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TabSRMM 3.0 development
| Preview releases MAY be available from my google code site. They are posted infrequently though and should be handled with care. Don't install them on a productivity system, and make sure, you keep a working backup of your Miranda installation (including the database). There are no major known issues that could result in loss of data or a corrupted installation, but you never know. Also, it may crash once in a while.
TabSRMM 3 REQUIRES Miranda 0.9 alpha, it will not work with a 0.8.x install. Don't try it.
For the x64 build, you MUST install the Visual C++ 2008 SP1 runtime for x64 (just google it).
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This page should help people who are using current development builds from the trunk repository. It's purpose is to list known defects and issues and inform you about the ongoing development. You should check this page frequently for new additions.
TabSRMM 3 will be a major rewrite with a number of new features and some old stuff kicked out of the plugin. It will look much more "modern" and should also become more user friendly. Configuring the plugin should be simpler than in previous versions.
The plugin has been migrated from C to C++, although most of the code is not using special C++ features (but new code I'am adding will do so).
Because of this, there were thousands of changes in the last few weeks and naturally, changing so many things will cause issues.
What's new in TabSRMM 3
Many things, actually. Too much to list on this page, so there is now a dedicated page for it.
Latest changes
- On Windows 7, the task bar can show contact avatars instead of status icons. Icons, including status icons, typing notification icons and new message notifier icons, are used in form of overlay icons on the task bar button. This feature requires that you are using the Windows 7 task bar in "large icons" mode. In any other case, the feature is disabled and the default behavior will be in effect. If a contact does not have an avatar, the status icon will be used, like it was before.
- Some options were moved to the container options dialog. There are 2 new pages to set tab/switchbar options and Avatar visibility per container. Note that container options are, by default, global for all containers unless you tell a container to maintain its private options.
- Sound notifications are changed and have been moved to container options. This is WIP and not fully implemented yet.
- Close buttons have been added to tabs and sidebar buttons. They can be enabled in the container options (on the tabs and switchbar page).
- A new title bar variable (%t) can be used to show the status message
- New group chat highlighting. CAUTION: This code is incomplete and may not work. It may also crash or do other evil things. If you experience issues, disable it on the Group chats->Highlighting page.
- Improved TAB key behavior. TAB will focus the Send button whenever text has been entered in the input box. This allows the "Tab-Enter" sequence to send a message. When the input area is empty, TAB will switch focus between the log and the input area only.
- Containers which are configured to maintain private settings (see container options dialog) are now also maintaining their own splitter position.
- Notifications for incoming file events are back
- More aero effects added. One of them allows you to customize the colors (the same colors that are also used for the info panel gradient).
- The switch bar has been added. It's a container option, so there is a new page in the container settings dialog (Tabs and switchbar).
- The switch bar UI is work in progress. It is also not complete, especially the visual appearance will change significantly. The current rendering code for the switchbar buttons is a placeholder and very basic (it doesn't look spectacular, but it works, which is the much more important thing at this time). So please don't complain about "icons too big, icons too small, buttons to large, buttons too small and so on". The switchbar is pretty flexible and allows even complex layouts for the buttons. Such things will be added at a later time.
- The menu bar now behaves like in most modern standard Windows application (e.g. Windows Explorer). When it is set to hidden, it will automatically unhide when you press AND release the ALT key once. When you are done working with the menu bar, it will hide itself again.
The old setting to manually show or hide it, has been left as it was.
Known issues
- Stability issues There are some, caused by many internal changes
- Keyboard navigation for the menu bar is not complete.
- The tray menu doesn't work at the moment - most options do nothing. Will be fixed at a later time, of course.
- Skins may have minor visual issues. Most of the major ones have been already fixed, but some are still there.
- Container options have been reorganized. Some settings may not "stick" always. This is also WIP.
- Status change logging is not always working
- The default group for new group chat sessions will always be collapsed after restarting Miranda.
Road map for TabSRMM 3
The following things are planned to be included:
- Aero UI. Almost done, will use Aero effects in various areas of the message dialog. Obviously, only available on Windows Vista and later.
- Switch bar. A solution to switch between sessions. Similar to tabs, but the switch bar will sit on the left or right side of the window. It's basically a widescreen-friendly replacement for tabs which, by default, always waste vertical screen space. Basically done, but lacks a few features and advanced presentation (right now, the button drawing is minimalistic).
- Group chat improvements. Group chats did not get much attention and they are lacking quite a few features (e.g. the same hotkey support that is already present for single chats). Several things are already complete, for example, the new highlighting code and better hotkey support.
- Session support (unsure if it will make it into 3.0, depends on how much time i get). Will be able to restore containers at the next start of Miranda with all the tabs back.
- Simple "Send Later" feature to queue failed messages for later delivery. Can also be used intentionally to deliver messages when a currently offline contact comes online (for protocols that do not allow offline messaging).
- UI improvements and clean up.
- Windows 7 taskbar support. Still considering this and I can not tell you much how it will look and feel like. Customized taskbar thumbnails are a possibility, same goes for jump lists. I'am still investigating which features of the Windows 7 taskbar are worth to be implemented. UPDATE: partially done with overlay icons and avatars on the task bar - customized thumbnails and other things are still missing, but are planned for a final 3.0.
TODO (things planned but not yet done)
- Improve the info panel. Support RTL text rendering, make better use of the available space, more ways to interact with the info panel.
- Create a more visually appealing layout for the switch bar buttons (including complex layouts with avatars and such).
- performance improvements, especially in skinned mode, the buffered paint API can be used on Windows Vista and later.
- Implement multisend, using the new unattended send framework that was added for the "send later" feature.
- Further simplify settings and configuration, review and improve all default settings for a fresh installation of TabSRMM.
- Provide a default and well documented skin that can be used as a starting point for own modifications.
Note for language pack developers
Please ignore TabSRMM at the moment. Don't try to follow translating stuff during periods of heavy code changes in the plugin. It will only cause you additional work, because a lot of things may change over and over again.
However, TabSRMM 3 should be easier to translate, because strings are no longer scattered across the entire source code. All static strings will be collected within a single file (translator.cpp), so you have to look only there (+ into the resource files, of course, to translate menus and dialog windows).
Revision: 1790
Last modified: 2010 / 1 / 05
