Mini Downloader
Hampus Wessman
Some time ago Anthony came up with the idea to create a small downloader
which downloads the OpenOffice.org installer using metalinks, because
some people have problems downloading it with their unreliable internet
connections. Anthony and Peter Poeml have both helped with ideas about
the project and now it is finally online and working! You'll find it here:
Binary download:
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=148879&package_id=287458&abmode=1
<https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=148879&package_id=287458&abmode=1>
Source code: https://sourceforge.net/projects/metalinks/ (lacks good
documentation for the moment)
It should run on any recent Windows version (hopefully even Windows 95
and 98) and has a simple and easy-to-use GUI. Among the features are
support for SHA-1 hashes and chunk checksums. It also finds and selects
mirrors in your country automatically (using the locations in the
metalink and a small web service I have set up). It is written in C++,
using boost, libcurl and expat. Everything is licensed under the
"Simplified BSD License" (used by FreeBSD, among others, and OSI approved).
The downloader also supports "binary customization" (or whatever you
want to call it). That is it can be compiled into a downloader
"template" and later you can easily find and replace some text strings
inside the executable (they are marked so that they are easy to find and
change), without recompiling! I have even set up a web site where you
can create custom downloaders: http://hampus.vox.nu/mini_downloader/.
Thanks to Bram Neijt for the idea!
Note that the custom downloaders are not compressed (because you can't
replace text strings inside the executable when it is compressed), but
can easily be compressed with UPX (http://upx.sourceforge.net/) if you
want it smaller.
I would really appreciate comments and it would also be great if as many
as possible tried it on their computers to make sure that it really works.
Have a nice summer!
Hampus Wessman
Sebastien WILLEMIJNS
> I would really appreciate comments and it would also be great if as many
> as possible tried it on their computers to make sure that it really
> works.
works well, maybe permit to purpose backup URL for metalink file
itself...