Announcing Hax 2.2 Alpha

Hax version 2.2_alpha is now available for download on the Hax download site. The release also features additions to the sample data center.

Again, there was a quite long silence period. Progress was there, but in small increments. Most work was done on the sample data center, with some rather complex tasks added. Along with that, the user interface experienced some tweaking. Here is a list of changes in this release:

• In the user interface, console input is now handled using background threads. This eliminates unresponsiveness of the GUI when a long running task is started, and allows to create background tasks supporting user interaction during their execution.
• In the user interface, a potential source of exceptions was removed. The exceptions were thrown when a task was writing rapidly to the console. The problem was in the DragonConsole component, which was creating new threads modifying the GUI, which is generally not allowed in the Java Swing framework.
• In the sample data center, sample tasks of levels 4 to 7 were added. Level 4 demonstrates how to read files from the file system, level 5 shows how to write or update files on the file system. Level 6 demonstrates how to interact with a remote service through the network, and level 7 is a rather complex task combining multiple things from previous samples to create a tool for cracking the password of a remote authentication prompt.

So, what is next? Well, my intent was to go even further with the samples to introduce server networking, creating a functional chat server and client system. I decided to release a new version of the sample data center, since server networking is rather advanced and in most cases, exposing terminal-based tasks using the HaxOS remote task daemon is sufficient. As for the framework and application itself, I have not really decided where to go next. My goal is to raise interest in Hax and gain a wider range of users. I know a new campaign or continuation of Dark Signs has the most potential of achieving this. On the other hand, I have a list of features I would like to implement in Hax, most of them quite technical. I have to figure out a way to move forward in both of these areas, finding a balance between the two, such that everybody benefits from it.

As usual, if you have any comments or encounter any issues in the current version, want to give some insight or advice regarding my next steps with Hax, or just want to share anything regarding the project, feel free to post on the discussion group or drop me a line directly.

Also, feel free to fork the sample data center on GitHub and start making your own modifications and improvements, or create some data centers of your own, letting the world know about them by posting in the development section of the discussion group.