Author: Ben Cottrell
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Software Is Mostly Fun and Games
I’ve come to realize that a lot of the computer software we use, do little more than entertain, guide us or make us happy. The fact that we have gaming consoles like the XBox and the PlayStation, reinforce this. What makes this less terrible, is the initiative of the Free Software Foundation, whose aim is […]
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The PT Toolkit
Targeting software from the same code base to run across many different platforms and devices is not easy, and with certain software stacks it has made it very accessible but there are costs. One size does not always fit all. I’ve started working on a new toolkit, PT, short for Platform Toolkit, which will allow […]
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My Experience Contributing to The WINE Project
Working on something as complex as WINE is not easy, and I’ve learned to be more patient, and now, appreciative of the patience of other maintainers of the project. This article does get quite technical, and I assume the reader has some understanding of this field, especially Microsoft’s COM standard, a kind of ABI, which […]
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Building Qt 6.2.4, Static Version, for GNU/Linux, Built on a Docker Container Running Ubuntu 18.04
Building software isn’t easy, and Qt can be especially tricky. I’ll go through the process that took days to get Qt built statically, that is, with static plugins and libraries, except for the runtime dependency on the GNU C runtime library (glibc), which warranted the use of a container running Ubuntu 18.04. Compared to Windows […]
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Developing Sudoku for Java – P1
Sudoku is a game which, in it’s current form, was invented in Japan, but has existed in other versions, for example, in French newspapers. I’ve attempted to recreate a game following the Japanese or modern version, and it’s surprisingly complex, in fact, Donald Knuth has invented an algorithm called ‘Algorithm X’, which is suited for […]
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Fixing Inkball to work on Windows 10
NB: Following my advice is a breach of the EULA one accepts when they install Windows, so it is assumed that you understand this before reading any further. A while ago, I re-discovered the Inkball game, which I found bundled with an early release of Windows Vista, namely, the Ultimate version. After trying it on […]
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3D Renderings of a Planter Box
I’ve tested out rendering a planter box with Blender. The box was modelled myself. As you can see in the rendered images below, I tried different lighting and different environments to get a desired look. This is subjective, and can take some time. When I rendered the last ones, the first three, I preferred them […]
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Stuff I Haven’t Tried Yet
I’ll admit, I can get too focused within the scope of certain problems and not think about more interesting ideas. In this post, I’ll summarize some problems I haven’t solved yet, but are likely feasible, and if so, I’ll explain how they could be solved. New problems or ideas on this page may get added […]
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My Experience with Qt: Quick and Quick3D
A few years ago, I began to develop applications across multiple platforms written in C++. I wrote mostly on Windows, and the discovery of open-source projects led me to discover the Qt framework. I’ve spent more time than I would care to admit on understanding Qt: it’s IDE, the runtime libraries. I feel it necessary […]
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Trimming the Fat on Web View Based Applications
The use of web views for rendering application user interfaces is not a new concept, although methods for doing so have evolved over the years. In this article, I argue that you can re-use existing API’s to provide a web browser runtime instead of bundling one with each application you ship. We can now see […]