February 27, 2010
The first new feature that I want to show you, is one that has been requested quite a bit in the last couple of versions. In WebCoder 2010, you will be able to create color themes, for syntax coloring, but also for other colors used in the editing area. They will be included in the same configuration file, giving you total customization of the editor and the ability to change between different color themes with a couple of clicks. The settings dialog has been modified to reflect this - the syntax coloring tab is now called "Editor colors", and has been divided into two areas: One for language specific colors and one for editor specific colors, e.g. background color, color for line highlighting, indentation guides, line numbers and so on. It's all working pretty well by now, and I hope that you will like it enough to create your own cool themes and hopefully even share them as well. In the spirit of that, I've made it easier to get a good overview of the various settings for each language, by changing the interface where you set colors and styles for the language. At the same time, I replaced the very simple preview control with a real editor, so that you can see exactly how your theme looks like. I think it turned out pretty well:
I know that a lot of you prefer editing code on a dark background, so I have included a Dark theme in the package. Here's WebCoder with a whole other set of colors than you might be used to:
The colors are just a suggestion, and hopefully you guys will improve it and share it with the rest of the users!
Please let me know what you think! See you in part 3 :)
February 21, 2010
When I started the work on xCoder 2010 back in August 2009, I had no idea what the name would be. I didn't exactly call my project "xCoder" internally, but I did have another codename for it. I wasn't really sure what direction I should go, but I already had some ideas that I knew I wanted to do no matter what, so I started with those. The big question, put in my mind by several customers, was whether to combine phpCoder and WebCoder or keep them as separate products, and if they should be combined, which name should be used? With the feedback from the xCoder 2010 forum, as well as feedback obtained from a range of trusted customers, I slowly made the decision: I wanted one application with the best from both worlds, mainly because people seemed to be bothered by the fact that they had to choose between two applications. My initial idea was to use a brand new name for this merged application, but I'm simply to fond of the WebCoder name to let it go. In other words, xCoder 2010 will be TSW WebCoder 2010, with the very best from phpCoder 2008 and WebCoder 2009 and a range of new stuff as well! I think this is what people want, and the more I think of it, it's what I want as a webdeveloper too.
This has all been very theoretic, but I promise that in my next post, I will start to show you some of the new goodies from WebCoder 2010. Stay tuned :)
February 16, 2010
The xCoder process has already been long. I asked for your input a couple of months ago, but I had actually done quite a bit of work before that as well. Instead of doing long stretches of work on the application and then releasing it as beta, I have done it differently this time. I have spent shorter periods of time developing the application, and in between those, I have used it extensively for various web projects and written down all the bugs I found and the ideas I came up with. This led to a pretty big TODO list of both small and bigger items, and each time I implemented a bunch of the changes, I came up with even more stuff that I wanted to do. This has been going on since August 2009 where I first stated the xCoder project, and since the new version is built on top of WebCoder 2009 code, the entire time has been used to add new features and perhaps more importantly: improve the old ones. Today, my TODO list has surpassed 200 changes, and most of them has already been implemented! Hopefully this will bring you the best web editor ever, and I'm already very excited to show it to you.
In the following weeks, I will tell you much more about this new application, which brings lots of positive changes to the world. In the meantime, while we wait for the beta, I urge you to participate in the xCoder 2010 forum. Let me know what you would like to see improved or added, so we can get it in there before the first beta version. As you can see, lots of users have already provided their feedback, and several requests have already been fulfilled. Thank you and stay tuned! :)
