Tag Archives: user
SerialSniffer
Developers need exact information and are often forced to get access to serial ports for testing purpose.
The typical user of SerialSniffer is a software engineer. Most commonly an external device is connected to a PC, which is running a special application using a serial port. The external device may be: a sensor, a slide projector, a printer, a barcode scanner, … The serial connection has to be “ripped” and SerialSniffer is mounted in between the serial link. SerialSniffer will provide all data from one side of the connection to the other and vice versa, log all the data and, if applicable, manipulate them.
SerialSniffer
is a windows shareware to visualize data, which are exchanged over the serial ports (i.e. RS232 or RS422).
SerialSniffer gives you the possibility
– to have a deep view inside the data. The data stream, which is exchange on the serial ports, is visualized by SerialSniffer. You also can determine which data comes from which port.
– to log the data stream
– to tunnel the serial port through the network
– to exchange dedicated data parts from the data stream
– to search for seldom data
– to open a terminal dialog
– to use symbols instead of raw data
SerialSniffer is very easy to use
Simply choose the type of connection (serial, network or virtual serial port), the parameters (i.e. baud rate) and open the connection.
Not only the standard baud rates (like 9600 baud) but also user defined baud rates can be used. It is also possible to translate between different baud rates, as both comports can be configured independently.
Comport names up to ‘Com256:’ are supported to use SerialSniffer on systems with a lot of serial ports (provided by additional adapters, IRDA, Bluetooth etc).
The complete configuration will be stored automatically on closing the application. The user can also store it in customized files to re-load it for recurrently tasks.
Practical example
Test of a complex system: a test specification exists; SerialSniffer logs all the data to a file, which is attached to the test protocol. But how to test, the system deals with errors on the serial link? If the worst comes to the worst, the system will crash. To test this, SerialSniffer gets a set of rules, which data is to be manipulated. I.e. some datasets may be shortened, some may contain additional data or the checksums are changed. In most cases, it is not allowed to integrate the changes to the device under test, because you will not test the original system anymore. Using SerialSniffer, you are no longer forced to do so.
Practical example
Once, we had the mission to develop a trip recorder for a ferryboat. The main computer of the ship dumps all the data on a serial port without a return line (one way street for the data). During the development, we were not able to travel with the ship all day long. So we recorded the data with the SerialRecorder of SerialSniffer (similar to a traditional tape) and did a playback as often as needed.
Synchronize Files and Synchronize Folders with the Open Source Tool FreeFileSync
Now there are a lot of synchronization tools out there both paid and free, each with a different set of features and marketing spiel. What makes FreeFileSync stand out? It’s user-friendliness and performance. Both are buzz words already used so often that they almost lost their meaning. But still they describe best where FreeFileSync shines: Its user interfaces are stripped off from superfluous and needless options. Many similar tools seem to add every bell and whistle in a futile attempt to please each and every user, failing to realize they serve nobody in the end. FreeFileSync carefully selects only options that are relevant for backup and synchronization, while making tons of smart decisions under the hood. Most of these the user does not even notice unless he reads the long list of features that this tool supports.
Performance on the other hand is easily measurable. I have yet to find a tool which is faster than FreeFileSync, but there are a few tools specialized at high-performance file copying which seem equally fast. Using system logging tools like Process Monitor it becomes clear why: There is not a single superfluous file access during synchronization. There’s exactly one read access for each file during comparison and another one when synchronizing a file or folder. For a tool which is primarily I/O bound this is as good as it can get, but can rarely be expected when looking at other synchronization alternatives – no matter if free or commercial.
Besides these obvious features, there are more subtle characteristics that are easily overlooked. The FreeFileSync bug tracker has been empty or almost empty for years. This is not to say there were no bugs, but each of them was solved almost instantly within hours or a few days. This is quite remarkable for an open source software in general, and it does not even charge support fees. The release cycles have been around once per month for the past few years. This speaks for a modern agile software development process. Lastly with now five years of development it can be considered a mature and stable solution.
The first thing that you see when you start up FreeFileSync is a very well-arranged and structured user interface. It does not require much reading of documentation to figure out how to setup a synchronization task. You choose directories for left and right side, then compare them. This will fill the preview panel telling exactly what is going to happen before even touching your precious data. Now you can change the sync direction for individual files or select one of a number of synchronization variants. These are pre-configured rules that describe how you want your files and folders to be synchronized. The “mirror variant” for example will synchronize files and synchronize folders from left to right, making sure the target side is updated to reflect the source. Or you may want to select the “two way” variant where both sides are taken into consideration: Any change on one side is propagated to the other. If you have deleted a file, changed a file’s content or created a new file, this change will be synchronized to the other side, even if changes on both sides have occurred since last synchronization. Thereby the program is smart enough to detect conflicts, i.e. if you accidentally changed the same file on both sides, the program will warn and request a manual resolution. So the tool makes sure you do not lose important data, even if you make stupid mistakes.
FreeFileSync can be downloaded for free. Here is a list of the most important features taken from the project site:
– Detect moved and renamed files and folders
– Copy locked files (Volume Shadow Copy Service)
– Detect conflicts and propagate deletions
– Binary file comparison
– Full support for Symbolic Links
– Automate sync as a batch job
– Process multiple folder pairs
– Comprehensive and detailed error reporting
– Copy NTFS extended attributes (compressed, encrypted, sparse)
– Copy NTFS security permissions
– Support long path names greater than 260 characters
– Fail-safe file copy
– Cross-platform: Windows/Linux
– Expand environment variables like %USERPROFILE%
– Access variable drive letters by volume name (USB sticks)
– Native 64-bit support
– Keep versions of deleted/updated files
– Optimal sync sequence prevents disc space bottlenecks
– Full Unicode support
– Highly optimized performance
– Include/exclude files via filter
– Local and portable installation
– Handle daylight saving time changes on FAT/FAT32
– Use macros %time%, %date%, et al. for recurring backups
– Case sensitive synchronization
– Built-in locking serializes multiple jobs running against the same network share
Synchronize Files and Synchronize Folders with the Open Source Tool FreeFileSync
Now there are a lot of synchronization tools out there both paid and free, each with a different set of features and marketing spiel. What makes FreeFileSync stand out? It’s user-friendliness and performance. Both are buzz words already used so often that they almost lost their meaning. But still they describe best where FreeFileSync shines: Its user interfaces are stripped off from superfluous and needless options. Many similar tools seem to add every bell and whistle in a futile attempt to please each and every user, failing to realize they serve nobody in the end. FreeFileSync carefully selects only options that are relevant for backup and synchronization, while making tons of smart decisions under the hood. Most of these the user does not even notice unless he reads the long list of features that this tool supports.
Performance on the other hand is easily measurable. I have yet to find a tool which is faster than FreeFileSync, but there are a few tools specialized at high-performance file copying which seem equally fast. Using system logging tools like Process Monitor it becomes clear why: There is not a single superfluous file access during synchronization. There’s exactly one read access for each file during comparison and another one when synchronizing a file or folder. For a tool which is primarily I/O bound this is as good as it can get, but can rarely be expected when looking at other synchronization alternatives – no matter if free or commercial.
Besides these obvious features, there are more subtle characteristics that are easily overlooked. The FreeFileSync bug tracker has been empty or almost empty for years. This is not to say there were no bugs, but each of them was solved almost instantly within hours or a few days. This is quite remarkable for an open source software in general, and it does not even charge support fees. The release cycles have been around once per month for the past few years. This speaks for a modern agile software development process. Lastly with now five years of development it can be considered a mature and stable solution.
The first thing that you see when you start up FreeFileSync is a very well-arranged and structured user interface. It does not require much reading of documentation to figure out how to setup a synchronization task. You choose directories for left and right side, then compare them. This will fill the preview panel telling exactly what is going to happen before even touching your precious data. Now you can change the sync direction for individual files or select one of a number of synchronization variants. These are pre-configured rules that describe how you want your files and folders to be synchronized. The “mirror variant” for example will synchronize files and synchronize folders from left to right, making sure the target side is updated to reflect the source. Or you may want to select the “two way” variant where both sides are taken into consideration: Any change on one side is propagated to the other. If you have deleted a file, changed a file’s content or created a new file, this change will be synchronized to the other side, even if changes on both sides have occurred since last synchronization. Thereby the program is smart enough to detect conflicts, i.e. if you accidentally changed the same file on both sides, the program will warn and request a manual resolution. So the tool makes sure you do not lose important data, even if you make stupid mistakes.
FreeFileSync can be downloaded for free. Here is a list of the most important features taken from the project site:
– Detect moved and renamed files and folders
– Copy locked files (Volume Shadow Copy Service)
– Detect conflicts and propagate deletions
– Binary file comparison
– Full support for Symbolic Links
– Automate sync as a batch job
– Process multiple folder pairs
– Comprehensive and detailed error reporting
– Copy NTFS extended attributes (compressed, encrypted, sparse)
– Copy NTFS security permissions
– Support long path names greater than 260 characters
– Fail-safe file copy
– Cross-platform: Windows/Linux
– Expand environment variables like %USERPROFILE%
– Access variable drive letters by volume name (USB sticks)
– Native 64-bit support
– Keep versions of deleted/updated files
– Optimal sync sequence prevents disc space bottlenecks
– Full Unicode support
– Highly optimized performance
– Include/exclude files via filter
– Local and portable installation
– Handle daylight saving time changes on FAT/FAT32
– Use macros %time%, %date%, et al. for recurring backups
– Case sensitive synchronization
– Built-in locking serializes multiple jobs running against the same network share