BDJ4 Development Status 2022-12

[bll]

There are been many bug fixes and minor improvements since the last release (2022-11-28).
(Many fixes in the management user interface, improvements to the player user interface, more).
I want to write some more tests for new functionality that was put in.
So I am going to wait a bit before making a new release.
This next release might be the beta version.

The path forward is as follows:

• Before the next software release
  • Fix the remaining bugs that I know of.
    There are a couple more issues within the management user interface to fix.
  • Continue working on the wiki.
  • Installer testing and bug fixes.
  • Add in configuration options to support future functionality.
    Adding these in ahead of time will save me some trouble.
    It's much easier to remove unneeded configuration than it is to add it in later.
• Release the software with beta status.
  After the beta release, all subsequent releases will be backwards compatible and 're-install's will no longer be necessary.
• After the software release.
  • Continue working on the wiki.
    Get it in decent shape before the public announcement.
  • Write a new website for BallroomDJ.
    I'm not looking forward to this. Websites are tedious.
• Public Announcement on freshcode.club
  This is when I will consider the beta release as official.

For those of you brave enough to try out the alpha releases, you can help by letting me know of any issues (please reply to this forum thread).

• Odd or unusual behavior
  Sometimes these happen because everybody has a different mental model on how things work, and some behaviors don't fit the model.
• Unexpected behavior
  These are important. Unfortunately, BDJ-3 had several places where the software did unexpected things.
  I'd really like to get rid of any of these.
• Bugs
  Small bugs, tiny bugs, big bugs, anything.
  Everybody accomplishes tasks in their own way. I might do A, C, D, and another person will do A, D, C to do the same thing.
  I test in the ways I know how, but sometimes alternate methods uncover bugs.
• The little things
  Sometimes the little things (bad grammar, typos, incorrect display of data, user interface design, how the user interface works) can really become irritating. Tell me about anything that feels off.

Future functionality. Most of these are real, a couple are just possibilities.

1. Auto-Organization.
2. Database Update: Update from iTunes data.
3. Song List Editor
   1. iTunes: Import playlist.
   2. Batch editing.
   3. Export for BDJ/Import from BDJ.
4. Music Manager
   1. Apply Adjustments (speed, song start, song end) to a song.
   2. Apply Adjustments: Loudness normalization.
   3. Apply Adjustments: Trim silence.
   4. Audio Identification.
   5. Mark a song for deletion (renames the audio file).
   6. Duplicate audio finder (Audio Identification before this).
5. Export a playlist as MP3 files.
6. Drag & Drop (by request).
7. Player quick edit dialog (?)
8. Nederlands translation (marimo is working on this when he has time available).
9. Deutsch translation (I need a native german translator).
10. Other translations (Italian, Chinese, others).
11. Wiki documentation.

You can help with future functionality by letting me know which items are your priority (reply to this forum thread).
My personal priorities are 4A & 4B and 3B.

[bll]

Also, if there is any particular feature of BDJ4 you want tested and re-tested before the beta release please let me know what platform (Linux/MacOS/Windows) and which feature.

[bll]

The upcoming changes are here:

Wiki: Change Log

Lot of little bug fixes, cleanup. If you are trying out an alpha release and find any bugs, let me know.

I've gotten a lot of work done on the wiki ( Wiki: Home ), but there's still a few more wiki pages I want to get done before I make a release. It's not all good yet, it's going to take a few re-writes.

Getting close though. Perhaps another several days.
After the beta release, I will continue working on the wiki, start re-writing the website.
Once the website is re-written, I'll post the beta release announcement on freshcode.club.

[bll]

I have released the beta version. viewtopic.php?t=441
A re-install is necessary if you have previously installed an alpha release.
Any new releases will no longer require a re-install after this release.

I will be re-doing the website next, then announcing the end-of-life of BallroomDJ 3.

[bll]

Here's some silly statistics.
In approximately one year:

Lines of code written: 99033
Test Scripts, lines: 3075
Wiki Documentation, lines: 2650

[bll]

I had not quite realized what a huge problem the ICU (localization) library versioning would be. This is not an issue with the windows package (it already ships with the ICU libraries). It's quite a major problem with the Linux package, and it will be a problem with the Mac OS package later.

That's been fixed. I now ship the ICU library with the Linux and Mac OS packages, so there are no more ICU library versioning issues. This will be in version 4.0.3.

I found a crash in the player UI which has been fixed. I have two more bugs to track down, then I can release version 4.0.3-beta.

Edit: 13:44 :

Bugs are fixed, I plan on doing the final testing and creating the release tomorrow (my Saturday 2022-12-31) morning.

[bll]

BDJ4 4.0.3 has been released.

The ICU library versioning issues are fixed for both Linux (big problem) and Mac OS (would have been a problem).
Several other bug fixes.

Since this topic is labelled 2022, I guess I'll have to start a new topic next year.

Happy New Years!