I started the development of MultiView. I’ve got a working prototype ready for the base framework. There’s still quite a lot of work left but things are moving nicely. Due to the fact that CE wasn’t designed to have  multiple views, the MultiView solution will be little hackish. I’m not happy with that but it’ll do for now.

In this weeks snapshot I’ve done some work with tabs. I added tab selection history so that when you close a tab, previously selected tab will become active. Also I added “Undo Close Tab”. It still needs some work (undo does not restore all settings, icon missing) but the basic functionality is done. You can disable this feature from the Advanced options (Advanced->Tabs->ClosedTabHistory). There are now also options to “Open new tab next to current” and “Auto fit tabs”.

Change Log

• Added Selected Tab History
• Added “Open new tab next to current” option to tabs.
• Added “Auto fit tabs” setting to Options Dialog.
• Added “Undo Close Tab”
• Fixed crash in Info Bar.

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1279 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.3MB)
Zip (2.6MB)

This week I added global hotkey support. Global hotkeys are system wide shortcuts so they work even if CE is in the background or minimized to tray. I also fixed some bugs and added “New Shortcut” entry in the “New” menu. I noticed that in Windows 7 there is no “New” item in the right click background menu. My debugging skills are a bit rusty so I couldn’t find out what’s wrong with it.

Not sure what I’ll be working with next week. I think I should go through the forum and bug tracker, and create a list of things to do for 1.0 version.

Change Log

• Added Global Hotkey support
• Added "New Shortcut" entry to "New" menu
• Updated German translation.
• Fixed Filter and QuickView Panels not working after startup.
• Fixed "InvalidFileName" error in file search
• Fixed bugs in "New" Menu
• Fixed translation bugs

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1273 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.3MB)
Zip (2.6MB)

Seems it was a long break this time, last snapshot was released exactly one year ago. The break was definitely needed and helpful. For the first time in over 15 years I’m heading in completely different direction. There’s still a long way to go but I’m looking forward for that journey.

It’s been a long and cold winter here in Finland, tons of snow also. I’ve mostly spent my time by making music and playing with my new camera (Canon 550D).

I haven’t done much coding until lately when I got back in the office. I have however done some research and thinking for CE 2.0. It’s still a big blur and I’m not sure what direction I should take with it. I was planning on building my own cross-platform UI library for it, but because it’s a huge job I’m not sure it’s the best way to go. For the time being, I only work about 4 hours per weekday.

Anyway, for the past two weeks I’ve worked with CE. I’m polishing everything so I can finally release an official version (CE 1.0). There are tons of people still using the 0.90 version which is awfully buggy. In this week’s snapshot I’ve recreated the Customizer and added Hotkeys page in the Options Dialog. There’s also a new theme called Chrome (based on Google Chrome browser).

Oh, I almost forgot the Tray Icon which is now available through Options dialog.

Change Log

• Added Hotkey customization to Options Dialog.
• Added Tray Icon.
• Added new skin (Chrome).
• Added customization options for toolbars.
• Added "Auto Save History" checkbox to Sessions menu.
• "Auto Save History" is now disabled by default.
• Manage Sessions dialog uses themes now.
• Removed color highlighting from encrypted and compressed files/folders.
• Fixed toolbar positioning bugs.

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1265 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.3MB)
Zip (2.6MB)

Long time since last update. Not much has happened, I’ve been resting most of the time. No work at all which is good I guess. Instead I’ve been focusing on filming and making music. I build a new studio for that purpose. I also bought a new computer to handle HD video editing. That had a ripple effect to my office which now has more powerful work machine (the old studio heart, powered by Windows 7).

Even though I haven’t done any coding, I have done some research for CE 2.0. I was planning to start working with it few weeks ago but we’ve had a nasty heat wave here in Finland for the past 3 weeks, so I need to wait until it passes. Even though I love sauna, I can’t stand hot weather. Can’t really do anything intelligent in temperature like this (30-35°C). Once the office stops boiling, I’ll start to work with CE 2.0. I’m bored out of my gourd and look forward to start work again.

So far it looks like I’ll be using FreePascal compiler for CE 2.0. I was thinking about C/C++ compilers but didn’t see any valid reason to use them. CE 2.0 will be targeted to Windows, Linux and Mac. I’m not yet sure about the license scheme though. CubicExplorer will be open source but not sure about CubicCore which is the technology CE will be build upon.

Anyway, at the moment I’m glued to a fan and hoping that the weather will cool down. Here’s a little video of what I’ve been filming:

It’s been quite interesting few weeks. I finally found a core reason for the problems I’ve been having my entire life. It’s called Asperger syndrome (wikipedia). I’ve been going through my past by looking at it from Asperger’s point of view, it finally makes some sense. The diagnose is not official yet, but I’ll probably go to neurological tests to make it so.

Personally I don’t think Asperger’s is a sickness/condition you need/can cure. It’s just a different way of looking at the world. Our brains just work differently than most peoples, which is not a bad thing necessarily. For example, I have a photographic memory in some situations. On the other hand, sometimes my memory works very poorly.

My next mission is to learn how to cope with the negative effects of this condition. For example, the breaks I’ve been having with CubicExplorer’s development are directly caused by those negative effects. The goal is to maximize all positive effects and minimize negative. Positive effects include logical thinking, pin point accurate concentration, looking at problems from different perspectives, good memory…etc. Those abilities fit perfectly into programming, that’s why I like coding so much. And that’s why I’m very exited and positive about the future.

What happens next and what about CubicExplorer?

I finally got a temporary disability pension (lasting to the end of 2010). It’s quite difficult thing to get here in Finland (it took 2 years and 4 doctor statements for me). This means I can finally focus on solving these issues without pressure. It also means I have to take distance to this site and CE. You can think of it like rebooting your brain.

However, when I’m not feeling any pressure, I can be very productive and I’ll most likely will work with CE because I’m very exited about it’s future. I’ve started polishing CE 1.0 and hope to release it before summer. Also there will be snapshot releases as soon as I add new bug fixes or features. However, it’s also possible that there isn’t much progress on CE during this year, at the moment it’s impossible to say how things move.

Another change is these “weekly” notes I’m writing. I have to stop them for a while also and write only if there is something to report. However, I might start writing to the blog section more about non-CE related stuff, not sure yet.

Anyway, the way I see it, this break is a very positive thing for CE. I’m looking forward to keep building CE and to make it a program it deserves to be.

Have a great spring everyone! Snow is melting and floods are subsiding here in Finland .

Here’s some quick notes. I took few week long vacation. Nothing special, just chilling. Feeling much better now. I’ve done little bit of work with CE. It looks like the version manager was holding back the progress, so I set it aside for a while and focus on polishing CE. I’ve been rewriting the Stack panel. Also I’m working on a new element called StackBar. It’s similar to Stack panel but it’s a toolbar where you can drag and drop files/folders.

Anyway, new snapshot coming next Friday.

So, I’ve been taking it easy for the last few weeks. About 7 years ago I suffered from burnout. My tolerance for pressure dropped to zero and has stayed there ever since. If the stress gets too high, my body/mind can’t handle it. That’s the reason for these breaks. Usually they happen in fall and winter. I am however working to solve this problem. I’ve tried many different work methods and keep developing new ones so these breaks wouldn’t happen so often. Also I’m in a rehabilitation program so I’m still optimistic in solving this issue.

While I’m resting I usually do music and/or videos as making them helps release stress. Here’s one example:

Sleepless night ride – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ2461n4SOQ

CubicExplorer 2.0 and CubicCore

For the past 2 months I’ve been doing some heavy thinking about CE’s future. More specifically I’ve been collecting ideas for CE 2.0. The picture is getting more clearer everyday. At the moment CE is just a bunch of compromises and far from what I envisioned it to be. To make CE work as it should, it’s necessary to start from a blank page and rewrite everything. Of course that’s not literally true because there’s over 80000 lines of code in CE, so I can reuse many things.

CE 2.0 will have completely different way of functioning. Actually, CE will be just a bunch of scripts and templates. All the hard work is done in a separate platform I named CubicCore. Everything will be dynamically created and based on scripts and plug-ins, so there will be unlimited number of ways you can customize CE. Also the UI should be way more stable and hang free because all the real work is done in background.

CubicExplorer 0.90-1.0+ and coming weeks

The development of CE 2.0 will happen side by side with CE 1.0. Also, CE 1.0 will act as a testing ground for modules that will be used in CE 2.0. By modules I mean features like QuickView, FileSearch, TextEditor…etc. So there should be steady stream of snapshots coming even when I’m working with CE 2.0. However, the development of CE 2.0 won’t start until I have released CE 0.90 final. At the moment only piece missing from it is the Version Manager. After that I’ll polish every feature.

Anyway, things are moving slowly but surely. At the moment my main goal is to get back on the horse and start writing some code. I’ve already spent few days in the office so things are looking good. To ease up the stress, I’ve decided to work only 4 days per week. Hopefully that will eliminate these longer breaks.

Here’s last week’s notes. I’ve been rebuilding my work/home environment for the past 3 weeks. It turned out to be quite a can of worms. If I would have known the work amount in advance, I probably would have never started the job. Anyway, I started last week by working with CE but soon decided to finish the install job. There were just too many loose ends to let me focus on CE.

Currently everything is done so I can finally focus on CE. However, there is a problem I need to handle before I can do that. Over the weekend, I suffered a “small” melt down, so I’ll need to recover from that. Since I’ve been working non-stop for few months now, it was inevitable.

Anyway, I’m not sure there will be any progress in CE this week either. So far I’ve been just resting but will try some light work tomorrow.

There’s been no progress in CE this week. I’ve been rebuilding my work environment which turned out to be quite a big job. Mainly it’s because my central server is now powered by Windows 7 and not Linux which I’m more familiar with. To get all things working together without a problem isn’t that simple it turns out.

Anyway, by trial and error, things are starting to be functional at last. So hopefully I can get back on working with CE next week. As there wasn’t any progress, this weeks snapshot isn’t anything major. There’s only one bug fixed, a bug which I already fixed few weeks ago. The new server should help in preventing mistakes like this from happening in future.

Change Log

• Fixed sort columns bug in list view mode (again).
• Updated Turkish translation

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1253 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.3MB)
Zip (2.6MB)

This week I’ve mostly been building a new server. One of it’s uses will be to function as a backend to the Version Manager. It will be used to create CE builds and publish releases. I’m using Windows 7 as the operating system. Because my hardware is fairly old, I’ve had to fight hard to make everything work.

Since I’ve been using Windows 7 on my laptop for some time now, I’m getting more used to it. I’ve also done some reading on how the UAC works. That information will be useful in making CE fully compatible with Vista and Win7. In this weeks snapshot I’ve added a “Create Symbolic Link” action (read more about Symbolic links). This action uses UAC elevation technique that will be used in the Version Manager if there aren’t any major issues. Let me know if you have any problems with it.

Change Log

• Added “Create Symbolic Link” action
• Updated Spanish translation

CubicExplorer 0.91.0.1251 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.3MB)
Zip (2.6MB)