Lots of new beta versions

Recently I've uploaded beta versions of Sonar 3, RMP 3, Hamtime 2, Trackaminute 2, yCopy 2, yLaunch 2, yMail 2 and yWriter 5

On the non-beta front, yGen 2 has now officially replaced yGen 1 and I recommend all users run yRead 3 instead of the original yRead 2 (Windows 98 users are stuck with yRead 1) RMP 3 is almost out of beta, and I recommend it to Vista users in particular because of the improved performance on that operating system.

Details and download links here

yEdit beta released

During NanoWrimo 2007 I decided I needed a text editor which would do the following:

1. Allow me to set a word count target, and display the remaining words as I typed
2. Take sequentially numbered autobackups at five minute intervals.
3. Nothing else *

Yesterday I mentioned this app on the yWriter group, and it was only a few minutes before someone asked me to release it.

So, at midnight last night I put version 1.0.0 online, promptly followed by 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 since I'd forgotten to include certain essential files.

If this app sounds like something you could use, give it a try and let me know what you think.

* I will NOT be adding a spell checker, grammar checker, formatting, fonts or any other Word Processing gizmos. Those are EDITING features, and you'd do well not to distract yourself with such fripperies when you're trying to WRITE.

yWriter 5

I'm plotting Hal Spacejock book 5 and working on yWriter 5 at the same time ... get fed up with one, switch to the other.

yWriter isn't anywhere near ready for public testing yet, since I'm still adding lots of missing features, but I'm very happy with what I have so far. I've spent enough time in VB2008 to really get to like it, barring a few issues which I've mostly been able to get around by tweaking the settings. (Ctrl+Shift F2 is still a mess, and don't talk to me about the search / search & replace system. Yuk.)

The more I see the more I like this new programming language, which is saying something because I've found every Microsoft version of Visual Basic completely unusable since the excellent VB6, released in 1998.

Back to yWriter 5: I've just added the code for drag/dropping chapters and scenes on the main screen, and it's working nicely. Last time around I tidied up the editor window, leaving only the essentials on the main page (text window, title, description, chapter/scene dropdowns & viewpoint char selector) and putting everything else on a couple of tabs (one for viewpoint character info and a drag/drop list of other characters in the scene, the other for the nitty-gritty details like notes, length of time for the scene, locations, items, etc)

It's a long, painstaking process converting a huge app like yWriter from one language to another, and one of the biggest problems is that I really can't do anything to yWriter 4 while yw5 is in progress. Otherwise I have to add every change to BOTH versions simultaneously, and of course the code is all different and changes are inevitably spread over a whole load of source files.

Part of me knows that I should be writing Hal Spacejock 5 instead of fiddling with the new version of yWriter, but procrastination is part of my character. Anyway, I want to write Hal 5 in yWriter 5, just like I've matched every Hal book to date with a new version of the software. It keeps things fresh & exciting!

yRead 3 beta

The first beta of yRead 3 is now available from the Spacejock Software website. This free program will take a text or html file and read it aloud.

Download available here

Sonar 3 Beta

Unfortunately I spent almost all of January immobilised due to lower back pain. However, thanks to my laptop and wifi connection I managed to use the time constructively, and I've not only converted the thousands and thousands of lines of code I use for all my software into VB2008, I also converted Sonar and added a bunch of new features.

* Resizable forms
* Colour coded lines
* Single data file in XML format
* Load, use, save as many different databases as you want
* 'Stories' now called 'works', so non-fic writers can use the prog
* You can double-click entries in any list to view details
* Text fields now have unlimited length
* List subs by work AND by market (e.g. a list of everything sent to F&SF)
* All lists can be sorted
* Sortable date columns for dates

etc etc

Now, this is a BETA version, and it will probably crash and/or lose data. People who download it will be existing Sonar 2 users who are keen to see where the program is going, and who don't mind trying various menus and forms in order to let me know of any problems.

There's a Sonar2 data importer built in, and you can have both apps installed at the same time without any problems. Importing your Sonar 2 data won't change the original files.


Installing

Because Sonar3 is a .NET Version 2.0 application, you'll need to install the Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 if you don't already have it.

Best bet is to download and install Sonar3, then run it. If you get an error message about a missing runtime environment, you can grab the .NET Framework from the link below and install it.

Link to Sonar 3 install (about 800kb)

Link to .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)

(If you're running 64-bit windows there's a link to the x64 version on the same page.)

Sonar 3 has a 'check for updates' feature under the Utilities menu. I'd use it fairly often ...

Programmer for hire

I've decided to offer my services as a programmer for hire, specifically with the idea of working on legacy Visual Basic projects (VB5 and VB6, although I've also used VB3, VB4 and VB Dos .. even QuickBasic 4.5)

I'm not after a job, just contract work. Full details on the link above.