Kynosarges

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• Development tools and information.
• Miscellaneous software and information.
• My Projects with source code for download.

Latest News

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Visual Studio 2010 Tips & Tricks (2010-02-04)

Those who fondly remember Sara Ford’s series of VS2008 tips should head over to Zain Naboulsi who is now providing the same service for the upcoming VS2010.

Tektosyne 4.3.0 Released (2010-02-04)

Uploaded Tektosyne 4.3.0 with a generous helping of computational geometry, including Fortune’s sweepline algorithm for Voronoi diagrams and Delaunay triangulations, Graham’s scan for convex hulls, and a faster point-in-polygon test. The most important standard algorithm that’s still missing is point location in an arbitrary planar subdivision, which I hope to add in the next release.

Hexkit on Hold, Down with Hexagons (2009-12-13)

Hexkit development has stopped as I’m refocusing on a more realistic simulation of pre-modern warfare, which will require the kind of geometric algorithms added to the last Tektosyne release. I’ve written a Project Status update to explain this change of direction.

Book Review: Masterminds of Programming (2009-12-12)

Added a review for Masterminds of Programming by Federico Biancuzzi and Shane Warden. Sadly, this collection of interviews with famous language designers turned out rather less interesting than one might hope. Wait for a price drop.

Tektosyne 4.2.0 & Hexkit 4.2.1 Released (2009-12-12)

Uploaded Tektosyne 4.2.0 with a few changes to mathematical & geometric types, as detailed in the WhatsNew file. Hexkit 4.2.1 and a revised Hexkit User’s Guide reflect the new Tektosyne version but are otherwise unchanged. I’ll write more about this update in a future post.

Website Update (2009-11-06)

Windows PowerShell 2.0 has been released and is now part of the Windows Management Framework (Core) package, unless you’re running on Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 where it’s preinstalled. Moreover, the new PowerShellPack provides an extra set of libraries.

Microsoft has also put together handy lists of all keyboard shortcuts in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Internet Explorer 8. I updated the Microsoft Links page accordingly, and also removed a number of broken or outdated links.

And in other news, Chris Morris of CNN Money fame now writes The Cut Scene at Variety.

Website Update (2009-10-10)

Added The Science Show, Slide to Play, and Touch Arcade to the Subscriptions page.

Also, Microsoft has released the final version of its free Security Essentials, a convenient all-in-one package that protects against viruses, spyware, and all kinds of malware. Preliminary reviews are excellent, so unless MSE does very poorly at detecting viruses you can expect it to quickly obsolete all those free-for-private-use versions of commercial anti-virus scanners.

Hexkit 4.2.0 Released (2009-09-27)

Uploaded Hexkit 4.2.0 with new demo scenarios and many small fixes. As promised there’s a new scenario based on the battle of Poitiers, and one hypothetical variant scenario each for Crécy and Poitiers. The Crécy variant gives the crossbowmen their pavises back, and the Poitiers variant prevents the second French division from routing prematurely.

All four scenarios are documented in the enhanced scenario guide. Finally, the User’s Guide and the screenshot page have been updated as well. There is a new screenshot for Poitiers, but I also recreated all other screenshots using Windows XP at 96 dpi in a virtual machine. The resulting image files are much smaller than the ones I took at 120 dpi on my Vista system.

Civ4 BtS Modifications Re-zipped (2009-09-12)

Seems there’s some bizarre incompatibility between Speed Commander’s built-in ZIP compression and the ZIP extraction used by 7-zip. The latter would complain about “incompatible” compression when attempting to unpack the Civilization mods I updated yesterday, even though the extraction itself was successful. I repacked the three mods with 7-zip to prevent this error message.

Civ4: BtS Patched, Re-patched & Modded (2009-09-11)

Patch version 3.19 for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword has been released a good while ago. During the last month, the community-created Unofficial Patch and The BUG Mod have been updated for this final patch, which means I finally got to install it.

There were a couple of small changes to the Civ4UnitInfos.xml file in both the official and the unofficial patch, so I updated all the affected downloads on my Civilization page. These were the three mods adjusting espionage and unit costs. Their documented effects are still the same as in previous versions.

Tektosyne 4.1.9 Released (2009-08-30)

Uploaded Tektosyne 4.1.9 with a better MessageDialog that automatically resizes to the primary message, MessageBox-like, but not to the secondary message.

Meanwhile, the new Poitiers scenario for Hexkit is coming along nicely and should be released within the next month.

And lastly, three prominent victims of ExtremeTech’s implosion now maintain their own weblogs: Loyd Case on Improbable Insights, Jason Cross, and Joel Durham Jr..

NDoc 2.0 Alpha with Firefox Bugfix (2009-08-01)

Franz Alex Gaisie-Essilfie has modified NDoc 2.0 Alpha to incorporate the Firefox bugfix originally discovered by Bruno Braga. See the NDoc download page for details. Thanks, Franz Alex!

Hexkit 4.1.6 & Tektosyne 4.1.8 Released (2009-07-16)

Uploaded Hexkit 4.1.6 which adds unit resource gauges to the map view. Those act as standard health bars by default but can be configured to show any unit resource, e.g. morale or ammunition. Also tweaked the implementation of standard variables – see the WhatsNew file and the revised Hexkit User’s Guide for details.

Moreover, Tektosyne 4.1.8 comes with a better XmlUtility.ReadAttributeAsEnum<T> method and the latest NUnit version 2.5.1.

Subscriptions Update (2009-07-08)

Added Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry weblog to the Subscriptions page. I recently discovered that most of the articles in this weblog do not appear on the Eurogamer frontpage or the main RSS feed, so you’ll want to subscribe to the well-hidden separate RSS feed.

Tektosyne 4.1.7 & Hexkit 4.1.5 Released (2009-06-27)

One update is chasing another these days… Tektosyne 4.1.7 fixes several overflow crashes on 64-bit systems. Hexkit 4.1.5 incorporates this fix and resolves a crash bug when changing zoom levels during command replays.

I also replaced the rather strange desert slopes in the Crécy demo scenario with color-coded elevation steps, using the new color shift option. See Hexkit Images for a sample of the new look.

Hexkit 4.1.4 Released (2009-06-25)

Uploaded Hexkit 4.1.4 with a few fixes and a minor enhancement: you can now select any available WPF display theme for the Hexkit GUI. Finally, everyone can enjoy the green buttons of Luna Homestead! Or not.

More seriously, I’m reading up on the Battle of Poitiers which is a natural companion piece for the Crécy demo scenario. The two scenarios could share all data sections save for the map itself. There’s also an interesting AI challenge since Poitiers requires a flanking movement on the English side for historical behavior, and the Seeker algorithm currently cannot do that…

Tektosyne 4.1.6 & Hexkit 4.1.3 Released (2009-06-21)

Uploaded Tektosyne 4.1.6 with several new utility methods, including one to shift the color channels of PBGRA32 pixels & bitmaps. Hexkit 4.1.3 builds on this feature to provide a color shift option for image stack entries.

There is also a breaking change to the way image stack entries are serialized – see the WhatsNew file for details. The Hexkit User’s Guide was revised as well.

Hexkit 4.1.2 Released (2009-06-10)

Uploaded Hexkit 4.1.2 which adds a long-requested feature: static overlay images for map views. You can use them for background terrain graphics or simply as editing aids – see the WhatsNew file for details. The Hexkit User’s Guide was also revised to reflect this change.

Tektosyne 4.1.5 & Hexkit 4.1.1 Released (2009-05-25)

Uploaded Tektosyne 4.1.5 which adds a big new collection class. ArrayEx<T> duplicates the functionality of the standard Array class, including multidimensional indexing, but also provides a read-only wrapper like other Tektosyne collection classes, and allows one-dimensional indexing regardless of rank.

Also uploaded Hexkit 4.1.1 which fixes two small bugs and uses ArrayEx<T> to protect the game map from unauthorized modifications. The Hexkit User’s Guide got a minor revision that reflects this change.

Website Update (2009-05-24)

Added Shawn Farkas’ .NET Security Blog and the Windows Team Blog to the Subscriptions page.

In other software news, check out the Meta.Numerics library if you’re doing any numerical computing. And WinRAR surprisingly came back to life with a new beta version, but that’s unlikely to reverse the general trend towards 7-Zip.

Hexkit 4.1.0 & User’s Guide Released (2009-05-17)

Uploaded Hexkit 4.1.0 with revised entity categories and an enhanced variable modifier system, as discussed in previous posts. See the WhatsNew file and the revised Hexkit User’s Guide for all the gory details, and be warned that this release contains tons of breaking changes for existing scenario files.

Also uploaded Tektosyne 4.1.4 which merely updates two referenced utilities: NUnit 2.4.8 for unit testing, and 7-Zip instead of Info-ZIP for the distribution package.

More Compression Stuff (2009-03-24)

Since WinRAR is apparently dead and Info-ZIP no longer offers precompiled executables, I now join the rest of the Internet and recommend 7-Zip for all file compression jobs. All links regarding ZIP archives were changed from Info-ZIP to 7-Zip (or will be during the next project updates).

Website Update (Addendum) (2009-03-19)

Free Tools: 7-Zip by Igor Pavlov is now good enough to serve as a free alternative to WinRAR, especially since the latter’s development appears to have halted.

Commercial Software: Speed Commander by SpeedProject is the only good Norton Commander clone I found that offers a native 64-bit version. My previous favorite, Total Commander, is written in Delphi and therefore 32-bit only, which means it can’t handle certain system folders and 64-bit Explorer plugins. Ultimately these limitations just got too annoying.

Website Update (Addendum) (2009-03-15)

Free Software: ISO Recorder by Alex Feinman writes the contents of an ISO file to a blank CD or DVD, something that Windows itself strangely cannot do.

More on Hexkit Items (2009-03-14)

I’ve thought a bit more about the Item entity category in Hexkit. Now I’m leaning towards keeping it, but streamlined so that items always have a faction-wide effect, and never move between map sites and faction inventories but appear in both places when owned. When placed they would act like terrains but with a different effect range (owner’s units rather than local units). Placeable items could be built, placed, destroyed, and captured along with their map site. Non-placeable items could be built but nothing else – a faction pays resources for an immediate global benefit, similar to technology research in 4X games. The special CanRecover flags go away, and the whole mechanism should be simpler both for the user and for the game engine, while still providing a distinct functionality that’s appropriate for a strategy game.

Update 2009-03-19: Thinking even more, I’m now planning to enhance variable modifiers for all entities so that they can affect any combination of owner faction and units. The specific combination is thus defined by the individual entity class, not by its category. This not only makes terrains and units more versatile (i.e. without custom code), but also obsoletes placed items entirely. Their role is now taken by terrains with the desired global effects. Items will remain as unplaced-only entities that reside in faction inventories, i.e. technologies or the like. Now I just have to think of a good name for them…

Website Update (2009-03-14)

Commercial Software: Since 4Developers has never updated Registry Crawler for Windows Vista, I’ve switched to Registry Workshop by Torch Soft as my new registry tool of choice.

Game Links: My favorite Roguelike game Dungeon Crawl did get updated, in the form of the excellent Stone Soup project.

Lastly, added Deep Fried Bytes and bit-tech.net to the Subscriptions page.

Hexkit 4.0.5 & User’s Guide Released (2009-03-07)

Uploaded Hexkit 4.0.5 with some bugfixes, greater variable ranges, and enhancements to the “Roman Empire” scenario – see the WhatsNew file for details. The Hexkit User’s Guide was also updated to reflect these changes.

Going forward with Hexkit, I intend to drop item entities so that factions would only deal with units and terrains. I had originally added items to allow for scenarios with RPG elements (think Heroes of Might and Magic or Roguelikes). But I don’t see Hexkit moving in this direction now, and wargame scenarios can easily substitute entity variables for dedicated items. So a mostly useless Item category just complicates the user experience, the game system, and the AI code – all reasons why I’m eager to get rid of it.

This is not to say that I won’t ever use the numerous icons for weapons and armor in the default tileset. A unit’s list of statistics might show such icons to visualize its equipment, for example. The important difference is that such icons would be purely GUI decorations, with no presence as independent entities in the game system.

New Hexkit User’s Guide (Again) (2009-02-16)

Refreshed the new Hexkit User’s Guide since I had forgotten to document the properties that were added or changed in Hexkit 4.0.0 and 4.0.2. Sorry!

New Hexkit User’s Guide (2009-02-15)

Uploaded the revised Hexkit User’s Guide for Hexkit 4.0. This is really just a minor revision since most of the contents were not affected by the WPF upgrade.

Hexkit 4.0.4 & Tektosyne 4.1.3 Released (2009-02-13)

Uploaded Hexkit 4.0.4 and Tektosyne 4.1.3 with some more tweaks and fixes. This release should form the basis for the upcoming revision of the Hexkit User’s Guide.

Website Update (2009-02-09)

Added Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report and the new Microsoft CLR Team Blog to the Subscriptions roll.

Also refreshed the Hexkit Images page with somewhat less gigantic screenshots taken from the current Hexkit version.

Hexkit 4.0.3 & Tektosyne 4.1.2 Released (2009-02-08)

Uploaded Hexkit 4.0.3 which is the first WPF version that should work without serious issues. Command execution and game replay are now properly multithreaded, which means most reentrant DoEvents calls were eliminated, which means Hexkit Game should no longer freeze when resizing the main window during replays.

Also uploaded Tektosyne 4.1.2 with another minor change.

Book Review: Concurrent Programming on Windows (2009-01-30)

Added a review for Concurrent Programming on Windows by Joe Duffy. Concurrency is Duffy’s speciality and the focus of his excellent weblog, so it’s no surprise that this monumental 1,000-page book is highly recommended for all Windows developers.

Book Review: Microsoft Visual Studio Tips (2009-01-20)

Added a review for Microsoft Visual Studio Tips by Sara Ford. This is basically just a reprint of the popular Visual Studio articles on the author’s weblog but hey, the book is cheap and it’s convenient to have the whole thing in print. Besides, I had already forgotten about some of the earlier tips.

Comment Reflower Updated (2009-01-19)

After much deliberation and procrastination, I finally made a semi-decent setup package for my Comment Reflower port for Visual Studio 2008. Not a real setup package, mind you – I merely adjusted a few file locations so that you can XCopy-deploy all required files to your Visual Studio Addins folder. Also, the online help for the Settings dialog actually works now! Please refer to the updated ReadMe file for details on these changes.

Website Update (2009-01-18)

Added Microsoft blogger Tim Sneath to the Subscriptions roll. Tim writes about Silverlight, WPF and Windows in general, and his latest post shows a ton of useful Windows 7 shortcuts.

Virtual CloneDrive by SlySoft is a nifty little utility to mount ISO files as virtual CD/DVD-ROM drives. Somehow I had never noticed this freeware product on the SlySoft website until John Robbins pointed it out in his blog.

And a Civilization 4 Tip: You should definitely check out The BUG Mod if you haven’t already. This is a collection of essential UI improvements, and the current version is also compatible with the “Complete Edition” package.

Historical Note

The Κυνοσαργες (Kynosarges) was an ancient Greek gymnasion dedicated to Hercules, situated in the demos Diomeia outside the walls of Athens. It was the place of education for those Athenian boys who did not enjoy full citizenship. Antisthenes (445–360 BC), student of Socrates and founder of the cynic school of philosophy, taught at the Kynosarges. The most famous cynic was Diogenes of Sinope (412–323 BC), allegedly residing in an empty barrel and subject of countless anecdotes.

Addendum 1 June 2004: I am pleased to discover that Kynosarges was also the title of a short-lived literary magazine whose only issue was published in Berlin anno 1802. Otherwise the name appears to have seen little use since ancient times, at least with the “K” spelling.