Cogitations by Brad

I’ve taken a dive into creating a plugin system for ExpoSong. It’s been a ride, because I’ve never built anything like this before, and had no training on how to do so. I had to do quite a bit of research, and used a lot of the information from pocoo.org (that’s actually the 2nd tutorial from that site that has helped me with my program). I’ve moved some code over to a plugin, but haven’t actually tested it out yet, which is usually a bad idea, but I hope that it will work.

The tutorial uses a `capabilities` attribute to show what a class can do, but I modified it so that instead of using an attribute, it is a subclass of another class. This helps with documentation, and seems like a more intuitive way to do things as well.

I’m just now getting it going, but soon I hope to get it integrated so that I can get more done.

I’ve gotten schedules fully implemented, (knock on wood). Drag ‘n Drop goodness, right click menus, and a lot more. I’ve also started a little bit on preparing the program for translations into other languages, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet.

I’m trying to figure out how to shorten main.py. It had over 500 lines of code, but I just got it down to a little less. The farther this program gets, if I don’t figure something out, it will be much longer than it should be. I may have to create a bootstrap file to get everything set up like I want.

I’m glad I could get a lot done today. Usually on days where I don’t have anything to do, I put off everything I could do, and don’t get anything done at all, if that makes any sense at all. Maybe I’ll have ExpoSong 0.3 in a couple of weeks.

Exposong 0.2 has been released!

Changes:

• Presentation type is denoted by an icon.
• Preferences dialog to set presentation background, ccli#, etc.
• Scedules: No custom schedules yet, but can filter by presentation type.

A release has been made for exposong! If you’d like to try it out, make sure you have the required software stated under the downloads section.

There’s still a lot to do in the program, but it has progressed quickly in my opinion.

Edit: I have  created a project on google projects for Exposong. Another member has joined the project as well, Siegwart B, for usability and testing.

Just noting that I have registered exposong.org. It’s nothing fancy right now, but I should have something a little better looking next week, and hopefully a release of some kind.

I’m out for the weekend. I may have an internet connection, but even if I do, I won’t have much time.

I’ve just finished the ability to edit current slides, but there’s still no way to add a new one. It shouldn’t be too hard to do with the current setup. There’s 3 things on my TODO before I push it to 0.1. I may put out a beta release once I get to that point.

I’ve got an idea for a name, Exposong, which is based on exposition (a type of show and also the first section of a fugue, so it has to do with music), and exposit (to state or clarify). Even though it doesn’t flow off the tongue as well as I’d like, the words make sense for the program. Another alternative is Songsposition, or Expresent, so if you like either of these better, let me know.

Presenter running in all it’s glory on windows. Notice the dual screens. It seems to be a bit slower, and not quite as clean as it is running on Linux/Gnome, but it does run. It could be a little slow because I’m actually using the fullscreen, but I’m not for sure.

Still not ready for a release, but I’ve gotten a lot done on the presenter program. Noticable to the public is the lyrics presentation. The only thing that is different about lyrics right now is that they have a title that displays in the window, but not on the presentation screen.

Behind the scenes, I’ve removed the requirement for Glade, which means one less thing to install for the user. It should be a little faster. I still have to finish the toolbars and menus.

There’s still a long ways to go. I may soon be working together with another developer, but I’m about to start working a lot on my real job that actually pays. I enjoy it less, but income is better than none.

Here’s another screenshot to wet your appetite.

I’ve felt a little bit of chastisement from some people because I don’t seem to have posted the reasons as to why I am creating this program. I know there are presentation programs for linux, such as OpenOffice.org Impress, but my purpose is not to make a PowerPoint clone. I said that this will be for generic slides, with lyrics added in, but the whole purpose is to make presenting lyrics easier, and maybe allow people to create presentations quicker and easier than they could in PowerPoint or Impress. It is going to be similar to EasyWorship, but with quite a few changes that I think will make it easier to the user.

This project will mostly be a learning experience. I’ve done some research, and the only real open-source alternative is OpenSong, but I cannot contribute to that project because the developing environment costs money. I think it has a lot of usability issues myself, such as inputting lyrics and chords. The program I am working on has no aim to add in chords. I said something about having sheet music, but that’s not going to happen in the near future because I realize that it is so complicated.

I’ve expected some better response in the open source community than I have received. If all that comes out of it is more experience in programming, I’ll be fine with that.

I’ve gotten some more done on the program. I’m getting better at this as I go, so maybe I’ll have a working product in a week or so.

The name isn’t permanent at all. So I’m calling all those who would be willing to attempt to give it a name. I’d like something that would describe what the program does, but is unique; something catchy. Probably less having to do with church or worship, and more along the lines of a presentation, notes for the speaker (aka, a cheat sheet). It doesn’t really matter if the title hints to an event of organized Christianity, as long as it doesn’t make others uncomfortable to use it for general presentations.

Here’s a screenshot to show off some new and exciting features:

Note that the program will use full screen eventually, but for development, I just have it set to use half a screen to make development easier. I already have it so that if there is a second screen it will use it, but I don’t have a second screen hooked up at the moment.