Cubic Reality

Notes (week 26) – R.I.P. Mr.Cat

Marko — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:42:05 +0000

It’s been a bit sad week for me. On Monday I had to put my cat (the unofficial mascot of CubicReality) to sleep. He was about 18 years old and had been living with me for 17 years. For the past few weeks he had been sick and was in pain so there was no reason to prolong the inevitable. It’s a tuff decision to make as some of you may know. After all, he was an equal family member.

Obviously that has affected on the progress of CE since my mind is somewhere else. However, I have managed to create the foundation for DualView. Next step is to implement it in CE. I’m hoping to get that done within next week. There will be a toolbar between panes (you will be able to hide it). Also there will be switch for horizontal and vertical panes.

Notes (week 25) – Happy Midsummer!

Marko — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:49:25 +0000

Here’s a fresh snapshot. This week wasn’t too productive but I did get some things done. The biggest change is filtering with text patterns, you can find it in the Filters Panel. There’s currently 2 modes available, normal and strict. Normal mode filters out any file/folder that does not contain the specific text. Strict mode allows you to use * and ? wildcards to make more advanced filtering. At some point there will be also support for regular expressions.

Next week I’ll start to work with the DualView. I decided to use a simple tab indicator approach to make it. I received lots of great ideas and feedback from you guys about how it should be done. Thanks to everyone . I know that the upcoming DualView implementation will not satisfy everyone, I’m not even sure I like it. However, it’s a good starting point.

Happy Midsummer to everyone! Hyvää Juhannusta!

Change Log

Added text pattern filter.
Added option to close CE when last tab is closed.
DriveBar now uses Alt+LeftClick to open in new tab.
Updated Polish translation.
Fixed Lower/Upper case bug when renaming folders.
Removed "Load this session at startup" from Session Manager.

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1168 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.2MB)
Zip (2.5MB)

Notes (week 24) – SVN snapshot

Marko — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:21:24 +0000

Here’s the notes, day early because I don’t have time for it tomorrow. It’s been busy week and I didn’t have time to make as much progress with CE as I was planning. My goal for this week was to implement DualView. However, I got stuck at the very beginning due to lack of inspiration. Basically, I’m not quite sure how the DualView should work. Should there be different tabs for each view or would it be better to just divide a single tab into two views? Or maybe those views could have their own tabs inside a single “main” tab. Not sure

Anyway, I did do some changes here and there. I added file extension column and toolbar buttons for sessions and bookmarks. Also there’s now advanced options to turn off the session history.

Change Log

Disabled exceptions on settings file creation.
Fixed Access Violation on Options panel.
Added Sessions toolbar button.
Added Bookmarks toolbar button.
Added option to disable session history.
Added option for session history count.
Breadcrumb now reactivates if needed.
Added Extension column.
Added Slovak translation.
Made CE more Vista compatible.

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1167 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.2MB)
Zip (2.5MB)

Notes (week 23) – Sessions are back

Marko — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:28:57 +0000

It’s been pretty productive week and I managed to make good progress. Most of the week went into rewriting the sessions support which was quite a big job. It’s now finished and I like it. I’ve never been happy with the old one so I made some changes. I added a session manager to make things more sane. Also there is now a history feature that let’s you go back to previous sessions.

I’ve also added BrowseZipFolders option into FileView’s and FolderPanel’s advanced settings. By enabling it you will be able to open ZIP files like folders inside CE. However, there are still some bugs left that I need to fix. For example, you have to use the right click menu to open files from inside ZIP, double click doesn’t work.

Anyway, I’m not yet sure what’s next week’s agenda. Maybe I’ll write DualView or QuickFilter. At least I’ll try to finish rearranging the todo list.

Change Log

Added new session support.
Added temporary fix for TabBar visibility issue.
Added BrowseZipFolders option for FileView and FolderPanel.
StatusBar now remembers it’s visibility.
Fixed Reuse Tabs option.
Fixed breadcrumb related crash.

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1160 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.2MB)
Zip (2.5MB)

Postbox email client and static browser

Marko — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:45:20 +0000

I found (through Lifehacker) a program called Postbox. It’s an email client based on Thunderbird.

Until now I’ve been using Opera as my email client. I have used Thunderbird a lot but had to give it up because it kept asking for email passwords (very annoying!!!) even though I clicked on the remember button. For a while now, I’ve been using Opera as an email client and a “static” browser. By static browser I mean a web browser that lives in system tray and which I can show/hide with one keyboard button (Caps Lock in my case). That browser is used for quick access to sites like Google Reader and other regular sites I visit.

Few weeks ago I switched (due to compatibility issues) to Firefox based “static” browser. Basically I made my own Firefox edition called FirefoxPIM. It lives in system tray (thanks to TrayIt), and shows/hides with one keyboard button (thanks to AutoHotkey). Here’s how it looks:

So, now I’m trying Postbox as my email client instead of Opera. As it’s based on Thunderbird, it most likely has that same bug that made me switch client in the first place. However, it is very nice package and I absolutely love the UI. Also it has very nice indexing/search features. So until if/when that password bug appears and/or when it drives me nuts, I’ll be using this program as my email client.

Postbox
http://www.postbox-inc.com/

Notes (week 22) – SVN Snapshot

Marko — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:30:12 +0000

Not that productive this week. I’ve still been occupied by other stuff but I did manage to do little work with CE. Still no sessions though, sorry. Also the todo list needs to be rearranged. However, this snapshot is more useful than the previous one. The keyboard bug is fixed which was also affecting the advanced settings editor. I added AutoFit and few other options to tabs. Those can be found in the advanced settings.

Anyway, I’m hoping to have sessions up and running next week. The reason why it’s taking so long is the fact that I’m rewriting the sessions support from scratch. Also I’ll try to sort the todo list. It’s quite a nasty job so I’m not really looking forward to it.

Change Log

Added AutoFit tabs, MaxTabSize and CloseButton settings.
Removed old bug fix.
Fixed icon size bug (again).
Fixed memory leaks.
Fixed keyboard bug.

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1149 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.2MB)
Zip (2.5MB)

Notes (week 21) – No progress

Marko — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:07:14 +0000

Just a quick note. This week I’ve been busy with other stuff and haven’t been able to work much with CE. Next week will be different and there should be some progress and snapshot release.

I still haven’t sorted out the todo list. I’ll try to do that next week.

Wolfram Alpha is a calculator not a search engine

Marko — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:28:05 +0000

I’m sure many of you have heard about Wolfram Alpha. It was quite hyped before it’s launch which was last Friday. I think many people are confused about what it actually is. Usually it’s compared with Google which doesn’t make any sense because they are two completely different things. Google is a search engine and Wolfram Alpha is like an advanced calculator. Basically what it does is, it uses existing data and presents it and modifies it to your needs. For example, time zone or currency conversions etc. The cool thing about it is, it doesn’t just settle for a single answer, instead it offers extra information like graphs and other useful facts.

I really like it and found it very useful, although there are still some issues left. Biggest issue is the input interpreter which doesn’t understand everything. You need to learn a kind of language in order to make successful queries. Also in some cases even though you try any possible combination, it just won’t connect the dots. But it’s a new product and hopefully will continue to evolve.

I highly recommend checking it out. Looking through the examples helps a lot in getting started.

Wolfram|Alpha
http://www.wolframalpha.com

Notes (week 20) – New Settings Engine

Marko — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:04:00 +0000

This week I’ve been working with the new settings engine. I’ve removed the old engine and updated everything to use the new one. I’ll still have to update bookmarks and sessions to use the new engine. At the moment I’m in the middle of updating sessions. It looks like I’ll rewrite the whole session support as it’s easier like that. Also I wasn’t very happy with the old session support so now is good time to make it right. Today’s snapshot has sessions disabled but they should be up and running again next week. Hopefully I’ll manage to update bookmarks next week too.

I also added advanced settings editor in the Options Dialog. However, at the moment it doesn’t accept keyboard input for some reason. So you can only use mouse or copy/paste to change the values. I will write my own editor so this one is temporary. More options are coming also.

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1145 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.2MB)
Zip (2.5MB)

Using Windows 7 RC

Marko — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:15:15 +0000

I’m sure most of you have heard about the Windows 7 RC release this week. I’ve heard a lot good things about Windows 7 so I though I’d install it on my laptop. The laptop came with Vista Home Premium which I switched to XP Pro because Vista had too much bugs and issues. At one point I had Ubuntu 8.10 installed but had to give it up because hibernation didn’t work properly.

Now Windows 7 is installed and I’m loving it. It works very well and is nice and slick to use. I’ve had no problems with it so far, except for the fact that Zone Alarm firewall doesn’t work in it (yet). There is also the Virtual XP mode which works nicely. Also I like the new task bar (or Super Bar as it’s called). Only problem is when trying to pin files in it. You need to use shortcuts to make it work properly.

I’m using the 64bit version and installed it from USB drive. Here’s good instructions how to do that. If you do the install from 32bit Windows (like I was), in step 6 you need to use bootsect from 32bit ISO because the 64bit version doesn’t work. If you don’t want to download the 32bit ISO (2.6GB), you can also find the 32bit bootsect.exe from google or you can use other 3rd party tool that do the same thing.

Windows 7 RC is available for anyone interested. The license is working until March 2010. After that Windows will reboot itself every two hours. In June 2010, it will switch into non-genuine mode (black wallpaper and constant nag screens).

Windows 7 RC
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Notes (week 19) – Working with 0.91

Marko — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:17:13 +0000

Unfortunately there’s no snapshot this week (sorry Tommy). I’ve been working with the new settings engine. Basically I need to add all settings stuff again and remove the old ones. At the moment I’m half way there. It’s quite a big job but well worth it. This new engine makes it very easy for me to add new settings. There are a lot of hidden settings available in CE. With the upcoming advanced settings editor and the new settings engine, it will be possible to access those settings.

I was meaning to post a new snapshot this week but at the moment CE is unusable mess so there’s no point in doing that. I’m pretty confident that I’ll finish everything up next week. So hopefully there will be a snapshot next Friday.

A special thanks to 2301 who has been working with the Wiki. I’ve also started to create a rough roadmap in there for future versions (see it here).

Notes (week 18) – It’s done!

Marko — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:28:17 +0000

Phew, finally this site is ready. This week I’ve been doing a lot of tweaking and messing around with fonts and other formatting stuff. Also I made the forum login site wide. Now you can edit Wiki and write comments with your forum username. If you have any login related problems, let me know. I have tested everything in Windows with Firefox 3.10, IE 7 and Opera 9.64. On those everything seems to work and the site looks (almost) same. If you see any bugs, let me know.

I didn’t manage to write the roadmap for CE yet. Next week I’ll start to work with version 0.91 and on Friday there should be a new snapshot release. I’m not yet quite sure what features will be included in 0.91. However, at least there will be a new settings engine and advanced settings panel. Also DualView will be in 0.91. Anyway, I’ll figure out the roadmap next week.

Notes (week 17) – New site is open

Marko — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:42:00 +0000

Well, here it is. After tons of work the new site is starting to be ready. Basically what I’ve done is updated all software to their newest versions and created new graphics. Also there is now Wiki available which all forum members can edit. The graphics are a bit lighter and curvier than previous one. I still need to do some tweaking with font colors and sizes.

Anyway, I’m sure there are still some things not working correctly. If you see any bugs, let me know. I’m going to add some content and do more tweaking this week (it’s week 18 now). Hopefully by the end of the week everything is settled and maybe we even have some kind of roadmap for CE.

Here’s a list of all programs currently in use:

WordPress 2.7.1 (All pages and posts)
SMF 1.1.8 (Forum)
FlySpray 0.9.9.5.1 (Todo list)
PmWiki 2.2.1 (Wiki)

Notice: there is a bug in the forum login/logoff at the moment. On login or logoff it might redirect you in the Wiki page instead back to the forum. I’ll fix it as soon as possible.

Notice!

Marko — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:26:17 +0000

This site will go offline later today or early tomorrow. That’s due to the site upgrade. Everything should be back online sometime tomorrow. CE downloads will still work during down time.

Notes (week 16) – No new site yet

Marko — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:17:51 +0000

Well, I’ve worked whole week and the new site is still not ready. I had forgotten how much work it is to design and theme web site. At the moment I have all basic graphics done. Also I’ve created new theme for WordPress and have selected all necessary plugins for it. Today I started to theme SMF (the forum). After that I’ll create themes for FlySpray (the todo list) and PmWiki. Hopefully all that is done within next week.

Have a nice weekend everyone .

Notes (week 15) – Redesigning this site

Marko — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:45:03 +0000

This week I’ve been redesigning the layout for this site. I’ve done new graphics and done some planning on the features. I decided to take a bit of distance to CubicExplorer so I could see the big picture better when planning the roadmap for future versions. That’s why I started to work on the site. Also I need to upgrade all software for the sake of security. I have thought of coding a proper site (using CodeIgniter) with custom bug tracker and desktop software. However, that’s not the top priority at the moment, so I just thought to update everything instead.

I’m hoping to get everything done next week. There will be a wiki (PmWiki) for documents and roadmaps. If everything has gone as planned, this site will be offline next weekend for some time due to the upgrade.

Here’s the prototype for new graphics:

Notes (week 14) – CE 0.90 Final (finally)

admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:21:17 +0000

After quite a journey since last official release, here is 0.90 final. I know this release isn’t perfect and there are some known issues still in it, but I think it’s good enough to replace the 0.80 final. On this build I’ve fixed some bugs that I found from those missing bug reports. Also I added few new icons and updated couple old ones. As this is an official build, it will install itself by default into CubicExplorer folder and not in CubicExplorer_dev.

Next week I’ll create a roadmap for future releases and sort out the todo list. Also I’ll try to setup a wiki for documentation and other CE related stuff. 0.91 will be the next version milestone. It will have at least Dual view and an advanced settings editor.

Change Log

Fixed View Style remembering bug.
Fixed address bar popup bug.
Fixed possible crash in Video Player.
Fixed possible crash in File Search.
Fixed possible crash when closing tabs.
Updated few icons.
Added new icons.

CubicExplorer 0.90 Final (0.90.0.1131)
Installer (2.1MB)
Zip (2.4MB)

Notes (week 13) – CE 0.90 RC 6

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:54:58 +0000

Yet another RC. I think this will be the last one unless some major issue shows up. In this build I did a lot of small changes here and there, also many translation bugs were fixed. I drew few new tab icons and reorganized the about box. Also, CE is now officially licensed under MPL 1.1.

Change Log

Fixed "Filters are not cleared when switching to different tab" bug.
Fixed rename box alignment in Tile view style.
Fixed inconsistency in "Show Extensions" for zip files.
Fixed file size calculation bug.
Fixed language change bug.
Fixed many Unicode string bugs.
Removed "minimizing bug fix" try.
Made "dbl click on background" work properly on every view style.
Updated About Dialog.
Updated Japanese translation.
Updated tab icons.
Changed License.
Focused image is now shown in QuickView when Ctrl+Click selecting files.
"Duplicate Tab" action now opens new tab even when "Reuse opened tab" is enabled.
Esc now closes options dialog.

CubicExplorer 0.90 RC 6 (0.90.0.1122)
Installer (2.1MB)
Zip (2.4MB)

Notes (week 12) – CE 0.90 RC 5

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:11:41 +0000

No 0.90 final yet. Beginning of this week went in rebuilding my work system. I wiped the whole drive and started from scratch. Now there are two Windows XP’s and one Linux installed. I have everything up and running now so no more excuses next week .

Anyway, I did manage to do some work with CE later this week. I added an option to always sort folders first. It makes folders to stay top and not mix with files. Also there’s now a popup menu in Filters panel where you can find an option to clear filters when you navigate to different folder. Lastly, there is a change that tries to fix the self minimizing bug some of you are having in Vista. Let me know how it’s working and if there are problems with CE’s taskbar button or issues when moving, minimizing,restoring…etc. CE’s window.

Oh and, I drew new icons for Tab Add and Tab Close. Not sure how I feel in few days but at the moment I’m pretty happy on how they look:

Change Log

Fixed item height bug in Folder and Bookmark panels.
Fixed column size bug.
Minimizing bug fix try.
Removed "Remember Tabs" action.
Made filters work even when Filters panel is hidden.
Filters clear now on path change by default.
Added popup menu option to clear filters on path change.
Added option to always sort folders first.
Added restrictions to file types that can be opened in text editor.
Updated tab icons (only big ones).

CubicExplorer 0.90 RC 5 (0.90.0.1113)
Installer (2.1MB)
Zip (2.4MB)

Notes (week 11) – New office and CE 0.90 RC 4

admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:16:22 +0000

Another busy week behind. Most of this week has gone in building the new office. I installed laminate floor which took some time. Also I changed the desk setup to enable more work space. One day went in installing all monitors and computers. Every cable is now tied with zip ties and there’s not a single cable on the floor. It was a huge job to tie everything but well worth it. All and all, I’m very happy with the new office. Lot’s of work space and the floor is awesome. Man, I’ll need to replace those ugly CRT’s with some shiny new LCD panels:

Some progress on CE despite the office project. I added toolbar button for QuickView tab. Those who are updating CE, use the customizer to add that button. It’s under Navigation category. I also made it so that if you have a file selected and you press QuickView button (or Text Editor button), the selected file is opened. Same works in File Search (middle clicks work now too). As Tommy suggested, I’m calling this build 0.90 RC 4. Next week I’ll tweak the icons a bit and then we can release 0.90 final. It’s time to replace that old “stable” release.

Change Log

Now Ctrl+F4 closes tabs also
Added support for custom shell icon sizes.
Updated French translation.
Fixed bug in video players seek bar when watching long videos.
Made video players seek bar more precise.
Made GIF images open in QuickView.
Files from File Search can now be opened in QuickView and Text Editor.
Made Alt+Right Click to work in File Search.
Text Editor action now opens selected file. If there’s no selection, an empty document is opened.
Added QuickView action.

*UPDATE*
Version 0.90.0.1109 had a bug which made folders and bookmarks have lot of whitespace. It’s fix in 0.90.0.1111. Re-download if needed.

CubicExplorer 0.90 RC 4 (0.90.0.1111)
Installer (2.1MB)
Zip (2.4MB)