Panorama for Windows -- More Progress
I’m pleased to report that major progress on the
Windows version of Panorama 5.5 has continued in the
past three weeks. A number of major features have
been completed since our first (April 17th) progress
report:
• Bonjour (discovery of Enterprise servers on the local network)
• Scroll wheel support
• Drag and drop (within application)
• Drag and drop (receive files dropped from Windows Explorer)
• Ruby, Perl, Python, PHP and Windows shell
• Speech synthesis
• Snarl support (windows notification program similar to Growl)
Some minor features that have been recently completed include:
• Programming Reference Wizard
• Upload web forms/procedures to Enterprise server
• Various system information functions (ethernet ID, IP address, computer name, user name, etc.)
In addition to implementing features, there has also been a lot of bug fixing. In fact, at the moment all known bugs that cause crashes have been fixed. I’m sure more crashing bugs will be found as testing continues, but we’re off to a good start. A good omen is that so far there have been no mysterious “one time only” crashes. All the crashes that we have encountered have been of the “do A, B, C then it crashes every time” nature, which makes them much easier to identify and fix.
One issue that many of you have asked about is CPU utilization while Panorama is running. Panorama 4.0 tends to use up all of the processing cycles available, causing laptop batteries to run down quickly and running up processor temperatures. This issue has now been resolved in Panorama 5.5, and it now uses minimal processor cycles except when it is actively processing information (during a sort, select, etc.).
Not Making the Cut?
If you’ve been reading closely you’ll realize that several major features have been implemented that we previously announced would not be available on the PC version:
• Drag and drop (receive files dropped from Windows Explorer)
• Ruby, Perl, Python, PHP and Windows shell
• Speech synthesis
They’re not done yet, but we also expect to get phone dialing working, and will probably also get default printer control working. We’ll probably also be able to implement the Authorize.Net add-in product for credit card processing. We’re pretty excited about that as it would allow us to run our internal order entry system from a netbook (assuming Apple doesn’t come out with one).
All of this leaves seven items on the “not planned to implement” list for Panorama 5.5:
• AppleScript support
• Enterprise Server (PC’s can be clients, but you must use a Mac for the server)
• Reveal in Finder
• Excel Wizard (requires AppleScript)
• Print to PDF from a procedure (requires CUPS printing)
• Crash Recorder wizard
• “Aqua” (anti-aliased) text display objects
The way things are going, perhaps some of these will drop into the “completed” box before Panorama 5.5 for Windows is finished. The only feature I’ll absolutely guarantee won’t be available is AppleScript support!
• Bonjour (discovery of Enterprise servers on the local network)
• Scroll wheel support
• Drag and drop (within application)
• Drag and drop (receive files dropped from Windows Explorer)
• Ruby, Perl, Python, PHP and Windows shell
• Speech synthesis
• Snarl support (windows notification program similar to Growl)
Some minor features that have been recently completed include:
• Programming Reference Wizard
• Upload web forms/procedures to Enterprise server
• Various system information functions (ethernet ID, IP address, computer name, user name, etc.)
In addition to implementing features, there has also been a lot of bug fixing. In fact, at the moment all known bugs that cause crashes have been fixed. I’m sure more crashing bugs will be found as testing continues, but we’re off to a good start. A good omen is that so far there have been no mysterious “one time only” crashes. All the crashes that we have encountered have been of the “do A, B, C then it crashes every time” nature, which makes them much easier to identify and fix.
One issue that many of you have asked about is CPU utilization while Panorama is running. Panorama 4.0 tends to use up all of the processing cycles available, causing laptop batteries to run down quickly and running up processor temperatures. This issue has now been resolved in Panorama 5.5, and it now uses minimal processor cycles except when it is actively processing information (during a sort, select, etc.).
Not Making the Cut?
If you’ve been reading closely you’ll realize that several major features have been implemented that we previously announced would not be available on the PC version:
• Drag and drop (receive files dropped from Windows Explorer)
• Ruby, Perl, Python, PHP and Windows shell
• Speech synthesis
They’re not done yet, but we also expect to get phone dialing working, and will probably also get default printer control working. We’ll probably also be able to implement the Authorize.Net add-in product for credit card processing. We’re pretty excited about that as it would allow us to run our internal order entry system from a netbook (assuming Apple doesn’t come out with one).
All of this leaves seven items on the “not planned to implement” list for Panorama 5.5:
• AppleScript support
• Enterprise Server (PC’s can be clients, but you must use a Mac for the server)
• Reveal in Finder
• Excel Wizard (requires AppleScript)
• Print to PDF from a procedure (requires CUPS printing)
• Crash Recorder wizard
• “Aqua” (anti-aliased) text display objects
The way things are going, perhaps some of these will drop into the “completed” box before Panorama 5.5 for Windows is finished. The only feature I’ll absolutely guarantee won’t be available is AppleScript support!
0 Comments