[Spgm-updates] Merry Christmas !

[Sylvain P. <syl...@is...>]

Hello folks,

First of all, I'd like to wish you a merry Christmas (a little late) and 
the best for the year to come (a little early).
Not only is this time appropriate for wishes, but it is also perfect for
presents.
So here we go ! SPGM 1.3.4 is ready for download. This is mostly a bug 
fix release because of a reason I'll explain to you right after the 
changelog :

- Slideshow mode is now toggle-able
- Picture captions are now updated while running a slideshow
- Undefined variables fixed
- Layout does not blow anymore in slideshow mode
- Javascript 'Object expected' bug fixed
- Picture captioning mechanism more user-friendly (see pic-desc.txt)
- Gallery names can be extented in a gal-title.txt file to fix issues 
related to directory names (to support accentuated characters for instance)
- Resource files renamed (gal-sort.txt, gal-desc.txt, pic-sort.txt, 
pic-desc.txt)

You can find everything about the latest release right there :
http://spgm.sourceforge.net

Now, the big news !
Well, I have been working on SPGM for a little less than 2 years and I 
have been continuously surprised about how much people liked the script. 
A look at the stats chart 
(http://sourceforge.net/project/stats/index.php?report=months&group_id=54021) 

shows the progression of downloads, and indirectly, the growth of the 
number of users. After 18 months of existence, SPGM counts 26400+ 
downloads, 120+ subscriptions to the mailing-list, 23 different 
translations and a lot of bug reports, support request, feature 
suggestions... All this makes me believe that the script fits the needs 
of many people and can still be enhanced much more (why would there be 
feature requests otherwise ?).
So what ? Let's now cut to the chase...
I decided to freeze developments towards SPGM to focus exclusively on a
brand new version of the picture gallery program. Basically, I am 
talking about SPGM v2.0, but the beast will be renamed ;) Most of the 
design has been accomplished yet, writing thousands of lines of code is 
the only thing left... This redesign aims to get rid of the limitations 
I have been through when trying to  incorporate features, while it will 
remain extremely simple to set up and manage from a user point of view.
And of course, I'll keep fixing bugs in the current script as long as
needed.

The increasing number of support requests, developments of dedicated
patches, and more recently, the amount of time spent on the redesign of 
the program made me think about running a Paypal donation tool to bring 
a little reward for this involvement. A 'donate' button has consequently 
been added to the website so people who appreciate the work and the 
resulting tool can leave a few bucks as an encouragement... A few 
donators have already contributed and I would like to particularly thank 
them through this email.

I also want to thank you all for having made the program what it is 
through your feedback... Many of your suggestions have been taken into 
account to make the next major release a mature web tool. Stay tuned... 
It'll be worth it !

Sylvain

   www.pajot.org