Angus Thinks

Category: SQLEditor

  • Beta release schedule

    Yes, I know I said Sunday or Monday for the new beta. But instead I’ve been fixing more bugs and various things. So it should be better. There is now a new way of showing foreign key links which adds shading to the source and destination of the link. There is also an option to disable internet version checking and a new facility that catches connection failures so you don’t keep getting error messages if there is no internet connection available at all.

    So the new beta version is coming soon, really it is, honest. Really and truly.

  • Create a low end database program

    Punkish made the suggestion in one of the comments (actually the only comment) back on May 29th about adding an actual database to SQLEditor and turning it into a database program. The more I think about this the more I like the idea so it may end up happening. Although it will be a separate program from SQLEditor. SQLEditor will continue as it is because I need it that way for various projects myself.

    BTW: The new cocoa version of SQLEditor is about to be released into public beta. Probably either today (Sunday) or tomorrow (Monday).

  • Overlapping NSViews in cocoa

    One thing that is desperately obvious when rewriting a java application to cocoa is overlapping views. In java you can often overlap swing components as long as they are lightweight (not operating system controls for instance). The cocoa documentation says that you shouldn’t overlap view components. This presents something of a problem obviously. How do you make such a significant change?

    Currently SQLEditor uses NSViews for it’s onscreen rendering, however since the tables and comments can be freely dragged around there are three possibilities:

    1. Use overlapping views and hope that nothing serious happens
    2. Don’t allow views to overlap by restricting the ability of the user to drag them around
    3. Rewrite the display code to use some other class instead of NSView and render the objects by hand

    I’m still thinking about the best way of doing this. (1) is the current solution, I don’t like (2) and (3) looks like lots of work.

    I think the best plan is to find out if (1) works on 10.3 and go from there. One approach that I am seriously considering is to rewrite the container class instead and continue to use NSView subclasses for the subcontainers.

  • SQLEditor Beta 3 (kindof)

    SQLEditor Cocoa Beta 3 is making good progress. The only things remaining for the current beta are:

    • Finish the menu handing
    • Write some help

    It now pretty much supports importing java version saved files although it’s still having trouble with foreign key support. Which is annoying me a bit but I think the current stage is reasonable to go on with until I can devote a bit more time to it.

    Next step is probably to look at implementing more SQL structures and improve compatibility with the standard. I’m particularly interested in developing view support.

  • SQLEditor drag and drop

    David was commenting that drag and drop from the java version of SQLEditor was handy, so it’s returned!
    I implemented a new floating window which allows the user to drag and drop objects onto the main canvas. Which seems to work quite well. It doesn’t replace the existing menu options but it provides an easy and intuitive way to add objects. At least I hope it does…

  • Menu enabling

    Thanks to Cocoa Menu Validation I now know how to do dynamic enabling and disabling of menu in a tidy way. Previously everything was less tidy and more confused.

    Thank you Chris Hanson!

  • File Format between versions

    One of the things I’ve been doing recently is to rewrite SQLEditor to use cocoa instead of java’s swing toolkit. This gives a much better application for people using Macintoshes, but it has meant a file format change. The old format relied on java serialization which isn’t possible under cocoa.

    The key question is this: are users willing to swap the superior performance and extra features for the hassle of exporting and reimporting their data?