Here you will find a complete unrestricted record of everything I have ever designed, written, tested and released with regards to computer software (and in some respects, hardware).

(1989 - 1990)

During this period, my main development language was BASIC and Z80 assembler on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K/+2.

I wrote no less than a total of twenty programs on this platform with the final one being a BASIC compiler (translating Sinclair BASIC into raw Z80 assembler code). This project took around three months to complete with the majority of the time being taken up with figuring out how BASIC stored its code in main memory. Once this was overcome, the end product was finally debugged around September 1990; whereas it was submitted to Your Sinclair magazine and accepted for publication on their covertape.

The Personal BASIC Compiler as released by Your Sinclair was used as the primary development tool for many quick and dirty projects as well as a few commercial products released by Gremlin Graphics and Ocean Software. As much of this software is now out of copyright and is freely downloadable; you may find it at Planet Sinclair, along with the relevant emulators to evaluate the software.

(1991 - 1992)

Around this time, I acquired an IBM AT with 1Mb of memory; after messing around with QuickBasic on this platform, I realized that BASIC wouldn't cut it on a modern microcomputer so I decided to learn the C language instead.

Armed with a copy of Borland Turbo C++, I hacked together a simple 'Galaxians' clone; for the hardware at the time and my limited C knowledge; it was fairly fast. Not satisfied with the end result; I moved on to bigger and better things...

After buying my first soundcard (the Sound Blaster 2.0); I wanted to write a real-time music synthesizer (similar to Amiga ProTracker) but with no programming information this was made very difficult; as well as Creative Labs charging an absolute fortune for their Developer's Kit.

However, I was also very disappointed with the quality of output you got with the original Sound Blaster (22KHz Monoaural Output); and developed my own sound adaptor which was designed to be driven via the parallel port; basically, it consisted of two 8-bit DACs with a few capacitors to 'filter' out the jaggedness of the sound. It sounded better than the Sound Blaster Pro anyway; but it used huge amounts of processing power until I figured out how to use DMA to the parallel port; it is one of the few parallel/PCMCIA sound devices supported under Linux :-)

About this time, I got my first Internet connection; admittedly it was only a shell account through the local University computers; I quickly discovered Usenet and found a small piece of code written by a Creative Labs engineer; with the init and playback code in my grasp, I set to work on my program... With a few months of sweaty debugging sessions; it was relatively stable... this code was unique because it was one of the first module playback systems that supported the Gravis UltraSound card, support for this card was added because Gravis released documentation for their hardware unlike Creative Labs.

Version 1.0 was released to x2ftp and as of November 1998; it has had over 1,000,000 downloads!

(1993 - 1994)

This was the year I discovered local area networks and x86 assembly code ;}

I wrote several network messaging systems using a variety of protocols and transports; although at this time, I was still busy improving and working on my sound system (now christened 'Pentagram Sound System') and it was around this time that due to unforeseen circumstances, my family was relocating to Spilsby, Lincolnshire.

After joining the local secondary school (Spilsby High), there were relatively few PC-owning students; however, those who did own PC hardware were more than happy to test pre-release versions of my stuff...

Development of Pentagram Sound System continued at a steady pace and is still being developed today; several companies (Epic Megagames in particular has used in it no less than four of their entertainment titles) have licensed the technology for use in their own products.

(1995 - 1996)

When I started my full-time BTEC National Diploma in Computer Studies at Boston College, I was left with plenty of time to work on 'extra-curricular' projects; over a period of two months I designed and coded a primitive desktop controlling program (dubbed 'Remote Kontrol' by several of its users); this program allowed the controlling of someone else's programs and files from a remote location...

Intercepting Windows GDI calls and duplicating them over a TCP/IP stream to the other computer is relatively simple stuff; however releasing the program didn't do me any favours and it found other uses by 'unscrupulous' users; the deletion of other peoples files...

After being threatened with expulsion, I blocked port 6666 at the Novell server so it couldn't be misused.. However, the suspicion and constant arguments with lecturers was not worth it so I eventually left Boston College; only six months into my course....

(1997 - 1998)

During this period, I discovered the Linux operating system; this was purely by accident, someone on Usenet asked me whether I was going to port PSS to the Linux platform; whereas I immediately purchased a copy of the Linux Developer's Resource. After a couple of months, I had finally got to grips with this wondrous UNIX clone... once I had mastered the art of threaded programming I ported PSS to Linux and then on to FreeBSD...

Now, all my programs are developed first on a UNIX platform or nearest equivalent; I find that this environment is more stable and more flexible when it comes to developing software; granted, Microsoft Windows has done wonders for making microcomputers more user-friendly but they have done little for the PC in the way of making software stable. In this respect, Linux has ran for nearly one hundred days on my computers without requiring a reboot... Not even Microsoft Windows NT is that stable!

You can see what I am currently working on now if you visit my 'Projects' page!

(1999 - 2000)

I am open to suggestions :-)

If you have any questions regarding my portfolio or you are simply interested in employing me for a full-time computing post; please e-mail me at tez@techie.com.

I will also consider work on non-profit programming (FSF, GNU, etc) projects if time permits.

Terry Froy, 24th December 1998

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