[M10Tools] M10Tools is going OpenSource, helpers needed

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Diamondback

Retired Dev Committee Lead / Retired Senior Mod
Jan 17, 2010
4,476
6,631
virtuous-ten-studio.com
Hey guys,

today I come to you with good and bad news.

Bad news first: Flemmard decided finally, that he hasn't got enough time anymore to support and develop M10Tools fulltime.
That means, he is quitting the main development. :( This is very unfortunate because Flemmard and I are the only two person who actually know how to reverse engineere the *.m10 format.

Therefore I am searching a new developer now, who can take Flemmard's part over.
And here comes the good news: The next version is going to be OpenSource (most likely some kind of GPL).
(This doesn't include the upcoming Virtuous Ten Studio, only the decoder/encoder for the m10 files itself)

Now let's get to the actual search. The requirements are quite hard:

We search (Flemmard will be still here as some kind of help) one or two very experienced C# or C++ developers with the following requirements:
  • Very good experience in C# and/or C++
  • Windows dev of course
  • Experience with reading/writing binary data would be helpful
  • Experience with reverse engineering file formats would be also helpful
  • Good spoken english required (German would be nice too)
  • Communication is done via either IRC or Skype
  • Development uses SVN, so knowledge about SVN and how it works is quite helpful
  • Having a HTC phone with a sense 3.0/3.5 ROM is strongly advised. You don't totally need it, but it helps a lot ;)

Now lets come to the tasks that needs to be done and the usual workflow
  • We do know everything important about the m10 file format, so the hard work is already done
  • But you still WILL be starring at your hexeditor four hours (no joke here), so if you don't like digging through hexcodes you are totally wrong here
  • This is not a halftime job. Writing such a decider/encoder requires quite a bit of spare time
  • Once I explained you most of the things we know about m10 formats, YOU will start writing a parser for those files. This is much trial and error.
  • The time will come where you understand the basics of the format. Then you need to finish that decoder/encoder and start working on the addtional things (mainly image decoding/encoding)
  • Image decoding: The images saved in m10 have different special file formats. We do know how to decode them. There is just ONE format that needs further research.
  • One last thing: Flemmard won't give out his current source code. We have to accept that.

As I am too lazy to put up another G-Forms thing, I'd just like you to answer here in that post if you are interested in becoming a main m10tools dev. :)

Flemmard and me had a great time developing this tool, so I guess this will repeat with the new guy(s). :)
 
Last edited:

dementor123

Senior Member
Dec 21, 2010
288
23
New York City
Unfortunate that flemmard can't keep putting his time on this but we all understand that all devs do what they do here out of their passion and hobby not because they have to do it.

That being said, I will more than happy to help you guys here. I have been a c# developer since .net 1.0 and work with svn day in and day out. As far as reverse engineering goes, I haven't worked with hex editor much but I'm pretty comfortable with IL. Though I know we cant compare binaries with IL. Please pm me if you would like to know anything else.
 
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Psyloid

Senior Member
May 26, 2011
971
237
This is sad for our HTCs , I used to build some themes but HTC new m10 files are as bad as locking the bootloader!
Why the hell do they play like that?

because they hate people like us, messing with their files prolly

I'd say : it's as bad as a locked bootloader AND closed source camera drivers

HTC is taking a piss out of Android and open source, unfortunatly their phones have the best build quality, otherwise i would own a sony or samsung phone ...
 

traduz

Senior Member
Jul 10, 2011
139
15
www.sebrasil.net
I have a large experience on C++, and free time too :)

---------- Post added at 01:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 PM ----------

i lack on those three requirements
Experience with reading/writing binary data would be helpful
Experience with reverse engineering file formats would be also helpful
Having a HTC phone with a sense 3.0/3.5 ROM is strongly advised. You don't totally need it, but it helps a lot
 

Diamondback

Retired Dev Committee Lead / Retired Senior Mod
Jan 17, 2010
4,476
6,631
virtuous-ten-studio.com
I have a large experience on C++, and free time too :)

---------- Post added at 01:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 PM ----------

i lack on those three requirements
Experience with reading/writing binary data would be helpful
Experience with reverse engineering file formats would be also helpful
Having a HTC phone with a sense 3.0/3.5 ROM is strongly advised. You don't totally need it, but it helps a lot

Can you please come to IRC? (#vts-dev on Freenode)
 

Reversedhex

Senior Member
Nov 12, 2008
210
5
Amsterdam
im a windows dev with some spare time but i cant make any promises.
i have experience reading/writing binary data but not with reversing file format.
and a spare desire z

i have been following your dev work on irc for a while
 
I do not have experience in C. I have experience with free time at work (midnight shifts) and looking at hex code most nights. I would love to help when and where I can with that portion of it. I also have an HTC EVO 3D (Sprint CDMA, not rooted, has 1.50 hboot which I am trying to bypass), an HTC Thunderbolt (Verizon & rooted & primary phone), and an old HTC HD2 which has had android and winmo, all of those are available for testing if need be.
 

dmeadows013

Inactive Recognized Developer
Sep 27, 2010
2,491
3,791
Hoboken, NJ
epicandroidroms.blogspot.com
Good to see M10Tools is coming back :) hope to see OSX and Sense 3.5 support soon. Thanks so much for all the work you (Diamondback) and Flemmard did and hopefully will continue. You make it easier for us to theme Sense and we are grateful for all of the work you have done for us.
 
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    Hey guys,

    today I come to you with good and bad news.

    Bad news first: Flemmard decided finally, that he hasn't got enough time anymore to support and develop M10Tools fulltime.
    That means, he is quitting the main development. :( This is very unfortunate because Flemmard and I are the only two person who actually know how to reverse engineere the *.m10 format.

    Therefore I am searching a new developer now, who can take Flemmard's part over.
    And here comes the good news: The next version is going to be OpenSource (most likely some kind of GPL).
    (This doesn't include the upcoming Virtuous Ten Studio, only the decoder/encoder for the m10 files itself)

    Now let's get to the actual search. The requirements are quite hard:

    We search (Flemmard will be still here as some kind of help) one or two very experienced C# or C++ developers with the following requirements:
    • Very good experience in C# and/or C++
    • Windows dev of course
    • Experience with reading/writing binary data would be helpful
    • Experience with reverse engineering file formats would be also helpful
    • Good spoken english required (German would be nice too)
    • Communication is done via either IRC or Skype
    • Development uses SVN, so knowledge about SVN and how it works is quite helpful
    • Having a HTC phone with a sense 3.0/3.5 ROM is strongly advised. You don't totally need it, but it helps a lot ;)

    Now lets come to the tasks that needs to be done and the usual workflow
    • We do know everything important about the m10 file format, so the hard work is already done
    • But you still WILL be starring at your hexeditor four hours (no joke here), so if you don't like digging through hexcodes you are totally wrong here
    • This is not a halftime job. Writing such a decider/encoder requires quite a bit of spare time
    • Once I explained you most of the things we know about m10 formats, YOU will start writing a parser for those files. This is much trial and error.
    • The time will come where you understand the basics of the format. Then you need to finish that decoder/encoder and start working on the addtional things (mainly image decoding/encoding)
    • Image decoding: The images saved in m10 have different special file formats. We do know how to decode them. There is just ONE format that needs further research.
    • One last thing: Flemmard won't give out his current source code. We have to accept that.

    As I am too lazy to put up another G-Forms thing, I'd just like you to answer here in that post if you are interested in becoming a main m10tools dev. :)

    Flemmard and me had a great time developing this tool, so I guess this will repeat with the new guy(s). :)