Pegasus Mail v4.62 is now in the late stages of preparation for release: it primarily works around some issued introduced by Microsoft with the roll-out of Internet Explorer 9, but has a range of small bug fixes as well. It should be out within a couple of weeks of this posting.
In the longer term, the main focus in Pegasus Mail is now moving onto new functionality, in particular the new Pegasus Mail contact manager, which is an ultra-powerful replacement for the now antique Pegasus Mail addressbook system. This code has been developing over the last few months and, like so many things these days, has ended up being quite a bit more work than I anticipated, mostly because once it became clear how capable it was going to be, it also became necessary to start devising a user interface that would make the most of it. I've ended up writing a lot of new UI code, including some stuff that is actually pure out-and-out fun... I probably need to explain that. As software projects get larger, you spend more and more of your time fixing bugs, modernizing code, and generally doing background tasks that end users will seldom even be aware is there; in all honesty, this process is humdrum and quite soul-destroying, but it's unavoidable if the program is to remain viable. The real pleasure in developing an application like Pegasus Mail is in the addition of new features that offer direct, visible benefits to my community - that's when working on it is fun again. The new contact manager definitely falls into the "fun" category - in one mad orgy of development, the program is going to go from having an antiquated addressbook that is barely usable in the modern world to having a contact manager that many sites may be able to use as a full-blown CRM system.
The other major forthcoming change to the program, the new backing message store, has been on hold for a little while as I fought fires in other places, but development is now proceeding on it again: I'm now working extensively on the IMAP portion of the message store. IMAP users should find the new message store much faster at most tasks, because it will be able to take advantage of IMAP extensions and features that were not previously possible, and it will also be possible to use Pegasus Mail as an IMAP-only mail program if you wish. This will be accompanied by new SSL code using the industry-standard OpenSSL libraries, for greater stability and compatibility over secured connections. I feel like I've been talking about this message store forever, but when I look at it and realize that I've written over 100,000 lines of highly-organized code already, I realize that in its own right, it is already a considerably larger project than many full-blown software packages out there. It's frustrating putting in so much effort without feeling like I have much to show you yet, but the work will be worthwhile in the end.
On a slightly gloomier note, looming over all of this is the shadow of considerable financial difficulty... *sigh*. I cannot deny that the last couple of years have been financially disastrous in almost every way, and it's a constant struggle to find ways of making ends meet. I'll be sending out a plea to the Pegasus Mail Thousand soon and hope that as many as people as possible will be able to respond so I can carry on doing what I've now been doing for over 21 years.
It's Winter in New Zealand now, and cccccooooolllldddd.... To all of my antipodean colleagues, wrap up and keep warm, and to those of you lucky enough to be basking in the warmth of northern climes, have fun in the sun!
Cheers to you all!
-- David --
<p>Pegasus Mail v4.62 is now in the late stages of preparation for release: it primarily works around some issued introduced by Microsoft with the roll-out of Internet Explorer 9, but has a range of small bug fixes as well. It should be out within a couple of weeks of this posting.
In the longer term, the main focus in Pegasus Mail is now moving onto new functionality, in particular the new Pegasus Mail contact manager, which is an ultra-powerful replacement for the now antique Pegasus Mail addressbook system. This code has been developing over the last few months and, like so many things these days, has ended up being quite a bit more work than I anticipated, mostly because once it became clear how capable it was going to be, it also became necessary to start devising a user interface that would make the most of it. I've ended up writing a lot of new UI code, including some stuff that is actually pure out-and-out fun... I probably need to explain that. As software projects get larger, you spend more and more of your time fixing bugs, modernizing code, and generally doing background tasks that end users will seldom even be aware is there; in all honesty, this process is humdrum and quite soul-destroying, but it's unavoidable if the program is to remain viable. The real pleasure in developing an application like Pegasus Mail is in the addition of new features that offer direct, visible benefits to my community - that's when working on it is fun again. The new contact manager definitely falls into the "fun" category - in one mad orgy of development, the program is going to go from having an antiquated addressbook that is barely usable in the modern world to having a contact manager that many sites may be able to use as a full-blown CRM system.
The other major forthcoming change to the program, the new backing message store, has been on hold for a little while as I fought fires in other places, but development is now proceeding on it again: I'm now working extensively on the IMAP portion of the message store. IMAP users should find the new message store much faster at most tasks, because it will be able to take advantage of IMAP extensions and features that were not previously possible, and it will also be possible to use Pegasus Mail as an IMAP-only mail program if you wish. This will be accompanied by new SSL code using the industry-standard OpenSSL libraries, for greater stability and compatibility over secured connections. I feel like I've been talking about this message store forever, but when I look at it and realize that I've written over 100,000 lines of highly-organized code already, I realize that in its own right, it is already a considerably larger project than many full-blown software packages out there. It's frustrating putting in so much effort without feeling like I have much to show you yet, but the work will be worthwhile in the end.
</p><p>On a slightly gloomier note, looming over all of this is the shadow of considerable financial difficulty... *sigh*. I cannot deny that the last couple of years have been financially disastrous in almost every way, and it's a constant struggle to find ways of making ends meet. I'll be sending out a plea to the Pegasus Mail Thousand soon and hope that as many as people as possible will be able to respond so I can carry on doing what I've now been doing for over 21 years.
It's Winter in New Zealand now, and cccccooooolllldddd.... To all of my antipodean colleagues, wrap up and keep warm, and to those of you lucky enough to be basking in the warmth of northern climes, have fun in the sun!
Cheers to you all!
-- David --
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