[Dxbase] DXbase new version status report

Fri Aug 13 18:33:45 EDT 2010

It appears a number of forum members missed this email put out by Neal
just 11 days ago. I think it worth repeating at this time.
A loyal Dxbase user since the 1st DOS version,
Carl K8AV
***********************************************************
From: "Neal Campbell" <nealk3nc at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 1:52 PM
To: "DXBase List" <dxbase at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Dxbase] Status report
Hi all
I know you are all waiting for a schedule for version 10 but its beyond
prediction at this moment. I have purposely slowed down my other business so
I can spend 4-6 hours a day on it and I promise I am doing this 7 days a
week, even on vacation.
I am sure its part of my learning curve but I am learning so much as I go
along that I am reiterating the design of the code itself to the point that
I re-write much of what I have written before. This might sound unproductive
but I have been the victim of rushing code out that ultimately proved a poor
match for the windows architecture and unmaintainable.
Version 10 is 100% my product, I am using code from v2007 either directly or
interpreted into another language (C#) as I progress. The reason is I am
re-designing it from the original C++/MFC framework to the more modern
C#/dot net 4.0 framework. I have taken quite a bit of time to make this
decision as the languages and frameworks have almost nothing in common
except curly brackets and semi-colons.
Since the basic designs of MFC is a completely different philosophy of
programming versus dot Net, I can use defined functions but the main
organization of the code isn't transferable.
So, what does this give you, the user?
1. Hopefully a more expandable architecture, to accommodate interfacing with
more and varied hardware and software services without sacrificing the speed
of your user interface
2. Better integration with Windows 7, taking advantage of its wonderful
features
3. Active development/maintenance on areas of need
4. Retaining the modes of operation of the v2007 program (for those who love
it) alongside a different operational model. You get to choose which one you
want. Its possible this expands to a more streamlined contest mode without
having to bother with import/export issues with other program
5. More control of how the program looks and acts. You will be getting a
"skinning" feature that will let you change the look of quite a bit of the
user interface.
6. More reliable program, mainly because I am using some tenets of the Test
Driven Design model, so the program will be tested in an automated way
before any release is available even on beta. I never promise to hit the
quality mark of Jack and crew because their coding skills are fantastic, but
with testing tools like the unit test projects that can test the discrete
parts of the program (its how I am making sure it works like v2007), I think
it fundamentally should be high quality.
So thats the scoop at this time. The basic database stuff is working, the
stuff like rig control, packet interface, etc. is more complicated as almost
every step I take there shows me I can do a better job of organizing the
main code. Its how I learn unfortunately!
Stay tuned!
73
I am promising no later than the end of this year for the first release with
beta available to those that want it (and understand what they are getting
into!) before then.
Neal Campbell
Abroham Neal Software
www.abrohamnealsoftware.com
(540) 645 5394 NEW PHONE NUMBER
Amateur Radio: K3NC
Blog: http://www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/blog/
DXBase bug reports: email to cases at dxbase.fogbugz.com
Abroham Neal forums: http:/www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/community/
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