README

sabren/sixthdev

A grab-bag archive of sabren's pre-2011 programming life: 822 files spanning DOS-era Turbo Pascal hobby code, the Python web-app frameworks and apps of the Cornerhost era, a piano-teaching program, a personal finance toolkit, and a shelf of projects marked @dead and @gone. Repo: https://github.com/sabren/sixthdev — 822 files, git history in this clone 2007-05-02 → 2011-03-03 (file contents reach back further: CVS $Id$ tags from 2002–2006). Keep.

What it is

sixthdev is not one project — it is the attic. The name itself is unexplained in the repo (flagged as unverified below), and the tree reads like several CVS checkouts swept into one git repo in 2007–2009, with a final round of cleanups in 2011 (including a 2to3 pass, per the last commit message "misc old changes (2to3, etc)").

The two biggest blocks:

• pascal/ (~208 files) — DOS-era Turbo Pascal: progs/ holds over a hundred small programs (3D-THING.PAS, DRAGON.PAS, DOTH.PAS, DVORAK.PAS, FRCTL1.PAS, MUDSTUFF-era experiments), units/ holds reusable units (GRAFX.PAS, SPRITES.PAS, MODEM.PAS, MUDSTUFF.PAS, SNDSTUFF.PAS, BGIFONT.PAS — BGI graphics, modem and sound code), plus inc/ and a crap/ directory. This is hobby code from the pre-web era, preserved whole.
• @dead/ and @gone/ — two shelves of retired work. @gone/ holds the sabren Python web libraries: weblib, strongbox, sixthday, zebra, platonic, arlo, pytypes, storage, sdunit, handy — the stack the Cornerhost-era apps were built on (see rantelope/INSTALL.txt, which lists exactly these as prerequisites). @dead/ holds retired applications: zikeshop (a shop, with admin, public, spec and test dirs), zikebase, hotspring, zdc, lecter, payment, generic (adminapp/userapp templates), blogdrive, shipment, tourney, py3d. Whether @dead vs @gone meant anything different is not recorded in the repo (flagged as unverified).

The standalone projects still standing in the tree:

• turcanator/ — a piano-teaching program: takes a MIDI file, shows a piano roll, and gives visual feedback on whether you are playing the notes correctly. Python 2.4 + pygame, with a bundled MIDI module and a Win32 pypm module; "The main code is (c) 2006 Michal J Wallace. License: BSD style." Short one-voice MIDI files recommended.
• planaconda/ and crappyconda/ — two generations of the same idea. planaconda/design.txt ("PLANACONDA 1.0 DESIGN DOC") describes a node-based project outliner: a flat list of project nodes on the front page, node pages with children and history, add/edit and split pages. crappyconda/ is the implementation attempt (.app files, PlanSession.py, PlanacondaTest.py, a gui/ dir, an Xcode project, and stories.txt — a work log referencing webappworkshop.com docs and a sixthdev.versionhost.com CVS viewer).
• rantelope/ — a blog engine on the sabren stack (arlo, pytypes, strongbox, weblib, storage, handy, sixthday, zebra): blog.app, rantelope.app, search.app, author/category/channel/story forms, RSS/Atom templates (rss.zb, atom.zb), and rantelope.sql.
• ledger/ — personal finance tooling: QIF/OFX parsing (parseqif.py, parseqfx.py, txt2qif.py, qif2led.py), bank converters (amex.py, bofaconvert.py, bankview.py), reconciliation (reconcile.el, ledger-entries.el, summary.py, unreconciled.py), and a cleared directory.
• gameworld/ — a multiplayer-game skeleton: Actor.py, Avatar.py, Game.py, Map.py, Observable.py, an event.py system, a server/ dir, and spec/ tests.
• spingdom/ — a diagram-drawing library: canvas.py, diagram.py, divided.py, drawn.py, lines.py, bmpshape.py, composit.py, plus wxdemo.py and OpenGL helpers (oglmisc.py). (What "sping" means is not recorded in the repo — flagged as unverified.)
• trailblazer/ — a small XML-driven document tool, documented in bigpicture.txt: "You take an xml file, turn it into a dom. If it says import, then you import that file too. Then you walk the tree, and you build a grove of output streams" declared with <stream> tags. Also methodology.txt, benefits.txt, tribalhistory.txt. (Note: this is a different "trailblazer" from the Team Trailblazer game team in sabren/blaze — the repo does not state any connection, and none is assumed here.)
• buggernaut/ — a task tracker (TrackerApp.py, Task.py, Area.py, tracker.app, buggernaut.sql). The same project name appears as the standalone repo sabren/buggernaut (documented separately); the repo does not say which copy is canonical.
• cvssh/ — a CVS-over-SSH helper (cvssh.py, fake_client.py, fake_pserver.py, stub.py); its doc/changes.txt runs 0.1 → 0.2 in January 2002.
• seismq/ — "sei's messaging queue": a simple SQLite-backed message queue (seismq.py, spec + test dirs). The spec says "sei's messaging queue" without expanding "sei" (flagged as unverified — same open question as in sei-bin).
• timesheet/, ensemble/, scroller/, openeeg/ — smaller pieces: a timesheet app (.app/.zb/.sql), an ensemble test harness with Perl and Python child tests (ensemble.py, ensemble.pl, PerlChildTest.pm, PythonChildTest.py), a tiny scroller demo (scroller.py plus three sprite GIFs), and an openEEG biofeedback prototype (proto.py: "python prototype of a mind-mirror style biofeedback machine… this version still only graphs fake data").

Tech stack

Mostly Python 2 (2.2–2.4 era: print statements, Numeric, pysqlite/MySQLdb), plus Turbo Pascal, Perl, Emacs Lisp, and SQL. Templating is the sabren .zb/.app system (zebra/weblib). Tests exist in places (spec/ dirs, PlanacondaTest.py) but there is no single test runner or build — this is an archive, not a runnable project.

Inventory (highlights)

Path	Contents
pascal/progs/, pascal/units/, pascal/inc/	DOS-era Turbo Pascal programs and units (graphics, sound, modem, MUD)
@gone/weblib, @gone/strongbox, @gone/sixthday, @gone/zebra, @gone/platonic, @gone/arlo, @gone/pytypes, @gone/storage	The sabren Python web stack, retired
@dead/zikeshop, @dead/zikebase, @dead/hotspring, @dead/zdc, @dead/lecter, @dead/payment, @dead/generic	Retired applications
turcanator/	MIDI piano-roll piano teacher (Python/pygame, ©2006, BSD)
planaconda/, crappyconda/	Node-based project outliner: design doc + implementation attempt
rantelope/	Blog engine on the sabren stack (RSS/Atom, search)
ledger/	QIF/OFX parsing, bank converters, reconciliation
gameworld/	Multiplayer game skeleton (Actor/Avatar/Map/server)
spingdom/	Diagram-drawing library (canvas/diagram, wx + OpenGL demo)
trailblazer/	XML → output-streams document tool
buggernaut/	Task tracker (also exists as standalone repo sabren/buggernaut)
cvssh/	CVS-over-SSH helper (2002)
seismq/	SQLite message queue ("sei's messaging queue")
timesheet/, ensemble/, scroller/, openeeg/	Timesheet app, test harness, scroller demo, EEG biofeedback prototype

Surprising / notable

• The whole sabren stack in one place: @gone/ is the library layer and @dead/ the app layer of the same era — together with cornerops-svn (the Cornerhost control panel) and sei-bin (the sysadmin scripts), this repo completes the picture of how the Cornerhost-era operation was built.
• turcanator is the most complete artifact here: a working program with a README, a license note, and a clear purpose — the piano-roll idea predates the modern "learn piano by falling notes" apps by years.
• ledger/ is personal infrastructure, not a product: bank converters plus Emacs Lisp reconciliation is the same "automate my own life" instinct visible across the sabren repos.
• No single README: there is no top-level README at all. The per-project notes (planaconda/design.txt, trailblazer/bigpicture.txt, turcanator/README.txt, rantelope/INSTALL.txt, seismq/spec/seismq.txt) are the only maps, and several directories have none.
• No linked streams or videos found in the repo.

Verdict

Keep. An archive of record: the DOS hobby code, the sabren web stack, and the personal tools are all worth preserving as-is. Nothing here needs to run again, but turcanator/, ledger/, and the @gone/ libraries are reference material, and the repo as a whole is the backstory for the Cornerhost-era work documented in cornerops-svn.md and sei-bin.md.

(Flagged as unverified: what "sixthdev" means, what distinguishes @dead from @gone, what "sping" means, and what "sei" stands for — none of these are explained anywhere in the repo.)