On this page you can view our Trello Board for our U.M.P version release roadmap ... details are subject to change.
Since the launch of U.M.P 098 Alpha, we have been busy making massive additions and improvements to the platform.
These fixes / improvements will be made available in the next build 0.99 BETA. They include:
Stay tuned .... the release date of 0.99 beta is not yet set, but we are working extremely hard to roll it out as soon as possible. Now that the alpha version has been released, and the U.M.P is being installed on various machines...... bugs are going to start appearing. In this post, I will keep a list of bugs that have appeared and that have been reported by users, and share with you any workarounds or fixes that are available. Next build: Friday August 13th, 2015 V 0.98 Alpha d Sometimes, when using Dropbox to exchange files, the Avatars of remote users does not show up correctly until after the first exchange of files. - The workaround for this is just to ignore the problem until the first exchange of files has been completed. Afterwards, the avatars will display correctly for the rest of the mediation process. - Fixed in next release V 0.98 Alpha c Fixed a few miscellaneous issues, which created a couple of new ones "Error loading avatar from disk cache" - This is not a serious issue and is resolved the next time the file is opened. - Fixed in next release Progress Wizard has display issues - Fixed in next release V 0.98 Alpha b When you try to exchange / sync your content right after accepting an invitation, U.M.P will have trouble finding the other user's files even if they are available. - To get around it, close your file and re-open, and you will never have the problem again. - Will be fixed in next release V 0.98 Alpha a At certain times keyboard input is lagging inside fields - Caused by unclosed Browser Instance (Help Section) - No other trigger found - Fixed in next build When using Dropbox to Exchange Files, if you don't finish the invitation process and don't make it to "Progress Step 1", and have to reload your file, your avatar will not load correctly. - The Avatar rights itself after you get to step one and reload your file - Fixed in next release Exiting the U.MP is done through Task Wizard and O.S Shortcuts - Added permenant, ever-present, off button in top right Fields scroll too quickly - Added option to change scroll speed in Application Settings Windows installer messes with file permissions - windows .exe installer has been temporarily taken offline "Execution Error" on Mac OS X when making new user account - All file operations should now be rock solid on any Apple or Windows machine We at MakeShyft R.D.A we have been the happy recipients of some pretty epic ideas to put into our R.D.A pipeline. However, not one of them is small, all of them seemed to require much more than we had. Mostly, more resources and more team members. By April of 2013, having spent the better part of 2 years developing the ideas in our pipeline, we found ourselves at a crossroads. It was time to narrow our focus on one of the projects and to bring it to fruition. We decided that the most feasible idea was to work on developing the first version of the U.M.P. It was the project which required the least amount of resources and manpower. On April 10th 2013, I sat down to do a Google search to find a cross platform development tool which we could use to build the U.M.P. After a few hours of searching and reading the descriptions and examples of the various platforms, it seemed like it wasn't going to be very straightforward at all. There was no platform that encompassed everything that was needed to build the U.M.P. Platforms and languages would need to be combined to have any hope of building a working prototype. Learning multiple platforms was not something we wanted to do. Later that evening, our team-member, friend, & roommate Ryan sent me a link to "Livecode goes Open-Source"...... saying "This might come in handy one day".... Come in handy one day???? ... that was the understatement of the century :) Without even clicking on it, I freaked out with joy. I just knew this is what I was searching for earlier in the day. This was the answer, this was our platform. Once I clicked on it and began reading about it, it confirmed that, this relatively unknown platform is perfect what what our company required to go full speed ahead with building the U.M.P and the projects in our pipeline. Tears of Joy were flowing that day. Literally. Livecode has been around since the 1980's (as Hypercard) and is now called Livecode. Why Livecode?
To build the U.M.P we required a platform that was sufficiently quick, easy to learn, and capable of covering every aspect of what needed to be built. Mainly, a user interface, a file format, and a back-end full of functions and algorithms. Even though I hadn't really programmed much, I began working on the U.M.P right away, I didn't play around with it, I didn't have to ease my way in. The name of my first livecode file was "UMP1.livecode". I don't know if any other platform in the world is simple and robust enough to let me do that. Livecode is unique in the following ways:
Building the U.M.P is no small task, it is not your average - single functionality app. It is a full platform with a great many components. For example, we created an U.M.P file format using Livecode's built in SQLite support driver. As of our first internal version 0.97, the UMP has:
If you have an idea for an app, LiveCode is an incredible, mature, robust, full-featured software development platform. Give it a try. We Love LiveCode....and our work with it has just begun, we are on board, all-in, and we will do everything in our power to raise awareness of the platform. This is part of the purpose of writing this blog. Thank you to the dedicated team at LiveCode Ltd in Edinburgh, Scotland. by Tom Glod Lead Developer @ MakeShyft R.D.A Since April 2013, The U.M.P has been in technical development using Livecode. It started as an empty Canvas, an empty Livecode stack, and over the next 780 + days, it became the world's first conflict resolution software platform. In the 18 months prior to this, we had done the necessary work to research what the tools of a mediation platform can be. Now it was time to build them. "If you build it, they will come ... " What should this platform be like? what should it look like? how does it save content? How do you create consistency in appearance and function? Who knows???, we had nothing to compare it to, nothing to reference. The U.M.P is a brand new thing entirely.
First we had to build tools .... tools to build the tools of the U.M.P. It had to store and save, retrieve and combine information. It also needed a standard way of representing its main Tools and all of their functions. This development process then, required much dedication and patience on the part of us, as its developers. It also required contribution and patience on behalf of the people in our lives. We are grateful that the patience we gave to the U.M.P was given also to us, by all those who's paths we crossed and shared life with during this time. Along the way, our design decisions began to culminate into something practical. Many thousands of lines of code were written, and many mistakes had to be fixed; For a long time the U.M.P was one huge bug, constantly crashing, constantly not working. There were times of frustration and tiredness. There were times when things seemed much closer than they really were. But to reach the goal, we had to keep on going, and do what we knew to do. Heading towards an Alpha Release At this time the U.M.P is in a usable state, and we are testing and improving all of its tools every day. It is stable, crashes are becoming rare, but there are still some gaps to fill before a version 1 release. It is at times, a little clumsy to navigate, and not all the paths between the tools are not 100% integrated. The best part is that all of the tools work, and their basic functionality is there. Above all, it is capable of being used to reach an Agreement, which is its purpose after-all. Bugs Bugs are an unavoidable aspect of developing software. No matter how good the programmer, or the platform, bugs happen.Bugs are to software, like the sparks coming off a raging fire. Their presence is unavoidable as long as it is humans who write code. Bugs are also entirely unpredictable, and one can never predict how much time is needed to find them, or how many there will be. The U.M.P, we are sure, still has a few kinks, which can only be found by being used, and by feedback from users. For this reason, we will release the U.M.P as soon as its tools are stable enough to enable users to get from A to Z, input their data, using all of the tools, and be able to build an agreement. That is our goal for the first alpha release; and we are either already there ... or really close. We have in fact used all of the tools, and we have built an Agreement, which is what the purpose of it is. However, ..... and thankfully ....... the universe has thrown us a curve-ball, making the release date not entirely up to us. Livecode, the U.M.P's development platform, is currently suffering from a bug which effects many of the tools in the U.M.P, making it unusable. However, the bug only occurs when we build a "standalone", which is what we must do to releaes the U.M.P onto the Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms. It does not occur in the development environment which is used to work on it. This means that we can work on it, but it cannot be released to the public until this bug is resolved. The bug has been in queue since April 21st, and it has been assigned to a developer to be fixed in one of the upcoming LiveCode 7.0x releases. More information here We believe everything happens for a reason, and this bug has served to help us not to focus on the release date, but rather on the work of improving and stabilizing the U.M.P for its best possible initial release. We have done just that, and will continue to do so. When the bug is fixed, hopefully very soon, we will re-evaluate the condition of the U.M.P and decide whether it is ready for an Alpha release. In the mean time, we continue to prepare it for this happy and momentous day. |