Where is Thumbkin?
Category xided
I've gotten a couple emails asking where I've been... in short, I've been heads down on XIDED. Thought I'd given up on that, didn't you? Admittedly it didn't see much activity over the summer, what with moving again and all. I really gotta cut that out. The good news is that I'm quite content at my new job, and for the time being that seems to be mutual. So once we were reasonably settled in here, I decided to try another go at XIDED. But I'm taking my time on it to do it right, not just rush to get something out there. I have two reasons for this:
I've also scrapped the Xilinus Window approach to displaying multiple design elements simultaneously in favor of a tabbed interface, similar to the existing Designer layout. There are a number of reasons for this, but the primary one is just a better overall use of screen real estate. The downside is that I'm still coding the new interface, which is why the screenshot above only shows the menu and the bookmark bar. But it's coming along nicely, so I'll have more eye candy for you soon.
For the time being, I'm only concentrating on Firefox support. This is partly in response to the preferred browser poll over at xided.com, but mostly because the very nature of this application implies both a large amount of DOM scripting and mature CSS support. I'm not a standards Nazi, but let's face it: I.E. just doesn't cut it in either category. Due to its ubiquity, I'll add I.E. support when the time comes, but in the meantime I'm focusing on the browser that does what the code tells it to (without having to include silly hacks), and does it well.
Once XIDED goes beta, its use will be free until the final release date. The first beta will allow only the creation and editing of agents; each subsequent beta release will add support for one or more design element categories:
You might have noticed there are three glaring omissions from the above list: forms, subforms, and pages. This is because the scope of what these elements can contain is much greater than the rest of the design element categories. In all likelihood, the initial support for these elements will address only their periphery (i.e. form events - QuerySave, PostOpen, etc. - and action buttons), followed later by support for the actual rich text element content. With DXL support for outlines in 7.0.2, these will soon be added as well for those who have upgraded to that release. This all depends on how much time I have on my hands, of course; this is only my hobby, my "day job" naturally comes first.
By the way, the upgrade process (as well as version control, bug submission, and, well, everything about XIDED) is all embedded directly into the main window... see, that's the beauty of DOM scripting. No manual signing of new elements, no refresh/replace design, just a single menu option within the main interface. Each time a new beta or patch comes out, you'll be able to quickly and easily upgrade to it from within the application's Help menu.
So that's what I've been up to. Over the coming weeks, I'll try to update you regularly on the progress. Any feedback you have on this would be greatly appreciated as well.
I've gotten a couple emails asking where I've been... in short, I've been heads down on XIDED. Thought I'd given up on that, didn't you? Admittedly it didn't see much activity over the summer, what with moving again and all. I really gotta cut that out. The good news is that I'm quite content at my new job, and for the time being that seems to be mutual. So once we were reasonably settled in here, I decided to try another go at XIDED. But I'm taking my time on it to do it right, not just rush to get something out there. I have two reasons for this:
- Given the luxury of having no internal deadlines, that's how I prefer to operate anyway.
- There's been very little chatter about this project, which I'm assuming means there's no demand for it. Maybe, maybe not; in the two years or so since this idea started forming, I've been in countless situations where I wished I could make design changes without having Designer installed. But since nobody's clamoring for it, there's no hurry to get it released. All the same, I'm going to finish it anyway, because I know having it will make my life easier. Granted, the arrival of Nomad makes it easier for me to take Notes with me wherever I go, but at the moment IBM's only supporting the use of the core Notes client within Nomad, and I still like the premise of being able to make design changes without having to carry an extra device around with me at all times.
I've also scrapped the Xilinus Window approach to displaying multiple design elements simultaneously in favor of a tabbed interface, similar to the existing Designer layout. There are a number of reasons for this, but the primary one is just a better overall use of screen real estate. The downside is that I'm still coding the new interface, which is why the screenshot above only shows the menu and the bookmark bar. But it's coming along nicely, so I'll have more eye candy for you soon.
For the time being, I'm only concentrating on Firefox support. This is partly in response to the preferred browser poll over at xided.com, but mostly because the very nature of this application implies both a large amount of DOM scripting and mature CSS support. I'm not a standards Nazi, but let's face it: I.E. just doesn't cut it in either category. Due to its ubiquity, I'll add I.E. support when the time comes, but in the meantime I'm focusing on the browser that does what the code tells it to (without having to include silly hacks), and does it well.
Once XIDED goes beta, its use will be free until the final release date. The first beta will allow only the creation and editing of agents; each subsequent beta release will add support for one or more design element categories:
| 00.01.00 | 11/17/06 | Agents |
| 00.02.00 | 12/08/06 | Script Libraries / Web Services |
| 00.03.00 | 12/29/06 | Views / Folders / Framesets |
| 00.04.00 | 01/19/07 | Shared Resources (Images, Files, etc.) |
| 00.05.00 | 02/09/07 | Shared Fields / Columns / Actions |
| 01.00.00 | 03/02/07 | First Full Release |
You might have noticed there are three glaring omissions from the above list: forms, subforms, and pages. This is because the scope of what these elements can contain is much greater than the rest of the design element categories. In all likelihood, the initial support for these elements will address only their periphery (i.e. form events - QuerySave, PostOpen, etc. - and action buttons), followed later by support for the actual rich text element content. With DXL support for outlines in 7.0.2, these will soon be added as well for those who have upgraded to that release. This all depends on how much time I have on my hands, of course; this is only my hobby, my "day job" naturally comes first.
By the way, the upgrade process (as well as version control, bug submission, and, well, everything about XIDED) is all embedded directly into the main window... see, that's the beauty of DOM scripting. No manual signing of new elements, no refresh/replace design, just a single menu option within the main interface. Each time a new beta or patch comes out, you'll be able to quickly and easily upgrade to it from within the application's Help menu.
So that's what I've been up to. Over the coming weeks, I'll try to update you regularly on the progress. Any feedback you have on this would be greatly appreciated as well.
