SPUNK - A portable C++ class library

Contents

1. What is spunk?
2. Which platforms are supported?
3. What can I do with spunk?
4. Why has spunk such a funny name?
5. Where do I get more information?
6. Where do I get spunk?

What is spunk?

But spunk is more than just a library that implements a textmode interface. There are many useful classes, e.g. a class for serial communications that has the same interface on every supported plattform.

Usually it is possible to have no platform dependent code in the application, all system depencies are incapsulated and handled by spunk.

Which platforms are supported?

Currently there are ports for the following platforms/compilers:

• DOS
  • Borland-C++ V3.1 (see note)
  • Watcom-C++ (16-Bit) versions 10.0 and 10.5
  • Watcom-C++ (32-Bit) using DOS4GW or PMODE/W as extender
  • DJGPP (GNU-C++ V2.6.3) (note).
• OS/2 version 2.0 or greater (32-Bit)
  • Borland-C++ for OS/2 V1.0 (see note)
  • Watcom-C++, versions 10.0 and 10.5
• Linux
  • GNU-C++ compiler, versions 2.5.8 - 2.7.0 (note).
• FreeBSD
  • GNU-C++ compiler, version 2.6.3 (note).

What can I do with spunk?

• Most spunk classes are persistent. Object instances of those classes can be written to and read from disk.
• This feature is used by spunk to store all visible program resources in a separate resource file. This file contains menus, strings and other data. This has many advantages:
  • The application has a smaller footprint in memory.
  • Changing resources does not imply recompiling the executable.
  • It is possible to deliver the same executable with different resource files. This way it is very easy, to have one application support mutliple features by simple disabling or enabling those features in the menus.
• Spunk supports multi language applications. The spunk resource manager loads each resource in the current language. If this language specific resource is not present, a generic (or english) resource is loaded instead. This bevavior is transparent for the programmer. It is so possible, to add a new language by simply adding new resources to the resource file. In most cases, the executable must not be changed.
• Creating visible resources is done by using the interactive resource editor ResEd. There is no need to create menus from your program and recompile every time your menus changed. Simply Use ResEd to create your resources and load/show them at runtime using a simple function call.
• Spunk has builtin support for the serial ports on every platform.
• Spunk has portable thread support for all platforms that support threads.
• Spunk has TCP/IP network support for all platforms.

Why has spunk such a funny name?

When I decided to give the public access to the former classlib, I started to search for another, better name. At that time, I was reading "Pippi Langstrumpf" (this book for children probably has another name outside of germany) for my daughter. There is one story in this book, where Pippi invents a new and dangerous disease called spunk - and this is how my class library got it's name.

Where do I get more information?

One sample app is a multi window hex editor, that is available for free. The spunk resource editor ResEd may serve as an additional expample for a spunk application.

Using the documentation and the sample programs, it shouldn't be very difficult, to write programs with spunk. Anyway, if you have questions, feel free to send mail to uz@musoftware.de.

Where do I get spunk?