Graeme's Blog

FocusWriter 1.4.3 released

Graeme — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 12:44:14 +0000

I have made a small FocusWriter release to fix a data loss bug with the emergency cache: FocusWriter had not been restoring from cache for brand new files that did not have a name yet. This release also improves the Qt 5 support by properly migrating the data from the Qt 4 version. Enjoy!

FocusWriter 1.4.2 released

Graeme — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:11:30 +0000

I have made a minor FocusWriter release, version 1.4.2. This release is mostly about fixing a few bugs (for example, it no longer crashes when ignoring words during spellchecking), and to add initial Qt 5 support.

Along with this release I have also removed my Ubuntu personal package archive as it was simply too much effort to maintain packages for both the OBS and PPA. If you are an Ubuntu user do not worry, you can still get updates through my OBS repository.

Some minor releases

Graeme — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:06:51 +0000

Kapow

I have released a minor update to Kapow, version 1.4.4. This release is mostly to add an automatic backup system for the time data that I have been working on. A few users have experienced data loss, and this will hopefully prevent anybody else suffering that. Kapow now makes logarithmic backups (one backup a day for a week, then one backup a week for a month, then one backup a month for a year, and finally one backup a year after that) as well as a temporary backup that gets overwritten with each save. This release also adds support for building with Qt 5, although it is still released with Qt 4 as that is the primary development platform for now.

Longer term I am planning on making it easier for users to store the data file and backups in a location of their choosing, which will default to their documents folder. I have not settled on how I want to expose it in the interface (although you can already do this by using passing an XML file to the program).

Hexalate, Peg-E, and Simsu

I have also made a few other minor releases (Hexalate 1.0.2, Peg-E 1.1.2, and Simsu 1.2.3) over the past two weeks that I have not felt justify a blog post on their own. These releases mainly just add translations and support for building with Qt 5. I plan on making minor releases of the rest of my programs over the next few weeks to also update their translations, and to add support for building with Qt 5.

FocusWriter bugfix release

Graeme — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:28:06 +0000

I just released FocusWriter 1.4.1 which has fixes for several bugs, including a nasty one where FocusWriter would crash on the Mac when you had focus text on and pressed the circumflex accent key. It also fixes the high CPU use and constant sound effects in Ubuntu 10.04, as well some minor problems with read-only files and shortcuts. Enjoy!

Minor Kapow release

Graeme — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 16:03:53 +0000

I just made a bugfix release of Kapow, version 1.4.3, that fixes some minor bugs. The timer is no longer restarted when you press enter in the task line edit. I also fixed the broken command-line arguments, and you can now specify the settings INI file. This release also includes a Greek translation by geogeo.gr.

FocusWriter 1.4.0 released!

Graeme — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 19:58:57 +0000

I have finally made the next feature release of FocusWriter, version 1.4.0. This release fixes almost all known bugs of the second beta, except for a couple that are out of my control (for instance, the invisible menus in Unity when minimizing). I also added a translation for Simplified Chinese.

I am also announcing that I am taking a partial break from my open source projects for the next several months. I will be adding translations and fixing reported bugs, and hopefully even making bugfix releases, but I will not be adding any features.

I hope you enjoy this release of FocusWriter!

Another beta release of FocusWriter

Graeme — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:52:31 +0000

I have just released another beta of FocusWriter, version 1.3.90. I have fixed all reported bugs, as well as a few I found along the way. I also removed the included dictionaries, so Windows users will now need to get dictionaries from Apache OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Please let me know if you find any bugs!

Beta release of FocusWriter

Graeme — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:54:33 +0000

I have made the first ever beta release of FocusWriter, version 1.3.80. At this point I will not be adding any more features to the next feature release of FocusWriter. I have been meaning to start making public betas for my bigger projects, and the hiccups with the recent release of Kapow has just reinforced that decision.

I have added the beta as a separate bubble on my website that is just straight hyperlinks. This way you can still download the latest stable release (1.3.6) if you do not want to try the beta.

Now, there are a few bugs with this beta. The most noticeable is that sounds effects are broken in Windows. Please don’t tell me, I know, and I will fix it shortly. There are a few other known bugs, but they should not affect anywhere near as many users. This beta is to find bugs I don’t know about, especially with any of the new features.

This beta is the last release that will include dictionaries. When I first added spellchecking to FocusWriter it had very few translations, so I included their respective dictionaries and thought nothing of it. As more and more translations have been added, however, I have to reconsider that decision as they now take up over 60 MB on disk! With the switch to native spellchecking on the Mac, Windows is the only platform that needs those files. I will be adding downloads for dictionaries to my website so that you can get them at the same time you get FocusWriter.

I know that some of you have really been looking forward to getting your hands on the new features, and now is your lucky day! Enjoy!

New Kapow release!

Graeme — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:59:53 +0000

I have finally finished a feature release of Kapow, version 1.4.1. This release includes an improved user interface as well as faster file loading. You can read about the features in more detail here. Enjoy!

Update: I just discovered that the brand new totals rows are broken, so I recommend turning on the report column until I get it fixed. Ideally that will be later tonight. Sorry!

Update 2: And the fixed version is now released!

Plain text support in FocusWriter

Graeme — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:29:27 +0000

For a long time FocusWriter could only read and write plain text files. Way back in version 1.3.0 I added support for rich text and basic RTF files, and I later added support for basic ODT files.

When I added support for rich text I split FocusWriter into two modes: plain text mode and rich text mode. However, many users who are new to FocusWriter have found it confusing to switch modes to enable or disable rich text, and they don’t always realize that FocusWriter can save plain text files as it defaults to rich text files.

In the spirit of the principle of least surprise, I have changed the development version of FocusWriter to behave like other word processors. You will now be able to insert formatting into any file that is open, even if it is a plain text file. FocusWriter will then ask you if you want to discard said formatting if you attempt to save it as a plain text file, and if you do not it will pop up the “Save As” dialog with ODT as the default format. It will only ask you if you have added formatting, unlike some other word processors!

You will also be able to switch a file’s format in the “Save As” and “Rename” dialogs, and it will prompt you about discarding formatting if you switch it from ODT or RTF to a plain text file. These changes have removed the need to explicitly toggle rich text support, so I have removed the menu options “Make plain text” and “Make rich text”.