GW Micro Blog

For those of you not subscribed to the gw-info list, I thought you would appreciate this recent post (with a few grammar changes from the original):

Re: Update on the Beta?

Everyone rest easy; the beta is progressing nicely. The problem that we will always combat when we first announce a new upgrade is answering the question, "when?" As much as we say that we don't have a specific time, we're continually pressed for a date. We eventually give in, and for a million different reasons, things get delayed. That's the nature of the technological beast.

But, to reassure all the wondering minds, let me offer an official statement that the beta will be ready when it's ready, and not a day sooner.

So that didn't ease your mind, huh? Ok, then. Let me tell you why things are taking a long time: scripting is huge. And while you're developing such a massive undertaking, you always find things that didn't pan out the way they were originally designed, or find ways to do things better, or run into technical glitches and snafus. But that doesn't mean the whole process is lost. On the contrary; it makes what we're developing even better.

As you all know, our largest rival, JAWS, has had a scripting language for many years. Knowing that, we wrangled up a few of the bigger names in JAWS scripting, and added them to our private beta team. We did this for two main reasons: 1) we wanted their scripting experience, and 2) we wanted to show them what we have is better. Both of those goals are being met with wild enthusiasm. That also means that as they become familiar with the Window-Eyes scripting model, they have a lot of feedback to offer about how to make Window-Eyes scripting better. Some of the things they tell us we had already accounted for, and some of them we never thought about. So it takes time to regroup about a specific portion of a very large project, research it, develop it, test it, and then implement it for private testing. That may happen on a weekly basis.

So if there's any excuse for a delay (and I hesitate to use the word excuse, because we always said we didn't have a definite date), it's that we keep finding more cool stuff to add to make Window-Eyes scripting all the better (although we're already finding things that will have to wait until post 7.0 so that we can in fact get a public beta out).

That's what's up on the development front. But there's more to Window-Eyes scripting than just a new copy of Window-Eyes. One of the biggest drawbacks to the other guy's scripting feature is a lack of community. We feel that having access to script developers and script users as much as possible is one of the biggest reasons Window-Eyes scripting will become king. That's the reason we came up with Script Central (www.gwmicro.com/sc), and as you can tell when you visit the site, it's already beginning to become inundated with Window-Eyes scripts that will be ready for general consumption when the beta is released. Not only will each script be able to be rated, and commented on, but each script will have its own discussion forum where users can interact with other users and with the script developer 24 hours a day. That itself is a hefty undertaking.

I was there when Window-Eyes scripting was born, and I've been with it every day while it matures; no one is more excited than I am to get it out, and blow people away. But I also want to make sure we do it right, which is why we take our time.

So there's your update. We are getting close. There are only a couple more big ticket items that are keeping a release from being imminent, and those will be getting implemented within the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I suggest kicking back with a cold beverage of your choice, pop in some tunes of your liking, and wait a bit longer in style.

Aaron

P.S. I forgot to mention one additional thing: while scripting is our primary focus, we are also actively working on resolving bugs and issues that have been reported. There will also be a few other features that aren't directly related to scripting that we have to make sure are, dare I say it...rock solid.