[Weft QDA users] Weft QDA 2 - preview 1.9.0 avaiable

[Alex Fenton]

Hi

You're warmly invited to try and comment on the first initial preview of 
Weft QDA 2.

== WARNING ==

This is very much an alpha release. It definitely shouldn't be used for 
real projects. There's no guarantee that projects will be capable of 
being opened in future releases.

== DOWNLOADING & INSTALLING ==

http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=665&release_id=21324

Windows users: download the .exe file and run the installer; you should 
then have a shortcut in your Start menu

Mac users: download the .dmg file and open it up; copy the WeftQDA to 
your Applications folder

Linux and other source users: download the .tar.gz file and unpack it. 
You will need ruby, a few system libraries, and several ruby gems 
installed. The README.txt file runs through the requirements. It's a few 
steps, but should be straightforward. Then do ruby -rubygems weft-qda.rb 
to run Weft QDA.

== WHAT'S NEW ==

Pretty much everything. It should look familiar, and tries to retain an 
emphasis on simplicity and ease of use, but internally it's been almost 
completely rewritten. Major new features include:

* Supports multi-lingual projects (save documents files for import in 
UTF-8 encoding)
* Native on Mac OS X
* More modern visual appearance
* Interface can be translated into different languages
* Documents can be edited after importing, whilst retaining coding
* Annotations can be applied to passages of text
* Attributes can be applied to whole documents
* Searches, queries and code reviews are saved to the database and 
results updated live
* Printing
* Autosaving to recover from crashes
* Smaller project file size

Note that internally the file format is different to Weft QDA 1.0, so at 
the moment, it's not possible to open Weft 1.0 qdp files in this 
release. This is partly deliberate to avoid damaging existing projects.

== WHAT'S LEFT TO DO ==

First, a few things left to match up to Weft QDA 1.0

* Interface for Queries
* Interface for CodeReviews
* Update documentation

Then, remaining features I'd like to add:

* More import/export formats - XML (hypertopic, QuDeX, QDIF), possibly 
PDF, RTF
* Colour theming of application icons
* Custom-highlighting colours for Categories
* Convert project from Weft QDA v1.0
* Scripting
* Collaborative net-based working
* Image documents (possibly sound & video...)
* Integrated help

Plus your suggestions...

== PROBLEMS, BUGS, FEATURE REQUESTS ==

If you're having problems installing or running the software, please use 
the mailing list.

If you find bugs - you probably will - please file them on the bug tracker:
http://rubyforge.org/tracker/?atid=2625&group_id=665&func=browse

If you would like to request a feature, either discuss it on this 
mailing list, or use the feature request:
http://rubyforge.org/tracker/?atid=2628&group_id=665&func=browse

Please use the tracker if possible; it helps ensure that everything is 
followed up. You don't have to register to use it, but if you register 
you will receive feedback on the bug/feature.

Lastly, thanks all for your continued interest in Weft QDA.

cheers
alex