[time-nuts] LH Server -> FreeBSD

[John Miles]

> What's "inside" the server end of the 3.0 version of Lady Heather?

Not much.  About 1K lines of C that ties the COM port to WinSock.

> Is it currently available (the server only) as a native program
> on anything other than Microsoft OS's ?

Nope, but ...

> If not, how insane would it be to port it to something like FreeBSD?

... that would be trivial.

> I'm assuming that the server is a non-graphical entity, and that
> it simply moves serial data between the TBolt and the client. If
> there are graphics in the server then this isn't a real practical thing.

It's a Win32 console app (server.cpp in c:\program files\heather if you used
the default installation directory.)  Ultimately I'd like to port it to an
Ethernut or similar small embedded controller, but that's low priority since
the itch I'm scratching involves a Windows PC server.  If you want to send
me a version for BSD or *nix or whatever, though, I'd be glad to post it
alongside the Win32 vesion.

Caveat: Right now server.cpp acts as a fairly dumb TSIP<->TCP/IP bridge.
However, it will ultimately need to include Mark and Warren's temperature
regulation code and possibly some other control code Mark has been working
on, because it doesn't make sense for that to run on (potentially multiple)
remote clients without access to the COM port hardware.

For that reason, I'd suggest making your BSD-specific changes via #ifdefs in
the existing server.cpp module, rather than by creating a new module.
Forking it would be a maintenance hassle when the new control code is ready
to be moved to the server side.

-- john, KE5FX