SVN isn't my favourite tool to work with

I have to admit, I have never really worked with SVN before (I have got stuff from it, but never added stuff), and I have to say it is very confusing.

I have had this problem before, but I can't be bothered to fix it tonight. So if no one can find anything in SVN, or very little... sorry! It will be up sometime tomorrow.

For those interested, the code I was going to upload was just code that added a BitFox tab to the preferences (unix) / options (windows) dialog, and a uncompiled sample C++ component (the only problem I have now is turning it into a XPCOM component, once I get that and am able to access the code (as I said, very simple code, just to test if I can access it from the extension), then I will be able to include some BitTorrent code).

Clear up a few of the comments on Digg

I just want to clear up some of the comments posted on the recent Digg article about BitFox.

i may potentially use this only for smaller torrents, i'll still leave the larger torrents to utorrent

Yep, that is exactly what I was thinking when I decided to make it. There was one torrent that I got, that wasn't that big (50meg), and it downloaded at about full speed, and I thought that it would be cool if it was treated just like a normal download.

Yes. That's generally the way it works anyway. Most users stop seeding after they've completed a torrent. Some of us won't. It's only a tool. A good one potentially.

The idea is that users will continue to seed after the torrent has finished downloading while FF is still running, but like any good program/extension, they will be notified and have the option to turn it off (I don't like to hard code options in).

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? I know that I don't _always_ have firefox running. I restart it from time to time, or simple close it if I'm not using it.

What we need is a bittorrent client that runs as a service, and communicates with a seperate frontend or web UI...Maybe I should start coding one....

For large, slow torrents, I agree with you. As I mentioned above, I made it for small torrents that are similar sizes to things you would generally download in FF (I would never download a large file in FF). I will continue to use another BitTorrent client even after BitFox has a working copy.

I don't get it why would anyone want to try and do this? uTorrent is 170KB does every single feature a torrent should do and doesn't require installation! Long Live uTorrent!

A challenge. I really don't care if no one uses it actually (I don't know how many people actually would), I just want to try and do this.

A start of a UI

I have just uploaded to SVN a update to what is currently in existence of the extension, and it is starting to have a UI. I have finally got it working to have a item in the Tools menu, and now when you click on it, it has the basis of a options UI.

I had to start over, but not much had been done, and now that everything I am trying to do (so far) is working, I am very happy. I will try to make this work a bit better, and then I will try XPCOM (noooo!) again (again, if anyone has any experience with creating and using XPCOM components, please email me).

I will update here again when something else comes up. Also, remember, if you want to help out with the project, just go to the main page and select "join project" or help out in the Google Group.

Dugg, FireStorm and UI

Well, we got Dugg. Good thing that everything is hosted on Google, as I have been Dugg before, and my servers don't cope very well!

A few other things (I may as well put them all in the one post)...

I had a email from Ben, who is running the FireStorm project, which is similar to BitFox, and we hope to be able to work together to (possibly) make a single extension, but we will probably have the 2 projects while in early development. I am going to speak with him later and I will let everyone know more here.

As for the UI, I have taken a break from XPCOM, as it isn't the easiest thing to understand (I will get back to it later), I will hopefully have a UI for BitFox up soon (just a basic one, will probably change). The idea: All the C++ code is as components, and then those components can be accessed by the extension, which will then download the torrent and display everything in the UI. Can't be that hard right?....

Libtorrent

Libtorrent is a open source C++ library for BitTorrent transfers, which, is exactly what is needed for BitFox to work.

I should have a link between XPCOM and some of the C++ code up soon, hopefully, assuming everything works out.

New Google Group

I have set up a Google Group/Mailing list for BitFox.

If you are interested in helping this group out in any way, please join this group, and participate in some of the discussions. This is a great way for other developers to help out with this project, as this project isn't going anywhere without any help :).

Go to our Google Group.

Python no go, C++ possibly

Well, it appears that I can't run Python within a Firefox extension.

I posted on the Google/Usenet Group about running Python, and was told that I am not able to.

If you have read the thread, you will know that I have seen FlashGot use C++ within it (I think), so hopefully I will be able to use some code from a open source C++ BitTorrent client.

If anyone has any suggestions on how I could do all this, please email me, bitfoxextension@gmail.com.

New email address

I have set up a email address for this extension.

If you want to contact me or inquire about the extension, please email bitfoxextension@gmail.com.

BitFox Development Blog

Welcome to the BitFox Development Blog.

Here is where I will post any development updates, as well as any news (news will also appear on the BitFox front page)

Also, if you are interested in helping out with BitFox, please see this page.