Not much to say except 1.1.5 is not going to happen.  I have started the rewrite of Hana.  The first release of the rewrite will be Hana 1.2 and you should look for it someday.  Sorry about that, but life is too unpredictable to be able to even narrow it down to a quarter, let alone a month or day.  That being said, we are looking to get it done sooner rather than later.  When we have the new UI running, even if not in final mode, I plan to take a screen shot and share.  But if we start making progress, it may get skipped.

It has been a while since I did an update because there has been precious little progress.  But there has been a lot of activity lately, so keep an eye out for an update to this blog for more news on Hana 1.2.

Hana 1.2 is going to be functionally equivalent to 1.1.4 at the minimum, but will have some small new features.  The UI is being updated with the toolbar being scrapped and replaced with a much better, I hope, UI design.  1.2 will be the last Tiger supported build.  After that, the new code base will be updated to use Leopard APIs and we will add some big updates to what will be 2.0.  2.0 will be a free upgrade to all existing 1.1.4 customers.  We are going to do something special for the MacHeist players who scored a free license to get a free upgrade.  Nothing too onerous I assure you.

Last, I think the Hana Web-App Directory is going to be taken down.  I barely have enough time to develop Hana, let alone maintain a directory.

For now that is all I have.  Now get to work!  :-)

Hana 1.1.4 is available for immediate download!

COME AND GET IT!!!!

:-)

Release notes:

Version 1.1.4

• Toolbar Address Field Customization Drag & Crash bug is fixed.
• Toolbar Address Field Customization Drag Out, Close Customization and then Open Customization and Crash bug is fixed.
• Open links in default browser and related preferences bug is fixed.
• Hana News button on Status Bar will now only show if it has not been clicked to view any NEW postings to the Kanaka Hana blog.
• To accomodate the Hana News button's behaviour, Hana loads the Kanaka Hana page in memory and compares it to the previously saved version.  Every time you open Hana it will check.  I will add a preference to disable this in the future.  I will also add a timer so that it will check periodically in case you leave Hana open all of the time like I do!
• Known Issues
• The aforementioned occasional inaccurate addresses.  (For us "about:blank" when composing a Gmail message.)
• The SSL Lock icon issue is not yet resolved.  We have not discerned a consistent behavior.
• When browsing in a separate Hana window, the menu commands affect the main window, not the window with focus.
• This is the first step of Hana's architectural upgrade.  Much code was modified "under-the-hood" that SHOULD not affect normal Hana usage.  However, in all likelihood, affects will appear.  My apologies. I will be spending some time right away on 1.1.5 with more "under-the-hood" changes and some actual feature enhancements and bug fixes.  Look for another update in a few weeks.
• Thanks for using Hana!

As I worked to add a new feature to Hana 1.2, the tendrils of this new little monster was finding its way deeper and deeper in to every other part of Hana.  The longer I worked on it, the more I lamented that I was not yet working on the new Hana code base for 2.0.  What's worse is that this code would not be reusable in Hana 2.  So, just a few moments ago I stopped lamenting and decided that there will be no Hana 1.2.  I will begin work immediately on Hana 2.

What this means is that there will not be any updates to Hana between now and the release of Hana 2.0.  This is planned for late in the summer.  I will be looking for a small group of active Hana users to beta test 2.0, but that is still 6 weeks or so away from being released.  The first Beta of 2.0 will have feature parity at the very least with Hana 1.1.x.

Hana 2.0 will be free for all customers who purchased Hana at any price.  As of right now, this only excludes user who acquired Hana via the MacHeist promotion.  If you are an active Hana user and you got your license from MacHeist, fret not.  I will be announcing a short period, say a fortnight, in which any Hana from MacHeist user can get a free upgrade.  I am doing this not because I want you to pay, but because I want the license that can be found on the web to not be valid in 2.0.

What can you look forward to in 2.0?  First, Leopard only support.  Apologies to my Tiger lovers!  But I want to use several new technologies and for that I need to push Hana forward.  I also expect Apple to announce Mac OS X 10.6 at WWDC.  I do not want to be TOO far behind the curve!  :-)  Second, you can look for much more complete web browser features.  While Hana is a web worker as opposed to a browser conceptually, technologically it is a browser.  Third, options for focused working will be expanded and settable globally and by web app.  Fourth, workspaces.  You will be able to group your web apps and yes even have settings per workspace.  Fifth, I have a few REALLY cool ideas for Hana that will make it a better site specific browser than others.  And lastly, but not all by any means, I plan to add plug-ins for badging and other features.

I have already started design and am quite excited about the project and will be getting started as soon as I finish posting this entry.  If you are in the US, I hope your Memorial Day Weekend is going well!

Fred

I have made no secret that I have a day job other than All Out Software, which is effectively my night job.  Last week I received and accepted an offer to start a new day job.  This time, instead of doing web development, I will be doing Mac development.

This has been a dream of mine for many years and the excitement I have is hard to describe.  At the same time, I am leaving a fantastic job for a great firm doing wonderful work at my awesome client.  (Did I miss any superlatives?)  To say this is bittersweet is not capturing the true depth of the situation.  I really love my current client and the work I am doing.

What this means to you, dear Hana users, is better work from me and hopefully more updates as I get a deeper knowledge of the Mac OS and Cocoa.

I had not realized how badly my organization was until I had to assemble the numbers for the accountant.  Alas, that onerous task is complete.  I have a date with myself to get this fixed for 2008 (and the future) and to schedule a time each month to reconcile the books.  This should go fast.  I am telling you this because this is why one known issue with Hana 1.1.3 still floating in the wild.

If you attempt to drag an item out of the toolbar (when in customization mode of course,) Hana will lock up and crash.  Not cool.

This will be the first thing I look at when I resume Hana development in a day or so.  I will probably add a few other things and get 1.1.4 out next week so that this crasher is no long there.  Then 1.2.

If you have an iPhone and a few moments, please take a look at Safari, bookmarks and how it works for your web-apps that you access via your iPhone.  I am considering Hana for iPhone and would like your feedback on what you think this would need.  I have downloaded the SDK and will be getting up to speed on it soon.  I will be acquiring my very own iPhone late this month or early April.  Any input would be welcomed.

Thank you. 

As you would imagine, but possibly do not know are are willing to assume, I use Hana.  Actually, WE use Hana, but I do all of the writing here.  So who am I?  I am Fred Priese.  I founded All Out Software, invented Hana and do most of the work.  We includes a couple of other people.  David came first and he is not a Mac user (anymore and yet.)  David wrote the EULA for Hana and is an attorney.  He came on board after hearing about Slate.  Slate is another AOS project, but one that has never really gotten going.  (It starts right after Hana 2.0.)  Finally Mike is new to Mac development and like me has a background in Windows based web development.  (That means ASP.NET.)  Anyway, I use Hana.  Mike uses Hana.  David can't.  

Where was I?  Oh yeah, I use Hana and so I too notice bugs.  Like the Gmail bug I fixed last night.  I mentioned in the release notes that this affected Yahoo! Mail too.  It looked like it was fixed too.

Well, I just noticed that it was doing it again.  I know what is happening here, so this too will be fixed soon.  I am going on a marathon feature sprint over the next week to move Hana to version 1.2.  It will include a few nifty features.  While trolling through the long list of ideas, I tested a few things and just discovered another bug.

So we might have a 1.1.3 first.  Sigh.

Our currently known issues:

1) Yahoo! Mail will periodically execute a request that will fail.  Hana does not disable the progress indicator on this failure.  (This is very similar to the Gmail bug.)

2) Hana will crash when certain pages are loading with the toolbar open.  (Google Analytics for us.)  If you experience this, hide the toolbar.  The cause for this is unknown.

3) Hana will sometimes not properly display the URI for a web-app in the address field of the toolbar.  (I think this is related to number 2.)

4) Hana will sometimes not properly display the SSL Lock icon.  (I think this too is related to number 2 and definitely to number 3.)

So the Hana Roadmap has 1.1.3 coming out this weekend, we hope!  1.2 in the next couple of weeks and 2.0 in the next month or two.  I will not be blogging about all of these.  But will chime in from time to time.

Now get to work!  :-)

We are evaluating features for a new major upgrade to Hana.  We have already received many requests for new features and are looking for more.  Not because we are bereft of new ideas, but more because we are not sure which ones should have priority!

The suggestion box is right here on the Kanaka Hana blog and requires a Name and Email address.  If you wish to remain anonymous, leave the placeholder address in the box and let me know your favorite fictional character!  Unlike the other contact forms here and at our main web site, no reply will be sent unless you specifically request for one.

You can also always use any contact form or send an email message to the support mailbox at our main domain (alloutsoftware.com.)

Note, the Gmail always loading bug is still there.  I will be investigating this tonight and hope to have a fix for this soon.

Hana 1.1.1 brings some minor bug fixes and two notable fixes.  The first notable fix  is the perpetually running Gmail progress wheel.  This is now classified as "mostly" fixed since it still occurs occasionally.  The second notable fix is that the crasher bug when attempting to download a file with no location set in the preferences for downloaded files to be saved.  We removed the Help buttons that had been added to Hana as we have just decided to rewrite Hana's help file for a future release.  The current help file is mostly accurate.  The new help file was created, just not included in Hana.  You can view it here.  If you ever have any questions, please use any of the contact forms found at alloutsoftware.com or drop an email to our support mailbox at alloutsoftware.com.

What's new is that we have moved this blog from the main All Out Software website to a sub-domain.  This provides a cleaner way to manage Hana's online resources.  One of these is the newly revamped Hana Web App Directory which can now be accessed from the Web-App menu in Hana!

To use the directory, you can click on any "Information" link for information to show up in a new window.  When you click the "Add..." links, the selected web-app will be added to Hana for you.  You may still need to tweak the URI in the Web-App edit sheet, but it should help you get started.

We hope you like 1.1.1!  We are investigating what new features and bugs to fix in 1.1.2 and 1.2.  We plan to then turn our attention to 2.0, which will bring some really cool things!