Announcing the availability of TalkCrawler for GlobalTalk

Posted 2025-02-28 | Back to blog index

Announcing the availability of TalkCrawler for GlobalTalk, the all-singing, all-dancing network scanning HyperCard stack!

This tool scans the network for zones, machines, services and file shares, keeping statistics, drawing charts, calculating uptime & latency, and helping you discover new machines that showed up overnight, even when you were asleep! A database is kept of everything found that you can browse at your leisure.

Can be found in " MARCHintosh Stuff" on Blackbird on BaroNet!

Now a warning is that ⚠️TalkCrawler is very slow⚠️

I kind of over-did it with the feature bloat, and it only performs acceptably on a PowerPC G3 or better device. It is 100% unusable on a 68k Mac! No idea how well it performs emulated.

A lot of it can be rewritten to be optimized properly, but I kind of burned myself out in getting it ready in time for Mar 1 so I don't even want to look at HyperTalk code for the next 2 weeks at least... Anyone else is free to take over.

Update on 2025-03-01:

On a suggestion by @europlus, I've added a feature where you can "mark" services by dog-earing the corner of the page. This lets you for instance keep track of which GlobalTalk printers you've already printed to, etc.

To view the lists of which services you have or haven't marked, click the folded down paper corner on the home screen.

Version 1.1 is now available from Blackbird on BaroNet. This release also contains bug fixes from the unannounced 1.0.1/.2 versions.

HyperCard Screenshot, showing a page design where the corner of the page is or isn't folded down to mark a page HyperCard screenshot showing how to access the marked services page HyperCard screenshot showing the Marked services page

Also added the READ ME file that I had forgotten to upload to the file share yesterday 🤦🏼‍♂️

Update on 2025-03-02:

I got a few bug reports from users running on QEMU about a crash, so I installed the emulator and tried it out.

System error 16 is a floating-point error, which is strange. The MacsBug trace just raises more questions (isn't InitAllPacks called on app launch not during runtime?)

Using good old print debugging, I narrowed the crash down to this line. Seeing as it's a floating point crash, I replaced the period with a colon. Crash gone!

1.1.2 is out for anyone running QEMU…

Three screenshotsMacsbug debuggerSystem error #16 at 40826206 _InitAl |Packs+0024_InitAllPacks+0024 40826206 *MOVEM.L D8/A0/A1:-CH7)HyperCard code editorfunction machineAddr machine return item 3 of machine & “. & item 4 of machineend machineAddrHyperCard code editorfunction machineAddr machine return item 3 of machine & : & item 4 of machineend machineAddr

Update on 2025-03-15:

Version 1.3 of TalkCrawler is out!

I was having trouble where a certain zone was causing my machine to freeze on scan, and force-quitting HyperCard corrupted my stack!

I've added

• A "Do not scan" option for troublesome or slow zones

• A "Maintenence" tab with auto backups as well as

• An import option that finally lets you migrate all data from an older version of TalkCrawler or a stack with mild corruption

Also minor bug/perf fixes

Find it on BaroNet:Blackbird!

1.3• Maintenance tab:* Import data from earlier version or corrupted stack* Automatic daily backup option• Reset all tool• Do not scan zone option• Runs Compact Stack after scan to maintain stack performance A Do not scan check box A maintenance tab with Import, daily backup, and Reset buttons

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