Difference between revisions of "KENS"

From Sega Retro

(Reworded much of the article to be more natural and removed irrelevant technical jargon and prospects which never came to be.)
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'''KENS''' (Short for '''[[Kosinski compression|Kosinski]] [[Enigma compression|Enigma]] [[Nemesis compression|Nemesis]] [[Saxman compression|Saxman]]''' compression formats) is a set of dynamic link libraries by Magus that compress and decompress the aforementioned four compression formats. The files are intended for use by programmers inside compiled programs. Magus himself made a compressor using the DLLs: [[The Sega Data Compressor]].
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'''KENS''' (short for '''[[Kosinski compression|Kosinski]]''', '''[[Enigma compression|Enigma]]''', '''[[Nemesis compression|Nemesis]]''', and '''[[Saxman compression|Saxman]]''') is a software library that was originally created by Magus, which provides compressors and decompressors for the aforementioned four compression formats. [[The Sega Data Compressor]] is a frontend for KENS, which is also made by Magus.
  
It was first developed under LGPL v.2 so that programs similar to TSDC could be used on UNIX, Windows, and Mac and so that TSDC (the program he was at the time writing) could be developed faster.  If a fix in the algorithms was all that was needed, then only the DLL files needed to be updated, and not the interface.
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KENS is licensed under the LGPL v2.1 and distributed as a set of [[wikipedia:dynamic link libraries|dynamic link libraries]]. This is done to simplify the process of updating programs to newer versions of the library: being a collection of dynamically-linked binaries, only the DLL files need to be replaced, avoiding the need to modify or update the programs themselves.
  
Later (when kens v1.4 RC1 was released in 2007) kram1024 officially provided a autotools based KENS with code cleanups and command line tools to go with it. At that point, Magus retired from KENS development and placed kram1024 in charge.
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After the release of v1.4 RC1, in 2007, kram1024 officially provided an [[wikipedia:autotools|autotools]]-based version of KENS with cleaned-up code and command line tools. At that point, Magus retired from KENS development and handed control of the project over to kram1024.
  
kram1024 mostly kept the autotools version up to date and is working on PipeComp() and PipeDecomp() functions for 1.4 final and will merge the UNIX and Windows ports together so that the same source will build with MinGW, CygWin, Dev C++, Code::Blocks, Visual C++ 6.0, Visual C++ .Net, Visual C++ 2005 (including express edition), Visual C++ 2008 (including express edition), and Visual C++ 2010 (including express edition).
 
 
The new KENS will go in a new direction.  It will no longer need buffers or external files, but will also be able to work directly with streams, though legacy support will be wrapped into Comp() and Decomp() so that older KENS programs will still work.  to use the new API, one simply uses one of the overloaded functions (overloaded to use streams versus char * arrays).
 
 
The end result would be code that could be used to make 68k static libraries.
 
 
{{Multidownload
 
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==External links==
 
==External links==
* {{LinkRetro|topic=3123|title=KENS Release Thread}} at [[Sonic Retro]]
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* {{LinkRetro|topic=3123|title=KENS release thread}} at [[Sonic Retro]]
* [https://sourceforge.net/projects/genesiscomp/ Sourceforge Project] at [[Sourceforge]]
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* [https://sourceforge.net/projects/genesiscomp/ SourceForge project]
  
 
[[Category:Mega Drive Programs]]
 
[[Category:Mega Drive Programs]]

Revision as of 14:51, 24 February 2024

KENS (short for Kosinski, Enigma, Nemesis, and Saxman) is a software library that was originally created by Magus, which provides compressors and decompressors for the aforementioned four compression formats. The Sega Data Compressor is a frontend for KENS, which is also made by Magus.

KENS is licensed under the LGPL v2.1 and distributed as a set of dynamic link libraries. This is done to simplify the process of updating programs to newer versions of the library: being a collection of dynamically-linked binaries, only the DLL files need to be replaced, avoiding the need to modify or update the programs themselves.

After the release of v1.4 RC1, in 2007, kram1024 officially provided an autotools-based version of KENS with cleaned-up code and command line tools. At that point, Magus retired from KENS development and handed control of the project over to kram1024.

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See also

KENSSharp

External links