I second that, and thank you for the detailed update.
Rodney
From: program-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <program-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf
Of jacob kruger
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2018 2:06 AM
To: Program-l <program-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [program-l] Re: [quorum-language] Quorum Studio Update
Sounds like good progress is being made, and, yes, I would love to be able to
try it out sooner, but, quality is better than quantity/immediacy?
Stay well
Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"...resistance is futile...but, acceptance is versatile..."
On 2018-11-17 4:18 AM, Andreas Stefik wrote:
Folks,
We've been making steady progress toward our release of Quorum Studio and I
wanted to provide an update. First, let me say clearly that Quorum Studio is
easily one of the most complicated, and difficult, technologies we've invented
in the lab. It is large, feature rich, and essentially everything about it is
customized with accessibility in mind. To say the least, it has become not just
the sodbeans replacement, but a fundamental re-thinking of what is possible for
accessibility in programming.
First, here is a short list of where we are at:
1. The primary compilation pipeline is finished. This includes compiling,
debugging, and other basic functions you need to write software. They aren't
pretty and need plenty of work, but the bare bones is functional. Quorum Studio
is powerful enough today to compile Quorum Studio in Quorum Studio.
2. Quorum Studio has a custom project system, different from NetBeans. This
cleans up a whole bunch of issues we've heard over the years about projects in
NetBeans. It will also allow us in the future to use the same project system
online and offline.
3. We have redesigned the user interface system for Quorum 7, because we
realized we had to for projects as complex as Quorum Studio. William took the
lead on this and it's lightyears ahead of where we were at last year. To say
the least, it is much simpler to write user interfaces in Quorum 7.
4. Most of the major user interface windows are functioning in Quorum Studio.
This includes trees, the editor, and stuff like that. Most of them are still
pretty bare bones, but they are working.
5. Smart zooming: Magnification is never necessary in Quorum Studio. If you
"zoom in," the system is smart enough to re-render every aspect of the user
interface larger and without pixelation. This is fundamentally different than
what was even possible in NetBeans.
While all of that is awesome, there are a number of features we are not done
with that are really important. I'll list a few, but the short and skinny is
that it is increasingly looking like we should wait until next summer to
release Quorum Studio. Notably, we are still finishing the accessibility
pipeline for screen readers, some of the interface components need more spit
and polish, and there are a number of critical features that aren't hard, but
we haven't started on yet (e.g., copy/paste, find/replace).
We want to do this right and that means we are going to push things back so we
can get it how we want it. Here is our tentative new plan:
1. Sometime in the next few months, we are going to put out a closed alpha. We
won't hit December as planned, but our thinking internally is that "it's done
when it is ready." This will be invitation only for users testing certain
things we know we will want people to look at (e.g., screen reader support,
smart zoom testing).
2. After the alpha, we will put out a closed beta a few months after that.
3. We will release Quorum Studio 1.0 formally at EPIQ 2019, which feels
somewhat fitting given it is the 10th anniversary of the venue.
We know that to a degree this is probably disappointing. I know some of you are
waiting and really want this and the sooner the better. We're sorry about that.
Looking at the technology, however, our original goal to finish the technology
in one year was too ambitious. In practice, to make it what we want it to be is
taking us two years.
Delays notwithstanding, I can say that I am really, really excited to get this
technology out there to the community. We have been wanting to invent this for
years and are thankful to the National Science Foundation that we finally have
our shot. We're close and I'm super excited for everyone to get their hands on
it. It's taking us more time, but we're making great progress. Hopefully it
will just be a few short months before the alpha!
Stefik
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