Snail: Dejal Userware, 12 Scorpio Place, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Internet & AOL: dejal@deepthnk.kiwi.gen.nz
CompuServe: >INTERNET: dejal@deepthnk.kiwi.gen.nz
or 100033,2435
I read the Internet mail every day, and will reply immediately (allow a couple of days for net.delay), but only call CI$ once a fortnight.
The following is a reverse-chronology of the changes in each release (public or Beta) of SndConverter Pro. Note that version numbers which include the letter ‘a’ or ‘b’ were Alpha or Beta Testing releases only, and as such not available to the public. I have left their details in for your interest only.
The “Release” number given is the release of the Dejal Sound Utilities, so for example the features and bugs in SndConverter Pro release 4 will be similar to those in SndPlayer release 4. Remember that the list is sorted in reverse order, so the most recent releases are at the top.
Release 6; version 2.0, 1 February 1993:
• The following is a description of the changes for each Beta edition for this release (this information will be summarised in subsequent releases):
What was the 2.0b9 release about? Two fixes.
• This is a final release candidate.
• It wasn’t resolving aliases of sub-folders in all circumstances. This is now fixed.
• It was occasionally bombing when scanning for sounds, due to accidentally disposing of a handle in the wrong place. Also fixed.
What was the 2.0b8 release about? Docs, Open All replaced, etc.
• Re-wrote the documentation as many separate files instead of two larger ones.
• Updated the balloon help file.
• Modified the code to ensure I open resource files properly.
• Open All changed to Hilited Folder / Current Folder buttons.
• Fixed mask of sys 7 suitcase icon: wasn’t a full square [thanks to Beta Tester Julian Harris for noticing the effect of this].
• Major code tidy-up.
What was the 2.0b5 release about? Fixed probs with Escape key.
• The Escape key wasn’t working. Now it does.
What was the 2.0b4 release about? 2.0 & more features.
• Some work on tracing the problems that some users have reported with the Open All function and other Open dialog related problems.
• I now sort the sounds within suitcases alphabetically, instead of simply reading in the details in the order they are stored in the suitcase, which is effectively random order.
• Added support for the Escape key as another method of cancelling the converting, as requested by Beta Tester and Registered User Allan Marshall.
• Made the progress bar a little narrower, in line with the Finder’s.
• I now don’t renumber the sound resources written out, unless I have to.
• Renumbered the version number from 1.2 to 2.0, since there have been so many changes since the previous release (1.1); I think it is worthy of being called a major upgrade. Five (intermittent) months of my life too!!
What was the 1.2b3 release about? Colour fixes and new prefs.
• Reworded the time-to-upgrade pref, thanks to Richard Knuckey’s comments. I hope it’s better now.
• New preferences: Display Size and Display Playing Time.
• Added “WAVE” file type to the list of recognised data fork sounds.
• Improved progress bar colour handling — colours now match System 7’s copy progress bar. Please let me know if you find any remaining colour problems.
What was the 1.2b1 release about? Beta-time!
• I have implemented the version checking idea discussed below. The user should never see the warning, but if they do it will save some confusion and possibly agro.
• Fixed a few bugs with the previous release (nothing major).
• I am pretty happy it works OK on my machine, so I am now releasing it as a Public Beta version (previous versions were Alphas: local testing). It is public within the meaning of the conditions: anyone on JAB or DT may download it, but please don’t give it away to anyone else. Make sure you let me know what you think, positive and negative comments most welcome. Of course, if you find any bugs, please let me know!!
What was the 1.2a7 release about? Major improvements to the interface.
• I have re-done the prefs dialog as three pages, and the dialog no longer closes between pages. It was quite an effort to do this, not helped at all by the editText items which insist on mucking things up, but I’m happy it works perfectly now. There may be a new pref or two there also, I can’t remember. Thanks to Purple X for his comments about the crowdedness of the prefs and the page blinking. I hope you like how it's turned out.
• I’ve also reworked the ask for format dialog: now it looks much better, with icons for each of the radio buttons, and better descriptive text in a different font.
• Also there is a new format supported: the System 7 suitcase format. This is actually exactly the same as the snd suitcase format, but don’t tell anyone! <g> Seriously, it is useful to support it as a destination format.
• Everyone’s favourite “Unregistered Copy” sound has gone!! I’m sure that will make your day.
• I’ve updated the About dialog and the various strings around the app to reflect the name (and price) change: now, everything is “SndConverter Pro”. Please let me know if you spot any I missed.
• Possibly other changes that slip my mind at present... it’s been quite a while since the previous version. The feature set is about defined, though I am currently mulling over one more feature (or safety catch): checking the version of the Help file against the app’s version, and alerting the user if they don’t match. Otherwise, if a user accidentally uses an old help file with a newer SndConverter Pro (or maybe Lite), some or many of the balloons could be nonsensical. Any opinions on this? Once that is done (or not), it’s into Betaville!! Hopefully I can get this finished before the exams, i.e. basically this week.
What was the 1.2a5 release about? Um, fixing a *silly* mistake!! <blush>
• In the process of building the apps, I had mistakenly left a single compile-time variable, "debug", set to true in the Build projects for SndPlayer and SndCataloguer. This caused these programs to beep and flash the menu bar when launched, then quit. I won't go into why, but I have now corrected the problem.
• SndConverter has not changed, and there are no changes in the other two, except that they should now work on machines other than mine!
What was the 1.2a4 release about? Testing and fixing bugs.
• I increased the time-to-upgrade delay period from 3 months to 4 months. That seems like the best figure at this point.
• System 6 testing: added dialog centring under System 6 and fixed a few incompatiblity problems.
• Tested the old Open All on Desktop bug
What was the 1.2a3 release about? Much preferred preferences.
• I have expanded the prefs dialog in SndConverter onto two pages.
• New dumb-to-smart quote, display sound number and display sampling rate preferences.
• Three sound events: you can play a sound etc when the conversion is complete, the app needs some attention (e.g. downsampling or missing sampling rate info), or an error occurs. There are a number of options for what to play: nothing (silence), the system beep, the current sound (if the event occurs while loading a sound the sysbeep will play), speak some (user-defined) text using MacinTalk, or play one of the sounds installed in your system (or open suitcases).
What was the 1.2a2 release about? Much-requested features.
• flasheridn on AOL said: “I shouldn't have to guess about sampling rates; you should give me an opportunity to play the sound.” I have now redone the sample rate dialog that appears when a sound doesn't have any sampling rate information in it (i.e. old SoundCap sounds). It now has radio buttons for the rates, an OK and Stop button, a Play button to listen to the sound at whichever rate is selected via the radio buttons, and a checkbox to use the specified rate for the remainder of the batch (for sounds that don't have one specified) without asking again. I hope this fulfils everyones wishes!
• Also changed the text in the progress dialog to make it more useful.
• A few minor fixes too. Yet to do a couple of the biggies.
What was the 1.2a1 release about? Registration prompters.
• The registration reminder dialog now appears.
• The "Unregistered Copy" sound is played after the reg reminder dialog appears. Now that I've done it, I think it isn't too offensive at all. 12k is a lot of space to take up, though. [N.B. I later removed this sound, as user testing found it to be undesirable: I listen to my users!]
• Time to upgrade feature: 3 months after the release date a dialog will appear suggesting the user looks for an upgrade. Repeats once a month after that. Includes checkbox to tell it to get lost. It won't put up the dialog the first time the app is run, and won't put it up if it couldn't previously write the prefs file, or if the system date is before the release date. I quite like this feature, and think I've done it in a very unobtrusive way.
Release 4; version 1.1, 11 May 1992:
• Added personalisation to the About dialog (though there is no hassle dialog, yet… I am evaluating whether I need one or not).
• Balloon help is now in a separate file.
• The animated (morphing) colour icons are in the same file, so users can reduce the amount of space taken by the application by removing the Help file.
• The colour icons have been improved. You will need to rebuild your Desktop file to see the new icons (which of course you do frequently, don’t you? <grin>).
• Also, several cosmetic changes have been done (e.g. alert and dialog buttons are now a better size and behave in a more standard way).
Release 3; version 1.0.2, 3 March 1992:
• Bug fix release.
• Fixed fault in the Open All button handling which caused it to fail when reading off a floppy (or volumes other than the default disk).
• Cosmetic change to the animated icon to avoid it flashing on B&W machines under System 7.x.
• Added some code so that alias files within a folder would be resolved.
• Fixed bug that caused SoundEdit files to not be closed and some memory used up if the sound was too big.
• A few minor cosmetic changes.
• Also rebuilt the app using the latest release of the compiler, which should improve compatibility.
Release 2; version 1.0.1, 12 February 1992:
• First international release.
• Fixed very obscure bug when moving to the trash under System 7. If you get a message saying “This is a bug”, please let me know. I’m reasonably sure it is fixed though.
Release 1; version 1.0, 10 February 1992:
• First public release.
First started work on SndConverter Pro: 2 December 1991.
