Open Source Apps

Osiva showing seven images

Osiva -- The

*Overly
Simple*

Image Viewing Application

Osiva was written to replace the default Windows image viewer. The result is a slightly cryptic user interface hack. I wanted to hide evidence that the program is running within Windows, and to create a viewer that would be a little bit fun. Osiva looks simple, but as you use it you can find more and more to do with it.

You can get a good feeling for osiva by looking at the ajax application image sheet.

TxtImg with different font sizes

TxtImg -- Instant & accurate ASCII Art

One of the first programs I wrote printed out pin-up calendars on a teletype. I rolled a magazine page into a typewriter under some transparency paper and typed out the image by hand. Then I transcribed the image into Data statements. TxtImg is a more serious image to ASCII art converter. It correlates images of blurred characters with the picture, which is almost a "correct" solution.

The txtimg pages also show an interesting use of JavaScript, the display of text image video in a text edit box.

DHTML & Javascript circa 1996

Ajax is currently very popular, but I began using JavaScript to build applications in 1995. In '96 and '97 I was well connected as a JavaScript "guru". In general I do not like the way flash and java divide the UI -- the division between the OS shell and the browser is enough. Applets make sense when they are little gizmos embedded in a web app, but JavaScript, and now Ajax, are the native language of the browser as a platform.

The Online Tarot Companion

The Tarot Companion was written in January of 1996 when JavaScript was brand new. The intent was to extend an existing third party web site. The Tarot Companion is basically an index into the www.learntarot.com site, but it is an index with a twist. The Tarot Companion is presented as a tarot reading where the virtual cards are shuffled "by hand."

The I-Ching

This Javascript I-Ching application was written for Netscape 2.0 in early 1996. Here it is up to the user to select the pictogram in the usual I-ching fashion -- using three coins. The pictogram description pages were generated programmatically by parsing a translation of the I-Ching that had been on the Internet for many years.

To get source code that isn't listed email kwstork@yahoo.com