[DaaT]

Vitaly, aka Vitviper (those who frequent BeShare know him) has been hard at work with Ozone 2.

Ozone 1 has been out for sometime, being the best (was out before JavaShare 2) the only beshare client for windows.

After JavaShare got a lot of air time due to Bryan's code-a-thon, it was only fair that Ozone got it's "15 minutes of fame" as well. So i asked Vitviper to write a few lines about what's in store for Ozone 2. Well, he wrote those few lines... multiplied by a nice number...

Without further ado:
[quote]
Well, it may seem that work on Ozone has stalled. This is both true and
false. Work on the Qt based Ozone 1.x has been halted. I do not plan on
adding anymore features to it or extending it in any way. This includes
UNICODE support, since this is pretty much impossible with Qt 2.3. I also
would like to thank Jeremy very much for the Mac OS X port of Ozone! But,
work on an Ozone MUSCLE client has not been stopped.

Now, it seems that JavaShare 2 has been getting a lot of attention,
especially during the the "Code-a-thon." Kind of makes a guy feel left out
. Especially since I was able to get a fully functional Ozone out WAY
before JS2. Bryan likes to point out that I had the luxury of
copy-and-paste. Indeed I did , but how much time did I devote to getting
MUSCLE to work on Win32? (Jeremy!!!!) Before I go more into Ozone, I would
like to give Bryan credit for a job well done on JS2. I am amused by his
effort to have a *Java* MUSCLE client (he knows what I mean ). Anyway,
back to the subject, after much whining and complaining on the TyComSystems
server, I got some attention. DaaT asked me to write a little feature list
on the upcoming Ozone 2.0! So here goes:

- Ozone 2.0 is the next generation of Ozone 1.x being written using wxWindows
[http://www.wxwindows.org]. I intend to extend the original Ozone, as well
as fill in the big gaps that it has. The much awaited UNICODE support is now
here! I have UNICODE fully working under the Windows client of Ozone 2.0. In
addition to that, I have a 95% complete 'chat-only' version of the client
done. All that is left are private windows, which are 80% done. After that,
Ozone 2.0's chat features will surpass Ozone 1.x. Why? Because it has a much
more efficient text-parsing engine, so Ozone should run better on lower-end
machines.

- Ozone 2.0 also includes timestamps (for you Zaranthos!).

- Now, what else is lacking in Ozone 1.x? Download manager! I plan to fix this before
the final release of Ozone 2.0 and include a full-featured download manager
like the one included in BeShare. One nifty feature that I like in wxWindows
is the fact that it has a MIME type database class built in, so I can now
use this to gather mime-types for sharing, even under Linux! This has always
been one area in which Ozone 1.x has lacked greatly. With this MIME
database, I will even have cool icons for shared files! Wait, I'm not done
yet.

- Ozone 2.0 has multi-connection capabilities! There is no longer a need
to launch a new instance of Ozone for every server you want to connect to!
You can just spawn another window and connect to a different server, or the
same one if you wish :^D. Along with this capability, Ozone 2.0 will have
multi-server queries! When you launch a query, it will be sent to every
server that you have a connection to!

Now, all this is not an easy task! I have yet to figure out how to get
UNICODE working under Linux. If you want to help, grab a copy of wxWindows
(one of the daily snapshots, 2.3.2 is too outdated for my tastes), and
compile it. Under Linux, I built it using Gtk+ 1.2.x. I also need help
building a Mac OS X version. wxWindows supports this target as well, with
the Aqua interface (I believe)! There is one more thing that I could use
help with. I have never made a cent on any of my free software. I haven't
even seen a post card. I would very much appreciate any donation that you
can spare. That couple of bucks would be very helpful to me right now. If I
can get a donation total, or near 100 USD. I will release a chat-only client
of Ozone 2.0 for Windows/Linux/(and Mac OS X if I get a maintainer). After
that I will get cracking on file-sharing in Ozone 2.0, which should only
take another two or three weeks. The more donations I get, the bigger my
incentive will be finish file-sharing in Ozone 2.0 and release it to the
world. And, of course, Ozone 2.0 will be LGPL'ed! I would like to thank
everyone for their support! (Even you Zaranthos).

I have a PayPal account with the email: Donations of
any amount would be very appreciated!


if I reach the donation limit, I'll post the names of all the donators in the Ozone 2.0 "About" box
[/quote]

phew... i'm glad i only asked him for a few lines... but, there you have it, Ozone's whole enchilada. He's been doing a great job, we'll keep our eyes open for Ozone 2's arrival.
_________________
"Windows 95 is a 32-bit shell for a 16-bit extension to an 8-bit operating system designed for a 4-bit microprocessor by a 2-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition."