Posts Tagged ‘Release Candidate’

Diving Log 5.0 Release Candidate 2

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Today I’ve released the 2nd and last release candidate of Diving Log 5.0. This version is identical with the final release and gives some time to…

  • update the website
  • localize the languages other than English and German
  • fix possible last minute bugs
  • prepare the update process

Please download the RC 2 and test everything and report any bugs. The beta portal is no longer required and this version is available as setup only. It will run until end of April, the final version should be released in March, if everything goes well.

I’ve got a lot of questions about the update price for existing customers. I’ve thought about this for a long time and decided that this update will be for free for all existing Diving Log users who have an official license key. But I’ll ask for a PayPal donation during the update process, so you can decide yourself if you want to pay something for this update  and how much. And users who have bought version 4.0 recently can update for free, of course. I think this is fair for everyone.

Some things have changed in this version, most notable the location of some files. Report, template and layout files are now stored in your Windows personal folder, sub folder “Diving Log” right beside the default logbook file. This makes it easier to backup all files. The other reason is, that there is no write access into the program folder on Vista or Windows 7. You should copy your modified or downloaded report, template and layout files into the new location. I’ve also changed the location of the program settings, which means that some settings will be lost and you have to setup them again (mostly download and export settings).

Diving Log 5.0 RC2 is near

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

So, I’m a little bit behind my schedule – normally the release candidate 2 should be already released – but I’m very close. I uploaded new zip files and uploaded also an updated setup, both are almost RC 2, but I want to fine tune some more things first. German users will notice that the latest version is almost completely localized, which means that I can soon send the localization file to the other translators and those languages will be hopefully finish in the near future.

If you are still running RC1 bits, I highly recommend that you update to the latest version, because RC1 will stop running end of this month. The current build will run until end of March.

Other new features in the latest update are the update check function and the compass display in the logbook window. You must currently drag the compass from the layout toolbox, because there is no finish layout yet included in the setup. The compass will work at the moment only for Uwatec Galileo users, because you can’t yet set the course manually. Please note also that the update check does not show you every minor update during this time. It is more intended for the final release, not for the beta period.

Update Check

Compass Display

Diving Log 5.0 Release Candidate 1

Monday, December 14th, 2009

It’s now about two month since the first beta of Diving Log 5.0 was published back in October and during this time I’ve released several updates and bug fixes. Now it’s time to make it available to a wider audience, so I’ve created a first release candidate (RC 1) with installer and put it on the download website of Diving Log. You can also download the latest version as zip file from the beta portal.

If you are new to Diving Log 5.0 I recommend you read the old blog posts where I describe with many screenshots all the new features of version 5.0. In this forum post I’ve linked most of the important posts. You can use your 4.0 registration data to unlock the release candidate of version 5.0 and use the same logbook file.

What’s new in the release candidate from the last 5.0 beta version? The most important difference is, that the release candidate will run until end of February 2010 (the final version will be available before that date). All previous beta versions will stop working on January 1st 2010! The RC 1 has also some significant improvements for non standard DPI settings (> 92 DPI) of Windows. So if you are using high resolution screens, you should not see any major display bugs anymore. The last new feature is the ability to configure the background of the main window with several options:

Office 2007 Background

Office 2007 Background

Background Image

Background Image

Here is a short list of features that are currently missing and will be included in the final release:

  • Import of Diving Log logbook files
  • Profile edit function (not yet sure if this will be included in the initial 5.0 release)
  • Template function
  • Backup function
  • Update Check
  • Full localization

So, what’s the roadmap for the next weeks? I’ll release at least one more release candidate in January, in the meantime I’ll update the zip files on the beta portal regularly. The final version should be available somewhere end of January or early February.