Assorted Freeware

Codes of my making, without warranties (or restrictions).  Please tell me if you find something you like.

Package name:  ADEPT [A Declarative, Eval()-based Program Tester], v.0.9.1:   A Python unit testing package that uses tuples, rather than classes, to define test cases.

Contents: 

• adept.py, the test engine proper;

• adept.htm, a short introduction to the tool's functionality, features, and limitations;

• adept.txt, the user manual;

• adeptExamples.py, the user manual examples, in executable form;

• adeptTestSuite.py, a 782-test-case validation suite for ADEPT, written in ADEPT; and

• adept.zip, the complete package (85KB).

Package name:  PISCES [Platform-Independent Socket ClassES]:   A set of C++ wrapper classes for OO socket programming.

Co-author:   Sridhar Koritala, now of Informatica.

Contents:  An OO library for TCP- and UDP-based socket programming, along with sample codes illustrating the library's use.

Key features of library:

• Extensible leaf classes for supporting standard modes of TCP/UDP programming

  • Classes for TCP client, server, and rollover [i.e., accept()-generated] sockets

  • Classes for UDP client, server, and peer [i.e., sendto()/recvfrom()-supporting] sockets

  • Mixin-enhanced versions of the foregoing TCP and UDP socket classes, for use with select()

  • Mixin-enhanced versions of the foregoing TCP and UDP selectable socket classes, for use with callbacks [scheduling policy: round-robin]

• Exception-based error management, with user-friendly error messages (including WSA codes)

• Supporting classes for service access point manipulation, including classes for IP addresses, DNS names, and port/address pairs.

• Supporting classes for manipulating objects in program's environment:  e.g., time of day, command-line parameters.

Key sample codes:

• Sample programs for manipulating service access point data  (get own hostname; map IP->DNS; map DNS->IP; map range of IPs->hostnames).

• Sample TCP and UDP client-server pairs, with illustrative framing strategies.

• Sample "sniffer" applications that pass information transparently between a client and a server program.

• Sample select()-based applications that illustrate multiplexing among multiple clients.

Remarks:  PISCES is extensive enough to support the development of robust, clean applications, but small enough--unlike, say, ACE--to be digested in about a week, internals and all.  An isolation layer allows the library to ported readily between platforms. 

Platforms:   Windows NT, Windows 2000, IRIX, Linux.  Should also work under NetBSD. 

Known problems:   I've seen PISCES's getopt.cpp module break g++ v.2.8.1 under  IRIX, due to an assembler failure to support the long names generated by STL compilation.

Package name:  LADEL [Layout Descriptor Language]:  A set of C++ wrapper classes for dynamic I/O buffer specification and manipulation.

Primary Implementer:   Ashfaq Jeelani, now of Siebel Systems.

Contents:  An OO library for (1) imposing a struct-like view on an I/O buffer, and then (2) manipulating that buffer using high-level streaming operators, relative to this view.

Key features of library:   A class, BufferManagementClass, that supports

• a constructor that 

  • accepts two inputs:  

    • a block buffer

    • a string, written in a C-like language for specifying storage layouts [LADEL], that defines a "virtual view" of that block buffer

  • generates a set of objects that support streamed access to the block buffer's "virtual fields"

• an operator, ^,  that selects a "virtual field" from a BufferManagementClass object, returning a BufferManagementClass object

• an operator, >>, that supports streamed, overflow-checked extraction from a buffer's "virtual fields"

• an operator, <<, that supports streamed, overflow-checked insertion into a buffer's "virtual fields"

• a method, setpos(), that resets the current byte pointer for a BufferManagementClass object

Key sample codes:

• Sample programs that illustrate the use of BufferManagementClass operators.

• Sample programs that illustrate the use of the buffer specification language [LADEL] to support layouts relative to buffers of variable length.

Remarks:  LADEL is the outcome of a thesis project that attempted to improve on the standard bcopy() approach to block buffer manipulation.   Ashfaq's thesis is available from me, if you want more information on LADEL.

Platforms:   Windows NT, Windows 2000.   Should also work under Unix platforms.

Known problems:   The code needs far more careful commenting.

Package name:  Implementation of Dijkstra's minimum spanning tree algorithm (Tarjan's version)

Remarks:  C-based implementation.  Includes an OO-ish implementation of priority queues and AVL trees.

Package name:  Implementation of static Huffman coding

Remarks:  C-based (non-PISCES) client-server pair that uses Huffman coding based on preset character frequencies to compress (client) and uncompress (server) a transmitted message.

Package name:  Implementation of dynamic Huffman coding

Remarks:  C-based client-server pair that uses an initial Huffman coding tree, with on-the-fly character counts, to compress (client) and uncompress (server) a transmitted message.