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A Never Ending Story
07 Oct 08 - 15:26
Oops! We did it again,
As usual we find ourselvs unable to stick to any imaginary road map or time plan. But this time we have a pretty neat reason!
Recently our user sx2008 has pointed out to us that we could improve the plugin systems used all over the shell by switching to another coding technique called interfaces. After some investigation and testing we came to the conclusion that using interfaces will enormously increase the capabilities of the plugin systems. Right now I'm completely rewriting the SharpBars plugin system while Pixol is doing the same for SharpCenter. Unfortunately this means that all modules (30% done) and configs (15% done) have to be converted too. Alltogether this will take about one month time to get everything working like it was before.
You might now want to ask what the advantage is if it's taking this much time to recode everything. That's actually not easy to answer without going into detail about how interfaces work and how the whole shell is written. The most important thing is that the whole source code beneath SharpBar and SharpCenter is a lot smaller and easier to maintain by using interfaces. We came up with a combinations of classes and interfaces which now makes it easily possible to extend the plugin systems at any later point. And this without having to change all previously created modules (or at worst with only minimal changes). Besides this all the previously existing restriction of using dll based plugins are completely gone. Dlls and host applications can now freely exchange any type of data without going through needlessly and slow messaging methods. The host applications can now fully control their plugins thus making the applications work a lot more efficient. In the end maybe even some bugs related to the previously madly used message sending between host and plugin will be fixed. And for SharpBar the memory usage should go down by about at least 20% (maybe even a lot more).
Due to these heavy changes the next release will be TD6 which will be held as a full 24hr testing day in IRC.
Right now it's sheduled for the end of october.
As usual we find ourselvs unable to stick to any imaginary road map or time plan. But this time we have a pretty neat reason!
Recently our user sx2008 has pointed out to us that we could improve the plugin systems used all over the shell by switching to another coding technique called interfaces. After some investigation and testing we came to the conclusion that using interfaces will enormously increase the capabilities of the plugin systems. Right now I'm completely rewriting the SharpBars plugin system while Pixol is doing the same for SharpCenter. Unfortunately this means that all modules (30% done) and configs (15% done) have to be converted too. Alltogether this will take about one month time to get everything working like it was before.
You might now want to ask what the advantage is if it's taking this much time to recode everything. That's actually not easy to answer without going into detail about how interfaces work and how the whole shell is written. The most important thing is that the whole source code beneath SharpBar and SharpCenter is a lot smaller and easier to maintain by using interfaces. We came up with a combinations of classes and interfaces which now makes it easily possible to extend the plugin systems at any later point. And this without having to change all previously created modules (or at worst with only minimal changes). Besides this all the previously existing restriction of using dll based plugins are completely gone. Dlls and host applications can now freely exchange any type of data without going through needlessly and slow messaging methods. The host applications can now fully control their plugins thus making the applications work a lot more efficient. In the end maybe even some bugs related to the previously madly used message sending between host and plugin will be fixed. And for SharpBar the memory usage should go down by about at least 20% (maybe even a lot more).
Due to these heavy changes the next release will be TD6 which will be held as a full 24hr testing day in IRC.
Right now it's sheduled for the end of october.
TD5 Release & Status Report
19 Aug 08 - 07:12
After way too much waiting it's time for another release. Due to lots of changes I made the decission to not continue with R5 of TD4. This new release holds TD5 as version and the next releases will go under R1/R2/etc. of this TD5 build. Another reason for this rather unexpected jump to TD5 is that I wanted to try out another default build with a different theme and bar setup.
This also means that the intended jump to 0.8 RC1 is delayed. But this is mostly due to Pixol and mc not having time to work on SharpE lately. The Problem is that two important parts of 0.8 RC1 (DDE Service and a few missing configs) are to be developed by Pix and mc. While we wait for this to eventually happen I'm going to continue fixing up the rest of the shell.
The Changelog for TD5 is pretty big and mostly contains a lot of bug fixes. Especially the taskbar module and exec service have improved a lot. But also some new features like dragging task items and volume control for Windows Vista managed to sneak in.
We received a lot of feedback for TD4 and this helped a lot to improved the shell furthermore. Please continue giving such amazing feedback for this release. The more feedback comes in the more I get an idea what to work on.
TD5 Download: http://trac.sharpe- shell.org/wiki/TDSetup
TD5 Changelog: http://trac.sharpe- shell.org/wiki/ TD5Changelog
Please post feedback and bug reports into this forum thread
This also means that the intended jump to 0.8 RC1 is delayed. But this is mostly due to Pixol and mc not having time to work on SharpE lately. The Problem is that two important parts of 0.8 RC1 (DDE Service and a few missing configs) are to be developed by Pix and mc. While we wait for this to eventually happen I'm going to continue fixing up the rest of the shell.
The Changelog for TD5 is pretty big and mostly contains a lot of bug fixes. Especially the taskbar module and exec service have improved a lot. But also some new features like dragging task items and volume control for Windows Vista managed to sneak in.
We received a lot of feedback for TD4 and this helped a lot to improved the shell furthermore. Please continue giving such amazing feedback for this release. The more feedback comes in the more I get an idea what to work on.
TD5 Download: http://trac.sharpe- shell.org/wiki/TDSetup
TD5 Changelog: http://trac.sharpe- shell.org/wiki/ TD5Changelog
Please post feedback and bug reports into this forum thread
It's summer and were slacking!
22 Jul 08 - 15:12
Yes it's true... mostly due to tradition. Summer is a period when we are known to slack. With one month since the last commit were all uber busy getting sunstroke and drinking far too much!!! Oh but it gives us time to chill and prepare for... the new site maybe... 0.7 R5 and 0.8 RC1... and hopefully 0.8 this year!!! The team will be back in August! Kicking Ass!
Status Report
11 Jun 08 - 16:04
Several weeks have passed since TD4R4 and it's time for a short update about what has been going on lately.
TD4R4 has proven much more solid than R3 and therefore we are currently waiting for new bug reports to come in via e-mail and forum. There are still one or two bug reports send via e-mail every day and we are checking those for debug logs and traces to find those last few remaing bugs. Two of those "regular" bug reports we get via e-mail have already been fixed for the next release!
Current internal road map says that we will do one more updated release of TD4, which means TD4R5 - if everything goes well then we will move on to 0.8 RC1 after R5.
Current Changelog for TD4R5
TD4R4 has proven much more solid than R3 and therefore we are currently waiting for new bug reports to come in via e-mail and forum. There are still one or two bug reports send via e-mail every day and we are checking those for debug logs and traces to find those last few remaing bugs. Two of those "regular" bug reports we get via e-mail have already been fixed for the next release!
Current internal road map says that we will do one more updated release of TD4, which means TD4R5 - if everything goes well then we will move on to 0.8 RC1 after R5.
Current Changelog for TD4R5
TD4R4 Release
24 May 08 - 12:06
As usual it took a while longer than expected. But lots of stuff has been fixed and even new features sneaked it.
It should be save if you overwrite a previous TD4R3 release (after shutting down everything). However it is not possible to update from any SharpE release before TD4R3. Make sure to unzip this release into an empty directory then.
Download
(mostly) complete changelog: TD4R4 Changelog
Please post Feedback into this forum thread.
It should be save if you overwrite a previous TD4R3 release (after shutting down everything). However it is not possible to update from any SharpE release before TD4R3. Make sure to unzip this release into an empty directory then.
Download
(mostly) complete changelog: TD4R4 Changelog
Please post Feedback into this forum thread.
TD4R4 Preview
10 May 08 - 00:50
Short Update 
We are working on the next TD4R4 release. So far a lot of things have been fixed already. The Media Controller Module is working much like the old version in TD4R2 again, but with a lot of improvements underneath. The list of players which can be controlled is now defined by a dynamic xml file. This makes it possible to easily add new players. Support for the iTunes and Media Monkey players has also been added. Some more rare but really annoying problems like the "A call to an OS function failed" are also fixed, and a fix for the "System Error. Code: 5. Access is denied." error on Vista is being worked on! Another simple thing with a big impact is that I finally managed to fix the problem that buttons all over the shell (Notes, Taskbar,...) had problems to detect fast clicks (Before if you clicked the buttons very fast every second click didn't work).
Complete Changelog (so far!): Changelog
The TD4R4 release should be out once the "SystemERror. Code: 5" bug is fixed...
We are working on the next TD4R4 release. So far a lot of things have been fixed already. The Media Controller Module is working much like the old version in TD4R2 again, but with a lot of improvements underneath. The list of players which can be controlled is now defined by a dynamic xml file. This makes it possible to easily add new players. Support for the iTunes and Media Monkey players has also been added. Some more rare but really annoying problems like the "A call to an OS function failed" are also fixed, and a fix for the "System Error. Code: 5. Access is denied." error on Vista is being worked on! Another simple thing with a big impact is that I finally managed to fix the problem that buttons all over the shell (Notes, Taskbar,...) had problems to detect fast clicks (Before if you clicked the buttons very fast every second click didn't work).
Complete Changelog (so far!): Changelog
The TD4R4 release should be out once the "SystemERror. Code: 5" bug is fixed...
TD4R3 Release
17 Apr 08 - 08:16
With a slight delay we are happy to announce the release of TD4R3.
Most of the changes have already been discussed in the previous news post.
Due to some heavy internal changes it is not possible to overwrite any previous release of SharpE (not even TD4R2). Unzip this release into an empty directory. Only thing you can do is copy the 'SharpBar' and 'SharpDesk' folders from your Settings\User\ directory over. We are sorry that this happens again, but it's a beta in the end
Download
(mostly) complete changelog: TD4R3 Changelog
Please post Feedback into this forum thread.
Most of the changes have already been discussed in the previous news post.
Due to some heavy internal changes it is not possible to overwrite any previous release of SharpE (not even TD4R2). Unzip this release into an empty directory. Only thing you can do is copy the 'SharpBar' and 'SharpDesk' folders from your Settings\User\ directory over. We are sorry that this happens again, but it's a beta in the end
Download
(mostly) complete changelog: TD4R3 Changelog
Please post Feedback into this forum thread.
TD4R3 Status
01 Apr 08 - 05:57
A long time ago we announced that TD4R3 would be release very soon. As usual we have been wrong and unable to stick to the road map. But now it's nearly finished, only a few things left before we can bring you TD4R3! Lot's of things have changed, this news post will give you an overview about what new features be on your desktop soon!
Taskbar
All users with strange character sets will be happy to see that basic Unicode support has been added to the taskbar. The whole task filtering system was improved so that it's now possible to only show tasks which have been minimized on the current VWM in the taskbar. The taskbar and VWM are working much better together now. This made it possible to even add a "Move to VWM..." option to the right click menu of minimized tasks. Microsoft Office users will be pleased to hear that the option of all office applications to show a task item for each opened document is now working properly!
VWM
Much work has been done on the VWM. As a result the "follow window focus" option is working much better now. The VWM service can now also show a big OSD (On Screen Display) message with the Number of the new VWM (when switching).
Systemtray
Our beloved friend the system tray finally got the balloon window popups replaced with a custom skinable notification window! The normal tooltips which show on mouse hover will now always display above other windows.
Multimedia Input/Controller
A new Multimedia Input services makes it possible to use most of the extra keys on your keyboard with the shell. Play/Pause/Stop/Next/ Previews buttons will control the last active media player. Volume Up/Down/Mute will control the global system volume. It's even possible to display an OSD message showing the current volume status! The Multimedia Controller module has also been changed to control the last active media player, it can now control nearly every media player available (the selection menu is gone).
Configs
New configs for the Taskbar Module, Taskswitch Service and global Task Filter settings are done and ready to make task filtering much easier! This means that only very few configs are left before we can go to 0.8 RC1!
SharpBar
We are very happy to announce that the old and feared 'black bars at startup' but is fixed!
The complete (and still unfinished) changelog of TD4R3 can be found on the trac : http://trac.sharpe- shell.org/wiki/ TD4R3Changelog
To avoid us not being able to make a release data (again) I'm only saying R3 will most likely be released in the next 2 weeks!
Taskbar
All users with strange character sets will be happy to see that basic Unicode support has been added to the taskbar. The whole task filtering system was improved so that it's now possible to only show tasks which have been minimized on the current VWM in the taskbar. The taskbar and VWM are working much better together now. This made it possible to even add a "Move to VWM..." option to the right click menu of minimized tasks. Microsoft Office users will be pleased to hear that the option of all office applications to show a task item for each opened document is now working properly!
VWM
Much work has been done on the VWM. As a result the "follow window focus" option is working much better now. The VWM service can now also show a big OSD (On Screen Display) message with the Number of the new VWM (when switching).
Systemtray
Our beloved friend the system tray finally got the balloon window popups replaced with a custom skinable notification window! The normal tooltips which show on mouse hover will now always display above other windows.
Multimedia Input/Controller
A new Multimedia Input services makes it possible to use most of the extra keys on your keyboard with the shell. Play/Pause/Stop/Next/ Previews buttons will control the last active media player. Volume Up/Down/Mute will control the global system volume. It's even possible to display an OSD message showing the current volume status! The Multimedia Controller module has also been changed to control the last active media player, it can now control nearly every media player available (the selection menu is gone).
Configs
New configs for the Taskbar Module, Taskswitch Service and global Task Filter settings are done and ready to make task filtering much easier! This means that only very few configs are left before we can go to 0.8 RC1!
SharpBar
We are very happy to announce that the old and feared 'black bars at startup' but is fixed!
The complete (and still unfinished) changelog of TD4R3 can be found on the trac : http://trac.sharpe- shell.org/wiki/ TD4R3Changelog
To avoid us not being able to make a release data (again) I'm only saying R3 will most likely be released in the next 2 weeks!
Upcoming changes in R3
05 Mar 08 - 05:35
An example of the global skin colours Two colour changes in the scheme manager, everything reschemes using that global skin colour
Two colour changes in the scheme manager, everything reschemes using that global skin colour 
Black Bars at Startup? Billiberseker needs your help!
28 Feb 08 - 10:38
Your chance to have the black bars at startup fixed. In order to do this, we must have feedback on the following thread:
http://www.sharpe- shell.org/e107_plugins/ forum/ forum_viewtopic.php? 5481.last
http://www.sharpe- shell.org/e107_plugins/ forum/ forum_viewtopic.php? 5481.last