Posts Tagged ‘Diving Log 6.0’

Diving Log 6.0 – Statistics

Sunday, March 1st, 2015

Today I want to show you the new statistics window in Diving Log 6.0. It is using a new chart drawing engine, which has support for mouse, keyboard and touch input methods as well as animations. The “Copy” and “Save” toolbar buttons will now save also the general statistics as text file in addition to the charts as image file. Here you can see some screenshots:

Chart Years

Chart Years

Chart Temperature

Chart Temperature

Pie and donut charts

Pie and donut charts

Scroll through the chart with the mouse, keyboard or touch

Scroll through the chart with the mouse, keyboard or touch

Line Chart

Line Chart

I’ve also added a new feature to the maps window, to show optionally all dive site labels. That way you can create local dive site overview maps:

Option to show all dive site labels

Option to show all dive site labels

Diving Log 6.0 – Logbook sneak peek

Sunday, February 1st, 2015

I’ll be on vacation from 4 February to 19 February, so it will be a few weeks until the next blog post. Today I want to give you a sneak peek of the logbook window improvements (more about that in March). But first some statistics: Diving Log 5.0 contains actually 60 separate windows, most of them are already transferred over to version 6.0. After my vacation I’ll complete the logbook window, table editor, statistics and some other things. Then the first beta version will be available for download.

Here you can see the new logbook ribbon with a jump list, to quickly navigate to a certain dive number:

Jump-list to quickly navigate to a certain dive

The ribbon also supports “Touch Mode” like in Office 2013 and is user configurable. The new gauge and compass console is also already finished:

Gauges1The new profile drawing function is also improved and fixes some issues from version 5, e.g. the redrawing glitch which you can see when you drag the profile window off-screen and back into view:

Version 5.0 redrawing bug, fixed in version 6.0

Version 5 redrawing bug, fixed in version 6

This is a small preview of some of the logbook window improvements. I’ll show you more when the window is complete and everything is in place. Stay tuned!

Diving Log 6.0 – Logbook Details

Saturday, January 17th, 2015

In this blog post I’ll show you the new details window in Diving Log 6.0. The new popups you’ve seen already in the maps window will be also used in the details window to display related data and functions. In the dive site details it replaces the tiny dropdown arrow from version 5 for a more touch friendly popup menu for different location functions:


In the buddy and shop details, it is used to display the QR Codes to quickly scan the contact details with a smartphone:

Shop1
And in the trip details you can see linked country and dive center details in the popup. You can expect similar information popups in the logbook window, to display relevant linked data right in your dives.

Trip1

Trip2

Diving Log 6.0 – Maps

Saturday, January 10th, 2015

Thank you for the great feedback from the previous post where I’ve shown you the first screenshots of Diving Log 6.0! Today I want to show you some screenshots of the new maps window. When you click on a dive site flag in version 5.0, the dive site shows up in the dive site window. In version 6.0, there is a new popup which shows you some detailed information right in the map window:

New popup with dive site details

New popup with dive site details

When you click on the popup itself, the dive site window opens where you can view and edit all dive site data, just like in version 5. When you click on the dive site image it enlarges and you can view it right on top of the map.

Historical wreck photo on top of the map

Historical wreck photo on top of the map

Another click on the image popup opens up the integrated image viewer so you can view it in full screen. Here are some more examples how you can use this feature:

Dive site drawing and satellite map, great for briefings

Dive site drawing and satellite map, great for briefings

Underwater photo of this site

Underwater photo of this site

Photographed briefing drawing

Photographed briefing whiteboard

Option to show all dive site labels

Option to show all dive site labels

Introducing Diving Log 6.0

Sunday, January 4th, 2015

I wish you all a Happy New Year! Today I want to give you a first look at the upcoming Diving Log 6.0, which will be available later this year. Major updates in Diving Log and usually changes of the development technology. Diving Log 4.0 was built with Visual Basic 6, Diving Log 5.0 was a major rewrite in VB.NET. As user interface (UI) technology I choose “Windows Forms”, which had at that time already a successor called WPF. But it was still the right decision to go first from VB6 to .NET Windows Forms, because WPF would have made the port from VB6 a lot more complicated and time consuming. But I knew I would have to redo the UI again when switching to WPF.

Diving Log 6.0 main window

Diving Log 6.0 main window

And that’s what I’m doing in Diving Log 6.0. This time I can reuse all the code behind, but I have to recreate every single window again in WPF. But it is worth the effort, because Windows Forms didn’t get any major update since 2005 and it’s just a matter of time when the first problems/missing features surface. WPF is the current .NET UI technology for Windows, so this should be a lot more future proof.

WPF has also some other advantages: it scales a lot better for high resolution screens, which are more common today than a few years ago. It also allows me to do basically anything UI-wise without being dependent from 3rd party controls. I’ll demonstrate you some of the advantages in a separate blog post in the near future. Here are some more screenshots:

You can change the accent color in the settings

You can change the accent color in the settings

Icons in dropdowns were very difficult in Windows Forms, but not in WPF

Icons in dropdowns were very difficult in Windows Forms, but not in WPF

The main window background was always an unused space. In Diving Log 6.0 you can add several widgets to create some kind of personal dashboard with local and online data. Right now there is only a weather widget, but this will be extended in the future. You can configure the weather either by country and city name or simply by selecting one of your favorite dive sites with GPS coordinates.

Add and remove widgets in the settings dialog. For configuration, just click the gear icon in every widget.

Add and remove widgets in the settings dialog. For configuration, just click the gear icon in every widget.

This is just a small overview what’s coming in Diving Log 6.0. There is still a lot to do until I can release the first beta version. But I’ll show you more completed features throughout January. Please keep in mind that this is work in progress, so some icons are not updated yet and other things may change, too.