Release early, release often

I got grilled by David Humphrey today for my lousy first release, but I know he was just trying to encourage me to do better in the special way that I require. Here is an excerpt from our conversation :

20:55 <@dave> "I haven.t done extensive testing yet. Though, its simple enough that it probably won.t break on you." (Cesar)
20:55 <@dave> come on!
20:55 <@dave> http://cesarmoco.wordpress.com/2007/07/30/a-mar-generator-release/
20:55 <@dave> I also can't go on vacation with students writing things like that!
20:55 < cesar>
20:56 <@dave> "Needs some documentation. But at this point, you can probably figure it out."
20:56 <@dave> it gets worse
20:56 < cesar> its a first release. Hey, release early release often right?
20:56 <@dave> I'll be waiting on the "often"
20:56 < cesar> when did I write that?
20:56 <@dave> yesterday
20:56 <@dave> !?!

In hopes of generating more steam, I worked some more on this little XUL app and come with you with pictures and a release.

First, the screenshot. Although not appealing, please do notice that I have tabs and a proper menubar. Classy

Also, the help menu has a contents submenu that may actually help. There is also a progress bar, which didn’t work/exist in the previous version. There is also some bug fixes, but it isn’t documented anywhere.

Anyways, I did a MAR archive of a mozilla object directory of a debug xulrunner build. I got a 255MB MAR (mind you, this is including libraries as well as object files, Makefiles, and pretty much everything), and it –seemed– to work (ie. it finished). However, I still don’t have extract functionality. Hopefully I will have another release this week.

Here is a breakdown oh what’s going on :

• Explanation of application appearing to ‘hang’ in the help menu. As well as documentation, both code and user
• Better (still needs improvement) structure of code
• Stuck an observer pattern in there for those brave enough to venture into the code.
• Visually kicks more ass.

Wish me luck!

Linux : MAR_generator-v2.tar.bz2 – version 0.2

I am getting closer to getting a mini-mac and windows. Apologies to those developers who want to try it out.