User:Shadow1/ShadowTool/FAQ

What is ShadowTool?
A lightweight anti-vandal tool, similar to VandalProof and VandalSniper.

What's it written in?
Perl.

Why Perl?
Perl is my favorite programming language, but more importantly, is amazing at handling text, which, coincidentally, is what Wikipedia edits are made of.

What OS does ShadowTool run on?
Linux.

Can it be ported to other platforms?
Sure it can.

Will you write a version of it for Windows?
No. Feel free to get it working on Windows yourself, though; Perl is cross-platform, it shouldn't be difficult.

Why did you write it?
I got tired of not being able to use VandalProof on Linux, and I got bored with trying to get VandalSniper installed.

How 'lightweight' is it?
Think of it this way: Take VandalProof, now cut 7/8ths of the code out of it. That's ShadowTool.

That's pretty lightweight
Trust me when I say that it works. Most of the RC patrolling I've done lately has been with ShadowTool's development version, and it's insanely easy to use and satifies the needs of most RC patrollers.

What can it do?
Well, here's the current way that you RC patrol with ShadowTool:
 * 1) Start it
 * 2) Type in your login information, click the Login button. Wait for it to process, then either keep going or retry the login if it fails.
 * 3) Click Update to load the last 5 edits (Main namespace only) into ShadowTool.
 * 4) Make sure Firefox is running, and click Load to load the first edit into ShadowTool. Yes, I said make sure Firefox is running, that's how ShadowTool displays edits. If you don't like switching between windows, right-click ShadowTool's title bar and click 'On-Top' (In GNOME).
 * 5) Look over the edit. A summary of the user's warnings (Currently test1-4) will load into another box while you're checking the edits over.
 * 6) Either decide to roll back the edit or click Load to load in the next edit.
 * 7) If you're rolling back the edit, decide on the appropriate warning level, open the Rollback menu, and click the warning level. ShadowTool will hang for a bit while it's rolling the edit back and warning the user.
 * 8) Is the user a repeat vandal? Click Rollback, then click AIV, type in a reason to list the user on AIV, and click List. Done. User's on AIV.
 * 9) Once you've reached the last edit, click Update to get the next 5 edits.

That's how you use ShadowTool; at least, for the moment. I intend to write in more VandalProof-like functionality after the first release.

How easy is the install?
Depends on your installation method. I distribute ShadowTool in as an executable, but I include the source code along with it. If you feel like installing from source, then be prepared to install some CPAN modules. Either way, it's not really 'installing,' but you can 'install' it by dragging all the runtime files and the executable into your /bin directory.

Can I help?
Sure! I'm always willing to have other developers. Leave me a message on my talk page and I'll get in touch.