By Steve on 23 January 2010

Whilst I've not blogged for a month or so, I thought I'd write to let everybody know that I've been working on a major update to Data Tree. I'm rather pleased to say that the first release has only required two fixes, so the rest of my time has been spent adding some really nice new features.

First up to talk about are checkboxes. Now each node can sport a checkbox and, as you can see from the pictures below, when you build your application for either the Mac or Windows, it'll adopt the correct look.

Read More »

By Steve on 20 December 2009

Whilst taxing my car on the internet today, I suddenly got a strange pang of curiosity to see what SuperCard was up to at the moment. It pleased me to see that their site had been updated quite significantly. What could this mean? A new version on the way? For the SuperCarders out there, here's hoping!

The last time I saw the site, it was referring to the latest update that solved some compatibility issues with a certain big cat. But it was not a recent big cat. Oh no, in fact, the reference to Panther made me feel a bit concerned that there wasn't really much happening.

Read More »

By Steve on 29 November 2009

Do you know, I've tried writing this blog post five times now? After six months, almost 3,300 lines of code and a pretty detailed developer's manual that was a real chore labour of love to write, you'd think I'd have some idea how I was going to announce the launch of Data Tree!

Oh yes, that's right. It's finally launched and available from the Download page.

Blimey, it's been a journey. I've been tinkering on and off with Rev in my spare time for about two years and this was my fourth attempt at writing a tree library. Ever since I first downloaded the Studio trial, I was thwarted in my attempts to write an application because there was no tree control. "Dammit Janet," I thought. "I'll have to write one myself."

Click Read More to hear the end of this story, find out how to buy a nag-free licence and see what was fixed/added after the final beta.

Read More »

By Steve on 12 November 2009

It's funny how you can become rather absorbed by the task at hand and miss something else important. Although nobody has actually complained about it, when running on Windows, the help manual doesn't look anywhere near as nice as running on the Mac!

Well, I certainly don't want to give Windows developers any less than a great experience, so some nifty coding later and all is good. This is how the manual's going to look in the final release.

The tree, of course, looks perfect. But you knew that anyway, right? ;o)

Read More »

By Steve on 08 November 2009

I'm pleased to announce that the next beta of my Data Tree Library has been uploaded to the Downloads section of my site.

I must say that I had far more downloads of version 0.9.8 than I ever expected (maybe because registering wasn't required). Given that previous versions managed just over 40 downloads across six builds in three months, this one managed double that in the space of one week!

Thanks also to everybody who provided feedback and the posters on the RunRev mailing list for their kind comments.

I was hoping that 0.9.8 was error free but was quickly informed of a bug that caused the control to lock up when new controls were dragged onto a card.

Thankfully the problem was similar to the previous locking up bug and was easy to solve. Whilst I had the code open, I took the opportunity to act on a suggestion and some thoughts I'd had, and now the tree catches the tab key and plays fairly with the focus...

Read More »

By Steve on 02 November 2009

Time for the big one. This build ties up the last of the loose ends and fixes the one outstanding bug that i was aware of. I've spent some time assessing the commands that I've written during the development of the control and decided that they need some rework. The result? Some fabulous new commands! For more info, please click on Read More.

In all seriousness, unless someone points out some real clanger of a bug, this version should be the one that's launched. Just some improvements to the documentation to do (mainly reformatting the Events section, so it's in line with the new Commands section).

As previously mentioned in an earlier blog post, you no longer need to create or log into an account. The beta download is freely availa Read More »

By Steve on 11 October 2009

I've been giving thought as to how I'm going to charge and license Data Tree when it's ready.

There is more information to read about once you click on Read More but in summary, I've decided upon a licence fee of £30 and this will include the next couple of updates that will add some often asked for features that I think would be fair to add: in-node checkboxes, a reasonably customisable skin and cursor key navigation...

Read More »

By Steve on 01 October 2009

Do you know I've had nearly 40 people download and try out my tree now?

Rather embarrasingly, I discovered a bug in the last version that stopped the control from drawing huge trees in the background... pesky private handlers.

This new build contains a known issue. I think I know why it happens and have to find a way to solve it... pesky IDE, methinks.

If you're new to this site, you'll have to register to get access to the download. If you're returning to the site, log back in again and you'll find 0.9.7 in the beta download page.

This beta will self destruct on 31 March 2010.

More info after the Read More.

Read More »

By Steve on 24 September 2009

Last evening, I popped a message up on the RunRev list about Data Tree and would like to thank everybody that has since registered and downloaded the library. I'd also like to thank Sean Shao (or is it Shao Sean?) for his comments too (more about what Sean's been up to after the Read More).

I've been asked a couple of times via e-mail about my plans for charging. Unfortunately, I won't be releasing the library as open source, nor will I be allowing access to the underlying source code. I'm a bit precious about the hard work and attention to detail that I've put in but having said that, I can't see myself charging an awful lot for the finished library.

Read More »

By Steve on 20 September 2009

Time for an awesome beta. I'm getting so close to version 1.0 now, I can taste it!

I'll tell you now that version 9.0.6 of Data Tree WILL BREAK YOUR EXISTING TREES and isn't compatible with any trees that were created in a previous version. If you want to continue developing with just the Mac skin under version 9.0.4, I've left the download up, so you can revert back to it if you so wish.

You could not believe how much of this tree library is... well, click on Read More below to find out!

Read More »