Annoyingly, things haven't quite gone to plan. There's two main contributing factors to this; first off is that the fix for the security issue is a little hard to actually program (I know what I need to do, but just haven't been able to do it yet). The second is that today a lot of the time I had planned to allocate to this project got consumed by some mandatory DIY I had to do.
So basically, I've got to push the project back a couple of days. New target date is 3rd March, but hopefully sooner.
Saturday 26 February 2011
Friday 25 February 2011
More features, but possibly controversial
As you'll probably note, there's now a RPGMaker Trans "latest version" thingy at the top of the page, in preparation for a launch soon. Hopefully I'll be able to make the style look a bit better at some point, but that's not important presently.
The latest version part is a little scheme I've cooked up to try and minimise support headaches for me. I have my suspicions that some problems that people had with older versions of RPGMaker Trans was because they used outdated versions. Hence new versions of RPGMaker Trans will check to see if updates are available by looking up this blog - this is one of the other advantages of moving off Hongfire. If an update is available, then RPGMaker Trans will notify the user and will not run until the update is applied. Or as far as that is possible; in practice a user can get around this by simply deleting or editing the configuration file, or blocking RPGMaker Trans with a firewall. There will also be a clause in the RPGMaker Trans license which means that users are only authorised to run the latest version of RPGMaker Trans, so hopefully ethical people will heed the new rules.
On the subject of license changes, I've redone the redistribution clause. The new clause actually works from a legal point of view (the old one did not specify the license that people with a redistributed copy should use, and so did not work), but also there is a requirement to get permission from me first. This is mainly so that I can have a list of people to e-mail updates to, again to minimise support headaches.
... Actually, when I say support headaches, I also mean "serious security flaws". There is a concerning attack vector in older versions of RPGMaker Trans, given it's usage case. Potentially, it is possible to create a game which can execute pretty much any code when fed through RPGMaker Trans; this could be of concern to unauthorised translations when the creator really strenuously objects, but also if there's just some malicious person wanting to expand a botnet or something. Whilst I've got the solution to this hole planned out and nearly implemented, I think it's wise to get some form of centralisation so I can get updates out in a timely fashion, in case there's some other problem.
And for reference, I'm not being spiteful and making up this security hole because I object to other people sharing the present version of RPGMaker Trans, despite my request not to. I'm not going to be disclosing the problem quite yet (as it would be irresponsible of me to do so when users have no way of fixing the problem), but there will be a full disclosure of the problem once the new version is out.
EDIT: As an addendum, patch files can also be used to exploit the flaw (thanks for the question, Matt). I mentioned game files simply because there is a translation project going on which I'm pretty certain isn't approved of by the creators, and so I think this is perhaps the more likely place for the attack to happen from.
The latest version part is a little scheme I've cooked up to try and minimise support headaches for me. I have my suspicions that some problems that people had with older versions of RPGMaker Trans was because they used outdated versions. Hence new versions of RPGMaker Trans will check to see if updates are available by looking up this blog - this is one of the other advantages of moving off Hongfire. If an update is available, then RPGMaker Trans will notify the user and will not run until the update is applied. Or as far as that is possible; in practice a user can get around this by simply deleting or editing the configuration file, or blocking RPGMaker Trans with a firewall. There will also be a clause in the RPGMaker Trans license which means that users are only authorised to run the latest version of RPGMaker Trans, so hopefully ethical people will heed the new rules.
On the subject of license changes, I've redone the redistribution clause. The new clause actually works from a legal point of view (the old one did not specify the license that people with a redistributed copy should use, and so did not work), but also there is a requirement to get permission from me first. This is mainly so that I can have a list of people to e-mail updates to, again to minimise support headaches.
... Actually, when I say support headaches, I also mean "serious security flaws". There is a concerning attack vector in older versions of RPGMaker Trans, given it's usage case. Potentially, it is possible to create a game which can execute pretty much any code when fed through RPGMaker Trans; this could be of concern to unauthorised translations when the creator really strenuously objects, but also if there's just some malicious person wanting to expand a botnet or something. Whilst I've got the solution to this hole planned out and nearly implemented, I think it's wise to get some form of centralisation so I can get updates out in a timely fashion, in case there's some other problem.
And for reference, I'm not being spiteful and making up this security hole because I object to other people sharing the present version of RPGMaker Trans, despite my request not to. I'm not going to be disclosing the problem quite yet (as it would be irresponsible of me to do so when users have no way of fixing the problem), but there will be a full disclosure of the problem once the new version is out.
EDIT: As an addendum, patch files can also be used to exploit the flaw (thanks for the question, Matt). I mentioned game files simply because there is a translation project going on which I'm pretty certain isn't approved of by the creators, and so I think this is perhaps the more likely place for the attack to happen from.
Sunday 20 February 2011
Preliminary launch date
Turns out other projects occupied more of my time than previously thought, but the new version of RPGMaker Trans is nearly ready. The new patch format is coming along nicely - the changes are as follows:
Anyhow, the preliminary launch date is 27th February. I'm hoping to launch with XP support, but I can't guarantee that.
- UTF-8 rather than UTF-16: Reduces file size
- Changing the method of string identification: Previously, a string was identified by the string itself. Now it is identified by the string and a context (e.g. Hero Name, Item Name, etc). The context is shown in the translation file which provides extra info to the translator. It also means that, for example if a character and an item shared a name in Japanese, they no longer match meaning both can have a different translation.
- Currently working on an Advice field which can store for instance, a character limit.
Anyhow, the preliminary launch date is 27th February. I'm hoping to launch with XP support, but I can't guarantee that.
Sunday 6 February 2011
First Post
This blog is just a place for me to post some misc programs and stuff.
The first program to be released will be a new version of RPGMaker Trans, when it is finished. This was originally being released through Hongfire, but doing this seemed to give some members of that community the impression that the license could be freely ignored (or at least, that's the impression I got from various flames that came in my general direction) and that my attempts to get people to honour the license / not encourage breaking the license were some kind of capital offence. Part of this might be because some individuals have some misguided sense of community there, as in a sense that everyone has the same values - which seems to be fairly low with regard to respecting copyright, authors wishes etc - something which I actually try to do!
Hence this blogs main purpose is to put distance between my work and Hongfire. These tools are NOT meant as a contribution to the Hongfire community. They are something I created in my own free time, and have released so that other people may use them.
There are also other reasons which are probably better reasons: releasing stuff over at Hongfire does reduce the audience of these tools and editting the posts on Hongfire was becoming a pain, as well as worrying about the thread bumping rules - tricky to manage when the release thread doesn't get many posts.
So, with the gloomy stuff on why this blog exists over, the teaser for new features in RPGMaker Trans 2.0
The date for this release is not set in stone. I'd be surprised if it's later than the end of this month, probably more like a week and a half.
The first program to be released will be a new version of RPGMaker Trans, when it is finished. This was originally being released through Hongfire, but doing this seemed to give some members of that community the impression that the license could be freely ignored (or at least, that's the impression I got from various flames that came in my general direction) and that my attempts to get people to honour the license / not encourage breaking the license were some kind of capital offence. Part of this might be because some individuals have some misguided sense of community there, as in a sense that everyone has the same values - which seems to be fairly low with regard to respecting copyright, authors wishes etc - something which I actually try to do!
Hence this blogs main purpose is to put distance between my work and Hongfire. These tools are NOT meant as a contribution to the Hongfire community. They are something I created in my own free time, and have released so that other people may use them.
There are also other reasons which are probably better reasons: releasing stuff over at Hongfire does reduce the audience of these tools and editting the posts on Hongfire was becoming a pain, as well as worrying about the thread bumping rules - tricky to manage when the release thread doesn't get many posts.
So, with the gloomy stuff on why this blog exists over, the teaser for new features in RPGMaker Trans 2.0
- Multiprocessing - provides a big speed boost on most machines (Implemented)
- New patch file format - Easier for translators to work with, and necessary for a plan I'm working on (auto insertion of a machine translated script)
- RPGMaker XP support (50% complete)
- Various bug fixes
The date for this release is not set in stone. I'd be surprised if it's later than the end of this month, probably more like a week and a half.
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