Double Agent Project Abstract

Introduction

Double Agent is an Open Source alternative to Microsoft™ Agent that allows Agent applications to work on Windows 7.

It emulates the Microsoft™ Agent server and the Microsoft™ Agent ActiveX control.
It supports existing Microsoft™ Agent version 2.0 characters, including Microsoft™ Office Assistant characters.
It implements the Agent Server and Agent ActiveX Control programming interfaces, so it can be used with no changes to existing applications.
For development and testing purposes, it also runs on Windows® XP and Windows® Vista.
It's available in both 32–bit and 64–bit versions.

Components

Double Agent currently includes the following:

Feature	Description	File(s)
Core Components	Implements the all of the basic functionality for the character, balloon, property pages, etc.	dacore.dll
Server	Implements the Agent Server interfaces. This includes loading and unloading characters, tracking characters, requests, and clients, showing property sheets, etc.	daserver.exe
ActiveX Control	Implements the Agent ActiveX Control. The control conforms to Microsoft's ActiveX standard and is compatible with any programming language that can use ActiveX controls. This includes C++, C#, Visual Basic (Version 6 and .NET), HTML, and various scripting languages.	dacontrol.dll
Explorer Extensions	Provides the character file (.ACS and .ACG) property page for Windows Explorer. Also provides a Control Panel extension for managing Double Agent.	dashell.dll
International	The Microsoft™ Agent international components consist of a resource module (agtxxxx.dll) and a help file (agtxxxx.hlp), where xxxx is a hexadecimal language code. Double Agent uses these resource modules to support languages other than English. However, the help files are unusable since the .HLP help format is no longer supported.	agtxxxx.dll
Interop Assemblies	The Double Agent package includes Interop Assemblies that allow the Agent Server and Agent ActiveX Control to interoperate with Windows .NET. There is a set of interop assemblies for Double Agent, and another set for Microsoft™ Agent. These assemblies are provided for convenience only. Programmers can use them or create their own interop assemblies.	DoubleAgentCtl.dll AxDoubleAgentCtl.dll DoubleAgentSvr.dll AgentObjects.dll AxAgentObjects.dll AgentServerObjects.dll

Licensing

Double Agent is licensed under the GNU Public License as follows:

The Server and ActiveX Control components are covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License. This means that proprietary applications may use and distribute the Server and ActiveX Control components.
All other components are covered by the GNU General Public License. This means that any application that binds directly (using static link, dynamic link, COM, or any other mechanizm) to any other component must be an open source application. Specifically, no proprietary application may directly call any function in the Core Components.
Each source file is marked to indicate which licence it uses. No source code covered by the GNU General Public License may be used in any form (modified or unmodified) in any proprietary application.

For more information, please refer to the GNU license documents accompanying this software, or visit http://www.gnu.org.