atrodo.org News Vote Rant Projects		atrodo.org dwin draak atrodo E-mail
	TOASC News (07.22.2005) - Draak Congradulations to the one submitter! I got one submission for the LinuxOnPower contest to port Draak to PowerPC Linux, and to my great surprise, they had successfully done it. Draak now has a (partial) PowerPC core. This now means a few things. First, I need to get my act together. Second, I'd really like to stay in contact with this submitter, because there is a complete grammer rewrite in progress for the i386 core. There is actually quite a bit of a cleaning I've been doing on what I'd hope to be a cross-arch. setup core. I, unfortonatly, don't know assmebly on anything but i386. Having someone else that knows a RISC core (and i guess knowing gas since my understanding is that AT&T syntax is more prevalent) would really help in this endevor. I'll be working to integrate his changes to the pascal code here soon. I will also have to devise a way to allow multiple cores to exist and be selectable. The nifty thing about draak was that my i386 linux, Windows and thier PPC linux versions of draak all produced the same assembly file. Again, congradulations to the submitter, and I hope to come in contact with you. (06.23.2005) - Draak Oppps, I know this is a problem for you if you've tried to compile Draak since the last update. I never included Macro.pas, at least two people have emailed me about it. The second is sitting in my inbox and my email program is kinda busted. Okay, not so much busted as not set up yet. Anyways, here's Macro.pas, it's actually a dummy unit, but is rather important. (03.04.04) - Draak Ah haha! Draak v0.82.0 (Build 82) is released. This is a major upgraded version. Pascal is more like 65% done now, including enumerations, records, integer types, subranges, arrays and even objects. Procedures and functions work, and they have a full complement of var, const and out types, along with default values. Overall, a great deal of stuff has been put into this version, a full ObjectPascal compiler is nearby. After that, all it needs is a library. I'm very excited about this, and please try it out at SourceForge. I am also looking for people to help in producing new language/platform cores. C and Java are high on my list of next in line languages, a Linux or Windows version of my current 386 bound 16-Bit DOS Pascal are also high on my list. Even down porting my Pascal core to pure 8086 would be great. If someone happens to have enough time to do PPC, Sparc, JVM or CLR, those platforms would be wonderful to add. Let me know if you're interested. (12.24.03) - Draak Happy Christmas eve! The semester is over, and that means I am offically a graduate of AU. This means I have the painstaking duty of finding a job. While I've been doing that, I've been working on Draak quite a bit. In fact, Pascal is coming along nicely. Pascal now has Enumerations, and records are in the works, which means objects are only a hop, skip and a jump away. Then it's minor details, which I hope won't take log because of a good base that I've (hopefully) built. C now has an almost working grammar, with just a few hiccups (Say, for instance '{' is only being recognized as a meta-symbol in the grammar files). Other then that, Draak is getting a lot of attention this Christmas system. (09.11.03) - Draak Draak v0.81.0 has been released! This is the initial release of Draak, weighing in at a (not so) heafty 521k. Download is available Here. This initial release allows anyone to parse just about any Delphi or Pascal file, and compile a large set of object pascal instructions, but no system unit is available for object pascal, sorry. I have included a tool for building grammars (TreeDraak), the Delphi component for building your own applications with Draak's core (DraakComp), the Pascal grammar thus far, and the very simple command line compiler draak.exe. Draak currently requires Win32 to run properly, however, it should be buildable under Kylix Open Edition with some minor changes to run under linux. Enjoy! (09.11.03) - TOASC Dang nab it. I know, I know. No updates. People probably think I've given everything up. Let me assure you that I haven't given anything up. I have a lot of cool stuff in store for DWin, and I've been working on Draak every once in a while and am defiently making advances. Draak can now parse a lot of my existing Pascal files, and most of the work is now in the grammar files. As for DWin, I am working on the "DWin Technology Overview and Documentation", the document that will help clarify and guide DWin development. Sorry, but this means that releases will still be a slow. Sometime I hope to release a Draak version, sorry it hasn't come yet. The sad thing, however, is that I have another Independent Study. That means I'm spending another semester working mostly on one project. Sad but true. As details fill in for this project (code named Gina), I'll let you guys know. I'll try and post more often to let people know what I'm up to, and I'll leave everyone with this piece of info: I've always wanted to work independetly on DWin and Draak, but have never had the fan base to do it, unlike Brian of 8-bit Theater or Piro of Megatokyo. But reality is a bitter woman to me somedays. I'll go to bed now. (6.27.03) - Draak Yea! Draak has been offically revived. And it works well to boot. I just got back from Las Vegas while being at the 2003 International Multiconference in Computer Science & Engineering and even though I didn't present the paper, I am releasing Draak to the public. I will try and get the first release out, but I can't promise anything. So, until I get that uploaded, enjoy the website, and understand why I've seem so quiet lately. (02.28.03) - DWin Okay, just to let everyone know, there is a reason you haven't seen any releases for something like 4 months, but that really doesn't mean anything. DWin has been put on temporary hold because of Draak. DWin will begin again in about 2 or 3 months. Draak, for those who don't know is my compiler. It's set up diffrantly then traditional compilers in that it doesn't understand an acual language, instead it uses a grammer file to parse and compile a sourcefile. I am very excited about this for a few reasons. The major one is the fact that I am getting College Credit for it because I am doing it for Independent Study. This also means that I am going to be working a lot on it. Second, I am excited about it because it will allow a lot of advance options available in Delpi to possibly be added to DWin. The last reason is that it's a great challange and great amount of fun. Well, anyways, Draak is already parsing any Context-Free Grammers, and i'll fill you in as it comes along. Sorry about the silence, it's not on purpose. (12.07.02) - TOASC Okay, Here is a blast from my past. I wrote Jon Kid, Kid Eye in 7th and 8th grade. It was a series of about 20+ stories about a fictional me as a private detective. Please, let the strange writing style slip. I was in 7th grade, but i still enjoy the series. (11.21.02) - TOASC Revolt! (11.20.02) - DWin Well, it's been a long time since you've gotten an update, i'm sorry about that. But, I haven't been totally idle, just mostly. DWin has some updates. Of the biggest is the basic removal of memory leaks. However, that's not total, i dn't think, just mostly. The big thing, however, is that windows now can request and use an object that understands the widgets attached to it, but DWin has a long long ways to go. And it's kinda frustrating for me because i don't know where to go with DWin. The basics are there, what else do i need todo to flesh the code out? What will make DWin something that will make you want to use it for your primary desktop? Internet is something that i want, and i know how i can go about it so that it not only allows for TCP/IP (sorry, i'm starting with no low-level bsd-like internet), but also for IPC, whichh would be real cool. But all of this stuff that i want to do requires DWin to be more mature then it is, and i am frustrated to the point of not accually doing anything, which is more frustrating since i want to do something and don't know what to do, and am so busy from work and school that i want more relaxation time then sitting at a DOS window figuring out what to do next on DWin. Oh, i'm a little flustered. I just wish someone would email me telling me that this is appreciated and someone is interested in my work. Or, even, better yet, voluenteer. I would appreciate a few things: Low-Level network programmers (write me some (turbo) pascal code to interface with network object or teach/tell me how to work with it), Low-Level sound programmers (same reasons), widget designers, database (registry), etc. But, the most helpful thing one can do is just to get onto the mailing list and tell me what you think about this all. I've just added the link at the top page for DWin so you can subscribe easily. Sorry if i rambled, i've just been wanting to do so much, yet can do much. -Jon Gentle (10.03.2002) - DWin Well, it's been two months since my last release, and i'm not sure if i can say that there has been a lot of work. Sorry, school started, and it really put a damper on doing much of anything like this. I'm getting back into the swing of things, and i've released September's release a few days late. But, it is now at sourceforge ready for your downloading pleasure. And, there are two programs for you to get this time (somehow, both are the same size, i don't know how that happened). The first is your regular DWin build. Nothing largely new about that, get it at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dwin/Dwin73.zip?download for your enjoyment. The second (that you can get at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dwin/Brow73.zip?download ) is Brow, the one program i've written in this two month span. I'd try and fool you by saying that it took me the whole two months to write, but if you look at the code, you'll notice there isn't much of it, and i probably could have done it all in one day. Anyways, there is for ya, enjoy! (09.30.2002) - DWin Well folks, end of the month and you still don't have a release in your hands. Sorry, i had a long weekend, and didn't have anytime to finish up the code in Brow and package it up. I promise, by the end of the week you'll have the newest DWin build. Again, sorry for the delay. (09.05.2002) - DWin Yea, i know you haven't gotten an update in a while, sorry. I've been really busy. School has started, work was long before that, and it's just been a mess. The good news is that i'm getting back to a normal schedule and have started working on DWin again. I've got a few new things planned for Draak (no, website still not up, sorry), but Draak is on the back burner for a while. There is no Augest release of DWin, sorry, most of Augest was hectic and i didn't get anything out. However, Sept.'s release will more then make up for it with the release of the first application that uses DWin as it's base. Brow is on schedule, and it was the easiest thing in the world to program! The sources are a mear kilobye right now, and probably 2k once it's completed. It makes me excited. I'm working on some bugs and getting the rest of the API worked on. Widgets and a 32-bit version will be next on the agenda. Until next time! (08.16.2002) - DWin Okay, i don't know how, but the beating that FreeDOS.org took the 14th, i think i got a piece of action. My hits for that day are in the thousands, compared to my normal hundreds (low hundreds). Well, besides that, i didn't get around to announcing the last DWin release because of a busy pre-school time. Well, it is released, Build #73 (v0.82.1, a significant step up from the last), and you can get it Here. (07.10.2002) - TOASC As just a side note, two new polls are up. The first, you need to read Rant #3 first, then go visit this vote. Then just goto this vote and tell me about Draak. (07.03.2002) - DWin Alright, i've set up dwin-announce@lists.sf and it's all set up to go. If you wish to join, simply visit this address. Everytime there is a DWin release (or DWin related information i feel needs released), it will be posted to this list. This will be a moderated mailing list. If you want to discuss (and i'm more then happy to) DWin, please join this list. This is also the list to be used for discussion of the new SAP proposal. Thanks! (06.30.2002) - DWin Well, in my normal fashion, i've whipped together a new DWin release for you. this one again has gotten better then the last time. More stable and defiently a better build then last time. Also, i've set up a new DWin mailing list, dwin-announce@lists.sourceforge.net. As it becomes available, i'll let you know how to sign up for it so that for every release (maybe a little more) you can get the info to your mail box. But until that time, go ahead and try out Build 71. (06.29.2002) - DWin As a part of my rants, i've added a new one that is a request for comment for the future SAP spec. Please read it over, and if you have any ideas/questions/concerns, e-mail me at atrodo@atrodo.org. The RFC can be obtained Here!. (06.07.2002) - DWin Extra, extra, read all about it! Dwin build #70 released, details at sourceforge. Update includes things such as menuing and bugs. Extra, Extra! (06.07.2002) - TOASC Christina, my wife-to-be, has written a rant about texas. She did pretty good for her rant (although, i still need to get on the ball about doing mine.) Catch it Here. (06.06.2002) - DWin I know, I know, i missed May's DWin release. Blame it on Christina. Okay, don't, but i didn't get it out because i went to her parent's house for the weekend plus a few days, and i was hoping to get it packed up and out the door once i got back. Well, that didn't happen. What did happen was that i got a bug that bothered me for the past two days. I got it fixed up and menus are psudo-working, and i'll try and get it a little more working before i relase May's version tommorrow. If not, you'll get it anyways. (05.25.2002) - DWin Well, just as an update, i had a great time in texas, a full report might be coming in one of my rants, and i've gotten a week of work in while goofing around with some games and no programming. Well, that's changed (by sheer force of will) and i've started working on the DWin code again, finding that my life will end up easier if i make win and desk a part of another class and use polymorphism (a great thing indeed). I've also found out that this isn't going to be as easy as i had hoped, but isn't that what makes life fun? Well, i'll get to work and see what i can come up with the next few days, and i hope to get something good working. Tonight i was able to setup the Psudo class (for lack of a better name so far) and get it to compile. It is far from working though, so that's tommorrow's project (along with cleaning this room!). (05.05.2002) - Draak Well, just to let everyone know, i'll probably end up a month off of my roadmap for this time around, but that's okay, because it's the end of the school year and i'm starting work on Draak again, this time i've got a plan worked out, so the programming process should accually happen. I dunno, i just get ideas, then i get new ideas and scrap the old ones. I feel shameful. El well. I probably will end up working on DWin sometime, so expect a release this month. (05.03.2002) - DWin Okay, just so everyone knows, i have hidden all of my old DWin releases of Util and DLib, neither of which will work with the new code base, so no use in keeping them around. That's all. (04.30.2002) - DWin DWin build #69 is out. Nothing big, just a bad release on my part. Sorry. Here (04.21.2002) - TOASC Step 1 (04.20.2002) - TOASC Well, since i finnally got a request for the sources to my Ogg Vorbis media player, i'm now posting it for the general public. If you want the sources, go to This link to download it. Now, offically it doesn't have any licence documentation with it, it's such a simple program, i didn't think it was worth adding a licenece for now. I do, however, retain full copyright to my code, but go ahead and pull parts out of it. If you want to continue development on it, please contact me about doing that so i can formally add a licence to my code. (04.17.2002) - DWin Okay, i know i promised a March build, and i have one ready, but ya know what? No one is really going to be interested in this. All i did was add a menu system that'll show a menu when you press a menu button. So, i'm sorry you don't get that build, but the April build (which will be what i have right now if i don't work on it) will be released, and the build and version number are already incremented apporiatedly, so technically it exists, but i'm not giving it to you, so ha! :-) -JonG (03.30.2002) - DWin Okay, as a quick update, i haven't gotten around to accually finishing my work on the menu system on DWin, and since i am busy this weekend enjoying myself with Christina, i'll work on DWin a little later this week (i'm planning) and you'll get march's release a little early on April, so you'll get two realases in April. (Promise!) -JonG. (03.21.2002) - DWin Alright, time for another update. I know, i know, i haven't said much in a while, that's my fault. Reason is, though, i had tried to upgrade to apache 2.0 when i got my new hard drive, but apache2 doesn't like me, it wouldn't run any of my CGI scripts (ones that i use quite often to update the news items) so i couldn't update the website. But, i've got the old apache up and running like a champ. News on DWin though. I have setup a roadmap (Here) about DWin's future. I'm hoping that this will add direction and motivation for me to the realase schedule of DWin. And, i am going to try my hardest to release a new DWin once every month, probably at the end of the month. That seems to be a general trend for the times that i work on it. So, that's all i've got. -Jon (02.05.2002) - TOASC Okay, rant #4 is up. It maybe short, but rest assured, it's the start of my rantings. (Yea!) (01.29.2002) - DWin Finally, to prove that i am not a bum, i have released the newest DWin build! That's right, DWin #66 has been released to the public. Make sure that you read the release notes, or DWin66.txt in the zip file. Do not, and i repeat DO NOT use any DLib or DUtils with this version. I have not made them again, and the old versions will not, cannot work with this new version. Also, this is a buggy build, so use at your own risk. (01.05.02) - DWin Okay, well here's your real first DWin update in a long time. I am proud to say that the most menial of tasks are done. That is the skin parser. It's up and working, and is happy for anything you throw at it (except it won't take images larger then 16 wide, but i don't expecpt the skinning system todo that for a while). It has a nice vector system, and i have the orginal skins mostly ready (DWin and new, DWin though, still needs some work). The mouse works, and hot spots are available. The two can't interact, but that's okay. Expect me to be working on getting you a preview version sometime. Now that i can add news to the sites, it should be easy. Until next time! -Jon (12.14.2001) - TOASC Okay, well i've been a bad webmaster and not done any updating, mostly because, well, i don't feel like it because there isn't much to update you on. Well, now i have a little news, so i'll spill it. I've defiently been working on DWin lately, don't worry. It's becoming quite a sweet program, and i'm really starting to enjoy working on it. It's going to be even more exciting when i set up the SAP for this new version, it'll defiently better then the old. It's just really sad when Turbo Pascal doesn't let me do what i want with the VMT and DMTs, otherwise i'd use internal, easily fooled uses of Turbo Pascal to power SAP, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Also on the news front, i've restarted Draak (i know, again!) and it should be better again. It's just getting it started right that's the problem. I want to get Draak to a usable point some time so i can use it to make even better VMTs to use. Also, i'm now home for christmas break so i hope to get a new admin system up and running before i go back to school. (10.30.01) - TOASC Okay, i know i'm a bum. I haven't updated you since the site has gone up. I haven't ranted except the first one. Fact of the matter is, i'm lazy. i have slowly worked on DWin, and you would know this but for some odd reason sf keeps deleting my news items. Nothing else but my news items. Kinda odd if you ask me. But el well, it's the way to cookie crumbles. And because of that, you would have known that i've rescraped the idea of my newest DWin incarnation. I'm keeping most of the code, i just restructured it to be a little more module. This way i can just take out and replace the parts for other platforms. Also it'll be easy to use it as a kit to make various programs. I've been slow, however, because the skin parse has been a piece of junk since i wrote it, and i have this stuipd urge to rewrite it, which isn't what i wanted todo. Also, i have been distracted by learning some Windows programming. If you want to know, go check out this rant about it. Nevertheless, i'm done with my 60 day Delphi trial and now i can get to work on DWin. Maybe i'll finish that parser soon. (09.18.01) - TOASC Okay, new site! How do you like it? Well, it took me far to long to finnally finish it, but it's mostly because AU doesn't allow port 22 out-going, which means i have to dial in to update my websites internally, but i have a web-based admin service (that's going to be tweaked a little) so that news can keep flowing, but updates might be a little slower then they normally would be. Sorry, but i've kept the amount of pages on all the sites to a minimum, so news will probably be your greatest asset. I'll keep the items updated, just not always totally. So anyways, who wants an update on me? Okay, here you go: Dwin is coming along. It's got a few things to work on, yes, but i'm am going to be working on it. A new version will be out soon, and it won't be totally functional, but it'll be good. Draak is still where it was at the begining of the summer because i was focusing on DWin for the summer, and also to see if Watcom was going to come out. I have some exciting ideas for it, so i will hope to get a version out. The download for draak is really old, and the current code isn't anything like it. Okay, that's the news for today, enjoy the new TOASC and Dwin sites. Draak will be up later. I promise.
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Note: This is an archived website. I built this between 2000 and 2004 and in some small way I feel that it has defined how I view my online presence. Although it's been years since I've updated, I have decided to keep it in its original glory and preserve it instead of replacing it with a blank page. Enjoy this glimpse into my younger self.