Category Archives: Other

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

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

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