet, but no
UCS2. The word "brain-dead" comes to mind. Until that happens, windows
users can expect oddness with extended characters in the±wire. sorry-o.

• I further extended the abilities of the log box. You can now drop text
clippings (clipping files or dragged text from other apps) directly into
the log box. If there are multiple lines in the clipping, it will
display them all, just like it does when you drop regular text files on
it. All the log box functions work when you are offline.

• after much soul searching, I have finally decided to add this
capability to the main chat window. If you drop a clipping with multiple
lines, they will /all/ be displayed, /and sent straight down the±wire/.
You've been warned. Enough folks asked me about this for me to seriously
consider it.

the±wire tries to be clever about the text you drop, code should remain
well formed, etc, making it easy enough for someone at the other end to
retrieve bits easily enough. I'd still recommend sending bigger text
files with drag-n-send™ The chat window is really just for chat (which
is why the input box has a set limit)

A sad day; I removed the cute "try here" when you drop files into the
chat. Now the±wire just loads them up in the dns window, saving you
dragging them twice. Makes sense, sure, but the dns window popping up
and saying "try here" always gave me a wee thrill. I might do a pref,
heheh.

note: if you drop text files directly into the chat, they will be
displayed in the log box. if you want to send them over the±wire
instead, drop them directly into the drag-n-send™ window. (apple/ctrl-d)

• I added font and fontsize menus to the log box, you don't need to hack
the plist to alter those now. There's a small time penalty at startup, I
guess, as it populates these menus, miliseconds.

° Fixed a bug where if you received a file and had the "dns stays put"
setting enabled, there was no "parent" folder for the file, and moving
left/right/etc would crash the±wire.

° Fixed the bug in windoze builds where the±wire wouldn't enter an
autowait state if you had the log box showing.

• Finally got the windoze builds to accept dragged files. Now you
billy-goats can drag and drop most filetypes onto the drag-n-send™
window, even the main chat window. have fun!

° Fixed some of the weirdness on the windoze log box. It shouldn't
wobble about now, much. It still wont go where it was put, though.

° Fixed the executable files rejection. Everything gets reset properly
now. note: you can still send excecutables, but /both/ parties must hack
their plists to do it. This is to prevent possible vulnerabilities on
the windoze platform

• Added the facility to store your "wirefiles" in a different folder
(a.k.a custom location). You might not want that on the desktop.


        0.8.3


Magical days.. not getting a lot of coding in, though. Had three wee
sessions since we last spoke.

° Fixed a couple of minor bugs in the directory handling of the
drag-n-send™ window. As well as the usual evil .DS_Store files, the±wire
is now savvy about other invisibles, and will ignore them entirely. A
directory containing nothing but such files is considered empty.

• dns window titling is now more consistent, regardless of the filetype
you are currently viewing.

• I started on coverting all the internal strings to UTF8, I'm committed
to getting on top of this. Truth is, I don't really understand this
whole text encoding business, and I suspect, neither do you.

It occurs to me that many parts of the development process are invisible
to users, most of them, in fact. How could you know the heartache and
frustration involved in getting, say, an encryption scheme or
communication protocol unicode savvy; a bag of bugs emptied slowly. It's
a take for-granted, only when it's broken do folks notice, send emails.

• well, for fun, I added counters for zener scores with particular
buddies; if you save the buddy's name as the entry name in your
buddlist, zener will update that counter whenever you are challenged by
that buddy. If they use a different nick during a challenge, it wont
update the tally. This feature will polarise opinions. hahah

I've discovered a(nother) bug in the RB's implementation of metal
windows. The workaround I used for the metal window drawing problems
also fixes this.. LEAVE THE LOG BOX OPEN! I've added a warning message
along these lines for when a carbon version user attempts to close the
log box. hopefully the boys at realsoftware get this nailed soon *sigh*.
It's been there all along, I just never put my window off the bottom
edge before.

• Added a shortcut for secure chat (apple/ctrl-e) (think "encryption")
you'll find this handy if you're the kind of person who gets a kick out
of repeatedly switching on and off the ship's cloaking device.

• the±wire will now display its own logs if they are
double-clicked/dropped onto dock/explorer icon, etc. Previously it just
ignored them. It will send other (non-text) files to the dns window. On
OS X, you can force any application to accept any dropped file by
holding down apple-option as you drop the file onto the application's
dock icon. This way, you can drag any file into the±wire, have it launch
and jump straight to that file in the dns window. This works on windoze
too, just drop any old file onto the±wire's icon/shortcut, which kinda
makes up for the lousy drag-support in windows generally.

• Log Box: If you desperately want to change the font/fontsize of the
log box, you can hack the values into the plist file. there's no pref
for it, but I might do that yet. If you hack something invalid, the±wire
will use its defaults.

• You can also hack the "jump" value, that is, how many files a
pageup/pagedown will jump. The default is 10 files. Put in whatever you
like.

• Another thing you can hack is the text files definition. Add any
extensions you'd like to be displayed in the log box. Did you know you
can drag text files straight into your log box and they will be
displayed there? well, you can, and they will. Other filetypes get
redirected to your drag-n-send™ window, and if they are images,
displayed. Note: files actioned this way will NOT be automatically sent
down the±wire via the drag-n-send™ mechanism, even if that is enabled.
This is by design. Only files dropped directly into the drag-n-send™
window itself are eligible for this special treatment. It also prevents
you from accidentally sending files to unwitting recipients simply by
double-clicking them, or dropping them on the wrong dock icon, or whatever.

my body needs to get some sleep, it's been a long session, but with nice
unicode handling throughout (at least on Mac OS X, fingers crossed for
the rest), and a slew of improvements, features and fixes, I'm proud to
announce we are at, erm 0.8.3


        0.8


Fixed the few minor bugs, including the sticky login window problem on
windoze.

Finally removed the "log to file" checkbox from the main window.

drag-n-send™ window: added a pop-up menu of all the files in the current
folder, so you can select any file directly. There's a small time
penalty, but well worth it I feel. It's still pretty darn swift, even
with LARGE folders.

To give you an idea, on my 333MHz iMac running OS X Panther, the±wire
will index a folder of 1359 images (my "wonky pix" folder, on a /remote
volume on my network/), build the pop-up, and display the first image in
just over three seconds! Don't expect to chat while this is happening!

note: you can use the pageup/pagedown keys to move very quickly through
the pop-up menu of very large folders.

I added a preference to tell the dns window to stay put, that is; in the
folder you are browsing. In other words, it WILL NOT jump to your
"wirefiles" folder on receiving a new file. It will display the new
file/image as usual, but moving left/right/up/down continues from
exactly where you were.

Also added a few other hot-keys to the dns window:

delete	moves current file to trash
(no warnings, cuz it's in yer trash)
backspace	same as above, but for mac users.
(on other platforms, backspace takes you LEFT)
home	takes you to the first file in the current folder
end	takes you to the last file in the current folder
(any Mac keyboards have this?)
u	update the folder.
useful if you have added items to a folder and want the±wire to index it
again. If you were at file no. 3, you will remain at file no. 3,
regardless of whether or not file no.3 is still the same file after the
update.

note: this happens automatically on new files dropped/received
L	toggles the "lock size" control, which prevents the window size from
altering.


This is in addition to the current commands:

left arrow/keypad-4	previous file
right arrow/keypad-6	next file
down arrow/keypad-2	takes you into a folder
(or RIGHT, if it's not a folder)
up arrow/keypad-8	takes you up to the parent folder
PageUP	back 10 files
PageDOWN	forward 10 files
spacebar	wire it!
o	open/launch file
apple/ctrl - d	drag-n-send™
toggle the drag-n-send™ functionality, which automatically wires every
file you drop


Still doing my rounds through the code, hoovering and dusting. which
reminds me, I think I've got someone coming to stay any day now, I'd
better do the same to my apartment sometime soon. I knew sacking the
cleaner was a mistake! hahah


        0.7.5 (fc1)

Yup! We're at final candidate stage now. W00H00!

Secretly, for a long time now, I've been thinking about a "hidden game"
for the±wire, something that folks might enjoy over a network, but
nothing really came to mind. I thought about tic-tac-toe, about
battleships and such. They all sound like suck-city to me, well, maybe
tic-tac-toe (or rather, naughts and crosses, as we call it) would be
okay. In the bath today, it hit me! A zener game! Of course!

Chat has to be about the best method of "connecting" online, I mean
really tuning in with people; so what better way to stretch your psychic
mettle than with the time-honoured classic test; zener cards!

One hour later, with soapy water still dripping from my mac keyboard, we
got it! Zener Extreme! Hell, the±wire will even keep your scores!
AAAAALRIGHTEEEE±!


Strangely, the old "disconnexion at connexion" bug has reappeared. This
is weird; almost every part of the protocol has been re-written from
scratch. I'll scratch my head a bit, and think metaphysics, I think.

It goes like this. Right at connexion, it cuts off again, and then
reconnects quickly, looks like you're connected okay, but you aren't. If
the connector tries again manually, it *really* connects, no problem.
And all the while, the person at the waiting end is blissfully unaware
of the whole episode, they think the connexion went fine; they might
even be chatting away. It only happens very occasionally, but still. hmmm..

I think the final candidate thing is a curse.
Maybe scrub that for now, eh.


        0.7.4

i I think I've cracked it. that is, intelligent directory handling. the
drag-n-send window will now check some things for you, like whether a
folder is empty (no point going in if it is), and will (fingers crossed)
back up to the correct folder when you go "up" again, and again, and
again. pretty cool.

I spent an age debugging what turned out to be a silly error on my part;
time well spent; what we've ended up with is way smarter and much
smaller (code-wise) than the old viewer.


        0.7.3.5

i got the "lock size" function to work properly, and update correctly,
at last. coded up the copy button so you can send images from the
drag-n-sendo window to the clipboard, regardless of whether they are
dropped or received.

i Finally! I coded up the actual drag-n-sendo button! now you really
really can drag-n-send! Just turn that on (drag-n-sendo toggle button),
and drop stuff into the drag-n-send window to have it shoot straight
across the±wire! even just running it locked as a wee box in the
background on your desk. real handy. thanks to good design, this was
only one line of code!

i fixed a few more bugs in the file-handling. stuff like deleting
cancelled transfers now gets done automatically, and wont crash the±wire
in the process.


        0.7.3.3

i I realise I have just created the finest image viewer known to man.
well, okay, it lacks most of the features of a decent image vewer, no
fullscreen, no slideshow, no scaling, whtahaveyou, but, BUT! the
navigation system is utterly to-die-for. Why didn't anyone think of this
before? With just four llittle keys you can go anywhere, view any image,
send any file. It's beautiful. now for all those bugs..

In fact, a lot of the time I say I'm fixing bugs, I am in fact "adding
features". the rationale here is that I like things to be
just-the-way-I-want-them-to-be. And until that point, they are flawed,
bugged. Of course I got some real hooters too, and a fair few of those
out-of-my-hands-down-in-the-IDE thingies to work around as well, but
mostly it's fine-tuning, getting stuff "just so". and lots, and lots of
testing.


        0.7.3.2

)()( fixed the zero-length files bug. They will now simply be rejected,
along with other evil files and folders (I'll possibly look into wiring
whole folders some time in the future)

i added more intelligent error reporting for some possible network errors.

i started work on beefing up the "image viewer" capabilities. You can
now cycle through a folder of files with the left and right keys, sorta.
Images will be displayed along the way.


        0.7.3.1

i added autowait%trade; (you love these cute terms I coin, dontcha!)
which basically means, you can have the±wire begin waiting for a
connexion automatically at launch-time. someone asked for this.

i added a few "nice wee touches", among them, the ability to remember
your last login details, and enter them for you automatically at launch
time. now connexion really is a one-click process!


        0.7.3

)()( fixed loads of bugs in the dns window and the file transfer itself,
and some other stuff too. there were a couple of real nasty ones.
removed the ability to send a file straight back. I mean, how crazy is
that? Of course, if you drag it from your wirefiles folder into the
drag-n-send window, you can send it like any other file, if you really
must.

i added a progress bar for the file transfers, useful for large
transfers, though it has a tendency to freak out with very big files
(50MB+), giving information like "transfer -37% complete". (that's
MINUS!) erm..

i added the facility (for the sender) to cancel a transfer in progress

i chunked the send data (5k chunks), which should make large transfers
much more reliable over slow networks. You also get the user interface
back now!

i the±wire will now report in the chat window when files are being sent
and received, and again when receive is complete. name and size (rounded
up to the nearest kb)is also reported.


        0.7.2

i too many wee fixes and improvements to mention them all.

Got to spend some quality time with the new image transfer window and
other stuff, and devised something called something revolutionary...
drag-n-sendo technology (TADA!) over a nice cappuccino. It's just a
useless checkbox for now, but I think you can see where I'm going with
this.

i ahem. I got the dns (drag-n-sendo, you know) window on windoze to
behave better, attempting to do what the mac one does naturally. In
other words, keep the image in the centre, rather than crop the bottom
and right sides off. Don't ask me for rescaling images, it's not even on
the cards.

I then thought it would be a cool idea to be able to move the image
around by dragging it, for instance, if it is bigger than the window.
this wee journey has introduced more bugs and problems than everything
else so far; image handling across platforms is vastly different. Works
great on OSX though!

i moved the received files folder (this has been annoying me). if it
doesn't exist, the±wire will create a folder called "wirefiles" on your
desktop. There's no need to ever save the files you receive, everything
lands in there automatically. This also makes it uber-easy to trash the
whole lot at the end of a session (with killer! heheh).


        0.7.1

)()( Fixed most of the major bugs in the image transfer. the±wire wont
crash if you send the same image repeatedly, or send back an image you
just received. You can send non-image files too, though currently
there's no way to get the windoze version to accept dropped non-images.

Without threading, transferring large files over slow networks
(particularly if you are short of memory, on a dial-up connexion
perhaps) will be frustrating, but I've transferred 100MB+ files over a
local network without problems. I'll look into more efficient transfer
methods for slow networks. And threading too. When I've got a more
logical head on. It's almost a full moon.

Oh, and if you come across some filetype that wont send let me know.

The prefs are all live, by the way. If you make a change, it's updated
immediately in the plist file, and only then (well, also at quit). It's
a good system, in the event of a crash, the last saved prefs remain. I
haven't had a trashed plist yet, and I've crashed the±wire a *lot*. Ah,
the joys of debugging...


        0.7

i image transfer is GO!!!

You can drag an image into the chat (mac only for now) and it will pop
up a window with the image in it. Click "send image" and it will be sent
-as if by magic- to the other end of the±wire, where it will pop-up an
identical window, image and all. I've been doing wee slide-shows for
folks on my home LAN! heheh

This works on windoze too, but you have to drop the images directly into
the image window itself (I'll add a control to pop that up manually).
You can do it this way on a mac too, of course.

My plan was to support "wee files of any kind"

The code is pretty loose and shaky at the moment, but I just tried to
transfer "calc32.exe" from my mac (in fact I was grabbing it from a
peecee via samba! but it was on my mac, if you know what I mean) to a
peecee via the±wire. It worked! crashed the±wire on the peecee, but
calc32 calcs just fine at the other end! I feel like A.G.Bell!

In fact, you can transfer any old file like this, but non-image
filetypes will likely crash the peecee image viewer (I'll look into
this). no problem the other way, the peecee barely accepts dropped
images let alone anything else. Amazingly I didn't even have to mess
with endianess! (just wait til a classic mac user tries a transfer! -
get an OS will ya!)

Currently, on a Mac, anything that quicktime supports, the±wire can
display, PDF's, for instance (at least the first page) The peecee
version can't support *viewing* of so many filetypes, but you'll *always
still get the file*. Just use your regular viewer on it.

If you drop a PDF in at the peecee end, it will pop up just fine in a
mac viewer, for instance. There's no way to stop it, in fact, so if one
of your "mates" starts throwing random porn at you ... Well, I might do
a ban-list thing, or post a "do you wish to receive file named
'anallypronged.jpg'•" dialog, or something.

I don't plan to support mac resource forks either, applications (and the
like) are best archived before *any* transfer, over the±wire or
elsewhere. I also don't plan to support image "clippings". Only real
data files. (when will Apple wise-up about clippings, huh?)

the technical bit: when you "send" a file, you actually send a request
to the receiving machine to connect back to YOU. This will allow us (at
some future point in time) to present the receiver with an opportunity
to deny the transfer, and as the receiver is connecting *to the sender*,
who is effectively acting as a listening server. The security benefits
of this architecture are apparent. Exactly how far into the future it
will be before I actually implement the authorisation part is anyone's
guess.

i oh, I forgot to mention, you can /ping a remote host at any time (like
when you wonder if something maybe happened to the connexion). Their
copy of the±wire will respond with a confirmation, along and their local
timestamp. They don't smell your ping.


        0.6.5

)()( some small fixes.

i Improved the help-tags throughout. When they get annoying, you can
switch them off in the prefs. WARNING: Some contain humour.

i cleaned up the logic for the custom port selection, it now keeps you
right and won't let you make a mistake, in theory.

i added the font menu. you can now select a font for the chat. this
causes a small startup delay while the list is populated. though this is
better than building it every time you open the preferences window,
imho. The menu is dynamic; the changes will appear instantly, affecting
all the chat, so you can easily see which font suits you best.


        0.6.4

okay, I trashed the EasyTCP class and put together a new protocol, this
will allow us room to expand, especially when we want to drop files and
images over the±wire.

started to add some basic image facilities. You can drag an image into
the chat and it will be displayed in a window. Don't try to send it
across the±wire yet, it will crash the other computer! (maybe I'll
disable that button for now) more to come.


Of course, the±wire is now useful as a handy image viewer.

i added a facility to customise the ports. you may have your own reasons
for wanting to do this.

i Added a menu for the font size. Some people can't see very clearly,
apparently. Font menu next!

i I moved the default prefs files to inside application bundle on OSX,
so no one has to even see them. much neater. pity (*sigh*, again)
there's no windows equivilent.


        0.6.3 (pseudo-public beta)

)()( fixed some login-related issues, nothing serious, just the popups
getting wierd sometimes. keep an eye out for that still, the xml parser
can be a bit moody.

i beefed up the chatbox, you can now copy multiple selections* into the
clipboard using the copy (apple/ctrl-c) menu, and you can delete
lines/selections in the log box with the delete key, amongst other minor
improvements.

*use the apple -ctrl on windows- to make multiple selections, shift to
make big selections, or a combination of both.

i sorting out the menu's. added a couple of rudimentary concept menus
too, put the editing functions on a right-click. (ctrl-click for
one-button *sigh* mouse users). The log box has a concept menu too, and
this is the preferred method for clipboard functions. note: it is
possible to drag lines around in the logbox, even multiple selections,
even to cut lines and selections right out. think of it like a
chat-sorting window. you can prepare sections before dragging/copying
them somewhere else.

)()( cleaned-up some of the internal logic, which is a nice way of
saying some of the internal logic sucked.

i the±wire now let's you know if it can't locate the address you are
trying to connect to. However, it won't prompt you to check your
spelling or anything like that.

)()( started messing around with the sockets again. I'd been trying out
the new realbasic easytcp class, but its limitations are becoming
apparent. Toying with a few ideas for now. don't expect the next version
of these betas to be able to speak this one!

)()( preference files are now stored inside their own folder in the
preferences folder, methinks you might have some of my other apps
kicking around before too long. The folder is called "corz".


        0.6.2

i Improved text handling throughout the±wire, adding stuff we like, like
"select all" for the text input field and chat areas. This allows you,
amongst other things, to easily throw a whole session onto the desktop
as a text clipping. Also, we now strip the very last endofline character
from drag-and-dropped text (have added a pref for this too, so you can
switch it off if you mostly drag multiple chat clippings into say, a
text document) so now it doesn't mess up the input box when dropped in
there, neater for desktop clippings too. Text behaviou inside the input
box is expanded and more intuitive also.

i you can now change your nick in the middle of a chat, simply open the
login window and pick/type another. Your nick will only change if you
click the "done" button. Closing the window by any other means will
leave your nick as it is.

This can also be accomplished with a standard IRC nick change command..

/nick foo

would change your nickname to "foo".

This is the preferred method (I might even drop the other)

Note: for obvious reasons, you cannot use the same nick as the person
you are chatting to! Don't even try!


        0.6.1

More bugfixing (and still many to go) It is now not possible to wait and
connect at the same time. oops!

The sockets are much more robust and predictable now, for example;
disconnections trigger the correct sequence of events, rather than just
dropping off.

Fixed the chinese text (encoding) issue. At least, it looks fixed; we'll
see what happens the first time somebody chinese tries to use the±wire
;o) Dragging text from either chatbox or log box will drop good old
normal text with nice UTF-8 encoding. It's still not perfect yet though;
in truth, I don't really understand the whole text encoding thing, I'll
dig around and fix this proper when I get the time.

i we can now link a nickname to a buddy, so that when you recall a buddy
from the buddylist, your linked nickname is inserted automatically. To
link a nickname to a buddy, simply enter something into the nick field
before you save the buddy entry, when you recall the buddy, the nick
will be recalled too, but I just said that. As well as helping us to
manage our multiple personalities, this reduces the whole connexion to a
near one-click process (two if you click "connect" instead of just
hitting ). Just gotta hope someone hasn't already patented
"communication this bloody easyo"

i improved metal window dragging (mac only). Now the window won't go
outside the screen (erm). You can still use the standard dragging areas
(title bar and very edges) to move windows outside the left/bottom/right
edges, but clicking on the non-handle parts will snap the window fully
back into your screen. pretty neat.

This has a bonus side effect: if you do a drag-move on the main window
while you are waiting to connect (the gear is spinning) the main window
will shoot off in that direction. Fool around with that, can be fun.


        0.6 (private beta release)

Fixed a few more bugs. (do I need to write that? there's always bugs!)

i Added a pop-up list to the nickname too, now the super-lazy can store
commonly-used nicknames in a pop-up menu as well as their buddies!

i The new login window has a fairly dynamic approach. Say, for instance
you connect to somone, and there is no response. If you open the login
window and choose a new buddy, you will immediately (on your next
connexion retry, whenever you have that set for) connect to the new
buddy. This makes it easy for the extremely bored to run through their
buddylist until they find someone available.

i We can now drag-and-drop text directly into the chat window to send it
straight down the±wire. This is especially useful for dropping URL's to
a remote copy of the±wire. (i.e using a copy of FlashGet, or iGetter (or
some other downloader that monitors the clipboard) and a connected copy
of the±wire; simply switch on autocopyo at the other end and drag links
into your chatbox! Hey presto! a fully automatic downloading station!)

This drag-and-drop stuff works on windoze too, dragging text from apps
that support it, textpad does, and an increasing amount of other apps
too. You can also drop Mac text clippings straight into the chatbox,
even URL shortcut files, the sort you get if you drag a URL onto the
desktop.

Note; only the first line of text is displayed, though in fact the
entire clip is read and passed along the±wire, whatever you drop. Causes
havoc with text encodings.


        0.5.9

I decided against a fixed length for the buddylist, instead I've coded a
dynamic, infinite (in theory) buddylist. You can add as many buddies to
the list as you like, and remove them too, of course. I've no idea what
happens when you add more buddies than the screen height allow, i guess
it'll scroll.


        0.5.8

buddylist is go! w00h00!

You can store up to nine buddies in the list, there's simple add/remove
buttons to edit the list, too. it's mostly debugged, and raring to go!
You got buddies!


        0.5.7:

Man! Now we really got prefs (and bugs!), even a real prefs dialog!

Windows will remember their size and positions (at least on a Mac they
will), and the retry (hammer) rate is also configurable. More to come.
All this info is stored in a good ole Mac .plist file (thanks to MacMage
for the nice XML goodies).

Hey! we got IRC-style "/me" actions now! so you can gype about and
trout-slap just like in #corz ;o)

fixed too many bugs to mention, introduced a few others. still working
around realbasics messy metal windows, can you spot the make-up? Carbon
version will *always* open the logbox at startup. This is to work around
a bug in the metal window drawing. When realsoftware fix it, I'll remove
this limitation.


        0.5.6:

Loads! We got prefs, customisable logging, improved logbox, secure chat,
and more. Most of which is still full of bugs.

The secure chat is still in its infancy, just some cute
string-manipulations, which would certainly baffle the average snooper,
but not much of a challenge for a cryptographer. Mainly I wanted the
framework in place; future versions will have stronger algorhythms, once
I work out the technical (and legal) issues involved.

Note, if either ends of the±wire have secure chat enabled, the other end
will automatically switch to secure mode on connexion, this also happens
if either switches it on or off during a chat. It's also a nice way to
annoy someone, switching it on and off rapidly during a chat, which is
why I removed the text notification!


        0.5.5b:

Got the cute login box to do lots of intuitive things; like focusing
properly, and tabbing between fields. The key will also
wait/connect/close, depending on what fields are filled; the button
changing to reflect what action will be performed at any given time -
clicking is always "done", neither waiting nor connecting.

The layout changes in the main window are fixed up too. looks good.

The±wire is now more aggressive in its connexions, and will keep trying
for you if there is no response. Will do a pref for the retry rate
(hammer) soon.

There still a unicode issue with dragging text, which I suspect is part
of the IDE (which is supposed to handle everything internally as UTF-8,
but doesn't).


        the±wire

here we go again..

I got some puter time, at last. Feels like weeks since I got to really
sit down in my "throne". And this is one job I've been putting off for
long enough. A major new version of the±wire! Let's begin..

0.5.5:
Got a new layout, gonna use a drawer for the logbox on OS X. nice. Pity
there's no drawers in Windoze. This version number neatly coincides with
the new and improved IDE (RealBasic 5.5b) and is just a wee notch up
from the old (2nd) version. That's right! we are on the third
incarnation of the±wire now! And it get's better all the time! I'm gonna
write a new protocol too, old wires won't be compatible. I've had it
with that effin code!

Just gonna steal the HTML right outta my blog!




*version 2 history. (Jan/Feb, 2003)*

0.0.1-0.0.5

    * Basic interface and objects functioning.
    * Messing about with sockets, cleaning up the code.

0.1

    * working build - can connect both ways over a LAN.

0.2

    * now recovers from a cuts and swaps passive/active
    * (listening/connecting) without any problems.
    * double-clicking on chat now copies to the clipboard (mac and windoze)

0.2.5

    * added about box, and OS specific menus for this
    * cleaned up some code, wee gui tweaks

0.3

    * added file-based logging. currently, one log per session.
      (might get it to affix the date to the name, hmm)
    * First test of new version over internet. nada. damn! :o(

0.3a

    * worked out the net problem
      (what was going through my tiny mind! using those low ports!)
    * note to self: remember to configure remote firewall first!

0.4

    * added logging to a file (save my tech support for later!)
    * let a few of people try it out and test. looks good.
    * used for a few months. works great. hasn't ever crashed!

0.4i

    * added icons

0.4ai

    * added "send" button - now it works on Linux (tested on Slackware,
      under WINE) it'll be a daft chr(13) thingie, I'll maybe look into it.
    * got a kick to redo the about pic. nize..
    * wrote the webpage and readness, decided to sort of release.
    * moved the input area right over to the left, probably breaks the
      HID, but allows me to very quickly place the window exaclty where
      I like it, with just the right amount of edge-overlap.
    * tweaked the connexion code, no more closing the ports till we're
      really finished with them.
    * updated the icon, it's still shite.

0.4b

    * removed the "nick > " part from copied text. cool! crude but
      effective.
    * (double-clicking URL's will now launch your browser/download
      manager! (once disconnected, double-clicking will copy the
      complete line, with nick.)
    * added some intelligent responses to mouse clicks in the info
      panes, etc.
    * fixed the about box, oops!

0.4c

    * finally you can drag chat to the desktop to produce text
      clippings, also works with multiple lines. Mac only, of course.

0.5

    * okay, I added the audio notifications. It's pretty much ready to go.
    * did a page on my site, more to come. The latest version will
      always be available at.. http://www.corz.org/osx/wire/
      <http://corz.org/osx/wire/>

0.5.3

    * Improved logging capabilities; logging can be switched on and off
      mid-chat/li>
    * The LogBox has returned! Remembers when it's live, ignores when
      it's hidden. Has the same capabilities as main chat window, i.e.
      you can double-click to put text into the clipboard, or
      drag-and-drop (single or miltpile lines) out of it to make
      clipping files in the Finder.
    * Fixed that nasty bug when you cancelled out of the log file dialog.
    * Fixed a bug where after cutting the&plusm;wire you could wait with
      no login name!.

0.5.4

    * We got prefs!
    * I'm not going to release this version. Hardly worth introducing
      the confusion of a new preference file for the sake of one
      preference! Instead, the changes will be brought forward to the
      next generation IDE, 0.5.5 will have new socket code, and sure, a
      slew of prefs too!





*version 1 history. (Jan/Feb, 2002)*

The first version of the±wire exists now only as a windows binary. I
don't want to talk about it. Needless to say I now have a couple of
optical burners and a Linux back-up server so that sort of thing never
happens again. I used the windows binary for over a year before the
wonders of OSX got me back to the±wire drawing board..


;o)
cor 

corz@how.to

		

 


