Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2002 5:55 pm

As I'm sitting here finishing up bug fixes in zMapper, it occured to me that just adding features and fixing bugs isn't really what I should be working on right now...

Nobody has been buying zMapper. I think the main reason for this isn't that zMapper is missing features...after all, zMUD users have long experience with major new features being added to zMUD over the years, so I should have a good track record in that regard.

No, I think the reason nobody is buying zMapper is the nobody still really understands what it does, or what it is capable of doing, because I haven't provided any *documentation*.

I've decided that writing the help file and more extensive tutorials are really what is needed for the next release (along with the bug fixes and new features of course!). Unfortunately, writing documentation takes a while. So, I'm pushing back the release date for the next beta another 2 weeks.

My hope is that by August 15th (date subject to change) or so I will have the following finished and ready to release:

1) zMapper 1.10 with a full help file and lots of tutorials and examples.

2) New zMapper features including: custom room doors, custom room exits (including pattern textured exit lines/cooridors), textured rooms, hierarchical zone list/room definitions/exit definitions/styles, styles for text labels, improved bitmap editor, improved shape editor, gif exporting, printing. (all but gif export and printing are already completed).

3) Bug fixes in zMapper (trying to fix all of the reported bugs).

4) zMUD v6.33 recompiled to display all of the new zMapper features.

5) As many bug fixes (mostly regarding the mapper) in zMUD as possible.

While I'll be gone this weekend, after that my schedule is pretty clear, so I should have plenty of work days to get this all done.

Also, my long range intent is to get zMUD and zMapper both into public release status by the end of September.

That should give everyone a good view of the current schedule and what my plans are. I hope people agree with me that documentation is needed for zMapper and I appreciate everyone's patience in waiting the extra couple of weeks to get a more complete release of zMapper.