From Linux to RISC OS: Drobe takes a technical look at three new net apps (and one crafty chess program)

From Linux to RISC OS: Drobe takes a technical look at three new net apps (and one crafty chess program)

Published: 21st Nov 13:52:28GMT Source: Drobe News [and Stefan Ballon]
By Chris Williams

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Recently, Stefan Bellon has decided to kindly port four interestingly named utilites from Linux to RISC OS. While the names may not reveal a lot about their purposes, our technical article below should...

junkbuster

junkbuster is a proxy that filters the HTTP stream between web servers and browsers. Its main purpose is to enhance privacy. The Internet Junkbuster Proxy blocks unwanted banner ads and protects your privacy from cookies and other threats.

The original source was found on www.waldherr.org and the program was ported after Gus, (of ArmsTech and Freeze fame), asked Stefan if something like this existed on RISC OS. After looked at junkbuster, Stefan decided that he'd "like to give it a go".

rinetd

This redirects TCP connections from one IP address and port to another. rinetd is a single-process server which handles any number of connections to the address/port pairs specified in the file Choices:rinetdrc. Since rinetd runs as a single process using nonblocking I/O, it is able to redirect a large number of connections without a severe impact on the machine. This makes it practical to run TCP services on machines inside an IP masquerading firewall. rinetd does not redirect FTP, because FTP requires more than one socket.

The original and apparently buggy source was found on www.boutell.com, which Stefan happily updated with the author's help. rinetd was ported because Stefan needed a TCP connection forwarder myself.

greed

It's a wget-like command line downloading tool. Tailored for scheduled downloads via some timer (e.g. Organizer's Task Alarm function, etc.). It can resume interrupted downloads as well as import GetRight download lists.

Greed's original source was found on www.public.asu.edu after Christian Ludlam asked for a port on the usenet newsgroup comp.sys.acorn.networking.

Crafty

Crafty is a state-of-the-art computer chess program, and uses all of the search algorithms you have probably read about, negascout search, killer/history move ordering, SEE (Static Exchange Evaluation) quiescence move ordering and pruning, hash (transposition/refutation) tables as well as evaluation caches, selective extensions, recursive null-move search, and a host of other features that have been used and are still being used in most computer chess programs. If it's not in Crafty, either it is on the "to do" list, or it has been tried, found wanting, and discarded.

The original source was found on ftp.cis.uab.edu. Crafty was ported because Oliver Dyas asked on comp.sys.acorn.apps for a free and decent chess game later than the old GNU chess port. There's no front-end for Crafty yet and Stefan is looking for anyone to offering to provide one..

Stefan Ballon's Linux to RISC OS site: www.sbellon.de

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