OpenBSD on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano (1st Gen)
Lenovo has finally made a smaller version of its X1 Carbon, something I've been looking forward to for years.
Plaintext HTTP in a Modern World
On the modern web, everything must be encrypted. Unencrypted websites are treated as relics of the past with browsers declaring them toxic waste not to be touched (or even looked at) and search engines de-prioritizing their content.
While this push for security is good for protecting modern communication, there is a whole web full of information and services that don't need to be secured and those trying to access them from older vintage computers or even through modern embedded devices are increasingly being left behind.
Bluetooth Audio on OpenBSD with the Creative BT-W3
Fifteen years ago, NetBSD's Bluetooth audio stack was
imported
into OpenBSD.
From what I remember using it back then, it worked sufficiently well but its
configuration was cumbersome.
It supported Bluetooth HID keyboards and mice, audio, and serial devices.
Six years ago, however, it was
tedu'd
due to conflicts with how it integrated into our kernel.
While we still have no Bluetooth support today, it is possible to play audio on Bluetooth headphones using a small hardware dongle.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - SOCKS5 Support
Returning to the development of my IMAP client, I add SOCKS5 support to be able to connect through a network proxy, particularly the one I made that is able to convert TLS-encrypted data from my real mailserver into plaintext that the Mac's slow CPU can support.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Adding a GUI to diff(1)
In the
previous episode
I quickly ported OpenBSD's diff(1) but there wasn't any interface to select
files or scroll through the output.
I've since added a proper GUI with the ability to select files or folders, and
in this episode I walk through the GUI and filesystem code and then add a
proper Edit menu.
I also make a formal release of the code and binary available for download.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Porting OpenBSD's diff(1)
I've wanted a simple revision control system on my Mac since starting
development of my IMAP client.
Porting a large system like Git or even CVS would be overkill (and very slow),
but maybe something small like OpenBSD's
RCS
implementation would suffice.
For now, just having a diff utility would be helpful so in this video I port
the guts of
OpenBSD's diff(1)
and show it generating a unified diff between revisions of a C file.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Message Flags
In this episode, I fetch the flags of each message and for unseen messages, make them appear in the list in bold. That introduces an off-by-one which I run out of time to fix while recording.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Viewing Messages
Today, I implement plaintext message viewing and hook it up to the message list.
I also review a cleanup of int variables to make them either short or long
throughout the project.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Parsing RFC822 Dates
I wrote a utility function to parse RFC822 dates/times sent by the IMAP server, which then converts them to a UTC time. In this video, I hook it into the IMAP parser and add a resource string for the local timezone offset setting, so these UTC times can then be converted to a local time and displayed in the message list.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Easier LDEFs With This One Weird Trick
I recently read about using a jump instruction as an LDEF resource to allow
keeping the list definition function in the main program executable/project, so
in this video I implement the technique for the message list.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Message List Fixes
In this video, I get the list of messages displaying again and fix a bug that
occurred when closing a mailbox.
I provide a quick summary of creating LDEF procedures in THINK C for drawing
custom list cells, which I will expand upon on in a future video.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - IMAP Protocol Parser Fixes
In this episode, I fix the off-by-one error in the IMAP envelope parser noted
in the previous episode, then improve the tracking of a malloced buffer that
gets shifted around during parsing.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Debugging a Crash
Returning to the development of my IMAP client, in this video I add
functionality to fetch the default mailbox name from the resource file (later to
be moved to a preferences window) and then eventually locate a crash in the IMAP
protocol parser from a bogus memmove.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Demo Application
In this video, I create a new GUI application from scratch, create a resource file and add an image to it, and then display that image in a window. I also cover using THINK C's debugger to inspect a struct. Then, my Mac dies.
Video: C Programming on System 6 - Intro
I've been writing an IMAP client for and on my Mac 512Ke over the past many weeks. Taking inspiration from Andreas Kling's excellent YouTube videos documenting his development of the Serenity operating system, I thought I'd start screencasting some of my work.
This video is the first of hopefully many and presents a quick introduction to System 6, HFS resource forks, THINK C 5.0, and a look at some of the progress of my IMAP client so far.
