Louis Kessler’s Behold Blog

It doesn’t look like any of these 5 will be easy. But, the Forward/Back keys now appear to be done and (mostly?) working. I say mostly, because I’m sure there are a few bugs still left in some strange cases I have not yet tested. Hopefully, those will come out in the Beta and I’ll squash them all.

I had built a lot of functionality into those forward/back keys over the years of the alpha. But they relied on checkpoints that were in the RichView document. Of course, since I’ve virtualized the document, those checkpoints no longer exist and I’ve had to redo all the coding relating to it.

I spent almost a whole week trying to debug why the menu items weren’t being transferred correctly between the back and forward menus, and that was the toughest task of this process. Other than that, it was just fixing each of 100 details up, one by one.

So now three major things still to reimplement to be able to release the Beta. That means I’ll have to do one a week and have a week to do the pre-release stuff if I want to get it out in November. That’s an ambitious task, but let’s see how it goes.

Hop over to The Fun Theory and watch the three videos there. It’s a very interesting concept that makes eminent sense.

This is actually an initiative of Volkswagen. They’ve been very innovative in their advertising on TV lately (great commercials!) and this initiative may be an attempt for them to raise their profile on the Internet and get the younger generation interested in their cars again.

None-the-less, the idea is that people will do things more willingly if you make it fun for them to do it.

Entering your genealogy data into a genealogy program is usually NOT a fun thing to do. It is more often something you are compelled to do only because you, as a genealogist, want that data recorded. And despite the drudgery, you continue on to do it.

Maybe it should be like a pinball game, with the bings and the bongs and a score continuously updating as you add more people and events and dates and sources into the deep dark cavern of your genealogy tool … or maybe not.

But if nothing else, genealogy software should attempt to make your data entry less onerous, less un-fun, and less of a thing that you feel you have to do in spite of the program’s attempts to make it very difficult.

I know I’ve got boxes of data waiting to be entered. I cringe at the thought of entering it all into a forms-based entry system. I couldn’t think of a less desireable thing to do with several hundred (if not thousand) hours of my time. That is very un-fun.

What I want is a program that could allow me to enter my data very efficiently, attach my sources easily, and see the data in context as I enter it to allow me to easily come up with those revelations that make this hobby so enjoyable.

Will that be fun? Maybe?

Behold

I really wanted Behold to be able to get certified for the Windows Logo. I tried when Vista came around. But Microsoft frustrated me in my attempt.

I’ve been thinking about trying again for Windows 7. But I encountered a very eye-opening post about it at Successful Software, a blog by Andy Brice that I follow.

Andy writes why he won’t be bothering with the Windows 7 logo program. He did get certified for Windows Vista, but said when I asked, that he did not feel it was of any benefit at all. The bottom line is I found out that I wasn’t the only one finding that process difficult.

Scott K. says it well in the comments to the post: “I really can’t imagine any customer caring if you have some “Compatible with Windows 7″ logo. If you tell them it works (without the logo) I think they’ll believe you.”

What I will do is ensure Behold works and works well under all of XP, Vista and 7. And it will be code-signed guaranteeing you authenticity. I think those are what’s most important.

But until Microsoft makes the obstacle course a little less unattainable, then it’s not worth the setback in development time to get one more certification.

—

An aside: If you haven’t seen it, check out the Revenge of the GEDCOM monster merchandise for Halloween. Very cute.