ZX Spectrum client for imageboards

ZX Spectrum client for imageboards.

Download

You can do that from the Releases page.

Requirements

• Because speccy does not support any internet connectivity by default, you'll need Spectranet Cartridge. It may be pricey and hard to get, but please support the manufacturer as it's a very Niche product.
• Fuse Enumator supports such cartrige, you'll just need to enable it via "Peripherials->Spectranet" radio button

To Do List

1. Refactor img2spec tool and split display and processing logic in separate static library with no executable
2. Ability to save settings
3. Tracking and showing replies to particular post
4. Posting
5. Optimize font rendering speed
6. Cleanup cache after certain timeout
7. Cache the transcoded images and not only originals

Channels Hub

Because speccy is nowhere near as powerful for SSL, you need an intermediate proxy to preprocess the data. A special proxy called Hub (hub/ folder) is supposed to be run somewhere on your local network, e.g. a PC, a router, a raspberry PI etc.

• This proxy does all the heavy lifting, like image spectrumisation (with help of img2spec tool)
• The proxy implements a set of Channels (like a channel for 4chan) and facilitates external calls to provide a standartized API for each channel
• The client doesn't even care what channels are, as long as they use the same API, so potential of having the client to browse pretty much anything is limitless, as long as you have boards (or categories, you can just have one) and a set of conversations (threads) with each thread having posts.

How channels work?

Despite being written in C++, the Hub uses Python to convert channel specifics into a standardized form.

Logic blocks marked here in green are Python packages. The hub simply scans installed packages that match and loads them up.

Some packaged are distributed with the hub, but other could be insalled into the sytem, and the Hub would detect it. To read on how to write a new channel, refer to Creating A New Channel.

Channels Proto

A client and the hub communicate via a special protocol, as described in this document.

How to build from source

• The Hub is simply compiled using CMake.
• Take care to fetch all submodules.
• The python CMake finds could be different from the python in your PATH, in that case you'd need to address that
• The Client uses Makefiles and can only be compiled using z88dk
• You'd need UNIX to compile the client, so for Windows, you would need to use WSL
• Having all that done, then simply shoot make
• While it's included in this repository, you may refer to spectranet dev library and headers

Linux

Install these:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
    gcc \
    git \
    g++ \
    gcc-multilib \
    g++-multilib \
    build-essential \
    xutils-dev \
    libssl-dev \
    cmake

Proceed with cmake as usual.

Docker

It is also available as a docker image:

docker run -d --tmpfs /channels/hub/bin/cache -p 9493:9493 -it desertkun/channels-hub:latest

You can build a local image if you want:

# build
docker build -t channel_hub -f Dockerfile.hub .
# run
docker run -d --tmpfs /channels/hub/bin/cache -p 9493:9493 -it channel_hub

Debugging

Debugging python packages (channels) with PyCharm Professional

• Build cmake in Debug mode. This way, python library would be installed in "develop" mode (setup.py develop), and you won't have to reinstall updated packages every time.
• Open PyCharm and open up hub/channels folder in it. Run a Python Debug Server configuration on port 5678.
• Specify the -d option to the Hub when running. When run, the hub will attempt to join to the pycharm with pydevd to port 5678. Note that with -d option, the hub is running in a single threaded mode, so it only can serve one client connection.
• PyCharm breakpoints should work. After any modification, all you need is to restart the hub (assuming you did the first step).

Debugging python packages (channels) with Eclipse

• Alternatively, install Eclipse
• Build cmake in Debug mode. This way, python library would be installed in "develop" mode (setup.py develop), and you won't have to reinstall updated packages every time.
• Install python3 pip install pydevd
• Select Eclipse IDE for Eclipse Committers
• Select Help -> Install New Software.., put http://pydev.org/updates into "Work With", search for PyDev and install it. Restart IDE.
• Select Open Perspective and select PyDev.
• Select Window -> Preferences -> PyDev -> Inperpreters -> Python interpreter, select New... -> Browse from python/pypy exe, hit Apply -> Apply and Close.
• Select File -> New -> PyDev project, select /hub/channels folder of this repository.
• Select PyDev -> Start Debug Server (Note: That menu item should be present at the debug perspective and it can be enabled in other perspectives through Window -> Perspective -> Customize perspective -> Tool Bar Visibility -> PyDev debug). If that thing complains, fiddle with Action Set Availability.
• Specify the -d option to the Hub when running. When run, the hub will attempt to join to the pycharm with pydevd to port 5678. Note that with -d option, the hub is running in a single threaded mode, so it only can serve one client connection.

First time thing could be slow, so have some patience.

Debugging the client

• The only way to debug the client is to use netlog, a printf-alike function that sends printed text to UDP port 9468 on the same host as proxy.
• To see these logs on Linux/Mac, simply do make listen-for-logs while on Windows, you'd need to install netcat and do nc -lLu -w 1 -p 9468.