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Get it while it's hot! Fish Taco released!

Wed, 14 May 2008 09:44:34 -0400

After over 2 years of work, the infamous 0.9.8 release, codenamed "Fish Taco" has been released. Interested parties should download it from here:
0.9.8 Release

ClassBrowser example with executable link

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:14:06 -0400

This is a small utility that shows all of the classes in the VCF's ClassRegistry. One of the cool things about it is that it is able to save various UI states with almost no code:

mainWindow->initializeSettings(true);

That's it! The rest of the individual settings are set in the UI's VFF and the framework does all the work of storing and retrieving them for you.

Upcoming Fish Taco Release and beyond

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:46:07 -0400

Finally, after a very long time, thankfully not in a galaxy far, far away, we are almost ready to make the release you've all been waiting for:

Fish Taco - 0.9.8

The current code is pretty much done, with the exception of an example or two, and further documentation.

Major IT News: The VCF Project considering buying Yahoo.

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:20:47 -0400

DATELINE APRIL 28, 2008

April 28, 2008 (The Internet) - A source high up at Yahoo! reports that tentative talks have commenced between Yahoo! executives and members of the VCF Project. The source claimed that the Yahoo! executives were enthusiastic about the bid, which came from nowhere, and felt it was a much more appropriate valuation of the company. Rumors suggest that the VCF Project will be making an offer of $56 per share, making this substantially sweeter deal for Yahoo!.

Visual Forms and DPI

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:58:52 -0500

One of the many things that got fixed in the upcoming Fish Taco release is enhanced support for the Visual Form File format. This enables the developer to put together a UI in much less time than if you had to write all the C++ code by hand. The Form Designer of the VCF Builder is built with this in mind, though that project is still sadly behind. However, one of the features is the ability to specify values using units, with the ability to support custom units if the need arises. Currently the units supported are pixels (the default), inches, centimeters, and points (where a point is 1/72 of an inch). The conversion from unit value to pixel value takes into consideration the current screen DPI, thus allowing you to specify a layout once, and know that it will work correctly no matter the DPI settings. Future units supported will be DLU's (Windows Dialog Units), and percent.

A new year, a new example, and various other bits of progress

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:11:52 -0500

Well it's been a while, but have no fears, progress on the upcoming Fish Taco release is moving forward, albeit slower than I would like.

The latest example was kind of cool, and I wanted to post about it. It is based on a little article by Ryan Paul at Ars Technica: U CAN HAS LOLcats on Linux with Ruby and GTK. This inspired me to write the equivalent using the VCF:

Big changes in pipeline for upcoming "FishTaco" release

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:27:23 -0400

There are some big changes in store for the upcoming release. One of these is a complete revamp of the current delegate implementation in the framework. The new implementation allows for arbitrary function signatures, and for asynchronous invocation. This is the same kind of functionality found in .NET's Delegate.BeginInvoke/Delegate.EndInvoke functions.

Next VCF release code name revealed...

Tue, 22 May 2007 23:43:08 -0400

DATELINE MAY 22, 2007

May 22, 2007 (The Internet) - While the project is keeping quiet, an unnamed source has confirmed that the next release of the VCF, tentatively due sometime in June or July, is named "FishTaco".

Major IT News: Jameson leaves Microsoft for the VCF Project

Wed, 09 May 2007 14:41:53 -0400

DATELINE MAY 9, 2007

May 9, 2007 (The Internet) - In a stunning coup de grace the VCF Project has managed to lure Microsoft press spokeswoman Jenna Jameson away from the software giant.

SVN issues

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:27:52 -0400

If you're having any issues with committing code via SVN, specifically getting 403 errors you may want to read on.

It appears that SF made some changes a while ago to the SVN repos, and it may affect some people. Quoting:

On November 31, 2006 the access method for Subversion changed. This
document reflects those changes. The old method had numerous problems,
including spurious 50x error messages and other issues that kept it from
functioning fully. This newly documented access method solves many, if not
all of the issues with the old mechanism.

Users of the old method (https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/PROJECTNAME)
should switch to the new access method
(https://PROJECTNAME.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/PROJECTNAME) using these
steps:

   1. Make a copy of your local working copy.
   2. Run 'svn info' at the root of the repository content, it should
display a line that appears similar to: URL:
https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/PROJECTNAME/trunk
   3. Run the following command at the root of the working copy: svn
switch --relocate https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/PROJECTNAME/trunk
https://PROJECTNAME.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/PROJECTNAME/trunk

So for us, this would be :

svn
switch --relocate https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/vcf/trunk
https://vcf.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/vcf/trunk

Cheers!

Pretty Shiny Things!!!

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:16:15 -0500

Here's a screenshot of the new work (sort of - it's been largely present since summer 2006 except for a bug in 8 bit images) done on the GraphcsContext and images. This new work includes things like gradient fills, with an interface that allows you to specify gradient values just like you would in Photoshop. Also this shows off the compositing modes and compositing various elements of an image together! The Vista like logo is made up of a shape with a gradient fill, another curve shape with a "shadow" fill, and finally a PNG image with an alpha channel, that is read in and applied properly when rendering an image.

New web log for VCF development

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:45:46 -0500

I've created a new web log at http://software-windmills.blogspot.com/ that people here may find useful. The goal is to document, discuss, and/or detail the current design and new ideas for the framework. Basically an online braindump by me.

Progress with the DatabaseKit - working with data in the VCF

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:02:43 -0500

Well, finally, after quite some time, I have some progress to report on the DatabaseKit implementation that I've been working on. Thanks to markd_mms for helping out with the initial design work, which we largely copied from Borland's excellent VCL DB design, and for coding up and initial skeleton. Based on this, I extended the initial work and built something that works very similar to how you work with DB access in Delphi.

New Success Story

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:07:39 -0500

Check out the article on GRip, a new submission by Steve Echols about his application GRip another program written with the VCF.

You can read more about it here!

Another Donation!

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 09:18:12 -0500

Another huge "Thank You" goes out to Ian Wallis, for donating again to the VCF project! This is the second time he's donated and I'm sure I speak for everyone on the project in offering thanks. This means a lot to me for someone to believe enough in the project to invest their own money in it.