Progress again
My blog software broke so I haven't been able to
update this blog for a while, but I finally got it running again (though I still
can't get the dates for the entries to show up). Sorry for taking so long, it's
as frustrating for me as it is for you
:(.
I've been working on a problem with duplicate data in GEDCOM files for the last several months, and I think I finally have it fixed. After some more testing, I'll try to release another private beta this weekend, and if all goes well, the first public beta a few weeks after that. Thanks for your patience.
I've been working on a problem with duplicate data in GEDCOM files for the last several months, and I think I finally have it fixed. After some more testing, I'll try to release another private beta this weekend, and if all goes well, the first public beta a few weeks after that. Thanks for your patience.
Sorry for the delay in the Public Beta
I really thought I'd have more time after
graduation, but the honey-do list was backed up and I got some unexpected
contract work that has kept me extremely busy. I also found a fairly big problem
where I was duplicating data on every save, causing files to grow and grow. I've
also been cleaning up some things getting it ready for public consumption, and I
had a lot more cleanup than I thought to work out. I also had to go through the
licensing on all of the third-party libraries I'm using to make sure I was
complying with the licenses and giving appropriate
credit.
I also had trouble with the software that I use to write this blog. I finally got it working again a few days ago.
For those that are impatient, the third private beta version is still posted in the forums on the SourceForge site for this project.
Am I also ready for some help with the graphics. If anyone has ideas or is willing to help create the main application icon, please let me know.
I also had trouble with the software that I use to write this blog. I finally got it working again a few days ago.
For those that are impatient, the third private beta version is still posted in the forums on the SourceForge site for this project.
Am I also ready for some help with the graphics. If anyone has ideas or is willing to help create the main application icon, please let me know.
Read More
Yay, I've finally graduated
I finally completed my final course (Linear
Algebra) and have now earned my Bachelor's Degree from BYU in Computer Science.
Hooray!
The best news is that now frees up more time for MacPAF -- three cheers for no more homework :-D.
The private betas have gone pretty well, so I should have a Public Beta available for download by next weekend.
For those of you that have generously offered to help with the graphics and icons for MacPAF, I have started a forum thread to discuss who is still interested and any ideas on how best to do this. I'm also looking for ideas about the application icon, so if you have any good ideas, drop by and share your ideas. It can be reached here:
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1489786&forum_id=360022
The best news is that now frees up more time for MacPAF -- three cheers for no more homework :-D.
The private betas have gone pretty well, so I should have a Public Beta available for download by next weekend.
For those of you that have generously offered to help with the graphics and icons for MacPAF, I have started a forum thread to discuss who is still interested and any ideas on how best to do this. I'm also looking for ideas about the application icon, so if you have any good ideas, drop by and share your ideas. It can be reached here:
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1489786&forum_id=360022
MacPAF Mac OS support poll
When I started MacPAF several years ago, Jaguar
(10.2) was the current OS, and Panther (10.3) was coming. I decided that I would
support 10.1.5 and newer with MacPAF. I've intentionally left out many nice
features I could add that are only for Jaguar, Panther, or Tiger to allow as
many people as possible the opportunity to use
MacPAF.
This has led to certain compromises in the design and implementation of MacPAF. I know the majority of you are on a modern version of the OS and will miss these features, but I don't want to exclude those that are running older versions. There a few members of my own family still running 10.2.8, and I'd prefer not to exclude them, but they are feeling the urge to upgrade as well, and likely will when 10.5 (Leopard) comes out.
I don't think I'm ready to drop support for 10.2 at this point, but I am considering dropping support for 10.1. I may still release an initial 1.0 version that supports 10.1, but I'm pretty sure after that I'll move to 10.2.8 as the minimum OS for sure for MacPAF 1.1 and newer unless there's a strong desire to keep 10.1 support around.
So I'd like to ask which version of the Mac OS is the oldest version you intend to use with MacPAF. I'm particularly interested in how many of you are still using 10.1 or 10.2 and what your upgrade plans are. Please leave comments if you have any thoughts on this subject.
Webpoll by Poll123.com
This has led to certain compromises in the design and implementation of MacPAF. I know the majority of you are on a modern version of the OS and will miss these features, but I don't want to exclude those that are running older versions. There a few members of my own family still running 10.2.8, and I'd prefer not to exclude them, but they are feeling the urge to upgrade as well, and likely will when 10.5 (Leopard) comes out.
I don't think I'm ready to drop support for 10.2 at this point, but I am considering dropping support for 10.1. I may still release an initial 1.0 version that supports 10.1, but I'm pretty sure after that I'll move to 10.2.8 as the minimum OS for sure for MacPAF 1.1 and newer unless there's a strong desire to keep 10.1 support around.
So I'd like to ask which version of the Mac OS is the oldest version you intend to use with MacPAF. I'm particularly interested in how many of you are still using 10.1 or 10.2 and what your upgrade plans are. Please leave comments if you have any thoughts on this subject.
Webpoll by Poll123.com
Read More
Hooray -- Universal Binary
Hooray! I finally figured out how to get MacPAF
built as a Universal Binary. It's been a struggle because Apple has released
very little information on how to do it for Cocoa-Java apps, but I think it
works.
I've also fixed many bugs and added a new feedback/bug report feature that I'm curious to see how it will work out. I'm releasing a version to a handful of people first, just to make sure there are no really serious bugs. I don't know if anyone on my private beta test list has an Intel Mac, so if you have an Intel Mac and are interested in trying out MacPAF even if it's buggy and crashes, let me know.
If all goes well with the private beta test, I'll (finally!!) release a public beta/preview release in the next few weeks. Of course, last time I said that was 3 months ago ..... :(
There's a few other cool features I wanted to add, but my initial goal to release MacPAF for 10.1.5+ is starting to get in the way. I'll be soliciting feedback on OS versions in a few days to figure out the best way to proceed.
I've also fixed many bugs and added a new feedback/bug report feature that I'm curious to see how it will work out. I'm releasing a version to a handful of people first, just to make sure there are no really serious bugs. I don't know if anyone on my private beta test list has an Intel Mac, so if you have an Intel Mac and are interested in trying out MacPAF even if it's buggy and crashes, let me know.
If all goes well with the private beta test, I'll (finally!!) release a public beta/preview release in the next few weeks. Of course, last time I said that was 3 months ago ..... :(
There's a few other cool features I wanted to add, but my initial goal to release MacPAF for 10.1.5+ is starting to get in the way. I'll be soliciting feedback on OS versions in a few days to figure out the best way to proceed.
Still here, just really busy
Sorry I haven't been able to keep up. I was
hoping to get this beta done before I got too far into school, but I didn't
quite make it and my available hours have dropped significantly. I'm trying to
fix a problem importing ordinances from old PAF 2.3.1 GEDCOM files, and that's
been harder than I thought. If I make more progress on this, I'll post an
update.
MacPAF progress, or lack thereof :(
It has not been a good week for MacPAF. I got
behind in school, so I spent most of this week getting caught back up, and I've
been helping several of my family members with some stuff that they need, and I
spent last night in the emergency room, so I've made almost no progress. I
should have 2-4 hours today to get some stuff done, we'll see how far I can get.
I'll try my hardest to get something out this weekend, but I can't promise
anything, and I have my midterm next week, so it's going to be sketchy for a bit
.... :(
FYI, the emergency room turned out not to be anything serious. Just an expensive way to watch TV with the kids for 5 hours.
FYI, the emergency room turned out not to be anything serious. Just an expensive way to watch TV with the kids for 5 hours.
MacPAF: Still working on a few things ....
We found a few more bugs that I'd rather not
inflict upon the general preview release population. I'm still here and working
to fix them. I did find a workaround to the pre-Tiger menu bar problem, so that
should not be an issue. One issue we did discover was a problem importing
Sealing ordinances from old Family Records 2.3.1 GEDCOM files. This is the first
time I've had to do specific handling of those old GEDCOM files, so it's taking
me a bit longer than I hoped. I'm also adding a bug reporting feature that will
make it easier to report problems. I'm going to beat on these issues for a few
more days.
I know some of you are anxious to get your hands on MacPAF and start playing with it. The preview release will have issues, but I'd like to keep them mostly cosmetic and minor, so I'm torn between finishing up certain issues and getting something out quickly.
I know some of you are anxious to get your hands on MacPAF and start playing with it. The preview release will have issues, but I'd like to keep them mostly cosmetic and minor, so I'm torn between finishing up certain issues and getting something out quickly.
MacPAF Preview Release Delays
I let a few people try out a preview release of
MacPAF this weekend, and they did find a major issue on pre-Tiger systems. It
appears to lock up the menus and I haven't figured out why yet. I'm going to
give it one more try tomorrow and if I can't figure it out, then I may just make
a preview release for Tiger users, so at least some of you can start playing
with it while I figure out the menu problem. I know that's disappointing for the
Panther and earlier users, and I'll do my best to figure it out
soon.
Other than that, there are several other issues they found. It would take several weeks to fix all of them, but I don't want to delay the preview release quite that long, so I'm going to fix a few of the biggest ones and issue a preview in the next few days. Thanks for being so patient as I try to work out these last little significant issues. And thanks to those that were my first batch of guinea pigs :).
Other than that, there are several other issues they found. It would take several weeks to fix all of them, but I don't want to delay the preview release quite that long, so I'm going to fix a few of the biggest ones and issue a preview in the next few days. Thanks for being so patient as I try to work out these last little significant issues. And thanks to those that were my first batch of guinea pigs :).
Preview Release update
I have made excellent progress over the last
week. I've fixed the last of the problems with deleting families (that I know
of), and got the individual and family list tab views working. I just have to
finish off a few more things on the pedigree view, and then get the bug
reporting workflow finished, and it should be good to go. Importing still has
some issues, but mostly when working with multiple files at the same time, so
I'm going to figure it out later since I have to revamp several parts of the
code anyway. I was really hoping to be done today, but for everything I fix, it
seems a new issue comes up. So many little details to worry
about.
I'm thinking about releasing a little mini-preview tomorrow. If there are a few of you that can spend several hours over the next few days testing out the app and reporting all the significant issues you find to me, let me know. That should highlight any major bugs right off the bat so the majority of people don't have to suffer through them. I can then release a more stable general preview release over the weekend. If it turns out there aren't that many major issues, then I'll release it right away.
I'm thinking about releasing a little mini-preview tomorrow. If there are a few of you that can spend several hours over the next few days testing out the app and reporting all the significant issues you find to me, let me know. That should highlight any major bugs right off the bat so the majority of people don't have to suffer through them. I can then release a more stable general preview release over the weekend. If it turns out there aren't that many major issues, then I'll release it right away.
Pedigree View buttons poll
My wife and I have different opinions on how the
Pedigree View should display empty buttons. I like to hide the unused buttons to
eliminate visual clutter. She prefers to have them greyed out so that she can
see the structure of the pedigree still. What do you
think?
Below are some screenshots of the 2 different options and a poll. If you personally prefer it one way or the other, please vote for that option. Don't vote for the preference option just because you think someone else might like it. Only vote for the preference option if you yourself (or other users of MacPAF on your same machine) would like the option to switch back and forth.
Buttons disabled:
Buttons hidden:
Below are some screenshots of the 2 different options and a poll. If you personally prefer it one way or the other, please vote for that option. Don't vote for the preference option just because you think someone else might like it. Only vote for the preference option if you yourself (or other users of MacPAF on your same machine) would like the option to switch back and forth.
Buttons disabled:
Buttons hidden:
Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season,
and best wishes to all in the new
year.
I had a very nice holiday season, but didn't quite get as much done as I'd hoped. I did make some good progress. On New Years Day, I picked up a nasty cold. Because of that, I've been home sick and unable to go to work. On Tuesday, I was able to work on MacPAF most of the day from my bed, and accomplished a lot. The last two days, however, I've felt much worse and haven't been able to do much of anything :(.
The end is in sight for the first preview release. There are only a handful of things left to do before I'll feel comfortable letting some of you beat on it and put it through its paces. If all goes well, sometime this weekend or during next week I will release the first public preview.
Bear in mind, this first release will be beta quality. It has some blatant performance issues with large files I still have to nail down, and it's only been tested on my laptop and desktop on 10.4.3. I will be testing it this weekend on my old Beige G3 on 10.1.5.
Many features will not be entirely finished. TempleReady submission will not be finished in the preview release, but will be for the final 1.0 release. MacPAF will probably lose some custom GEDCOM fields when you edit files imported from other genealogy programs. Many windows applications like PAF and Legacy use these custom GEDCOM fields to store specific information to those programs that are not part of the GEDCOM specification. These data fields usually only have meaning to those specific programs, but if you import data from one of the programs, modify it in MacPAF and open it back up in the original application, some of that custom data may be missing. This is a touchy subject that all GEDCOM applications have to deal with, and no important data is ever supposed to be stored in these custom fields, or should be stored somewhere else as well, like notes. This is one are where feedback will come in handy. There are several ways to deal with the issue, and I haven't quite decided what to do yet. If you only use MacPAF to edit your files, this won't be an issue.
Multimedia support will not be finished for the preview release. There will be places to put photos of individuals in the interface, but they won't work. This will be working at some level in the final 1.0 release, but multimedia files always pose some complicated issues.
Sorting the individual and family lists probably won't be finished, and searching will be possible, but fairly basic. I anticipate both of those to be much better in the final release. The preview won't have much support for sources outside of the notes. Also, I haven't done any help documentation yet. Hopefully it's familiar enough to be usable to most people, and this an area where users of the preview release can help with the project by helping me write the help :).
Also, I've hand many kind requests from people to help with the icons and logos. I'm very appreciative of this (as I'm artistically challenged) and have been putting together a list of things that we'll need. So the preview release will have a mismash of poor icons and the application logo will be a temporary one. Hopefully with the help of these fine volunteers the final release will have a nice logo and better icons. I'll be contacting those who offered to help in the next few days to enlist their help.
There's more, but I'll leave the details for the actual release documentation.
With the preview release, you should be able to import GEDCOM files, and view and edit all of the basic information (birth, death, ordinances, notes, etc.) You'll be able to view some of the more advanced data, like personal attributes (hair color, occupation, etc), but it won't have support for editing/adding them yet (again, should be in final 1.0). I expect the application to have several bugs. It will probably hang or freeze up on occasion. It happens rarely now to me while I'm testing it, but when exposed to a larger set of machines, systems, and data, I expect for some bugs to be exposed. Your feedback and bug reports will be crucial here.
Thanks to everyone for your patience while I try to finish this up. I really wish I could spend more time and do more with this application, but my resources are very limited. MacPAF won't compare features-wise with any of the other Mac genealogy apps, but hopefully will be useful to a group of you. It has fulfilled its purpose for me, which was to be a learning experience. I have learned a tremendous amount working on this project.
Depending on how the preview release goes, I expect a final 1.0 release in 1 to 3 months.
I had a very nice holiday season, but didn't quite get as much done as I'd hoped. I did make some good progress. On New Years Day, I picked up a nasty cold. Because of that, I've been home sick and unable to go to work. On Tuesday, I was able to work on MacPAF most of the day from my bed, and accomplished a lot. The last two days, however, I've felt much worse and haven't been able to do much of anything :(.
The end is in sight for the first preview release. There are only a handful of things left to do before I'll feel comfortable letting some of you beat on it and put it through its paces. If all goes well, sometime this weekend or during next week I will release the first public preview.
Bear in mind, this first release will be beta quality. It has some blatant performance issues with large files I still have to nail down, and it's only been tested on my laptop and desktop on 10.4.3. I will be testing it this weekend on my old Beige G3 on 10.1.5.
Many features will not be entirely finished. TempleReady submission will not be finished in the preview release, but will be for the final 1.0 release. MacPAF will probably lose some custom GEDCOM fields when you edit files imported from other genealogy programs. Many windows applications like PAF and Legacy use these custom GEDCOM fields to store specific information to those programs that are not part of the GEDCOM specification. These data fields usually only have meaning to those specific programs, but if you import data from one of the programs, modify it in MacPAF and open it back up in the original application, some of that custom data may be missing. This is a touchy subject that all GEDCOM applications have to deal with, and no important data is ever supposed to be stored in these custom fields, or should be stored somewhere else as well, like notes. This is one are where feedback will come in handy. There are several ways to deal with the issue, and I haven't quite decided what to do yet. If you only use MacPAF to edit your files, this won't be an issue.
Multimedia support will not be finished for the preview release. There will be places to put photos of individuals in the interface, but they won't work. This will be working at some level in the final 1.0 release, but multimedia files always pose some complicated issues.
Sorting the individual and family lists probably won't be finished, and searching will be possible, but fairly basic. I anticipate both of those to be much better in the final release. The preview won't have much support for sources outside of the notes. Also, I haven't done any help documentation yet. Hopefully it's familiar enough to be usable to most people, and this an area where users of the preview release can help with the project by helping me write the help :).
Also, I've hand many kind requests from people to help with the icons and logos. I'm very appreciative of this (as I'm artistically challenged) and have been putting together a list of things that we'll need. So the preview release will have a mismash of poor icons and the application logo will be a temporary one. Hopefully with the help of these fine volunteers the final release will have a nice logo and better icons. I'll be contacting those who offered to help in the next few days to enlist their help.
There's more, but I'll leave the details for the actual release documentation.
With the preview release, you should be able to import GEDCOM files, and view and edit all of the basic information (birth, death, ordinances, notes, etc.) You'll be able to view some of the more advanced data, like personal attributes (hair color, occupation, etc), but it won't have support for editing/adding them yet (again, should be in final 1.0). I expect the application to have several bugs. It will probably hang or freeze up on occasion. It happens rarely now to me while I'm testing it, but when exposed to a larger set of machines, systems, and data, I expect for some bugs to be exposed. Your feedback and bug reports will be crucial here.
Thanks to everyone for your patience while I try to finish this up. I really wish I could spend more time and do more with this application, but my resources are very limited. MacPAF won't compare features-wise with any of the other Mac genealogy apps, but hopefully will be useful to a group of you. It has fulfilled its purpose for me, which was to be a learning experience. I have learned a tremendous amount working on this project.
Depending on how the preview release goes, I expect a final 1.0 release in 1 to 3 months.
Merry Christmas!
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and best
wishes to everyone.
I'm still pushing to finish a preview release over the holidays. I made some really progress at the beginning of December, but stalled that last week and a half with more hardware troubles. The graphics card in my G5 went out, and I spent way too many hours troubleshooting and waiting for the replacement card to arrive. I left the power cord to my PowerBook at my sister-in-law's house and so didn't have a working computer for a few days.
But now everything is back working again. Yesterday I almost finished making sure that when you delete a person, it deletes all the references to that person in family relationships and such. And I've started working on the interface to select the individuals you want to submit for TempleReady.
And thank you for the several people who offered to help with graphics and logos. I'm putting together a list of what we need and I'll be contacting you soon to see what we can get accomplished.
I'm still pushing to finish a preview release over the holidays. I made some really progress at the beginning of December, but stalled that last week and a half with more hardware troubles. The graphics card in my G5 went out, and I spent way too many hours troubleshooting and waiting for the replacement card to arrive. I left the power cord to my PowerBook at my sister-in-law's house and so didn't have a working computer for a few days.
But now everything is back working again. Yesterday I almost finished making sure that when you delete a person, it deletes all the references to that person in family relationships and such. And I've started working on the interface to select the individuals you want to submit for TempleReady.
And thank you for the several people who offered to help with graphics and logos. I'm putting together a list of what we need and I'll be contacting you soon to see what we can get accomplished.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Oops, it's been a while since I updated. First, I
would like to wish everyone a Happy
Thanksgiving.
I'm finally back to work on MacPAF, and should get in some good work over the holidays. I've been delayed lately since my Powerbook crashed. I was using it to setup my old Beige G3 to do some testing on Mac OS X 10.1, and while transferring some files, it corrupted the hard drive. Fortunately I was able to get off all my pictures and stuff that I hadn't backed up yet, and saved most of my MacPAF files. So I didn't lose a lot of work, only a couple of days worth, but I did lose all of my spare time the last week while I reformatted and rebuilt my laptop to get it back in a working state. Whew.
I've mostly been working on getting the individual and family lists so you can search and sort them. Then I should be ready to do some final touch-up on the interface, and start doing some testing to make sure everything saves and updates properly. I know there's a few places I still have to fix there. I don't see any way that I don't have a version ready for a public beta test by the new year, hopefully sooner than that.
I'm finally back to work on MacPAF, and should get in some good work over the holidays. I've been delayed lately since my Powerbook crashed. I was using it to setup my old Beige G3 to do some testing on Mac OS X 10.1, and while transferring some files, it corrupted the hard drive. Fortunately I was able to get off all my pictures and stuff that I hadn't backed up yet, and saved most of my MacPAF files. So I didn't lose a lot of work, only a couple of days worth, but I did lose all of my spare time the last week while I reformatted and rebuilt my laptop to get it back in a working state. Whew.
I've mostly been working on getting the individual and family lists so you can search and sort them. Then I should be ready to do some final touch-up on the interface, and start doing some testing to make sure everything saves and updates properly. I know there's a few places I still have to fix there. I don't see any way that I don't have a version ready for a public beta test by the new year, hopefully sooner than that.
Update for 2 Oct 2005
I have been able to cannibalize some hours from
my old project, so I've made some good progress in the last few weeks. I've got
the individual and family lists working except for searching, and ordinance
saving is almost done. I also started work on the Recall menu (renamed to
History). I haven't decided how I'm going to do some of the interface yet, so
I'll probably put up some samples in the next few weeks and see what kind of
feedback I get.
For example, for the individual and family lists, I show the detail information in a drawer, but the drawer is quite large, and I'm considering just showing the detail information right in the list window since I'm guessing most people will want to see the detail information most of the time. Anyway, there are lots of little decisions like that to be made as I wrap things up.
Also, MacGenealogy now has a page on MacPAF.
For example, for the individual and family lists, I show the detail information in a drawer, but the drawer is quite large, and I'm considering just showing the detail information right in the list window since I'm guessing most people will want to see the detail information most of the time. Anyway, there are lots of little decisions like that to be made as I wrap things up.
Also, MacGenealogy now has a page on MacPAF.
MacPAF update 5 Sep 05
Unfortunately, not much progress the last couple
of weeks. We went on a nice vacation, and I hoped to get a couple hours in on
the plane, but traveling with a 5-month old tends to monopolize your time ;). So
I only got about 20 minutes done on the plane. Then just when I get back, I got
put on an emergency project to help support victims of hurricane Katrina, and
that took the whole weekend. Whew, I need another vacation again
;).
On the positive side, one of my side contract jobs has wrapped up, so that should free a few hours up. Hopefully, I can cannibalize a few of those for MacPAF. I hope to finish up saving of family ordinances by this weekend.
On the positive side, one of my side contract jobs has wrapped up, so that should free a few hours up. Hopefully, I can cannibalize a few of those for MacPAF. I hope to finish up saving of family ordinances by this weekend.
Some good progress
I made some good progress this week. I got some
of the ordinances saving, like sealing to spouse, and solved a tricky problem I
was having editing the husband and wife from the family edit window. There's
still an issue with children, but that should be easier now that I've gotten the
parents working.
I also started to organize the UI files a bit. All of the UI was in a single file, and it was getting too large to keep track of, so I've started splitting it off into separate files, and that took me longer than I thought it would. I originally split off the individual list and family list, as they are pretty self-contained. I'm not entirely happy with the way the UI is turning out, but that will be an excellent area for the beta test to get feedback on users which way they like the UI to work.
There's only about 4-5 more significant issues in loading/saving individuals and families, and that part should be done. Unfortunately, one of those issues is quite sticky, and could take a couple weeks all by itself. Once that is done, I just have to finish wiring up the UI to the data, and I probably need to write at least some basic documentation and help before the first beta test.
I also started to organize the UI files a bit. All of the UI was in a single file, and it was getting too large to keep track of, so I've started splitting it off into separate files, and that took me longer than I thought it would. I originally split off the individual list and family list, as they are pretty self-contained. I'm not entirely happy with the way the UI is turning out, but that will be an excellent area for the beta test to get feedback on users which way they like the UI to work.
There's only about 4-5 more significant issues in loading/saving individuals and families, and that part should be done. Unfortunately, one of those issues is quite sticky, and could take a couple weeks all by itself. Once that is done, I just have to finish wiring up the UI to the data, and I probably need to write at least some basic documentation and help before the first beta test.
(Not much of an) Update for 31 Jul 2005
Sorry, not much to report. It's been very crazy
around here, including one of my servers had to be rebuilt due to some drive
corruption. That stole most of my time. Still have a bit more work to do on it
before I can get back to MacPAF.
Update (finally)
Wow, it's been a long time since I updated the
blog. I'm sorry it's taken me so
long.
I ran into a bit of a snag. I didn't design part of the application right, and when I started to work on some more complex scenarios, I had to redo some stuff to compensate. That has taken a lot longer than I expected. Plus the fact that my wife and I are starting a new business, recently had a baby, I've taken a couple of side contract jobs to make some money, I have a new calling at church that takes more time, summer vacations, etc., and I haven't been able to put as much time into it as I'd like. Plus when I do get to work on it, it's frustrating because I spend the time reworking some things I didn't set up well, so I don't feel like I'm making progress.
Fortunately, by this point, most of the reworking is finished. There is only 1 more issue to figure out, and then I'll be back on track. I have almost finished saving family data (correctly). Currently some data gets lost in certain situations, and it's very easy to end up with duplicate families :(. After that, the only things left are to clean up the interface a little bit, add basic support for all events, and do some testing.
The preview release will not do TempleReady, but it will let you import your Gedcom files and you can add and edit individual and family data, and export the data. I expect to add TempleReady support a few months after the preview release. The 1.0 version will have TempleReady and the ability to assign pictures to people.
I know it's frustrating to those of you that are waiting anxiously for this. It's very frustrating to me too. I'd really like to dedicate a couple of hours a day to this project, but I just can't in my current situation, and it's very slow going with only about an hour a week on average. One of my side contracts is just finishing up, and hopefully maybe I can steal another hour or two a week and push to get these last few things done.
I do promise to keep this blog up to date better. No more than 2 weeks without an update until the 1.0 release is finished!
Thanks to everyone for your support and patience.
I ran into a bit of a snag. I didn't design part of the application right, and when I started to work on some more complex scenarios, I had to redo some stuff to compensate. That has taken a lot longer than I expected. Plus the fact that my wife and I are starting a new business, recently had a baby, I've taken a couple of side contract jobs to make some money, I have a new calling at church that takes more time, summer vacations, etc., and I haven't been able to put as much time into it as I'd like. Plus when I do get to work on it, it's frustrating because I spend the time reworking some things I didn't set up well, so I don't feel like I'm making progress.
Fortunately, by this point, most of the reworking is finished. There is only 1 more issue to figure out, and then I'll be back on track. I have almost finished saving family data (correctly). Currently some data gets lost in certain situations, and it's very easy to end up with duplicate families :(. After that, the only things left are to clean up the interface a little bit, add basic support for all events, and do some testing.
The preview release will not do TempleReady, but it will let you import your Gedcom files and you can add and edit individual and family data, and export the data. I expect to add TempleReady support a few months after the preview release. The 1.0 version will have TempleReady and the ability to assign pictures to people.
I know it's frustrating to those of you that are waiting anxiously for this. It's very frustrating to me too. I'd really like to dedicate a couple of hours a day to this project, but I just can't in my current situation, and it's very slow going with only about an hour a week on average. One of my side contracts is just finishing up, and hopefully maybe I can steal another hour or two a week and push to get these last few things done.
I do promise to keep this blog up to date better. No more than 2 weeks without an update until the 1.0 release is finished!
Thanks to everyone for your support and patience.
Some good progress recently
I haven't been able to work on MacPAF as much as
I hoped. Other projects and deadlines have forced me to cut back a bit, but I
recently got in some good time and made some progress. I fixed some problems
displaying family information, got a lot of work done on the toolbar so that
most of the buttons function now, and cleaned up a lot of test junk that was
floating around. Editing and saving individuals is looking pretty solid now.
Just have to finish up family information so it doesn't get
corrupted.
I really feel like I'm on the last little bit before I can release a public beta. If I can get another 2-3 good sessions of work on it in the next month, it should be ready to actually try out and start experimenting with. After that, I hope for about 2-3 months after that to release 1.0.
I really feel like I'm on the last little bit before I can release a public beta. If I can get another 2-3 good sessions of work on it in the next month, it should be ready to actually try out and start experimenting with. After that, I hope for about 2-3 months after that to release 1.0.
Read More
Good progress on MacPAF
Happy New Year
everyone!
I have worked on MacPAF more in the last 2 weeks than the whole rest of the year combined. I've made some really good progress. I've gotten the multimedia stuff mostly working, so you can associate images with your data now, and files that you import from others with pictures in them will display them.
Now I just need to finish up a few more fixes on importing GEDCOM files, and double-check to make sure that everything you add or change gets saved correctly and doesn't stomp on other changes. If I can keep up this pace of development for another week or two, I should have a public preview ready by then. Here's to hoping I can.
I have worked on MacPAF more in the last 2 weeks than the whole rest of the year combined. I've made some really good progress. I've gotten the multimedia stuff mostly working, so you can associate images with your data now, and files that you import from others with pictures in them will display them.
Now I just need to finish up a few more fixes on importing GEDCOM files, and double-check to make sure that everything you add or change gets saved correctly and doesn't stomp on other changes. If I can keep up this pace of development for another week or two, I should have a public preview ready by then. Here's to hoping I can.
MacPAF Holiday Update
Hope all is well with everyone. Sorry I've been
so bad at keeping the status up to
date.
I've not had as much time over the last few months to work on MacPAF, but I've been putting in a few more hours in the last week or two. I'm going to make a determined effort to try and get a public preview out during the holidays. The last few things to finish are making sure that all of the changes are saved properly, and that I don't lose information that MacPAF can't handle. I hope to have some basic support for photos as well.
I've not had as much time over the last few months to work on MacPAF, but I've been putting in a few more hours in the last week or two. I'm going to make a determined effort to try and get a public preview out during the holidays. The last few things to finish are making sure that all of the changes are saved properly, and that I don't lose information that MacPAF can't handle. I hope to have some basic support for photos as well.
Sun - June 6, 2004
Finally back at work on MacPAF
I'm finally back at work on MacPAF after too long
a delay. I have fixed some problems when importing GEDCOM files and adding new
individuals. I still need to fix some problems when editing family information
and creating new families. I am also a new report for an upcoming family reunion
called the Pocket Pedigee. I will provide more details when I get a little more
time.
As soon as I get it to a point where I don't think it will routinely have problems with normal data files, I will release a public preview. Right now there are too many cases where it will corrupt data or save incorrectly. For the adventurous developers, the source is available on SourceForge and will be updated sometime this week with my latest fixes.
As soon as I get it to a point where I don't think it will routinely have problems with normal data files, I will release a public preview. Right now there are too many cases where it will corrupt data or save incorrectly. For the adventurous developers, the source is available on SourceForge and will be updated sometime this week with my latest fixes.
Posted at 04:54 PM Read More
Sun - April 11, 2004
MacPAF Update 11 Apr
I had planned on finishing the preview release of
MacPAF this weekend. However, my father passed away unexpectedly last night, so
I will not be working on MacPAF for the next week or two while we get everything
in order.
Posted at 11:57 AM
Sun - March 28, 2004
MacPAF SourceForge project is now available
Developers interesting in viewing the source code
are now free to do so. Please be aware that this is pre-release software and
still full of bugs and errors, and may not always compile or run (though I will
maintain every effort to keep it
so).
Those who are not developers will have to wait for another week or two until I can clean up a few things and release an application package that you can play around with.
Those who are not developers will have to wait for another week or two until I can clean up a few things and release an application package that you can play around with.
Posted at 10:30 AM Read More
Sun - March 14, 2004
Aargh - Illness delays the project
The Allred household has been afflicted with
various illnesses over the last two weeks, leaving me unable to finish up the
last few things before the initial public release. My kids got the stomach flu
for a few days, then gave it to me for a few days, after which I gave it back to
them for a few more days. It also left me with an eye infection that made it
hard to read or do any work on the computer for quite a while. So I'm afraid the
project has been delayed by at least a few weeks, probably closer to a month as
we recover and get caught back up. Look for me to finish the initial release by
the end of March.
I did register for a SourceForge project recently, and should hear back shortly. I will announce when the SourceForge website is ready if the project is approved.
I did register for a SourceForge project recently, and should hear back shortly. I will announce when the SourceForge website is ready if the project is approved.
Posted at 11:39 AM Read More
Sun - February 1, 2004
MacPAF update 1 Feb 2004
I was able to make a lot of progress in the last
few weeks. A friend let me borrow his PowerBook for a few days, so I was able to
work on MacPAF during the 1.5 hour bus ride to work and back. I have completed
most of the work to save a person's information (name, etc.), and am just
finishing up saving the events (birth, death, ordinances,
etc.).
After finishing saving individual data, I will work on family data, then some final cleanup to handle errors better and redo a few things in the UI, and I will be ready to put out my first preview version for people to try out. It will still have lots of bugs and not everything will be working, but you will get a chance to try it out and help me fix the problems that are still there. I expect that I can finish this by the end of February, but definitely by the end of March at the latest.
After finishing saving individual data, I will work on family data, then some final cleanup to handle errors better and redo a few things in the UI, and I will be ready to put out my first preview version for people to try out. It will still have lots of bugs and not everything will be working, but you will get a chance to try it out and help me fix the problems that are still there. I expect that I can finish this by the end of February, but definitely by the end of March at the latest.
Posted at 12:20 AM Read More
Sun - December 7, 2003
MacPAF update 7 Dec 2003
I am making progress on saving changes. I have
much of the individual information saving (name, birthdate, etc.). I still need
to finish the rest of the individual information, then I will work on the family
information.
This has turned out to be more complicated than I thought it would be, and I've had to do extra work to make sure I keep everything in synch. Most of the hard stuff has been figured out, so the rest should be easier.
This has turned out to be more complicated than I thought it would be, and I've had to do extra work to make sure I keep everything in synch. Most of the hard stuff has been figured out, so the rest should be easier.
Posted at 12:49 PM Read More
Sun - October 19, 2003
Update for 19 Oct 2003
When I originally started this project, I was
expecting to be able to spend 5-10 hours per week. It turns out that I have been
busier than anticipated, and it's been closer to 1-2 hours per week. As such, it
has dragged on longer than I hoped.
I am currently working on saving and exporting data. I will have a new file format for the MacPAF program (.macpaf) that will be the main repository for the information, but the embedded in the .macpaf file will be a normal GEDCOM file, so exporting to GEDCOM will be pretty simple.
I spent the majority of last week figuring out how to get my saved GEDCOM files to be compatible with the old Family Records/PAF for Mac program. That was much more difficult than I originally thought and has put the project back another few weeks.
I'm hoping to finish saving and exporting in the next 2 weeks. I will then devote the following 2 weeks to cleaning up the program and getting ready a preview release for people to try out. It will still be buggy and rough, but enough to get a feel for the program and start the feedback process.
I am currently working on saving and exporting data. I will have a new file format for the MacPAF program (.macpaf) that will be the main repository for the information, but the embedded in the .macpaf file will be a normal GEDCOM file, so exporting to GEDCOM will be pretty simple.
I spent the majority of last week figuring out how to get my saved GEDCOM files to be compatible with the old Family Records/PAF for Mac program. That was much more difficult than I originally thought and has put the project back another few weeks.
I'm hoping to finish saving and exporting in the next 2 weeks. I will then devote the following 2 weeks to cleaning up the program and getting ready a preview release for people to try out. It will still be buggy and rough, but enough to get a feel for the program and start the feedback process.
Posted at 11:28 AM Read More
Welcome
I haven't been very good at keeping the website
up to date with the latest status or information, so I'm going to try out this
iBlog software that I got for free with my .Mac account and see if it helps me
post information more often. Please send me any feedback you have on
this.
Posted at 11:16 AM Read More
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Published On: Oct 10, 2006 12:19 AM
Published On: Oct 10, 2006 12:19 AM