Blogging to Paradise

p style=text-align: leftWell, that was quick! We’d just released v4.9.9.5 with a big SIGH and almost right away got a crash report that told us we’d missed a BIG bug!/p

p style=text-align: leftIt was one of those things where you think you’re improving something but you’ve actually made it worse…/p

p style=text-align: leftSo, anyway, here’s the new version that fixes that bad bug and makes just a couple of other changes (improvements ???)./p

p style=text-align: leftSorry about that!/p

p style=text-align: leftJohn/p

After a few months of bug fixes and a few tweaks and improvements, SonicMood v4.9.9.5 has made it out the door!

We fixed a couple of nasty (and some maybe not so nasty) bugs, especially in the setting of timers. That got a BIG overhaul.

You can read all about it on our website’s history page, here, and download the new version here.

Enjoy!

John

After much testing, we are releasing the latest, Lion Compatible version of SonicMood - v4.9.9.3!

Most of the changes this time are “under the hood.” Improved stability and Lion compatibility were the major goals of this version. There are some usability improvements, too, along with the ever-present bug fixes…

You can find a list of the major changes on our web site at:
http://sonicmood.com/SonicMoodHistory.htm

I hope you like it!
John

We are pleased to announce the release of the newest version of SonicMood, 4.9.9.2! We’ve changed its appearance a bit, added a couple of features, and fixed the usual assortment of odd bugs (ugh!).

You can find a list of the major changes on our web site at:
http://sonicmood.com/SonicMoodHistory.htm

Thanks for your interest!
John

After many months of struggle, we’re pleased to announce that v4.9.9 of SonicMood is out and available on our web site (www.sonicmood.com).

There have been some changes to SonicMood’s look and the usual bug fixes, but the big new thing is that SonicMood now has the ability to put your computer to sleep and wake it up when SonicMood goes to sleep/wakes up! So you can take your MacBook with you when you travel and use SonicMood as your alarm clock…

You can find a list of the major changes on our web site at:
http://sonicmood.com/SonicMoodHistory.htm

Thanks for your patience!

John

It’s been some months since we’ve released an update to SonicMood, so I thought I’d better let you know what’s been happening.

I started working on the next version of SonicMood right after v4.9.8.4 was released, around November of last year. At first I concentrated on bug fixes and a few small new features. But then I had the idea to allow SonicMood to sleep and wake the computer when it went to sleep, etc. Sort of a “SonicMood Alarm Clock.” Well, the sleep computer part was easy, but setting the computer to wake up at a certain time wasn’t.

Waking the computer is part of “power management” and requires an admin name and password to gain authorization to make changes to anything in that area. It was a steep learning curve for me and involved several possible approaches that had various advantages and disadvantages (and bugs… In the process, I also made a number of other improvements and bug fixes to the sleep/wake mechanism in general, as well as improvements in other areas of SonicMood.

So it took a lot longer than I thought it would…

With all the improvements, and the introduction of what I consider a significant new feature, I’ve decided to call this version v4.9.9. It’s just about ready to start beta testing (I’m at alpha 11 and am testing literally night and day on 7 different “test” computers). So, given past experience with beta tests, I’d estimate SonicMood v4.9.9 will be out by early March.

Sorry it’s taken so long, but it should be worth it to anyone who would like to fall asleep and wake up to SonicMood without keeping their computers running all night!

Of course v4.9.9 will be a free update to all registered users, too.

John

We just finished and posted an update to SonicMood, v4.9.8.4!

In addition to the new Mood, “High Plains Asia,” we’ve changed the way several of the optional instrumental effects are varied and the behavior of the SonicMood window when its dock icon is clicked.

And lots more bugs got fixed, too!

Enjoy!
John

SonicMood v4.9.8.3 is out and features no new features <grin> but does fix a few bugs. You can download it here, and here’s the list of changes:

Made some general improvements to the version update code to address several bugs that had surfaced.

Fixed a bug that caused an “out-of-bounds” error when changing the “max notes” edit value if SonicMood has been paused since the last time it was launched.

Fixed a bug that allowed a user to try and save a color scheme file to a write-protected folder, resulting in a crash.

Added a test for folder writability to all file save actions.

Fixed a bug that caused a crash when soundfiles were unchecked in the Edit window under certain conditions.

I hope you like it!

John

SonicMood v4.9.8.1 was just released. We made some improvements to the layout of the Edit window and combined the undo stacks for the Edit, Mixer, and main windows. And we added two new Moods, “Windy Day,” and “Climbing Mount Fuji.” We hope you like them!

Also (of course), there were some bug fixes.

Download them here and let us know what you think.

John

For the past month or so I have been reading Aaron Hillegass’ book “Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X” with an aim to rewriting SonicMood using Xcode and Objective-C.

My plan is to release SonicMood v5.0 as a rewrite in Cocoa. It will (I hope) contain substantially the same functionality as the current v4.9.8. Some parts of the interface may very well be improvements over the current one. And there may be a few bits of functionality missing in my first attempt at conversion.

I can’t ignore the fact that the future is with the Cocoa frameworks. And if SonicMood is to ever appear on the iPad, etc., it must be by using Apple’s tools - which they kindly provide free of charge anyway!

Of course, anyone buying SonicMood v4.9.8 will get free updates until v7 is released, so they will get all of version 5.x and version 6.x. Not to worry, in other words.

Anyway, that is my plan for SonicMood’s future. And moving to Cocoa/Xcode/Objective-C will allow for some nice future enhancements, too!

Cheers,
John