jcommander-announcements Mailing List for jCommander

SourceForge Headquarters 225 Broadway Suite 1600 San Diego, CA 92101 +1 (858) 454-5900

Dear Members,

Following the feature request 1360258 Project status mailing
list<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1360258&g=
roup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>(
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1360258&group_=
id=3D35271&atid=3D413698)
I thought of providing project status update emails about every couple of
weeks.

I thought that this would help to keep all team members updated with the
overall progresses made on the project in the previous period, outline shor=
t
term goals for the next period (based on the project plan) and provide
miscellaneous project related information.

In order for this initiative to be effective I would strongly require your
input. Just place comments on the feature request which will remain open fo=
r
a while. There you should tell what you would like to see in these emails
and of course what you would not like :-)
1 Project Events

Since this status update is for quite a long period there have been more
events in the project's lifetime.

There was the 0.6.4 release on October 21. Since than the total number of
downloads exceeded the 500 mark, which is a smaller number than for
0.6.3though (almost 800 downloads in one month).

First of all, please welcome two new developers into the project which have
been active in the past period: mikesg (Mike Grigorov) and anthrax_. Let us
wish them all the best! We have also some other new members from which
contributions will soon follow.

The project's site has been updated to include a Developers page (
http://jcommander.sourceforge.net/developers.html). This is a guide to
anyone who wants to checkout and build the project and of course
instructions for those wanting to take part in the project.

Right on the top of the site's main page a note has been added which doesn'=
t
directly relate to the project. It relates to Java's future on the desktop
and I encourage you to check out those links and vote for the feature
requests.

Another new feature on the site is the availability of the release road map
at http://jcommander.sourceforge.net/staticpages/roadmap.html. There is als=
o
a forum thread on discussing its contents:
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=3D1390741&forum_id=3D11041=
7 .
Please provide feedback there.

Two important mailing lists have been created:
jcommander-forum-notifications and jcommander-tracker-notifications. These
both make it easier for developers and all interested parties to keep track
of the project's activity. Most of you subscribed to these but those who di=
d
not it would be nice to do it (please see this link:
http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=3D35271 ).

Marius and myself have been actively communicating with Mario Ivankovits,
the man in charge at Jakarta Commons VFS (please see below the importance o=
f
VFS). We created the foundations for future collaborations between the
JCommander the VFS projects. This will mean design, code and documentation
contributions into future VFS releases (1.1+).
2 Past Period Activity 2.1 Overview

Probably the most important activity in the project since release 0.6.4 has
been the replacement of the old file abstraction layer (Phileas) with a new
one (VFS). Phileas has been designed and implemented by Marius and myself
some time ago. The idea behind it was to provide a generic interface to
files and hide the underlaying implementation details. This allowed
transparent treatment of partition files, files in archives, networked file=
s
etc.

This was all good but the effort of maintaining and extending this layer wa=
s
considerable and once we saw that the VFS project's development has gained
speed and reached some respectable milestones for us the switch seemed the
best decision.

Architecturally VFS and Phileas are close so the transition wasn't that
difficult. While the upcoming 1.0 release of VFS lacks some features that
Phileas had we plan to contribute those to the VFS project once
0.7.xreleases will be out and VFS
1.1 development starts.
2.2 Features Implemented

   -

   *Partial implementation:* 1332929 Swap
panels<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1332929=
&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>.
   Waits for fix of bug 1351013
   -

   *Partial implementation:* 1300500 Bookmarks
Manager<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D130050=
0&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>.
   Only "Add" operation is supported. Refresh not done properly yet across =
all
   bookmark panels.
   -

   *Partial implementation: *1324295 display/hide tree
structure<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1324=
295&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   *Partial implementation: *1340347 Single panel display
option<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1340347=
&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1332673 hide/show file
details<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D133267=
3&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   *Partial implementation:* 1343987 persistent file
selection<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1343=
987&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1358481 replace welcome
page<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1358481&g=
roup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1289490 Save
preferences<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D12=
89490&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1105815 Add support for zip
files<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1105815&=
group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1105819 support for
smb<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1105819&gr=
oup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1105820 support for ftp
operations<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D110=
5820&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1105822 display of information at panel
level<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1105822&=
group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1114464 add support for zip within
zip<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1114464&gr=
oup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1183543 merge/use jakarta
vfs<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1183543&gr=
oup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1332673 hide/show file
details<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D133267=
3&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1304666 Add page with build
instructions<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1=
304666&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1314532 Panel font resize with
mousewheel<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D131=
4532&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>

2.3 Bugs Fixed

   -

   1367756 Accidentally Induced recursive
copy<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1367756&g=
roup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1367752 File tab contents restore error when directory
deleted<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D136775=
2&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1099984 All progress display
computation<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D10=
99984&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1350682 Directory refresh not
working<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D135068=
2&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1181243 Configuration save problem for non OS
files<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1181243&=
group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1349234 When copying first time, there's no way to close copy
window<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1349234=
&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1329041 wrong panel changes for the parent/root due to
focus<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1329041&=
group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>

 3 Planned activity

First of all we will soon need to ship release 0.7.0. This mainly means
implementing the following features:

   -

   1365516 Directory size
computation<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D13=
65516&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1348309 Compute copy average speed in
kilobytes<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1348=
309&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1343987 persistent file
selection<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1343=
987&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1343474 Common programs access
menu<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1343474&g=
roup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1340347 Single panel display
option<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1340347=
&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1337095 Proper error message on corrupted configuration
file<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1337095&g=
roup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1332929 Swap
panels<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1332929=
&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1324295 display/hide tree
structure<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1324=
295&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>
   -

   1254953 heavy swapping on
win32<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1254953&=
group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413698>

 and fix the following bugs:

   -

   1351013 Loosing control over panel
refresh<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D135101=
3&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1340749 Jcmd fails to load if invalid conf file
found<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1340749&=
group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1340286 selecting all objects in the FileTable adds empty
rows<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1340286&g=
roup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1334782 Selection with INS keeps repeating after selecting last
item<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1334782&g=
roup_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1334778 Moving a file/dir takes the same time as copying
it<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1334778&gro=
up_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1317940 selectAll doesn't work for long
directories<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D13=
17940&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1334678 Entering a directory and going back loses
selection<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D1334=
678&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>
   -

   1368533 Overwrite of files that were meanwhile
deleted<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=3Ddetail&aid=3D136853=
3&group_id=3D35271&atid=3D413695>

This is quite some work left but I would like to have as many of these
implemented. Actually I find the bugs as the most important ones. If
required some of the features might be postponed to 0.7.5. We need to focus
on the overall quality of JCommander since more and more people are finding
out about it and we really should not deceive on the quality part.

I recently started a parallel activity in which I could use some help. Ther=
e
are quite some Java desktop tools related to files and operations on files.
Just a few examples:

   -

   Split It - http://in.geocities.com/onlyjava2003/splitit.htm
   -

   Capivara - http://capivara.sourceforge.net/
   -

   JDiskReport - http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/
   -

   JPathReport - http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jpathreport/index.html

What I'm doing is trying to contact some of the authors and propose a
collaboration so that their tool to also become a JCommander plugin. This
activity is of course with a certain success ratio, but I think that it is
worth a try. If you find other tools that could fit into this profile I
would ask you to let me know. In fact let's discuss these here in this foru=
m
thread:
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=3D1392846&forum_id=3D11041=
7
4 Final Words

It is time for me to end this marathon mail. Once these mails will be more
frequent their size is supposed to radically decrease.

Once again, please provide feedback on the issues discussed in this mail so
that we can establish a close communication. Questions are always welcome s=
o
please make a reply to this mail and let us know what you think on the
exposed issues.

I wish you all happy coding! :-)

Regards,
Robert

jcommander-announcements Mailing List for jCommander

jcommander-announcements — Various project announcements