wyDay blog

I've updated the SplitButton control to paint the Image property, plus I've added ImageAlign and TextAlign support. I've also fixed a dozen other little bugs, and code signed the dll file.

The reason I had left the Image property unimplemented was because I thought "who needs a car any color other than black?" It turns out some people do. If you have any comments, bug reports, or general chit-chat leave a post on the forum. (No registration required)

Download SplitButton v1.6 [includes SplitButton.dll and the C# source files] It works with any .NET 2.0 or above language (C#, VB.NET, etc.)

In August I said "in about two weeks I'll upload the second release candidate [RC2]". What I meant was "in about two turtle weeks I'll upload the second release candidate." Well, it's nearing the end of the second turtle week and I still haven't found the conversion from whale-years to human-years. Thus, I have to release InstantUpdate 1.0 RC2 soon or risk being labeled a liar.

This release has a few new notable features like multi-lingual support, true drag-and-drop from Windows Explorer, editing and removing appearance templates, and the ability to preview the client without needing to run it on a test machine. More importantly, and subtly, RC2 went through an aesthetic overhaul.

I've used my time to make the interface simple. How? By eliminating all steps that can be done more efficiently by a computer. Go ahead, you can snigger at that sentence.

But Wyatt, a schizophrenic fragment of myself asks, isn't that the entire point of creating computer programs?

Good question, me. It is the whole point, but more specifically computer programs must allow freedom of creation while simultaneously restricting the user's actions. Don't scream "Orwellian" just yet. Although restricting liberties for the "greater good" sounds like something an authoritative government would say, in the case of computer programs it actually works.

For instance, this upcoming release fixes the way files and folders are handled. All previous versions of InstantUpdate gave the user complete control of how the files and folders in the update were visually organized:

As you can see, the "limited" control is much nicer. In addition to sorting sorts by name, I further limited the user's control by automatically warning you if you try to rename something to an invalid filename (by Windows standard) and prompts you if you try to overwrite an existing file or folder. Previously I just left all files and folder handling up to the user. It was an unnecessary freedom that led to messiness even in my own projects.

I could lie and say simplifying a program is hard. It's not; it's hours of tedium punctuated minutes of excitement and inspiration.

While you wait the remaining turtle days, here are a few screenshots which don't do justice to my work:

After two years of writes and re-writes, I'm finally releasing InstantUpdate 1.0 Release Candidate. Aside from the heap of fixes, some of the notable features are:

• Full Windows Vista compatibility
• Overhauled designer and client interfaces
• Uploading your updates within the designer
• Entirely re-written update engine which includes, among other notable enhancements, restoring your software to the previous state (registry and files) if an error occurs or if the user cancels the update
• Ability to update on non-administrator accounts

What are the system requirements?

The requirement for the both InstantUpdate Designer and Client is the .NET Framework 2.0. This is included with Windows Vista right out of the box, and is available for download on Windows Update for Windows 98, 2000, and XP. So, the ideal user of InstantUpdate is someone who programs in one of the .NET languages (C#, VB.NET, etc.) or someone who's programming solely for Windows Vista.

Documentation and forum

Also, some documentation is now online - the content ranging from simple instructions on how to distribute the InstantUpdate client, to more advanced topics like the version numbering system used in the client. I will expand the help topics when I get closer to releasing the final version of InstantUpdate. If you have any questions, comments, bug reports, or otherwise, take advantage of the forum.

Speaking of the forum, you no longer need to register to post a message. I know how much of a pain in the ass it is to sign up for forums, so I removed the requirement altogether. Of course, if you do register in the forum you'll have greater control over your posts (upload files, edit posts, etc.). But, like I said, it's no longer a necessity.

I hope you enjoy using the release candidate of InstantUpdate.

Download InstantUpdate now.

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