Ripcord - Official Home

A personal project of Ben McBeen

Welcome to the Official Ripcord Site - Last Updated Friday, August 9, 2002

New Provider

I'm with a new web host now. I have more bandwidth to spare, so hopefully I can handle the downloads now.

Why Ripcord Exists

I originally wrote Ripcord because I needed a stronger feature set than Hotline™ could provide. I got Ripcord to a reasonably complete form, then switched over. Soon people noticed I was using "non" Hotline software, because of some of the things I could do, and wanted to take a look at what I had written. Now I work on Ripcord as a hobby.

Now with Hotline Communications going broke, I feel it is more important than ever to continue my work. It might even be time to write a server.

You will also notice that there are no banners on my site. This is because I own it, and am not interested with making money off you by leveraging your visit. Your welcome.

Product Status

Here is the top known issue/request on my hit list:

Bug Fixes.
- There will be no new features until all bugs are fixed.(folder upload/downloads included) I want to finish this damn thing someday.
Folder Uploads/Downloads (If I do this, It will be backward compatible with HL 1.2.3)
- I have made some progress. The structures to impliment the function are all there now. I just need to find a large block of time to tackle it.

Download Here:

I'm busy cleaning up the program, trying to stablize it for a 1.0 release. This version isn't perfect, but it has quite a few bug fixes, and is defintely better than the previous release. I have found that many crash issues have to do with corrupt preference files. I'm working to add a verification routine the the program to make sure the structure of the prefs is ok before loading. If you crash upon opening Ripcord, try deleting your prefs.

Ripcord 1.0b15c10 for OS X/Carbon (Stuffit 5)

Ripcord 1.0b15c10 for PPC (Stuffit 5)

Ripcord 1.0b15c10 for Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP

History

Ripcord 1.0b15c10 - 8/9/2002

Interim release. Download only if you are willing to submit bug reports/crashes to ripcord@mcbeen.com

Ripcord 1.0b15c6 - 3/16/2002

Sorry this release took so long to get out. I had to do some major core work on it, and I had to try and get it nailed down. The good thing is that we have a cool new image system that is fast, cross platform, 32-bit, and small.
I'm working on resurecting some 68K builds of Ripcord. It simply isn't possible to compile the current source in 68K. Time has moved on too much. And with REALsoftware killing 68K, I'm kind of in a lurch. But the good news is that I don't throw away my old source, and I have a fairly good release from the b13 area. I will eventually have this ready for all of you 68K users out there.

Ripcord 1.0b15c1 - 10/1/2001

Hate to do this, but I need to put out another release. I found a couple major functionality bugs in the tracker and toolbar parser. I don't want to wait to get these issues fixed in the release. On top of that, b4c12 got compiled with the wrong rev of the compiler (Thanks OS X!) so you might see some strange visual activity if you keep using it.
If you do find issues with the program, I URGE you to contact me. I don't have time for full regression testing on these releases. What gets tested is what I use. I do fix bugs, and I reply to all messages.

Ripcord 1.0b14c12 - 9/29/2001

Yup. Another release. I'm still going. The windows version is getting close to complete parity with the mac version. I still need to work out the user icon issues (there are none), but after that I'm all set.

Ripcord 1.0b14c8 - 7/4/2001

Against my better judgement, I'm publicly posting the PC version of Ripcord for download. It isn't ready for primetime, but it is getting close. If you want to play with it, stick to chatting and news reading. File browsing works, but the file transfer sockets are being finicky.
The Carbon version is coming alone nicely. Both it and the PPC version have some pretty good fixes in them. There is a chance that I might move to exclusive Carbon/x86 releases. It will save me time and effort. If you need PPC, I can always build it in the future.

Ripcord 1.0b13c15!

Its been a long time since the last public release! There are quite a few reasons for this, one of many being distractions. I really wanted to clean up the program a little in this release. The primary change is the new tracker database. It now uses Valentina to store the data.
I wanted to work it some more, but I figured you guys should see what I have been up to. The biggest change in Ripcord is Carbonization. You can now run the carbon version of Ripcord in OS X.

I have a PC version of Ripcord running very well now, except for a problem with parsing incoming messages. I've been stuck on this one for over a month now, but as soon as I figure out WTF is going on with it, I'll be releasing the PC version for download as well.

I'm sorry to say 68K support may be impossible from here on out if I plan to use the same codebase. This problem alone has been the cause of most of this version's delay. This version does not have 68K support. There are specific reasons for this, it is not arbitrary. I don't want to stop supporting 68K. The general belief in the world is that 68K is dead. It isn't true, but the idea alone may eventually cause the death.

Ripcord 1.0b12c14

We are getting closer to a full 1.0 release. I really appreciate the feedback guys. I am a staff of one. Some people don't realize that.
Anyway, this release is the last for b12. I'm jumping into b13, and I'm going to try and cleanup the tracker and icon management. I also want to complete the file management area. All of the structure is there now, I need to just finish linking it all up.

I expect b15 to be a final candidate for 1.0.

Sorry about not listing all ofthe changes here. I'm kind of busy right now working on the new project.

Almost Ready...

Ripcord 1.0b13 is almost ready for release. The Active Chat Spam filter is online, after sitting idle for a year, as well as a few other lingering issues. Namely a couple problems with reopening file windows.
Right now I'm playing a game of hide and go seek with a glitch in the messaging section of Ripcord. When that is cleared up, I'll post this release.

BTW, Ripcord now supports native HL server-side message blocking.

Ripcord 1.0b12c4 - 8/22/2000

Bug Fix:

User icon is now loaded from cache when changing icon while connected to server, rather then downloading from icon server.

Enhancements:

Threaded news viewer now supports navigation up and down threads as well as selecting next and previous thread.
Improved Threaded news reliability.
General app speed up in the worklist. Non-file transfer tasks will trigger much faster now. Ripcord may overly monopolize the CPU during transfers because of this. I have not been able to see a difference on my machine, but you might. Let me know.

Ripcord 1.0b12c2 - 8/18/2000

***EMERGENCY UPDATE***
There is a major bug that snuck through my beta tester pool. Threaded news is pretty much unfunctional in b11c6. I guess not many of my users go to 1.5 or newer servers. I have to admit that I won't touch anything later than 1.2.3, but that's just my personal preference.

There are a couple of other enhancements to the tracker module as well. I was planning to role it into the next beta, but oh well. Here are the changes:

Bug Fixes:

Threaded news window problems have been corrected. News windows were not always displaying when requested.

Enhancements:

Tracker list is no longer case sensitive.
Tracker list now strips non-alpha crap off the front of server names so they sort better.

Ripcord 1.0b11c6 - 8/17/2000

Here are the changes since1.0b10c12
Enhancements:

Another major speed improvement in the userlist. This should be the last one. Its pretty good now.
focus is now set to first empty field in connection window when opened or a bookmark is loaded.
Create folder is now functional in the file windows. Now blocks “mbot666” private message Spam. Dynamic Spam filter is in development.
Full support for HL soundsets. You can select your soundset from within Ripcord prefs.
Sound system rewritten to use standard HL sound files. You can now select the file of your choosing in preference. Ripcord also honors sound on/off setting completely now.
Bevels for buttons look cleaner now.
Userlist now colors the user based upon status. It works by assigning colors to each status, then mixing them to select the final color. Here is the chart:

No Message : Blue
No Chat : Green
Admin : Red(You knew that one)
Sleep : Lighten color by 30%

Here is how it works. If you are an admin, and are blocking chat, your color will be a mix of red and green, which makes yellow. Get it? If you are a normal user with message block on, you will be blue.

I'm not sure if I'm going to use icons as well.
Tracker system now includes the ability to prefilter content in order to eliminate porn sites from the list and keep searches fast.
Ripcord now includes Socks4 support.
New tracker system. The new multi-tracker system now uses a database to cache server data for off line use. Searching and sorting are much faster. There is still room for improvement though.

Changes:

Removed consolidated view from Ripcord.

Bug Fixes:

Uploads to server with too little disk space will no longer cause endless loop.
Private messaging in Private chat re-enabled
Bookmarks now properly load/store the port of the server.
You can now resume uploads with Ripcord. Ripcord automatically detects if the file needs to be resumed. The only visual feedback you will get is the task disappearing from the task list and getting re-queued at the bottom of the list. The reason for this is the upload resume is technically a second task. There isn’t an easy way for me to keep the file’s position in line at this point. Let me know what you think. Is this behavior ok?
Option-Enter now works in chat again. (its been years :-)
Upload/Download speed throttle has been re-implemented. You can now set the speed limit for your file transfers in bytes/sec. Because this is done client side, there is a 1%-5% fluctuation around the limit. Keep this in mind when setting the value.
Get info now works for all files. It would not work under certain conditions before.
Multiple queued uploads now trigger in sequence correctly

2001 - Ripcord Information site


Ripcord 1.0b15c10 - 8/9/2002
	Interim release. Download only if you are willing to submit bug reports/crashes to ripcord@mcbeen.com
Ripcord 1.0b15c6 - 3/16/2002
	Sorry this release took so long to get out. I had to do some major core work on it, and I had to try and get it nailed down. The good thing is that we have a cool new image system that is fast, cross platform, 32-bit, and small. I'm working on resurecting some 68K builds of Ripcord. It simply isn't possible to compile the current source in 68K. Time has moved on too much. And with REALsoftware killing 68K, I'm kind of in a lurch. But the good news is that I don't throw away my old source, and I have a fairly good release from the b13 area. I will eventually have this ready for all of you 68K users out there.
Ripcord 1.0b15c1 - 10/1/2001
	Hate to do this, but I need to put out another release. I found a couple major functionality bugs in the tracker and toolbar parser. I don't want to wait to get these issues fixed in the release. On top of that, b4c12 got compiled with the wrong rev of the compiler (Thanks OS X!) so you might see some strange visual activity if you keep using it. If you do find issues with the program, I URGE you to contact me. I don't have time for full regression testing on these releases. What gets tested is what I use. I do fix bugs, and I reply to all messages.
Ripcord 1.0b14c12 - 9/29/2001
	Yup. Another release. I'm still going. The windows version is getting close to complete parity with the mac version. I still need to work out the user icon issues (there are none), but after that I'm all set.
Ripcord 1.0b14c8 - 7/4/2001
	Against my better judgement, I'm publicly posting the PC version of Ripcord for download. It isn't ready for primetime, but it is getting close. If you want to play with it, stick to chatting and news reading. File browsing works, but the file transfer sockets are being finicky. The Carbon version is coming alone nicely. Both it and the PPC version have some pretty good fixes in them. There is a chance that I might move to exclusive Carbon/x86 releases. It will save me time and effort. If you need PPC, I can always build it in the future.
Ripcord 1.0b13c15!
	Its been a long time since the last public release! There are quite a few reasons for this, one of many being distractions. I really wanted to clean up the program a little in this release. The primary change is the new tracker database. It now uses Valentina to store the data. I wanted to work it some more, but I figured you guys should see what I have been up to. The biggest change in Ripcord is Carbonization. You can now run the carbon version of Ripcord in OS X. I have a PC version of Ripcord running very well now, except for a problem with parsing incoming messages. I've been stuck on this one for over a month now, but as soon as I figure out WTF is going on with it, I'll be releasing the PC version for download as well. I'm sorry to say 68K support may be impossible from here on out if I plan to use the same codebase. This problem alone has been the cause of most of this version's delay. This version does not have 68K support. There are specific reasons for this, it is not arbitrary. I don't want to stop supporting 68K. The general belief in the world is that 68K is dead. It isn't true, but the idea alone may eventually cause the death.
Ripcord 1.0b12c14
	We are getting closer to a full 1.0 release. I really appreciate the feedback guys. I am a staff of one. Some people don't realize that. Anyway, this release is the last for b12. I'm jumping into b13, and I'm going to try and cleanup the tracker and icon management. I also want to complete the file management area. All of the structure is there now, I need to just finish linking it all up. I expect b15 to be a final candidate for 1.0. Sorry about not listing all ofthe changes here. I'm kind of busy right now working on the new project.
Almost Ready...
	Ripcord 1.0b13 is almost ready for release. The Active Chat Spam filter is online, after sitting idle for a year, as well as a few other lingering issues. Namely a couple problems with reopening file windows. Right now I'm playing a game of hide and go seek with a glitch in the messaging section of Ripcord. When that is cleared up, I'll post this release. BTW, Ripcord now supports native HL server-side message blocking.
Ripcord 1.0b12c4 - 8/22/2000
	Bug Fix: User icon is now loaded from cache when changing icon while connected to server, rather then downloading from icon server. Enhancements: Threaded news viewer now supports navigation up and down threads as well as selecting next and previous thread. Improved Threaded news reliability. General app speed up in the worklist. Non-file transfer tasks will trigger much faster now. Ripcord may overly monopolize the CPU during transfers because of this. I have not been able to see a difference on my machine, but you might. Let me know.
Ripcord 1.0b12c2 - 8/18/2000
	*EMERGENCY UPDATE* There is a major bug that snuck through my beta tester pool. Threaded news is pretty much unfunctional in b11c6. I guess not many of my users go to 1.5 or newer servers. I have to admit that I won't touch anything later than 1.2.3, but that's just my personal preference. There are a couple of other enhancements to the tracker module as well. I was planning to role it into the next beta, but oh well. Here are the changes: Bug Fixes: Threaded news window problems have been corrected. News windows were not always displaying when requested. Enhancements: Tracker list is no longer case sensitive. Tracker list now strips non-alpha crap off the front of server names so they sort better.
Ripcord 1.0b11c6 - 8/17/2000
	Here are the changes since1.0b10c12 Enhancements: Another major speed improvement in the userlist. This should be the last one. Its pretty good now. focus is now set to first empty field in connection window when opened or a bookmark is loaded. Create folder is now functional in the file windows. Now blocks “mbot666” private message Spam. Dynamic Spam filter is in development. Full support for HL soundsets. You can select your soundset from within Ripcord prefs. Sound system rewritten to use standard HL sound files. You can now select the file of your choosing in preference. Ripcord also honors sound on/off setting completely now. Bevels for buttons look cleaner now. Userlist now colors the user based upon status. It works by assigning colors to each status, then mixing them to select the final color. Here is the chart: No Message : Blue No Chat : Green Admin : Red(You knew that one) Sleep : Lighten color by 30% Here is how it works. If you are an admin, and are blocking chat, your color will be a mix of red and green, which makes yellow. Get it? If you are a normal user with message block on, you will be blue. I'm not sure if I'm going to use icons as well. Tracker system now includes the ability to prefilter content in order to eliminate porn sites from the list and keep searches fast. Ripcord now includes Socks4 support. New tracker system. The new multi-tracker system now uses a database to cache server data for off line use. Searching and sorting are much faster. There is still room for improvement though. Changes: Removed consolidated view from Ripcord. Bug Fixes: Uploads to server with too little disk space will no longer cause endless loop. Private messaging in Private chat re-enabled Bookmarks now properly load/store the port of the server. You can now resume uploads with Ripcord. Ripcord automatically detects if the file needs to be resumed. The only visual feedback you will get is the task disappearing from the task list and getting re-queued at the bottom of the list. The reason for this is the upload resume is technically a second task. There isn’t an easy way for me to keep the file’s position in line at this point. Let me know what you think. Is this behavior ok? Option-Enter now works in chat again. (its been years :-) Upload/Download speed throttle has been re-implemented. You can now set the speed limit for your file transfers in bytes/sec. Because this is done client side, there is a 1%-5% fluctuation around the limit. Keep this in mind when setting the value. Get info now works for all files. It would not work under certain conditions before. Multiple queued uploads now trigger in sequence correctly

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