Last week I discussed EnigMagick, my tool for comparing the numeric value of a given word or phrase to matches found in a given body of text.
Today I'd like to discuss the latest version of my first foray in cyber-magic, a tool called ChaosHEX. It basically allows spells to be cast from the command line. Baring this in mind it employs the information model of magic, which posits that the universe is made up of binary information processed on something analogous (but not necessarilly anything like), our computer technology, and that a magician can hack reality using spells that are really programs that redefine the parameters of reality.
Whilst this paradigm of magic predates the film The Matrix by several decades, one might still think of Neo as a good archetype of such a magician.
How it works
The command line has a system that lets the user select their intent. It also has a help command and some easter eggs. Once the intent is selected, the command line lets the user know that the hacking of reality is in progress and provides an aid for trance to help the cyber-mage empower the magic.
Once complete, it lets the user know the hack was successful and that reality has been altered.
System Requirements
DOS + QBASIC (no longer available)
Originally I wrote this command line tool using a mixture DOS batch files and QBASIC, back in the late 1990's, after reading such cyber magic classics as Rasmey Dukes 'Words Made Flesh', 'BLAST your way to MegaBucks with my SECRET sex power formula' and Charles Brewsters 'Liber Cyber'. However this version got lost in a hard-drive crash. I had distributed some copies, but after everyone stopped using DOS, and systems like Windows 98 stopped distributing QBASIC in their DOS shells, this program wouldn't work anymore anyway. So I doubt anyone I distributed this to actually kept any copies.
BASH
I missed this program a lot. So a few years ago I decided to rewrite the system as a BASH script. Yes, I had become a Linux developer by this point. I have heard reports that it also runs quite nicely in the Mac command line, although I haven't tried that myself. In theory there are also several options for running BASH scripts in windows. Windows 10 64bit even has a built in bash command line you can enable. If anyone gets it working in Mac or Windows please let me know details so I can share.
You can download the latest version from sourceforge.
Web
I have toyed with the idea of writing a version using jquery and html. I think it is doable. This would be ideal as it would make the program platform independent and remove the installation requirement from the end user. I feel torn between developing this version and expanding the features of the BASH version.
Installation
Once the .tar.gz has been downloaded and unpacked there is some copying to do to get the files and folders in the right place. The instructions are in the README file. These locations are hard coded into the scripts, so they won't work from anywhere else unless you edit ALL the script files to update the folders. Advanced users only.
I should really make an installer at some point. :P
