CL Slideshow
© 2002 Christopher Lewis
slideshow@faktor7.com

CL Slideshow Release Notes

(most recent appear first)

03.02.27:
  • Added a new startup option: "Load last image list" (unchecked by default).
    If checked, Slideshow will remember the last image list and reload it when it is started again. Thanks to Jim Duffy for the inspiration.
  • Removed a small bug in the configuration: When moving or resizing the application window, the new values would be saved to the configuration, but only at application exit. So when you switched to full-screen mode and back, the new settings were lost. That behaviour is now fixed.
03.02.26:
  • Removed a bug with drag'n'drop when the stage was empty.
  • Added support for 16 (fully) and 32-bit (experimental) BMP images.
  • Added a progress bar to the status line. It shows the progress when adding files or directories.
03.02.10:
  • Improved image loading slightly. The image dimensions are now determined once the image is loaded into the application, not when it is displayed.
03.02.05:
  • Removed the unneccesary KeyListener from the image list. This listener removed the selection when the user hit the delete key. It was unneccessary because this behaviour is introduced by the corresponding item in the file menu.
  • Added the delete feature to the file menu.
  • Added the shortcut "Ctrl-L" for hiding/showing the image list.
  • Added the shortcut "Ctrl-S" for hiding/showing the status line.
  • Added the shortcut "Ctrl-T" for hiding/showing the tool bar.
  • Added the shortcut "SPACE" for showing the currently selected image.
  • Added the shortcut "Ctrl-C" for copying the currently selected file to another file.
  • Added the shortcut "Alt-ENTER" for showing the properties of the currently selected file(s).
  • Changed the shortcut "Ctrl-R" to "DELETE" for removing the currently selected file(s) from the image list.
  • Added the shortcut "Shift-DELETE" for deleting the currently selected file(s) from disk.
03.02.04:
  • Minor UI changes in the image list.
03.01.29:
  • The configuration and language files are now in XML syntax.
    I also tidied up all the parameters.
  • In scale none mode, images that are larger than the visible area of the stage are scrolled so that the middle portion is displayed.
02.12.22:
  • The image list now displays type icons for each item.
02.12.21:
  • When the user double-clicked on an image that was already buffered, the application still reloaded that image. This has been fixed.
  • Changed the BMP image reader hierarchy: The main BMP class now implements the javax.imagio.ImageReader interface.
02.12.16:
  • The info window now handles errors that occur when retrieving web pages.
  • Implemented to-do 02.12.12:
    The release notes in the application now only display the 10 last recent entries. There is a link to the www.faktor7.com web page where all notes can be seen.
02.12.12:
  • Removed a bug that caused repeat and non-repeat mode act the wrong way round.
  • CL Slideshow now also supports PNG files.
To do: These release notes are getting rather large. It is unneccessary to provide all of them in the user release. A better solution would be to show only the last 5-10 releases and provide a link to the whole list on the www.faktor7.com server.
(Implemented in 02.12.16)
02.12.11:
  • Images are now recognized by their "Magic Number" (the first 4 bytes) instead of the extension. This enables CL Slideshow to open files without a valid extension aswell.
  • Some error and inforation messages are now displayed in a popup window rather than on command line.
  • In fullscreen mode, you can navigate through the image list by hitting the Page Down or Space key for forward and the Page Up key for backward. If the slide show was running when one of these keys was hit, it is stopped for better convenience.
02.12.06:
  • Replaced the history concept with a previous/next concept. Only the next image is pre-buffered now.
  • Added a new checkbox to the options window that activates the splash screen at startup.
  • Improved the image resizing when the window is made smaller than the current dimensions of the image. The image is now properly resized in the scaleOver mode.
  • When you change the scale mode, the image is immediately resized according to the scale mode policy, i.e., you see the effects of the scale mode at once.
  • The scaling button now has a fixed size, independent of the current label. The size is determined from the label having the largest width.
02.12.03:
  • Added a help message that is displayed at the command line when wrong arguments are given; improved the command line parameter concept such that it is now able to cope with more than one parameter (even if there is only one, -fs/--fullscreen, at the moment).
02.12.02:
  • The application no longer exits from full screen mode when the window has lost the focus (e.g., when the user hits Alt+Tab on windows to swap to another application). This became necessary because in Java™ 1.4.1, the full screen mode would exit immediately once it is started.
    However, you can still return to normal display mode by hitting the ESC key.
02.11.20:
  • Removed some small bugs in the fullscreen methods.
  • If there is a new version available on the internet, the new version number is presented in the dialog.
  • Added a "Hide list" menu item to the image list popup menu.
  • Removed a bug that failed the file type icon display in the properties window.
  • You can now specify in the options window if you want the application to start the slide show automatically when one or more images have been specified at application invocation.
  • The start/stop button now reflects the action it is currently available for, i.e. if the slide show is running, it is showing the "stop" icon and vice versa.
  • Furthermore, the text displayed in the start/stop buttons now changes depending on the current slide show state.
02.11.19:
  • Improved the image loading again slightly.
  • Cleaned the code a little
02.11.18:
  • All the busy waiting for the image dimensions is now done by a media tracker instead of the Stage component itself.
02.11.16:
  • The start/stop button now shows the current state (running/not running).
  • Improved the timer handling: The first image is shown after 500ms instead of immediately (this made problems with the stage repainting). All following images are shown with the delay set in the options dialogue.
02.11.14:
  • Finally removed a bug causing the application not to remember the new divider location when it was changed until the application was closed.
  • You can now double-click the divider to reset its position to the ideal location (i.e. the image list will be just as wide as it needs to be)
  • Removed some global variables that were unnecessary as they were stored in the configuration anyway
02.11.08:
  • More functions in the "Options" window
  • Improved the display of the options window
  • Removed a bug that seriously slowed down the building of file dialogues
  • You can now send an email to the author from within the application (click on the email adress in the info window)
02.11.06:
  • More functions in the "Options" window
02.11.04:
  • You can now easily add and retrieve boolean values to and from the configuration
  • Improved the "check for new version" functionality: You can tell the program to automagically check every time the app is started.
  • If you're sick of the application always asking for confirmation when deleting a file, you can now disable that functionality.
  • When you remove the currently shown image from the list, the next one is shown immediately.
  • Added an "options" window to the menu. Moved the language settings there and added two check boxes for the "confirm file delete" and "check for new version at startup" functionalities.
  • Implemented to-do 02.10.21: When the check for a new version is successful, you can immediately download the applcation JAR to a directory you choose.
02.10.21:
  • Implemented to-do 02.10.13: In the "help" menu, there is now a menu item "Check for new version" that looks for a newer version on the CL Slideshow web site and informs the user what it has found.
To do: Automatically download the new version JAR when a new version is available and the application has been started from a JAR.
(Implemented in 02.11.04)
02.10.15:
  • Changed resource access to make it possible to include resources (e.g. icons and language packs) in an application JAR.
  • Moved the application into a JAR/executable file.
02.10.14:
  • Major changes to the file hierarchiy. Moved all classes into their own package (com.faktor7.slideshow).
    This makes putting all the relevant files into one or more JAR-files easier.
  • Moved all source files into CVS.
  • Several minor changes and fixes.
02.10.13:
  • Implemented to-do #1 of 02.09.25: You can now drag a list item to other window applications. E.g., dragging an item to the Windows desktop will copy the selected image file there.
  • Fixed a small bug with displaying the correct image number in the status line.
  • Fixed a bug with updating the image number index. If you double-click an item to display it, the next image automatically displayed by the slide show will be the one directly after that one (in non-random mode only, of course).
To do: Add a "check for new version" functionality that automatically or manually looks for a newer version of CL Slideshow on a web site. (Note: This implies that CL Slideshow is available as a JAR file so that contents can be easily updated)
(Implemented in 02.10.21)
02.10.11:
  • Added a "history" that contains the last recent shown images. Two buttons in the tool bar provide some kind of "navigation" funtionality. This is especially useful in random mode to view one of the last images again.
    This more or less implements the to-do #3 in 02.09.25.
02.09.25:
  • Created a "copy to" popup item in the list so you can copy a file to your favorite directory.
  • Fixed bug 02.08.30. The ugly borders in full screen mode are now removed.
To do:
  1. drag a list item to windows explorer to copy the corresponding file to the current directory
    (Implemented in 02.10.13)
  2. if possible, create a "set as wallpaper" item in the list
  3. make moving forward and backward moving possible by hitting the right/down and left/up arrow keys
    (Implemented in 02.10.11)
02.09.18:
  • Made the toolbar buttons rollover-enabled. Looks nicer, I think.
  • The key for starting and stopping the slide show is now ENTER. This was necessary because the SPACE key interfered with the tool bar buttons.
02.09.16:
  • These release notes are now an HTML document. This improves usability and readability, and makes it possible to quickly jump from a bug or "to-do" definition to its fix/implementation (if present).
02.09.10:
  • Made a new, independent class out of the TriValLabel, called "MultiLabel". This class provides an n-function button that is very useful for status lines.
  • Added a "show" item to the popup menu.
  • Fixed To-do 02.08.27: When more than one image is selected, calling the "properties" window shows some common properties of the selection.
  • Several minor bug fixes and improvements...
02.09.06:
  • Changed the status line concept to be able to use again already defined actions, instead of a separate mouse listener.
  • Made StatusLine and SplashScreen common, independent first-level-classes so they can be used in other applications.
02.09.05:
  • Selecting a directory in file (i.e., not directory) dialogues now recursively adds images in that directory to the list. In my opinion, this is a bug of Java© 1.4.0, because selecting a directory and press "Open" should open returning it to the caller.
  • Fixed a bug that was introduced in 02.08.28, when the configuration concept was changed. When a parameter was added to a non-existent parameter list, that list was created but not saved to disk. The effect extremely visible when no configuration file was found at startup because all parameters were added to lists, but not saved.
  • Cleaned the main class code a little ;-)
02.09.04:
  • Moved all the icons and language packs to their own directory to tidy up the main directory a little.
  • Removed some unnecessary Listener classes by moving the code into actions and other existing listeners.
  • Fixed bug 02.08.31
02.08.31:
  • Added a tool bar that represents an interface to quickly invoke the most used functions. At the moment, "Add file(s)", "Add directory", "Start/Stop" and "Info" are supported, but there are hopefully soon more to come.
  • Added functionality to hide/show the image list and the status line via a menu entry in the "View" menu.
  • You can now delete loaded images from disk by right-clicking on a list entry and click on "Delete". To improve security, you are asked to confirm this procedure because the file will irretrievably be deleted; there is no MS-like "Trash".
  • Improved functionality of the configuration class. You can now determine if a loaded configuration has been modified. This is useful for the language configurations: they can now be saved if some parameters have been added at run time (which is highly unlikely so it doesn't make sense to save it every time).
  • The start/stop buttons are now also disabled when no images are loaded (like the fullscreen button).
  • Fixed To-do 02.08.13: Added GIF and BMP icons for the "Properties" dialogue.
To do: There is a bug when displaying/hiding the toolbar.
(Fixed in 02.09.04)
02.08.30:
  • At last, that bloody full-screen mode works satisfactorily (instead of crashing my whole system to blue screen). Pressing F11 will switch to that mode if one or more images are in the list. You can exit full screen by pressing ESC.
  • Minor bug fixes not worth mentioning.
To do: In full screen mode, there are still some awful tiny grey borders around the black stage. They should be removed if possible.
(Fixed in 02.09.25)
02.08.28:
  • Heavily changed the configuration concept. Parameters are now separated into sections, indicated by a name between brackets (similar to windows .ini-files). This is thought useful to keep track of the growing number of parameters.
  • Added a new field to the status line. It contains now the image dimensions that were formerly in the main "status" field which now concentrates on extra user information.
02.08.27:
  • Minor changes to the GUI: Start and stop of the slide show now is invoked by pressing the SPACE key (instead of S); forcing the display of an image is invoked by double-clicking on its list item (instead of single-click)
  • Right-clicking on a list item now opens a popup menu; so far, it has 2 entries: remove the selected entry/entries and show properties of the first selected image
To do: Add support for a properties window that shows common properties of all selected values (not just the first one)
(Implemented in 02.09.10)
02.08.13:
  • Added some basic functionality to the image list. Right-clicking on an element now opens a dialog containing some information about the image's file properties.
To do: Add icons for GIF and BMP files.
(Implemented in 02.08.31)
02.08.09:
  • Fixed a small bug in the configuration handling that caused some comments to get lost when the parameter was changed.
02.08.08:
  • Improved the configuration file handling. Configuration files now may include comments above each parameter, being indicated by a "#" character.
02.07.30:
  • Fixed the problem described in 02.07.28. Images are now redisplayed at once when the stage is resized. Did not move the code into paintComponent() but into a new method resizeImage() and added a ComponentListener to the stage that calls that method.
  • Improved the status line. There are now more fields, one for each piece of information.
02.07.28:
  • Removed some unneeded global variables to improve memory usage.
  • Made splash screen an object of its own. Can now be loaded whenever needed.
To do: Improve image displaying by moving all the display code into paintComponent() of a new object. Advantage: Repainting the image should be much faster, e.g. when resizing the window while a running slide show.
(Fixed in 02.07.30)
02.07.26:
  • Tried to improve performance by reducing global variables that were wasting main memory. Need to get optimized soon. Look at filter, filter2 and all other global vars. Moreover, full screen performance is still very poor and sometimes causes Win2k (and possibly all other OSs) to crash (Urgh! Bad!).
    See 02.08.30
02.05.23:
  • Added a command line switch "-fs" to make the application display full screen at once. Only makes sense when at least one image file is specified aswell.
02.05.22:
  • Implemented To-do 02.05.06: Introduced a kind of screen saver functionality: Pressing F11 will switch to full screen mode (you can still start and stop the slide show by pressing S and switch to normal mode by pressing the ESC key). The mouse cursor is suppressed. Switching to another application (e.g. by pressing Alt+Tab) causes the slide show to jump back to normal mode. There are still some bugs (especially when jumping back to normal mode), but the main concept works.
  • When dropping some files on it, the application will try to become the frontmost window on the screen. This may not be successful, depending on the platform (it does work on Windows 2000 Professional, at least).
02.05.17:
02.05.16:
  • You can now start the application with command-line arguments. If one or more more image files (or directories containing at least one valid image) are given, they are added to the image list and the slide show is started immediately. This can be very handy, e.g., i added an entry to my "Send to" list so i can now start a slide show directly from selected images in Windows Explorer.
  • Fixed a small bug that caused poor performance. In the running slide show, the selection listener of the list caused every image to be displayed twice in a row.
  • Fixed a bug with the "Add file" shortcut. It didn't work any more because "Ctrl-A" was occupied by the list (which causes all images to be selected).
  • Removed the stupid fact that in repeat mode, even if there is only one image, the image is continuously shown.
  • Implemented To-do 02.05.07 (2): You can now drag directories onto the application; this will add all image files contained to the list (at the moment this is not done recursively)
02.05.07:
  • Added a handy list to the GUI that displays all current images. Includes Drag'n'Drop support. Now you can also easily remove images from the slide show by selecting them in the list and hitting the "DEL" key. This somehow makes the "Remove file(s)" entry the menu unnecessary.
  • Removed some unnecessary handling of the main window bounds when "un-maximizing".
To do: Add an "Exit" button to the menu.
(Implemented in 02.05.17)
To do: Drag a directory onto the app and add all the images contained within.
(Added in 02.05.16)
02.05.06:
  • Improved handling of maximizing the window. This state is now reset at start when the application was maximized at the time it was last terminated. After normalizing ("un-maximizing") the window size and position before the maximization are recovered.
  • Fixed bug in 02.04.28. Mnemonics are now correctly displayed in every language. The mnemonic character has to be marked by a preceding "_" letter in the language pack. If no mnemonic is specified, the first letter is used.
To do: I had the idea of providing a full screen mode. The Slideshow would then act similar to a screen saver. Let's see...
(Introduced in 02.05.22)
02.05.02:
  • Added a nice little icon that is shown in most modern window managers (e.g. windows displays the icon in the upper-left corner of the window and in the taskbar).
  • Implemented To-do 02.04.29 (2): CL Slideshow now also can handle compressed (4 and 8 bit) BMP files. Hooray!
    That means BMP is now finished. What now? We'll see...
  • Heavily improved the BMP rendering performance (by buffering the file content). That devilish 8 MB BMP (see 02.04.30) now loads in 1.5 secs.
02.04.30:
  • Implemented To-do 02.04.29 (1): (Uncompressed) BMP images with a color depth of 1, 4, 8 and 24 bits are now all supported.
To do: Performance is still very poor. Loading an 8 MB BMP took about 30 secs on a Pentium II 400 (Win2k). Must get far better!!
(Fixed in 02.05.02)
02.04.29:
  • Added support for Windows BMP image files. Still a bit slow, needs improvement. But it works.
    (Note: At this moment, only uncompressed, 24-bit BMPs are supported.)
To do: Add support for other color depths and compression.
(Color depths implemented in 02.04.30, compression in 02.05.02)
02.04.28:
  • Fixed the bug described in 02.04.27.
  • Resized the info window to 400x300.
To do: Discovered a bug in the menu. The item mnemonics are assigned to letters from the english names; so if that specific letter doesn't exist in the current language, no mnemonic is displayed.
(Fixed in 02.05.06)
02.04.27:
  • Added german language pack.
  • Implemented To-do 02.04.26: You can now swap the language by selecting one of the items from the "Language" submenu.
To do: Openening the "Info" window has still a bug. The content is scrolled to the bottom instead of the top.
(Fixed in 02.04.28)
02.04.26:
  • This text is now accessible from within the application ("Help" -> "Info...")
  • Added support for multiple language packs. At the moment, there is only one (english), but there'll be some more soon.
To do: Change the language in the running application.
(Implemented in 02.04.27)
02.04.15:
  • Added simple drag & drop support. You can now drag files e.g. from Windows Explorer on the stage to add them to the list.