By mig

[2008.03.04] Blessed (mini-Super) Tuesday

By mig mig Mar 4, 2008 8:56 pm
Filed under Development

So 28 days later we find that the political season keeps on its inexorable course, as does our progress toward this fantastic 0.5 release:

Choo! Choo!

http://publicsvn.songbirdnest.com/wiki/Nightly_Builds

So, then, what’s been done for 0.5, you ask? Well, you can examine in detail all 300ish fixed items straight from our Bugzilla, or you can just read the following bulletpoint list:

  • Better iPod Device Support Add-on (for Everybody)
  • Extensible Views for your Library and Playlists

    • Now, you should all know what “Blessings” mean — these are still not done yet, not even “Beta,” and we announce them because we need your help testing out the functionality before we release it fully.

    We especially need your help with MTP devices under Windows, since we only have so many available here for testing (lots, actually, but still only a small percentage of all the possible players, phones, memory sticks, et al, out in the world today).

    We’ve made a page on our wiki with instructions for people to test their MTP devices and either fill out bugzilla bugs or report that everything is working fine:

    http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/index.php/MTP_Device_Compatibility

    If you have an MTP device, please check that page and help us out!

    ALSO, remember, tomorrow and every morning thereafter will find even newer (and hopefully better) Nightly builds of the application and the default set of add-ons. So if it’s Thursday or later when you’re reading this, do please try to get the latest Nightlies and not the blessed build. We’re at the point where we’re fixing lots of little things (and the occasional big monster) every day, so it’s worth updating to see if the bug you’re about to report has already been fixed, right?

    http://bugzilla.songbirdnest.com

    mig

    ps: Oh yes. One last humble request. Please try to set the ‘version’ field in Bugzilla to either 0.4 Final or 0.5 Nightly, depending on the one you’re testing. It’s somewhat confusing to us when the cookie is remembering that the last bug you submitted was for, say, 0.3 RC1 or something. Thanks!

    Comments (5)

    [2008.02.05] Super (Blessed) Tuesday

    By mig mig Feb 5, 2008 9:07 pm
    Filed under Development

    Unlike all those unnamed politicos raking in millions of dollars a month just for being themselves, we couldn’t afford to lavish a full whistle-stop tour on a simple blessing of a 0.5pre build.

    But the non-partisan mascots are happy to roll it out on a handcar, working together but in opposite directions:

    [2008.02.05] Nightly Build

    http://publicsvn.songbirdnest.com/wiki/Nightly_Builds

    And now we also have a place to host our Nightly-built Add-Ons:
    http://developer.songbirdnest.com/nightly/addons/

    Want to know what’s actually in the blessing? Read on!

    Comments (5)

    More Fantastic Feathers!

    By mig mig Jan 4, 2008 5:37 pm
    Filed under Development
    Tagged as ,

    So, to file another article in the “Stick a fork in the “it looks like iTunes“” category:

    Birdie Feather

    http://addons.songbirdnest.com/extensions/detail/113

    Pino, our most prolific featherer, has come up with yet another fantastic layout for a miniplayer, using some of Koshi’s original artwork and SVG to rotate and skew the text and album art.

    Also, a small mea culpa, my original JumpTo Feathers wasn’t working properly on Windows machines. I’ve fixed it, so those of you who had already downloaded it have already been informed that there’s an update, now, right?

    http://addons.songbirdnest.com/extensions/detail/107

    HAPPY FEATHERING!

    mig

    Comments Off

    Using new XUL Layouts in Feathers

    By mig mig Dec 28, 2007 3:31 pm
    Filed under Development

    So now that 0.4 is shipped, I can let you all know about a little toy I’ve wanted to make for a long while now…

    JumpTo Feather

    http://addons.songbirdnest.com/extensions/detail/107

    This quick little Add-On was written as a proof of concept to respond to all the complainers and fun-haters who go on about “why do you have to look just like iTunes?!” and “can’t you get rid of the browser? I don’t want it!!”

    So if you see people making such noises, do please point them here and we’ll try to straighten them out, yea?

    You see, unlike Firefox, Songbird isn’t tied down to just one layout for the user interface. We leverage and leapfrog the might of Mozilla to allow Feathers to specify new CSS or new XUL or both — and thus be able to mash up the basic UI elements that define a media player in any way you can imagine.

    For instance, we’ve created our own playlist element that’s completely accessible from javascript. In this way you can create your own playlisting functionality separate from the functionality we implement in the app, without needing to know much more than how to program javascript for webpages.

    The Now Playing Add-On is a great example of an external developer leveraging Songbird’s available XUL elements to create fantastic new functionality outside of Songbird’s basic player scheme.

    So whether it’s new XUL panels or buttons to inject into the main player window or brand-new layouts for your playback, Songbird provides far more UI flexibility than that old stinky platinum-cum-brushed-metal curmudgeon from Cupertino.

    Don’t forget to spread the word!

    mig

    Comments (1)

    [2007.10.22] Drilling down to another Blessed Nightly

    By mig mig Oct 22, 2007 6:50 pm
    Filed under Development

    RC2 soon, very soon, but we thought we get this into your hot little hands now…

    [2007.10.22] Drilling down to another Blessed Nightly

    http://publicsvn.songbirdnest.com/wiki/Nightly_Builds

    B-b-b-b-b-u-u-t-t-t w-w-w-e-e s-s-s-t-t-i-i-l-l-l n-n-n-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-d-d y-y-y-o-o-o-u-u-r-r-r h-h-h-e-e-l-l-p-p t-t-o-o-o t-t-t-e-e-e-s-s-t-t-t!

    http://bugzilla.songbirdnest.com

    The bugs are still in there, and we’ll keep on hammering as you keep on finding!

    mig

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