FlashWRITER - Bug Reports

Please report any FlashWRITER bugs in the comment section of this post. In your comment let me know:

• The FlashWRITER version that you are using;
• Your OS
• Description of the bug.

Alternatively you can email bugs to dsuch@reefwing.com.au

FlashWRITER - Beta Version Released

FlashWRITER Beta Release Finished.

I finished the code and help files this morning. Then I spent all day trying to get the web published version to work properly. In the end I discovered that VISTA doesn't let you modify the Program Files folder.

This was a big problem because that is where I was storing all the template, log, history and configuration files.

So a quick rewrite later and v1.0.0.7 is ready for download. You can click on the box to the right to download the setup file directly or click on the FlashWRITER v1.0 (Beta Release) link to go to the download page.

I will set up two threads for bug reporting and future feature requests (no promises). I will collect a few and then publish an updated version. I'm expecting quite a few due to the fairly major last minute rewrite.

Note that when you open the program file for the first time it wont be able to open your configuration or history files (since they don't exist yet).

WARNING - This is beta software use with care.

FlashWRITER - 100% Success Rate

In an earlier post I mentioned that I wrote a microFlash (100 word) story on FlashWRITER to run through the work flow. Well it just got accepted for publication on Flashshot. That means FlashWRITER has currently got a 100% acceptance rate. 

I will have to stick that on the box!

FlashWRITER - Help Files

The Help Files are just about done - this has taken MUCH longer than I expected.

FlashWRITER - Line Spacing

Line Spacing Sorted!

One thing that I have been having trouble with is setting the line spacing in a rich text box. 

All sorted now. You can select either single, 1.5 or double line spacing for either the entire document or just your selected text. This is also one of the publisher variables that you can save (see screenshot above).

I have also changed the website field of the publisher tab into a hyperlink. Clicking on this will launch the site in your default browser.

FlashWRITER - Writing History

Writing History Complete.

It took all day but I finally finished the code for reading, writing and recording your writing history while using FlashWRITER.

The frustrating thing is that there is an "undocumented feature" (i.e. bug)  in the XML Serializer method - which is why it took so long. For some reason timespan objects are saved as blank in XML files. The actual logic for the code involved is fairly simple which makes it doubly frustrating.

Word counts and writing times are accumulated by month, year and in total. When you open a file, the program will record the word count loaded and then calculate the additional words that you typed before saving the file. If you don't save the file then the new word count will not be added. Also if you use Save As... the word count won't be added - otherwise the program could double count the numbers of words written (e.g. if you save the same file as an RTF and TXT file).

For the next version I will probably look at extending this feature. It would be handy to have a day by day record of your writing but I'll need to think about the best way of displaying this.

The last major coding task is adding iterative autosave. This should be finished tomorrow. I will then stop adding new features and focus on cleaning up the code and fixing the bugs I know about.

At this stage on track for a Beta release at the end of May...

FlashWRITER - New Splash!

Splash Screens - what a nightmare!!

If you read the blog below you will see that I claim that Splash Intro Screens are easy!

Easy to do wrong it turns out.

I just spent four hours learning how to do threaded code because I discovered the proper way to do a flash screen is to let it run in a separate thread. This turns out to be a non-trivial exercise let me tell you. Anyway I have worked out how to do it. This is one subject that doesn't have a lot of good examples available on the web.

In the process I also updated the splash screen itself (see above). Let me know if you have a preference - I think the 2nd version is more professional.

FlashWRITER - Splash!

13 Days until Beta Launch ...

The FlashWRITER code is largely complete for v1. I did get distracted and added in some additional functionality that I was planning to do in the next version. In addition BT reminded me that any real program has a splash screen - so I had to figure out how do to that (it's not hard, you can even make them transparent if you wish).

The new additions are:

• Numbered lists;
• Subscript and superscript;
• New bullet types; and
• Custom title block by publisher.

I discovered the need for the last item when I used FlashWRITER for the first time in anger. I wrote a quick 100 words of microfiction and used FlashWRITER for the entire process, which went something like:

1. Loaded the FLASHSHOT publisher template (which I had earlier created). The template sets up the target word length, preferred publisher fonts, email details etc. and then inserted a title block.
2. Wrote the 100 words - using the word count feature to keep track; and
3. Sent a submission email to the publisher with the story attached in the publisher preferred format (RTF in this case). Each publisher wants something special in the subject line and body - FlashWRITER remembers this and includes a simple email application to send your piece to publishers.

I have a default title block which is based on the "recommended" manuscript layout, however the first publisher I try this on requires something unique, so I stopped writing the story and whipped up the code to handle custom title blocks per publisher. I have a feeling that I will find more of this stuff as I try using it in the real world.

The title block for FLASHSHOT looks like this:

TITLE

By David Such

BIO: <in third person, 2 or 3 brief sentences to publicise your other work, give your background, comment on the story, or whatever you wish>.

The two remaining features to write are iterative backups and writing history. Apart from that I will be fixing up some known bugs and writing a few short stories to alpha test it. Still looking good for an end of May Beta launch to selected testers. If you are interested stick your hand up or better still leave a comment. The people's free writing software needs you!

FlashWRITER - Publisher Templates

What Else??

I have completed the first cut of the publisher template code. You can see the option tab inserted into this post.

What else would you like included? You can also select an option to insert a title block at the top of your story which contains the usual (name, address, phone, email, word count, and title).

The template file is saved in xml format so they are easy for anyone to read, modify or use.

FlashWRITER AutoSave

New and Improved Auto Save Functionality!

The attached picture shows the latest version of the FlashWRITER auto save functionality. 

You can now select whether you want the program to over write your existing file when it auto saves or creates another copy which is time and date stamped. The maximum number of copies option allows you to specify how many times to create a copy before it alerts you. This is to prevent users setting a frequent autosave period and then leaving the program on and winding up the next morning with a full disk.

At the moment the max copy alert current count is not remembered between sessions (ie if you shut the program down the counter resets).

Any other suggestions or comments welcome.

Remaining code to be cut:

• Writing history
• Title Block handling
• manuscript templates
• line spacing; and
• remaining help files (about 2/3rd's to go)

I'm still on track for end of May launch.

22 days until beta launch ...

WRITING SOFTWARE - FlashWRITER update

I just completed the auto save code for FlashWRITER.  The current autosave scenario is that the program over writes the current file (assuming it has already been saved at least once) at a user selectable duration. In addition, the program saves another copy of the latest file in an autosave directory. This extra copy will then get over written when the next file is loaded and eventually autosaved.

I'm happy to consider other alternatives if anyone has a better idea.

WRITING SOFTWARE - FlashWRITER Update

FlashWRITER on target for end of May Beta release ....

So get on board and join the intrepid team of Beta testers - just leave a comment here if you are interested. You will forever be immortalised in the acknowledgements page of the program, get free advertising for your Blog / Website and be one of the first to try out FlashWRITER. Help shape a tool tailored for writing and build up your frequent flyer Karma points.

Over the weekend (between blackouts) I managed to finish off:

1. My rambling detour down HTML tagging land - FlashWRITER now handles a subset of HTML tags, in particular the ones I needed to create the Help files (Bold, Italic, Underline, Page Colour, Text justification and bullets) and will even highlight tags blue automatically. I will add other tags if required or requested. I also stuck in a button to preview your HTML files in the default browser. It will never replace a WYSIWYG editor but does the trick for simple pages. 
2. The recent file list code. FlashWRITER will remember the names of the last 4 files that you have opened. You have the option to clear this manually or everytime the program closes. 
3. Adding bullet and paragraph increase / decrease indent buttons to the tool bar. 
4. Adding the option to quick open your story ideas file. You can also quick open the FlashWRITER log file (which is handy for debugging but I may delete this in the final release) and the configuration file (which stores program options).

I'm still chipping away at the Help files - I do one a night. It is easy but boring work. This is probably why most software has rubbish help files.

Major remaining program tasks are:

• Title block coding (author name, address, etc);
• Publisher Templates - I will do these in XML so anyone can edit, produce or read them. Who knows, publishers may even start distributing them so that they get pieces formatted the way they like it;
• Complete the writing history code (cumulative word counts and elapsed time);
• Autosave code; and
• Finish off the option dialog code.

27 Days until Beta Launch...

WRITING QUOTES - From CS Weekly

FlashWRITER Update

Help!

I decided to get started on the help files. After a bit of research it emerged that there are no less than 3 different ways to display help. I settled on the most used version (HTML Help) and downloaded the free help compiler from Microsoft. Then all I needed was an editor which can handle HTML files. In a moment of recursive brilliance I decided to use FlashWRITER, only to find out that I was not handling HTML tags properly.

I'm now off on a short detour to build an RTF to HTML converter. There doesn't appear to be any freeware components that I can lift, so build it I shall. I will keep this converter fairly simple as I don't imagine that anyone will be building their website by hand using FlashWRITER, I will only include the tags I need to do the Help files. I think I can do this in a few days so I'm not anticipating any delays to the Beta release at this stage.

Coming Soon... FlashWRITER!!!

...FlashWRITER

FlashWRITER is almost ready for beta release and I'm looking for volunteers to test it.

FlashWRITER is a word processor purpose built for writing. 

The current feature list is as follows:

• All the usual WP functions;
• Spell Checking;
• Real time word counts and tracking vs your target word count;
• Cumulative time spent writing and cumulative word count;
• Elapsed time and progress against your target writing time;
• A robust autosave feature which you can customise;
• Custom Templates for each market which remembers that publishers submission guidelines (eg min/max word counts, file formats, preferred font, line spacing, etc.). You will be able to generate your own templates and share them if you are feeling generous.
• An email facility so that you can submit your story (as an attachment or in the body). I've tried to capture the entire story writing work flow in one program.

Happy to consider any other feature requests that people might have.

Free Hex Dump Program ...

I have been writing, but nothing fictional. In fact I have been distracted by learning a new language, C#.

Many years ago I was quite the adept programmer and was even being paid for my efforts. The language I was using was Fortran 77 which no doubt dates me.

These days it is all about Object Oriented Programming which is very different to the languages I learnt on (C, Pascal, Cobol and even 6800 assembler). So it was a bit of a learning curve getting familiarised with C#.

My first bit of freeware is a Hex File Dumper because I needed one to help me write another program. A hex dump is a hexadecimal view of the contents of a file. They are handy for reverse engineering how certain programs save files, recovering data, or just having a look at what gets inserted in data files without your knowledge. Most operating systems come with a hex dump utility but I use Windows (which doesn't).

This is a simple programming problem and it took me a couple of days over Easter to whip up.  Click on this link to download it. All the usual caveats apply, this is very much beta software so don't use it on important data and feedback is welcome. Also don't use it to analyse large files (> 250 kB), even loading a 42kB file took 30 seconds on my machine. I'm using a string data type to store the dump file so theoretically you should be able to open up a file with 2^29 characters (i.e. 512 MB) but practically you will be limited by the amount of contiguous memory on your PC and how long you are willing to wait as the file loads. 

It is straightforward to use. File-Open will open up the file to be analysed. You can then save or print the dump file. I have also included an ASCII table in the Help menu to assist in interpreting  the hex representation of the characters. You can edit the contents of the dump file but this won't change the original file.

The Characters Read field will tell you the total number of characters (or bytes) in the file opened and the KiloBytes field is this number divided by 1024.

First Taste!

We finally got to try our wine yesterday (4th April). It has been a long trip, we bought the land back in 2000. Nine years and many dollars later we took the first sip with some trepidation. We were very worried that it would have all the qualities of aged battery acid. The wine maker (Matt from Wandin Valley Estate - http://www.wandinvalley.com.au/) had descriped our wine as approachable. This has a fairly wide range of meaning and could have described a weedy, thin and insipid individual or a happy, fun to be around, party animal.

I would call it damn drinkable - which is a huge relief. It is a fairly light style made totaly from Shiraz. The style is due to all the rain just prior to harvest and will probably be representative of most 2009 Hunter reds. The colour is great, a deep purple, almost majestic to my mind. Extraction was good and we filled all six of our oak barriques. Following primary fermentation (where the sugar gets converted to alchohol) in open fermenters, the resulting must was pressed and pumped off into the barriques where they underwent malolactic fermentation (MLF). Unlike the primary ferment which is performed by yeast, MLF is due to lactic acid bacteria, which eat malic acid for energy, and convert it to lactic acid. This should produce a fuller more rounded mouth feel.

The barrels will now be racked and topped up every few months. We will have a taste just prior to every topping up. You need to top up due to evaporation of water from the wine. This helps concentrate the flavour and hopefully we will get some oak flavours extracted from the barrels as the wine matures. This will add complexity to the final wine. Towards the end of barrel maturation we may add some South Australian Shiraz (up to 5%) to also add complexity. This is said to help fill out the middle palate.

BTW - My latest story "Blood" is up at AntiSF (http://www.antisf.com.au/the-stories/blood-by-david-such)

Track Day

Not much writing going on - so I might as well Blog about what is distracting me.

WARNING - This Blog contains graphic car specifications.

I was down at Wakefield Park (race track near Goulburn) for a run in the Lotus today. The embedded photo was taken at another day at Eastern Creek. To the right are some pictures from Wakefield Park - not as good as the  Eastern Creek photos as I took them myself. 

There were some very nice cars at the track including a Ferrari Testarossa 512 TR (4.9 Litre, 12 cylinder, 0-100 in 5.8 secs, max speed 290 km/h), a number of Porsche 911 GT2's (3.6 Litre, 6 cyclinder, twin turbo, 0-100 in 3.7 secs, max speed 329 km/h), a Porsche GT3RS (3.6 Litre, 6 cylinder, 0-100 in 4.0 secs, max speed 310 km/h), a Mitsubishi GT 3000 (3 Litre, V6, twin turbo) and a gaggle of other cars including a V8 Ute!

The Lotus Elise (1.8 Litre, 4 cylinder, 0-100 in 6.1 secs, top speed 205 km/hr) did pretty good - although I spun it 3 times trying to keep up with the Porsche's. One of my spins was at over 100 km/h - lucky there was lots of grass. I had to wash the car again after I got home (and change my underpants). I could keep up with the Ferrari, the Mitsubishi and the standard Porsche (911 Carrera - although I suspect the driver was taking it easy) through the corners but then would lose them on the straight. Luckily Wakefield Park has lots of corners.

The Porsche GT2's and GT3RS were another matter. They totally blew me away and left me eating dust - literally. Still they are 5 times the price of the Lotus.  It was a good day. 

Vintage 2009

The ferment is proceeding to schedule (more or less). We are at 2.0 Baume which is a measure of the amount of sugar in the must. It started at around 12.5 which indicates that the final alcohol level of the wine will be about 12.5%.

Pressing is now slotted for Monday.

The winemaker (Matt) needed to add some acid to the wine. If the wine acidity is too low the wine tastes flabby (and in extreme cases has a slimy mouth feel). The legal wine additives in Australia are listed in Food Standard 4.5.1 (for those really interested).

Vintage 2009

Well I'm back.

We have been tied up with the vineyard lately so no time to write or blog!

To the right are some photos from our first vintage. It all happened so quick that I didn't have time to take many pictures. The pickers turned up at 6:30 am and it was all done by 7:30 am. It would have taken us four days! We were expecting to get about 3 tonne (3,000 kg) of fruit but ended up with about 1.8 tonne. The kangaroos and birds ate the rest. Each one of the white bins that you see in the photos holds 0.5 tonne. I could hardly steer the ute with two full bins on the back and it was a bit touch and go driving up the rows with the amount of rain that we have had lately (both dams are now overflowing again).

We dropped off the bins at Wandin Valley and they will crush and destem the grapes. The resulting must (crushed grapes and juice) is then fermented over the next week. They plunge the cap every three days (ie mix it up as the skins float on the top of the fermenting juice) to extract as much colour and flavour as possible. Next weekend the whole lot goes in the press (big silver thing shown in one of the photos) and the resulting wine is stuck in our barrels (made from French oak - each one of these new is worth $1000. We got reconditioned barrels which are a lot cheaper. French oak is supposed to impart a more subtle flavour than American oak).

We bought 6 oak barrels which are shown in a couple of the photos. They are called barriques and have a 225 litre capacity. Assuming we get enough wine to fill them all that will correspond to 1350 litres or 1800 bottles or 150 cases.

The plan is to leave the wine in oak until the end of the year at which time it will be bottled (and free up the barriques for the next vintage).

We will get our first taste when it comes out of the press next weekend. It is all very exciting, though we will need to sell each bottle for $327 to recover all our costs over the last nine years.