Firstly, thanks to all those kind folks that furnished my last succinct post with kind words of encouragement. Thank you, I must have really needed it because you actually put a smile on my face - a face that’s been in frown mode for most of this week.
It sounds pathetic, but I’m still snowed under with bugs, forum posts and emails. Again, I reiterate my apologies if you’ve sent or posted something that I have not responded to. I will get to it, I just can’t say when yet.
Well we have good news and bad news. The good news is we’ve finished reviewing the RTF code - the core rich text engine. The bad news is we’re going to have to re-write a good chunk of the RTF reader code to fix the font bug completely. So far we’ve fixed it so that it always writes a valid font size, but empty paragraphs still have wrong values. There was an assumption in both the reader and writer that empty paragraphs have no formatting, which just isn’t true. We’ve also identified many other rich text related fixes in the process such as first line indents. We will work on these progressively over the coming weeks but first focus on the more poignant and annoying issues.
We’ve also confirmed that the typing lag is mainly due to spell-checking (we extensively tested machines with no spell checking libraries installed). Tomorrow we’ll work on changing the spell checking code to avoid working quite so much, initially by only rechecking when the user hasn’t typed for half a second, later by reducing how much text is checked as well. This will improve performance considerably as spell checking currently checks the entire document everytime a single character is entered on the keyboard - naturally killing slower machines or even faster machines with very fast typist - of which I’m not one.
So, rich text and performance remain priority number one at the moment. I’m trying to get on the forum three to fours hours a day to log new bugs, but it still is not enough. Code fixing is paramount too. If we’re all talk and no action we will be hung, drawn and quartered forum style - which will not be pleasant for any of us. Patience is a virtue my father used to say.
My hope would be to release a beta 1.3 with some fixes late Friday this week; Oz time. These fixes will address changing fonts, and a smattering of editor bugs, and the performamce issue. No promises, but I’m hopefull. Next on the agenda will be missing text, importing issues and the sistemtatic anihilation of the less sinsister editor bugs.
You are doing great. I know you must be feeling overwhelmed with all the emails, suggestions, bug reports, and coding you have to wade through each day. But, in a way, this is a good thing. It shows the great desire by users for Scrivener for Windows. I have been waiting for several years, hoping that someday I would be able to use this great program. Now, thanks to you, this is coming about. Take your time, do it well. No rush. Like I said, we have been waiting a long time for Scrivener and waiting a little longer will not be a big deal.
Just remember, take care of yourself. And try and have fun. I am sure having fun learning to use this effort of all your hard work.
Your work impresses me every time i read the daily updates (i know how annoying and time killing bug hunt in source code can be). Do not feel bad when you cannot answer everything instantly, i do not think anybody will take this personally and it has lower priority imho. And please … do not overwork (do you sleep at all? ). So, i command you ( ) to have a break … now … drinking a loooong cup off coffee, reading in a good book etc.
That’s what happens when you become a developer. With a small team, it isn’t easy. Take pride that having community focus being part of your agenda and goal is something that only a splatterful of developers really care about.
Listening to us complain and complain is, perhaps, annoying at bits, and extremely heavy with work at other times, but the very fact that you do merits our respect. This respect can’t be bought over with a free, fully functioning product, or a well designed product. It is the close knit connection between developer and consumer that turns a project like Scrivener into one with a dedicated cult following.
I’ll probably, also, wait until the bug fix at the end of the week before I try breaking stuff again, particularly with the new editor, along with running through some old bugs to check that they are indeed fixed and not broken after new fixes.
Take a breath of fresh air and a stroll out in the warm (?) air of Oz. The fact that you care about us all the more means we should care about you too!
Haha I rather spend my money supporting people like you and the entire Scrivener project than put them in the pockets of some massive corporation bent on world domination.
Of course, assuming you people aren’t aiming for world domination. If you are… sign me up?
Just wanted to add my own thanks for all the hard work. You guys are doing a great job and I think even with the bugs (at least the handful I’ve run into) I’d still want to buy the proper version when it’s released!
Keep it up, good luck, and remember to take a break occasionally!
I have tried almost all the other writing software for Windows. The last one was so difficult to learn that learning the software became the purpose for being, not the writing. I did finish a novel but it was too much work.
I have known about Scrivener for years so I am glad for all the work you have done and are doing. Like one said above take your time, do it right and do it well.
I am a lucky one, as the beta is working better than expected for me, mostly text editor quirks. I can live with them while you build the future end product. I have resumed writing after a long slump of nothing. I love the way Scrivener works. It’s so easy to get up and get going. I have had more than one project open at a time each in their own window and able to work between them without a problem. This is a great ability as I often flit back and forth between projects.
I am using a quad-core computer with Windows 7. I also put Scrivener on my netbook running XP; it’s working there as well.
Great work and great software; thanks Lee and of course Keith and the other Scrivener team members. Thank you all so much. Love it.
Just wanted to jump in with more thanks and encouragement. I picked up Scrivener (for Windows) on a whim, and am now using it very happily to participate in my first NaNoWriMo! I love the way the program is organized. There’s enough flexibility to satisfy tweakers, but out of the box it just works, and works well. My own experience it of it has been good so far, and since beta 1.2 I’ve been working in it without a problem. My main focus is the corkboard for outlining and the editor (mostly fullscreen mode) for writing, and both have been working well.
Lee–I love it, love it, love it! I feel so cool using Scrivener, and you should feel so cool for all you have already done. We’re on your side, take your time, enjoy your life a bit, and keep doing your great work!
The Linux beta is amazing. I’ve been using it to write this year’s NaNoWriMo novel, and it’s made a tremendous difference in my workflow. Thank you so much for taking the time to give us our own native version of the beta. I don’t think there are many developers out there who would bother with preparing and releasing an unexpected Linux version while taking care of a massive beta test for Windows. We Linux users got lucky! Much gratitude to Lee and the whole L&L team. (Now bearded Alice better get back to the rabbit warren and see about getting some more writing done. )
Like everyone else, I worry about your working yourself to death. Step away from the keyboard sometimes, eh? Eat, drink, sleep, kiss the wife and pat the dog.
What I mostly want to say is THANK YOU for having evidently nailed THE most important aspect of writing software: PRESERVING OUR WRITING.
For all the bugs, mostly minor, some not, I haven’t seen a single person complain that the program lost some writing. Kudos!
I wanted to echo others - I love this program! I’m using it for NaNo and I hit my word count yesterday times two and wanted to keep going because of how nice it was to write.
Keep up the excellent work. We appreciate it so much.
I came to Scrivener windows because of nanananannooowrrrriiiiimmo … it makes the daunting task of writing 50k easier.
I love the ability to write in modular chunks, then stitching them
all together at the end in an order that may not be immediately apparent (at least I hope it will … :mrgreen: )
Add me to the chorus of “me toos.” There just isn’t anything like Scrivener in the windows (or coughlinuxcough world.) I would’ve sold my soul and right kidney for something like this when I was writing my dissertation…
I have to say this is by far the strongest beta I’ve been on. It basically worked out of the box, with a few minor–in the scope of things–bugs. (Of course anything that doesn’t make it outright crash is minor to me.)
I just have to say that when I was at my Kick Off Party for NaNoWriMo last night I heard about the Scrivener for Windows and just about had a heart attack. My roommate/best friend has a Mac that she has Scrivener on and I’ve wanted the program for over a year now because of it. I’m an extremely fast typist, so when I noticed the lag I typed it out in a new research note so I could keep track of the problems I might have as I come upon them. I’m glad to know that I should be turning off the spell check (I shouldn’t be using that for NaNo anyway! ). Thanks for the update and I’ll get back to writing. What you’re doing is extremely hard work and we are all appreciating it!
No it doesn’t sound pathetic! I’m enormously impressed with the dedication, attention and creative design of the Scrivener team. I’m using Scrivener for nano quite merrily. The few bugs I’ve encountered (and reported) are not monumental and I feel (knock on wood) pretty safe using ScrivWin to store my research and writing, and more than comfortable writing in it–which is the important thing Keep up the great work and don’t stress! Take breaks and help yourself to some literature and latte some of the time
Like many others, I’ve used a frightening variety of software for writers. Some programs frustrated me, some were helpful for a time but eventually made me feel trapped by their rigidity, most had one or two things that I treasured, and almost all of them helped me in one fashion or another.
After reading about Scrivener for Mac, and seeing the masses of testimonials from writers I respect, I actually bought a Mac and downloaded Scrivener, and fell in love. Then the Windows beta (and Scrivener 2 for Mac) came out days later and I downloaded both, realized I’d be happy to work with the Windows version - bugs and all - and took the Mac back to the store.
Scrivener is the first program that made me feel Mac envy. It’s a writer-centric program that allows writers to do tings their own way, and now your work has brought it into the Windows world. Like others on this discussion board, I’m thrilled that you’re committed to smoothing out the bugs over time. Ever since I got Beta 1.1 and turned off spellcheck I’ve been able to be productive and my book is moving along. I’ve got places to type my scraps of thoughts, organize my character notes, and a full screen editor to just write. In addition to all this, I’ve got a new way to take a break from writing - visiting this forum!
Give yourself a medal, a latte, and bask in the approval and affection of this fast growing community of SFW (Scrivener for Windows) lovers. You’re definitely on the A team, and I just love discovering great software that isn’t written by mega-companies.
). So, i command you ( 
) to have a break … now … drinking a loooong cup off coffee, reading in a good book etc.
I’ve been using it to write this year’s NaNoWriMo novel, and it’s made a tremendous difference in my workflow. Thank you so much for taking the time to give us our own native version of the beta. I don’t think there are many developers out there who would bother with preparing and releasing an unexpected Linux version while taking care of a massive beta test for Windows. We Linux users got lucky! Much gratitude to Lee and the whole L&L team. 
). Thanks for the update and I’ll get back to writing. What you’re doing is extremely hard work and we are all appreciating it!