Simmons Consulting, the Website of Toby Simmons

Updates to Zempt — Introducing version 0.4

17
Oct

Screen shot of the new Zempt I’ve made some pretty massive updates (and improvements, in my opinion) to Zempt, so many that I think it deserves a full one-tenth version increase. Adam Kalsey asked me if I wanted to take over development and, at least as long as free-time permits, I guess I’m it. If you are interested in getting a copy, please leave me a comment. Here is a list of the things I have fixed in Zempt:

  • The new version uses fancy floating toolbars. Bill Zeller had started implementing them before I took over. When I inherited the code, the toolbars had some serious focus issues, but they should work swell now.
  • Changed the behavior of HOME/END in the edit windows — they now move the caret to the start/end of the current visible line instead of the start/end of the current paragraph.
  • Changed the toolbar icons.
  • Formatting toolbar buttons are disabled when previewing message.
  • Fixed the File->Save / Save As behavior.
  • Added this-post-has-been-modified (dirty document) notification to the title bar (an asterisk).
  • Changed the preview window so that it uses a template so the preview window can be customized.
  • Added a refresh preview window button to enable updates if editing the template in another program.
  • Changed the previewing engine to use wxIE to allow for CSS or more advanced HTML/XHTML tags (wxHtmlWindow was very limited.)
  • Fixed the problem with missing registry entries (UserAppDir and InstallDir) affecting Zempt. These entries were created by the installer into HKCU and, thusly, didn’t exist for subsequent users who logged onto the machine. We now make system calls to determine these locations if they do not exist in the currently logged-on user’s profile.
  • Fixed the time/date issues with entry options (it wouldn’t honor the date-time when changed.)
  • Fixed the am/pm problems with entry options.
  • Fixed the problem with honoring the dates of downloaded (when editing existing) posts.
  • Changed the display for picking an existing entry to show the status of comments (since the “Draft” / “Publish” status isn’t readily available.)
  • Added the Primary Category to the listing, it was originally hard coded to show “(Unknown).”
  • Updated the spell checker to use the latest version of wxSpellChecker (as of Oct. 19, 2004.).
  • Updated to using the latest version of libcurl, v. 7.12.1 (as of Oct. 2, 2004.) v. 7.12.2 (as of Oct. 19, 2004.)
  • Removed the extraneous “Finished spell check” and “Spell check canceled by user” dialogs, as well as the “Save changes to personal dictionary” — notifications are now in the status bar.
  • Save/edit personal dictionary now works.
  • Added menu item for editing the personal dictionary
  • Fixed the problem with not having the password saved but trying to download categories and text-filters.
  • Added menu options Edit->(Publish Edited Entry | Entry Options | Edit an Entry) to allow for keyboard short cuts to these options (Ctrl-Enter | Alt-Enter | Alt-E).
  • (This is internal, but makes for convenient coding) Got rid of the need for Boost C++ libraries (now using the wxRegEx).

Not yet:

  • I’d like Zempt to remember the current status and position of the toolbars. This will be rather involved because there are several states and positions that could be assumed. This is low priority.
  • Might be desirable to let the user size the Main Entry / Extended Entry / Excerpt text boxes. Or not. Also low priority.
  • Still some tweaking to the File Upload tool.
  • Haven’t tested it with Typepad, since I don’t do Typepad.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 17th, 2004 at 1:48 am and is filed under Zempt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Comments (2) »

  1. Gabe Posey says:
    10/20/2004 at 9:07 am

    I’d love to get my hands on a copy of .4. Also, just because I’m curious, I downloaded the Mt-Blacklist script you posted. I _think_ it works, but I keep getting an uninitialized value on line 88. Is there way I can ensure that it’s working?

  2. Toby Simmons says:
    10/20/2004 at 9:37 am

    Gabe,

    Grab the source code again for the MT-Blacklist updater, I’ve added a line that will initialize the variable that it was complaining about. The script should work without the change, but this will get rid of the error. You can check if it works by going to your MT admin and viewing the activity log, it should show when entries are added or deleted from the blacklist.

    You can grab a copy of the new Zempt here. I’ve removed the link because we are going to be releasing it from the Zempt site.

    Cheers,

    Toby