Main > Beta Testing
3.5 Progress
Corey Cooper:
Many of you have seen my posts where I talk about the next version of the TD, which will be ported to a new framework. In those posts I also mention that it's going to be a lot of work, and will be some time before the new version is ready. That's turning out to be correct, but it's really exciting (from a nerd programmer perspective) because as I work through it so many of the past limitations of the application are gone. There's a long way to go, but surprisingly I've made an amazing (to me) amount of progress. Anyway, I wanted to share some details as work progresses.
So I started with a proof-of-concept, to make sure the TD would work under Electron (https://electronjs.org), and to familiarize myself with Electron and Node.js and modern Javascript (the TD is currently stuck way in the past - a years old version of JS). There were several aspects of the TD that, if they weren't possible under Electron, the whole effort would have been pointless. And happily I discovered they were possible, and so I dove in. In a surprisingly short amount of time, I had all of the TD code loading (but not working) under Electron. Over the past few weeks I've been neck deep just trying to make it kind of work, no real direction, just fixing anything that was preventing the application from just running.
At this point I've actually got the main window and the settings window up and most tabs displaying (but not yet working). Here's a screenshot of the Settings window under Electron:
Not exciting because it doesn't look much different, but that's good! My current goal is to get the TD working closest to its current form. New features and taking advantage of the new framework will come later.
I just got the Game window sort-of functioning:
Not as pretty, but all the pieces are there and they actually update.
There's a huge amount of work ahead. One major example is dialog windows. They work differently in Electron and at last quick count, including alert dialogs and simple confirmation dialogs, the TD has nearly 1000, all of which will require some refactoring.
Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that this is really underway, and progress is being made, and it's actually going faster than I anticipated. This is without a doubt going to be the largest overhaul the software has ever seen, and I'm really excited about the possibilities. Just thought I'd give everyone a peak at what's happening.
efdenny:
This is awesome Corey! Thanks for the update, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of your efforts!
Corey Cooper:
I'll try to add updates as time goes by and work continues. There will definitely be a beta test for this one. :)
Here are some highlights:
* No more Internet Explorer required
* No more IE 11 memory leaks
* Full-screen mode no longer requires a restart. Like a real browser, you can toggle between window and full-screen at any time
* Game window will actually have minimize/maximize buttons that work as other windows do
* Settings window will also have maximize button
* No longer need to configure the TD with info about your extended display, it can now get your display info from Windows
* No "Call was rejected by callee" errors because IE doesn't know how to work right when a sound is played
* No more Windows Media Player required
* System dialogs (open file, save file) work, for everyone (this is a problem for a lot of people now)
* Real context menus, not the ones I had to hack into the application which may open partially offscreen
* No more stupid X button in inputs that displays after you select the input and then text in the input moves
* No more administrator access required
* Good folder selection dialog (the one the TD uses is awful)
* Ability to use HTML5
* And for me, a real debugger, which has been a godsend in getting this working so quickly
This is just a short list of stuff I've thought of since starting ...
Corey Cooper:
Oh, and the main one, which we will definitely have to see once everything's done, but I expect it to run much faster and be more responsive. We will see...
efdenny:
--- Quote --- No more Internet Explorer required
--- End quote ---
Between this, updated JS, and HTML5, does this mean a possible Mac solution?? :)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version