Category Archives: Open Source
hfs-tool
hfs-tool is a command line program that I wrote back in 1994 for reading HFS format (Apple) disks on Unix and MS-DOS systems.
Much like my nenscript program, I lost contact with the code after several years as email addresses changed. Eventually the program became surpassed by native implementations of the HFS filesystem on various platforms.
The code is still provided as part of the FreeBSD 9.2. See this URL for further information
Opal and PTLib
Opal is a back-ronym for Open Phone Abstraction Library. This project provides a comprehensive implementation of the SIP and H.323 protocols used for Voice-Over-IP. It has formed the basis of many commercial products and is used by the Ekiga project – part of the GNOME desktop.
This work has been coordinated by myself and Robert Jongbloed, along with contributions from dozens of developers all over the globe. This project originally started off as the OpenH323 project in 1993 with support for H323 only. In 2007, SIP support was officially included and the project was renamed Opal.
The project repository is hosted at SourceForge.
Linux kernel drivers
I’ve been associated with two different Linux kernel drivers over the years.
The driver for the 3Com 3c505 ethernet card was started by me in 1996, and was completed by Andrew Tridgell (fellow Australian of Samba fame). This code last appeared in kernel version 2.4.37.
I was also part of the team that worked on the IxJ driver for the QuickNet telephony card in 1999. That code also disappeared after kernel version 2.4.37.
Nenscript
Nenscript is a clone of the proprietary enscript program from Adobe Systems. For those who have never used enscript, it is a pretty printer and paginator that accepts raw text and outputs PostScript complete with headers, footers, and other useful ornaments.
nenscript was written by me over a period of several months in 1992 whilst I was working at Computer Sciences of Australia as a contractor. The development team I was with was making heavy use of enscript, but that product did not make the jump from the old Sun 3 to new Sun 4 boxes that were being phased in.
After writing it, I saw that several people had a similar problem. So I convinced my manager that this would be a Good Thing to release this as open source.
nenscript – blast from the past
One of the first Open Source projects I ever created is called nenscript. After it was released into the wild in late 1992, the email address I used for the README file disappeared, and I forgot all about it.
Thus, I was very surprised to find that it still lives on!
This appears to be the canonical page for the code, there is a Gnu-Win32 package, and it is still available as part of the BSD FreshPorts repo. There is also a GitHub repo
I think I will let them know I am still around