			           iBLab	

Code by Ben Laurie - mailto:ben@algroup.co.uk
Docs, distribution etc., by Adam Laurie - mailto:adam@algroup.co.uk
Problems, code updates, info on resources, mirrors, etc., should be sent 
to mailto:iBLab@aldigital.co.uk.

Web resources kindly provided by A.L. Digital Ltd. - http://www.aldigital.co.uk
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What is iBLab?

  iBLab is (intented to be) a replacement set of open source tools for
  accessing and manipulating Dallas Semiconductor's range of 'one touch
  memories', commonly known as iButtons.

Where is iBLab?

  iBLab lives at:

    http://anoncvs.aldigital.co.uk/iBLab

  or anonymous CVS from:

    anoncvs.aldigital.co.uk:/cvsroot/anoncvs.aldigital.co.uk-iBLab

  to check out with CVS, do the following:

    cvs -d ":pserver:anoncvs@anoncvs.aldigital.co.uk:/cvsroot" login

  password is "anoncvs". Once logged in, do:

    cvs -d ":pserver:anoncvs@anoncvs.aldigital.co.uk:/cvsroot" co anoncvs.aldigital.co.uk-iBLab

  this should create a directory called "anoncvs.aldigital.co.uk-iBLab", 
  which will contain the current source tree. At any time, anwhere within
  this tree, you can type:

    cvs update

  to get the latest versions and keep your tree up to date. If you make
  any of your own changes, please submit them to: iBLab@aldigital.co.uk

Where is everything else?

  Dallas Semiconductor can be found at:

    http://www.dalsemi.com/

  The offical Dallas Semiconductor iButton home page can be found at:

    http://www.ibutton.com/

  Cyclic's CVS tools can be found at:

    http://www.cyclic.com/cyclic-pages/howget.html

  Ryan Lackey runs a related mailing list, "ibuttonpunks", which can be found by mailing:

    majordomo@venona.com 

  with "help" in the body of the text. iBLab issues should be discussed there. 

Why is iBlab?

  Because (at the time of initial writing), Dallas Semiconductor
  required developers to enter licence agreements with them in order to
  develop/resell software products that utilised the iButton
  technology. We felt that this was unreasonable, as they would benefit
  from increased hardware sales through such development anyway, and
  licensing agreements were an unnecessary and unwelcome complication,
  and were impeding our progress. It also meant that it was difficult
  (even impossible) to to incorporate iButton functionality into other
  open source products due to licencing complications.

  Also, Dallas only supported Windows and DOS.

What can I use iBLab for?

  You can use iBLab for any purpose you desire, non-commercial or
  otherwise, so long as you stick to the licencing agreement described
  in the file LICENCE, distributed with the iBLab source. This licence
  is extremely open, reasonable and flexible, and we doubt you will have
  any issues with it.

How do Dallas Semiconductor feel about this?

  The original licence from Dallas Semiconductor stated "All users of
  Touch Memory(tm) products are required to use Dallas Semiconductor's
  TMEX(tm) Software to communicate data from the products to any other
  device or system." However, when we asked them if we could write our
  own, and, having done so, if we could put it into the public domain,
  their response was: 

  Me: If we develop an application that communicates with the i-buttons,
      without using the SDK (i.e. we develop our own drivers from the
      information contained in the data book), are there any licencing
      issues, or can we freely distribute that code under any conditions 
      we see fit?

  DS: If you develop your own code...it is yours.  Adam, you will be doing a
      lot of work that has already been done for you.  Using TMEX will save
      you a lot of time, but it is your choice.

  So I guess that means we don't have to use TMEX.

How can I support iBLab?

  If you wish to help, you can submit bug reports, patches, ideas,
  ports, code, coffee or anything else you care to think of. We would
  more than welcome it.

How do I get started?

  To install the code, read the INSTALL file.

--
This file last modified 12 December, 1998
Adam Laurie - mailto:adam@algroup.co.uk
