I'm hoping to release the next update to Print Window in the next week or so. This won't be a major update, but will make a couple of refinements to the software and add a fairly frequently-requested feature.
More details as I get a little closer to release, but I can say right now that the new feature is not the oft-requested ability to decide what folders are expanded and what folders aren't. That's coming, but it's still down the road a ways.
I promised a new version of Print Window over a week ago. As you have probably surmised by this time, this new version has not yet surfaced.
Turns out, the night I was preparing the actual downloadable archive, I discovered a pretty nasty bug in Print Window's Services support. Don't worry though, this bug does not exist in the currently available version of Print Window.
Instead, this bug appeared during development of this next version. The problem is, I have no idea what I did that caused this bug to appear. I've been working on this problem for a couple of evenings now and still haven't managed to fix it. Unfortunately, that promised new version of Print Window will have to wait until I can get this problem cleared up.
I know it's been pretty quiet here lately, but along with some things going on in my personal life, I've been hard at work on the next major version of Print Window. Look for an announcement on this blog very soon (as in, maybe tomorrow...)!
Okay...so I originally promised this on Saturday, but it turns out that it's late Sunday night instead.
The culmination of many months of hard work has finally arrived with the release of the Print Window 3.0 Public Beta. This new version is a major upgrade to Print Window that responds to many user requests as well as some more cool stuff thrown in just because I wanted it.
Some of the new stuff in the new version include:
I have put a lot of research, work and effort into this release. I had a great team of Alpha testers who helped shape the product. I really think Print Window 3.0 is going to be a great product.
I'm making a Public Beta available to help track now any last-minute lingering bugs. Hopefully, those who download the Public Beta will offer their impressions and report any further glitches that I and my Alpha team missed. As an incentive for people to do so, I'm offering a complimentary license to Print Window Advanced to anyone who is first to report a previously unknown bug. See the webpage for further details on this.
The official announcement of the availability of the Public Beta goes out tomorrow! So, if you're reading this on Sunday, you get a sneak peak before everyone else does!
I'm really excited about Print Window 3.0! Hopefully everything is pretty well locked down now so I can provide a quick final release!
Well, in the two days or so that the Print Window 3.0 Public Beta has been available, I've been very pleased at the interest level indicated by the number of downloads as well as initial feedback from users.
There have been some issues that have cropped up that users have reported to me. Some of them appear to be one-shot types of things and others seem to be a recurring theme. The biggest of the latter is an issue where the SearchWare Solutions Crash Detector will appear immediately upon launching the application. Usually this will indicate that the error occured in a method called cApp.checkExpire. I haven't really figured out what is causing this yet as I can not reproduce the problem, but will continue working hard on it until I do.
Remember that, if you report a previously unreported bug, and I can reproduce the problem, there's a free license to Print Window Advanced in it for you!
Print Window 3.0b2 is now available for download. This release fixes a few issues that didn't really show themselves in Alpha testings. A full list of these fixes is available on the Print Window Testing page.
A few more issues still need to be addressed, but I'm looking for Print Window to go final here very soon!
Instead, life threw me not one, not two, but three knuckle-balls that really made me step back and look at things a little differently.
My family has had this misfortune this year of dealing with three deaths, one of which was completely unexpected. In April, an uncle of mine (on my mother's side) passed away unexpectedly of heart failure. He was only 53. This occurred shortly after I went incommunicado on this weblog. In May, my grandfather (on my father's side) passed away after a thankfully brief battle with pancreatic cancer. Then, in August, my other grandfather (on my mother's size) passed away.
I was pretty close with both my grandfathers (but, of course, as is often the case, not as close as I wanted to be). So, even though we pretty much knew that the deaths were coming, they still hit me pretty hard.
To add to the fire, I was thrown into some really unexpected situations with my job that were very, very stressful. Because of some of these changes, I ended up working 50-60 hour weeks for several months in a row. Although the paychecks were very nice (I'm not salaried), the continuous long hours were something that I ended up wishing I didn't have to deal with.
As all this has happened, it has really caused me to re-examine priorities in my life. I tried to mentally step back from everything I was doing and figure out exactly what I should be doing with my time.
Family is very important in my life. I realized that I hadn't spent enough time with either of my grandfathers despite the fact that it would not have been all that hard for me to do so. Yes, I realize that this is a common regret that people feel when a loved-one passes away. But, for example, despite the fact that one of my grandfathers lived maybe five minutes away during his last year of life, I saw him maybe 10 times during that period. Something else always came up. I was working late, was exhausted after work, needed to work on my software, etc.
Family was not prioritized where it really should have been. Even spending time with my wife was something that was getting pushed down the list at times.
So, I've decided to make some adjustments. Family, of course, is prioritized much higher now. This doesn't mean that I'm always going to drop everything for family all the time. But, my intent is to remember that family should remain much higher that it was.
I've also decided that I'm spending way to much time at one of my various computers. Working on my software, reading my e-mail, browsing the web, etc. was tying up way to much of my time. I sacrificed much time that I could have spent outdoors working on my lawn (something I love to do), riding my bike, taking walks with my wife, etc.
I've realized that the computer isn't all that I'm about. I have other interests as well that I need to spend time on. But, I will also admit that I over-compensated during these last several months and worked to spend as little time at the computers as possible. Because of this, new versions of iHam on iRye and Print Window are long overdue.
So, although I won't be spending the huge amount of my free-time working at my computers as I was, in favor of other priorities, I will be setting aside a good amount of time every week to work on my software and other SearchWare Solutions-related items. You should be seeing new versions of iHam on iRye and Print Window soon.
Really, I'm trying to re-budget my time in a way that will allow me to focus on each of my interests and loves, but giving none of them short-shrift. Hopefully, I'll be successful at this. I've ignored to much and too many people for too long. By doing this, I hope to be able to greatly reduce the stress in my life. It should be interesting to see what comes out of this.
As I have been asked several times what is going on, I'm just going to post this quick message to say that an update to Print Window is in progress. Yes, it's been a while since the last update, but as I indicated in an earlier post, there was a reason for that.
The next version of Print Window will be a minor update, but it will add a few much-requested features. I am hoping to get this update out by the end of the year, or early next year. After that release, work will begin an a larger update with some pretty cool stuff planned.
Print Window 3.1 is now available for your file-listing enjoyment. Yes, this release took much longer than it probably should have, but it's out now and I think it's a good revision.
The major new feature in this release is the ability to include sizes for folders as well as files. Previous versions could only print sizes of files. This was probably the number-one feature request I had since the release of 3.0.
This release also fixes several nagging bugs, improves file-listing generation speed and a few other minor changes.
This release is a free upgrade for all currently registered Print Window Advanced users. As always, Print Window Standard is free of charge.
Thanks to all the alpha and beta testers that helped out with this release!
There will be more coming down the road! I've got some great ideas for the next version, some of which I will discuss here as we get into its development.
Print Window 3.1 was released yesterday, and initial reactions have been pretty good. The software seems to have generated a lot of interest, judging by the hit counts on my server in the hours after it first went out. I've also heard from many people about the software, most of them very happy to have it available to them.
However, as always, I've gotten feedback from some people asking "Why?" They want to know why Print Window exists in the first place, when Mac OS X can print file listings. In fact, if you look at the VersionTracker listing for Print Window, you can find some of those comments.
Of course, you know it had to happen. Despite all my testing, two major bugs have reared their ugly heads in the two weeks since the release of Print Window 3.1.
Print Window 3.1.1 is now available for download. This update fixes a few bugs that were introduced in Version 3.1.
Both these bugs showed up after testing was complete. The first bug, as I mentioned before, was pretty difficult to track down, but, with the help of a few dedicated testers, I finally found the problem. It turned out to be a stupid mistake on my part that occurred as I was readying the final release of 3.1 (which is why it didn't show up in testing).
Print Window 3.1.2 is currently in development. I might end up releasing this version sometime this weekend.
As promised, I have posted Print Window 3.1.2.
The new version is mainly a bug-fix release. The major change is the fix to a crashing bug that could occur when Print Window was first launched on systems that didn't use the "United States" date format in the "International" System Preferences pane. So, yes, it's a very targeted release.
If this bug affected you, then obviously, it's a highly-recommended update. If it didn't affect you (you know know it if it did), then there is no reason to update if you don't want to.
This, hopefully, will be the last release of the Version 3.1 line. Pre-work for the next major upgrade has already begun. I'm looking forward to really sinking my teeth into it!
I added a much-requested "feature" to Print Window today. When sorting file lists by name, Print Window will now sort files in the same order as is displayed in the Mac OS X Finder. For example, if you have files named "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9" and "10", your file list will print in that order, not 1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 as in older versions of Print Window.
Note that this is not an announcement of a new version of Print Window being released. There's some other work going on, but this change was requested by so many people, I thought I'd make note that the change has been made.
Print Window 3.1.3 should be released soon. Despite my earlier plans, I decided that another 3.x release was a good idea to address some lingering issues with the software.
This release makes changes to how file and folder sizes are handled and printed, makes a change in the way sorting is handled and fixes a few other minor issues.
I've sent the release to beta testers, so pending their approval, you should see it early next week sometime (or possibly over the weekend).
I've posted Print Window 3.1.4. The new version makes the following changes:
It's a minor update, true, but one that fixes a few niggling issues that have been hanging around for a while.
Meanwhile, work continues apace on the next major version of Print Window.
I'm on vacation for the next two weeks. As a result, I will not be able to process registration purchases during that time. So, to make things worth-while for buyers while I'm gone, I'm offering single-user licenses to Print Window Advanced for a special price!
From July 1 until July 17, 2006, you can get single-user licenses for Print Window Advanced for just $9.99. That's 33% off the normal price of $15!
Of course, any purchases made during this time won't be processed until the 17th, but on that day, buyers will receive their registration information.
Everyone have a great 4th of July Holiday (for those in the US)! Be safe! See you all on the 17th!
Today was my first day back at my "real" job after my two-week vacation. Although it was actually very weird to be back to the daily grind, it felt kinda good to see that the place didn't fall apart with me gone. That kind of thing had happened before when I took vacations, and it's something I've been working on combatting by teaching people to be able to handle things, even if I'm not around.
It's funny in that I really had managed to forget all about work during my vacation. But now that I'm back, I slipped back into the "groove", as it were, very quickly. Having done this for 10 years now apparently has taught me a few habits, I guess.
By the way, speaking of vacation endings...
The Summer Vacation Special on Print Window Advanced has been pretty successful, so I've decided to continue it to the end of this week. You won't have to wait to get your serial number if you registered either! But, this offer will end on Friday night, so if you've been thinking of upgrading to Print Window Advanced, now is the time to do it!
Many of you have probably noticed that Print Window development is WAY overdue at the moment. Because of a lot of personal issues in my life over the past six to nine months, I have not spend nearly enough time developing the next version as I should have. Granted, I updated the current version to Version 3.1.5, but that was really a minor fix and did not take long to update or test.
The next major version of Print Window IS under development now. Some new stuff has been added to the software that I think people might be very excited about. As a bit of a tease, I offer the following picture, taken from a current development build of the next version of Print Window.
One thing to realize is that, in reality, I'm one person doing this stuff. I put on a professional front with the website (at least, that's the goal), but it's really just me. The development thing is a secondary job for me. It is not what I do for a living (although I wish I could, sometimes). It's been a rough year for me as well over the past 6-12 months, so some personal stuff has gotten in the way.
So, things have gotten backed up when it comes to the next version of Print Window. But, it's still progressing, just slowly. I do hope to get the next version out in the next few months. It will be a major update, and hopefully, one that people will consider worth the wait.
Heh. It looks like at least two people want to see Print Window on MacZOT!. Seems the folks over at MacZOT! are running a contest whereby people can offer suggestions about what applications they want to see on MacZOT! If a person is the first to suggest an application that they use, they receive a free copy of that application. As of the time of this post, it seems that two people have requested Print Window.
I'm finally starting to see daylight at the end of the tunnel!
The next major version of Print Window is continuing on nicely and most of the major new features are implemented. All that's left now is to perform some interface reworking, do some code cleanup and test, test, test! (I might have a screen shot of some new goodies in the next few days—we'll see...)
If you are interested in becoming a tester for Print Window, I'd love to have you aboard! See the Searchware Solutions Testing Page for more information on how you can help!
As has been somewhat obvious around here, I've been developing the next major version of Print Window. This version has taken a lot longer than I originally anticipated to get it to where I want to be, for a wide variety of reasons which I shall not go into here. However, as I mentioned previously, it's finally getting toward the finish and that brings some definite excitement.
At any rate, the reason for this post is to let you all know that I'm actively looking for testers for this next version of Print Window. Currently, the major new features have been implemented, so I'm looking for people who are interested in trying out pre-release versions of the new features of this next version of Print Window and find bugs and possibly make usability suggestions. Once this version gets out the door, testers are welcome to stick around to provide input into what changes should be made for the following updates to Print Window.
If you are interested, visit the Searchware Solutions Testing webpage for more information on what I'm looking for and how to sign up.
Okay. So, chalk one up for pure stupidity.
Last night, I was finishing up the next development release of Print Window to send to the testers and was moving some necessary files from one computer to the other in order to do some last minute testing. At least, that was what I was trying to do. It didn't quite work out that way.
In stead of moving the current files to the other computer, I accidentally moved old versions of those files from the other computer to my development machine...overwriting the current versions of the files.
So, I whip out a utility for recovering accidentally deleted files, only to find that although it sees the missing files, the are unrecoverable as they have already been overwritten on the hard drive itself. Not good.
Because I was in a hurry and wasn't paying attention, I didn't have the proper backup made before I went moving things around. I also didn't actually read the warning Mac OS X gave me about overwriting newer versions of the files.
And, because of that, the latest development version of Print Window is no more. Luckily, I only lost a few days worth of work. The stuff that I lost wasn't that difficult, only time consuming. So, I'll have the latest development version out and about again in no time.
It's still frustrating though. And, it proves the lesson, especially in development—don't take anything for granted! Make sure you have proper backups before doing something stupid!
One part of the development process that I truly despise is writing help and documentation. It is a tedious process that simply bores me to tears.
I have begun work on writing the new documentation for the next version of Print Window. Although it will be based on the docs from Print Window 3.1.5, the new version of the software has enough significant changes that modifying the current documentation for the new version will not just be a trivial task.
To make matters even more interesting, the new version of Print Window will, hopefully, include a full Help Book (used by Mac OS X's Help Viewer application) to provide task-based help for Print Window. This, obviously (since it hasn't existed before), will need to be written completely from scratch.
I'm the type of person who likes to "play" with the software I write. I'm much more interested in tweaking the software—adding new features, fixing bugs, streamlining processes, etc.—than telling people how to use it. Don't get me wrong; I fully believe that Print Window is intuitive enough that someone can learn how to use it by just playing around with it. But I also understand the benefits of having well-written documentation included for those that want it.
I simply hate writing documentation. It takes me away from improving the software.
But, on the bright side, the fact that I'm working on documentation now means that that light at the end of the tunnel just keeps getting brighter and brighter as the next version of Print Window gets closer and closer to release.
At long last, Print Window 4 is about to turn Beta. It's about time!
This is a major update to the Print Window software and incorporates many user-requested changes and feature requests. Of course, the same integration with the Mac OS X Finder and ease-of-use is still there.
Although very similar to Print Window 3, Print Window 4 sports a bit of a new look, not the least of which is a new icon:
The new icon is intended to better represent exactly what Print Window does (the old icon, while looking like a printer, did not make it clear what it was actually printing out, especially at smaller sizes). It also pays homage to many of the current trends in icon design with the appropriate glossy look, drop shadows and so-forth. I think it's a much better resident of the dock, if you are so inclined to store it there. And no, the watermark is obviously not actually part of the icon and is just used here until the release of the software.
I'm not quite ready to spill any more beans on the new version, but if you are interested in helping beta-test Print Window 4, feel free to head on over to the testing page for information on how you can apply to be a tester.
Unfortunately, I've been forced to delay the release of Print Window 4.
I had originally planned to release sometime in November, but shortly before the release was ready, I found a nasty little bug that was caused by Leopard. Although Print Window 4 worked just fine under Tiger, a change made in Leopard made Print Window not ready for release. Since Leopard is obviously the new big thing, I made the decision to make sure that Print Window was Leopard-ready before release.
I know what's causing the bug and have a good idea on how to fix it. I'm hoping to still release in December, but it may not be until January. Unfortunately, my time this month is very limited and I want this to be a quality release, so I'm not going to release until it's ready. If that means a January release, then so be it.
Of course, I will still be honoring the offer that was previously made of getting a free Print Window 4 Advanced license for those who purchase a Print Window 3 Advanced license after October 1. This means there is still time to get Print Window 4 Advanced for the same price as Print Window 3 Advanced!
This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Webthoughts in the Print Window category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
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