LaPlaya 1.2
Plays all video clips in a folder one after the other, with an Explorer-like folder tree and file list next to the player.
Visual C++ archive
Besides HPComm, Popper, AGStreme and ZipALot I wrote a lot of smaller Windows programs between 1999 and 2004, all with Visual C++ 6 and MFC. Most of them were free downloads on this site. They talked to things that no longer exist: Ericsson phones over Bluetooth, Winamp 2, Windows Media Player 9, the myip.org dynamic DNS service, Windows NT popup messages. The source code of all of them, plus the experiments and test programs around them, is in one repository: github.com/ractive/visualc-archive.
Every project went in as one commit dated like its newest source file, so the Git log reads as a timeline. The repository has source code only, no installers or compiled programs. The code is 32-bit and was never built for a modern Visual Studio, so expect some work if you want to compile it. Unless a project says otherwise, everything is under the GNU GPL version 2.
As they looked back then
These screenshots come from the old project pages, saved by the Wayback Machine between 2000 and 2002. Each card links to the source folder.
HardLinker 1.1
Creates NTFS hard links when you drag a file with the right mouse button in Explorer. Windows NT 4 support was added by Armin Gerritsen.
Hexer 2.0
Shows a number as decimal, signed, hex, octal, binary and double at the same time. Stays on top and takes drag and drop.
EMelodyLab 1.3
Composes and plays ringtones in Ericsson's EMelody format and sends them to the phone over infrared.
MyIPWinClient 3.41
Windows client for the myip.org dynamic DNS service: sits in the tray, finds the current IP address and updates the host names.
NTMessenger 1.0
Sends popup messages to the computers of a Windows domain, like net send, after scanning the domain for machines.
Applications
The programs in the apps/ folder. "Released" means the program
was a download on ractive.ch; the others never left my machine.
| Program | What it does | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| LaPlaya 1.2 | Plays all video clips in a folder one after the other. A side folder tries QuickTime playback. | 2001 | released |
| Bluesson 0.9 | Turns the Ericsson T68 phone into a Bluetooth remote control for Winamp: play, pause, volume and playlist from the phone's menu. | 2002 | released |
| BlueRC 0.9 | Bluesson for later Sony Ericsson phones, controlling Windows Media Player with keystrokes. | 2004 | never released |
| HardLinker 1.1 | Explorer extension that creates NTFS hard links by right-dragging a file. | 2001 | released |
| Hexer 2.0 | Converts numbers between decimal, hex, octal, binary and double. | 2001 | released |
| EMelodyLab 1.3 | Composes and plays Ericsson EMelody ringtones and sends them over infrared. | 2002 | released |
| MyIPWinClient 3.41 | Windows client for the myip.org dynamic DNS service. | 2001 | released |
| DynPfiff 1.1 | Tray tool that tells a web server the PC's changing IP address and writes an HTML page from a template. | 2001 | released |
| NTMessenger 1.0 | Sends popup messages to the computers of a Windows domain. | 2001 | released |
| NetConfigurator 1.0 | Saves and restores named network settings (address, gateway, DNS, DHCP) for laptops that move between networks. | 2002 | released |
| FTPSync 1.0 | Keeps an FTP folder and a local folder in sync, with conflict dialogs and a tray icon. | 2002 | unfinished |
| ShoppingList 1.0 | Shopping list with shops and items. Syncing it to a phone was planned, not done. | 2004 | unfinished |
| GifT68 1.0 | Converts pictures to 101 × 80 pixel background images for the Ericsson T68. | 2002 | unfinished |
| GifsicleMT | Console helper for GifT68 that maps colours to the T68 palette and hands the result to gifsicle. | 2002 | tool |
| mRouterControl 1.0 | One button that stops the Sony Ericsson mRouter process. | 2003 | tool |
| MonteCarlo 1.0 | Estimates pi with random points and compares four XML libraries on the side. German interface. | 2003 | experiment |
| WinAmpRCServer 1.0 | Controls Winamp from text commands sent over TCP. | 2003 | experiment |
| RCServer | Windows Media Player plug-in that takes play, pause and volume commands over TCP, meant for a phone. | 2003 | experiment |
| TrackerSkin 1.0 | Editor for the skin files of the Sony Ericsson P800 "Tracker" application. | 2003 | experiment |
Experiments
Test programs and skeletons from the experiments/ folder.
None of them was ever meant for other people.
| Project | What it is | Year |
|---|---|---|
| fire-simulation | A wildfire spread simulation built on Collin Bevins' fireLib, sending its grid over TCP to OpenGL and MFC viewers, plus the socket test programs written for it. | 2002–2004 |
| Landscape | OpenGL terrain from a height map (NeHe lesson 34) as an MFC application. | 2003 |
| TestProgressDialog | Test for a progress dialog with a cancel button. One variant hashes files with MD5. | 2001–2006 |
| WMP | The Windows Media Player 9 control embedded in a dialog. | 2002 |
| OpenLogAnalyzer | Parser and timing test for Apache access logs. | 2002 |
| maptransform | Colour transform of a palette file, done for the T68 image work. | 2002 |
| PlayToneX | ActiveX control that plays a sound from a resource. | 2001 |
| NFOViewer | Skeleton of a viewer for .nfo files, without drawing code. | 2001 |
| Test | Explorer-style split window skeleton with a tree and a list. | 2004 |
Small tools
Console snippets from the tools/ folder, the later ones
written with Visual Studio 2005.
| Tool | What it does | Year |
|---|---|---|
| tail | Prints the last lines of a file, reading it backwards. | 2012 |
| binary_search | Templated binary search with asserts. | 2010 |
| BinaryTree | Templated binary tree with Boost shared pointers and three traversal orders. | 2010 |
| sleep | Waits for a number of milliseconds. | 2009 |
| ret | Exits with the code you give it, for testing batch files. | 2008 |
| ctest | C string replace experiments. | 2003 |
| DirList | Directory listing with MFC's CFileFind. | 2003 |
| Beep | Two ways to make the PC beep. | 2001 |
Where they were published
The old project pages on ractive.ch are in the Wayback Machine with the versions and dates as they were listed:
- DynPfiff 1.0, April 2000
- NTMessenger 1.0, June 2000
- HardLinker 1.0, June 2000, and 1.1, December 2000
- Hexer 1.101, June 2000, and 2.0, June 2001
- MyIPWinClient 3.3, August 2000
- LaPlaya 1.1 and 1.2, 2001
- EMelodyLab 1.0 and 1.2, November 2001
- NetConfigurator 1.0, November 2002
Softpedia still lists HardLinker, NTMessenger, LaPlaya, Hexer and NetConfigurator, and Brothersoft LaPlaya and NetConfigurator. Bluesson had its own page at ractive.ch/t68 but never reached the download sites. BlueRC, FTPSync, WinAmpRCServer and the experiments were never published at all.