Protocol tool / News: Recent posts

Corrected a small bug in SPI, SPI now support MSB or LSB first.
Completed the Japanese translation, added translation for Ukrainian.

Some GTK functions are deprecated but may still work.

The C# version will be limited to the serial ports and TCP sockets. The other interfaces will not be supported. Also, the 32-bit checksum Adler and Fletcher will be dropped.

The server side on the Linux version never worked since the use of glib instead of gnet. This will be fixed in the next release.
Sockets on the C# version somewhat worked, but has some issues. This will be fixed in the next release.

This release is the equivalent of 0.9.21 which will be released for Linux soon.

csProtocoltool is the C# version that can be compiled natively on Windows.
I'm currently having some instability problems with sockets on the *BSD, MSYS and Cygwin versions.

ASCII tokens, ex.: 'SOH 'ETX 'ACK 'NAK
Sequence counters

Now works with CAN libraries on Cygwin and MSYS.
Added Adler32 and Fletcher32 checksum methods.
Separated the README file in smaller files.

On Windows with Cygwin and Msys, protocoltool will now link the CAN library at run time instead of compile time. Same thing with the GPIB library from National Instruments.
2 other check methods added.
Splitted the huge README file into smaller docs

I don't plan to implement websocket interface directly into protocoltool. Rather, websocket could be accessible via some converter such as these:
http://github.com/mattbaker/websocket-pipe
http://github.com/joewalnes/websocketd

Eventually, some lesser used interface will be removed and implemented as a daemon providing a socket interface.

Got the GPIB interface working with Lazarus on Linux. I'm working on using the National Instrument library for Windows platforms. So far, on Linux:
Serial: implemented,working
Parallel: not implemented
Socket: implemented,rework necessary
Pipe: not implemented
SPI: implemented, working
I2C: implemented, not working
GBA: implemented, not tested
8255: implemented, working
GPIB: implemented, working
CAN: not implemented
Release for lazarus coming soon.

I'm currently working on a Lazarus version, which will allow it to work on Windows and other supported platforms natively. Since I have some hardware (CAN,GPIB) installed on a Windows 98 machine, I will be able to test these interfaces. Coming soon, the socket and bit-banged (SPI, I2C, 8255, GBA) protocols will be available.

Several new interfaces now working: SPI, CAN, 8255

Got the CAN and SPI interfaces working.

New features

Compilation on 64-bit Windows and Linux is possible.

Protocoltool can now use the CAN bus on Windows platforms (Cygwin and MSYS)
It uses the CAN libraries from Kvaser and Peak on windows.

Support for OpenBSD, FreeBSD and preliminary support for Syllable 0.6.7 added.
On Syllable, GTK isn't available yet.

Checksum Xor and checksum Fletcher-8 bit added.

Protocoltool.ini file:
The name for starting a Unix domain socket can be specified in the 'prototoltool.ini'
file. Its default value is: "pt_unix_socket_server".... read more

A new option s or serial will be available to specify the serial device on the command line.

Using the Kvaser CAN library, it's possible to use it with Cygwin and Msys. It will be available on the next release (coming soon).

Protocoltool.ini file:
The name for starting a Unix domain socket can be specified in the 'prototoltool.ini'
file. Its default value is: "pt_unix_socket_server".

Additional ports can be added to the serial port menu.

On *BSD, Cygwin and MSys, the parallel port address can be specified (in hexadecimal) on the command
line with '-p 378', for example, or in 'prototoltool.ini'. This is convenient
for PCMCIA parallel cards, PCI or PCI express cards; they may not have standard
addresses.... read more

I installed FreeBSD and OpenBSD on one of my machines. Protocoltool will be available soon for these platforms too.

New feature: specify the parallel port with -p on NetBSD and Windows
The Error Check method can be specified with -c
File of string can be specified with -f
The Error Check result can be inserted either in binary (standard) or ASCII format (to allow manual input)

Some issues when compiling with Cygwin under Windows 7 (64 bits) resolved, currently testing.
It will be possible to use GPIB on Windows by using the National Instruments with the Direct DLL interface. Also for the C# version.

I ported protocoltool on C#. It can be compiled on Windows with Visual Studio Express 2010 from Microsoft.

For now it has only the serial and socket port, and it can add a checksum/CRC in ASCII instead of binary. It has all the features of release 0.9.17 on Linux, except for the supported ports.
See in files, csProtocoltool.

I got a new GPIB card, so I tested the current release with the GPIB interface. It works as is.

I created a project specifically for the CRC tables folder. All files were moved here.
See:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/crc/

40-bit and 64-bit CRC doesn't work on Awk and Tcl
Python works but submitting the file doesn't work yet