Here, you can find fun and useful software, libraries and documents created by Dave. Dave is a graduate of computer science at the University of Manitoba who likes networking, mobile robotics, and games. Current projects include the DyConnect netwoking library, and a tele-operated vehicle unimaginatively called the Telebot. In his spare time he creates very, very plain websites that are easy on his dial-up modem and meager HTML skills.

A graphical telnet client for nethack. Includes graphics for most sprites, items and dungeon features, and drop down menus for in-game commands. Works in Windows and Linux. This program is freely available under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

nethack-alleg052.zip Source code and Windows executable
nethack-alleg052.tar.gz Source code in Linux-friendly format
Screenshot

A simple networked paint program. Up to eight users can connect to a session, and collaborate on a drawing in real time. The bandwidth requirements for clients is modest, and dial-up users should be able to join sessions without problems. Hosting a session requires you to upload 3 Kbps per client, and requires broadband if you intend to have more than one client connected.

Type enter to chat with your fellow artists.

netpaint110.zip (831K, requires Windows XP)
Screenshots

Known Bugs: some users have reported a getnameinfo error when they attempt to connect to a session.

We finished water-proofing the Telebot, and took it for a spin around the yard. It handled fairly well with a video feed of 3.5 to 5.5 frames per second.

Outdoor Pictures

TeleBot

A mobile robot. It has a Mini-ITX motherboard that takes input from a webcam, and transmits it over a wireless network. Useful for exploring your neighbourhood from the comfort of your computer room. Also it's great fun to drive.

Some webcam pictures from the Telebot's first trial run.

DyConnect

A networking library written in C++. The main features are:

• multi-threaded TCP/IP programming
• UDP socket wrapper
• IPv4 and IPv6 support
• compression/decompression routines implemented with zlib
• CRC hashing using the 'fast' CRC algorithm
• cross platform (Windows and Linux)
• provides non-blocking network functions
• distributed under the zlib license, meaning it's free and you're under no obligation to release your source code
• allows general purpose networking. There are no hidden or custom protocols, and you can use DyConnect to communicate with non-DyConnect applications.

DyConnect includes the high-level Dasyne classes, used for rapid development of networked games. Dasyne features:

• built on top of DyConnect
• allows you to create variables that are automatically synchronized between the server and clients
• detects and corrects any synchronization errors
• only the parts of the data that have changed are sent to clients
• can synchronize very large amounts of data, limited only by the rate of change
• completely non-blocking
• easily switches between TCP and UDP
• all network messages are compressed

DyConnect online manual
Download DyConnect from SourceForge

Age of Invasion

A real-time strategy game, with a view from the side rather than the top. Comes complete with a race editor and three pre-created races. Age of Invasion was originally written with DJGPP under ms-dos 6.22. It was later ported to Windows 98 SE, and development was finished with Dev-Cpp. The graphics, timers and input were implemented using the Allegro library. Development of this game was completed in 2003, with the exception of multiplayer.

Known Issues: occasional crashes when playing the Lake Placid and Spider Cavern maps.

Age of Invasion Original Web Page
Screen Shots
Invasion080.zip (3.02 MB)

Programming Resources

Some handy links:

www.cppreference.com Using the standard C library and the C++ Standard Template Library

www.llnl.gov Programming POSIX Threads.

beej.us Beej's Guide to Network Programming

www.allegro.cc When all else fails, ask here.

White_Noise.ogg Soothing white noise to calm the troubled programmer.

Contact

You can contact me with bugs and feature requests at dmccallum9@gmail.com