Tuesday, August 17, 2010

AlDraw, Version 2.0

AlDraw is the program I use to make things like this:
(By the way, I just uploaded a bunch onto my picasa album)

I've been working on improving it. I've decided I want to do a major overhaul, and make it version 2.0.

There are three big things I want to focus on:

  • Improving code design. -- When I first wrote it, I didn't really give any thought or attention to making it good code and easily maintainable and extensible. As I gradually expanded it, I rewrote the worst parts to make it more flexible. But for the scale of changes I want, I don't think that's going to be enough. Also, I want to be able to show the code to another programmer and not have them think "What the hell were you doing?"
  • Improving usability. -- This is probably the worst thing about the program right now, because I'm the only one who uses it. There are a lot of things about the program that make perfect sense to me, but wouldn't to anyone who just started using it, because they didn't write it, or get used to its shortcomings as they worked to fix them. If anyone is willing to help test it, let me know.
  • Add features. -- Copy and paste to make repeated designs like tiling easier. Make zooming and panning more fluid. Add colors. Pretty straightforward.
Also, as I want this to be a big step forward, now would be a good time to rename it. I would welcome any suggestions. Possible ideas: keep AlDraw, GeomeDraw, Constructomatic, Euclidomizer...

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