XaReg 2 Released

[Egg Bramhill]

Thanks a lot for continuing developing this great app John & Steve, an ongoing memory of Bill.

[wizard509]

A big thank you to all involved.

[PhilM]

Why was this developed in secret while there was a public and well-intentioned effort being set up by the community at large to replace XaReg?

Seems a bit unfriendly.

Phil

[steve.ledger]

XaReg2 was actually intended to be a nice surprise to a community who thought they'd not ever see a new version.
When Grace announced her intentions we could hardly say we were developing XaReg2 without spoiling the effect of the surprise we were working on..!
A little history: The original XaReg utility was the result of an idea and a private collaborative project between Bill (who did the bulk of the coding) myself and John who helped with some tricky things.
XaReg1 was in fact originally inspired by the XetupX utility created by John (also privately developed of course). XetupX was designed to work with CorelXara, XaraX and X1 only (last version was 2004), while XaReg1 was created to work best with all later versions up until version 6.
During it's development the utility was originally named RoXar (If memory serves = Reg Options for Xara), this name we changed to XaReg for release. As the XaReg name is owned by Bill and myself obviously I retain rights to use it and as two thirds of the team are still living, we naturally wanted to keep it going.
It should be understood that Bill never intended XaReg to be Open Source, which is why I was unable to hand over any source code to those who privately were asking for it. (Note: Many other Xara users have created small utilities to work with camelot, none of those are OS and all were developed in private until release.)

I would not suggest that Grace and her fellow helpers drop their plans, an OpenSource project could be a good alternative to XaReg2, choice isn't a bad thing - after all, it's not uncommon that there are many alternatives to lots of software types.

Cheers

[Albacore]

I don't think an alternative is a bad is a bad thing if Grace and the like still want to carry on. Anyway thanks Steve and John for this good work and much appreciated. The only coding I could ever manage and learn was BBC and machine code with a bit of assembly language and it is now long forgotten.

[Boy]

First of all, thank you Steve and John for XaReg 2. The interface looks more accessible than the old one and some new options have been added. I suspect that most changes are to be found under the hood, as Bill intended to completely rewrite the program.

Some options seem to miss, though, such as "Retain Bitmap Fill Attributes" but perhaps I didn't look well. What I would like to see back are the tool tips for all options but, please, more descriptive than in the old version because some options are not clear to me. For instance, what does "Native Fast PNG" mean and what are the advantages and drawbacks of using this option?

I imagined that Steve and John prepared XaReg 2 in secret to surprise the community and this is much appreciated. However, when Grace and others started to work on their version it might have been better to come forward. Thus the surprise release of XaReg 2 gave me a bit of bad taste in my mouth and I understand any upset reactions by those who have started to work on it.

As I was finishing up this post, I noticed that Steve had already posted his explanation for why they didn’t announce the release any earlier. Understandable and, yet, somewhat awkward. Indeed, it’s now up to Grace and others to decide to go forward with an open source version or not.

[handrawn]

I've read Steve's explanation - I'm inclined to think that ego and a desire to be 'first' played a part.. I expect that will be denied, but it fits in with the track record.. always done with the best possible amount of helpfulness, of course

there is a lot missing from XaReg2... so I think Team Xara should crack on with it and get an open source version out


edit.. and if I can help, I will

[MarcT]

Why was this developed in secret while there was a public and well-intentioned effort being set up by the community at large to replace XaReg?

Seems a bit unfriendly.

Phil

Oh I thought this was the group effort, this is confusing.

Marc

[Rik]

Can I ask why the name 'XtremePro' is being used, instead of Designer Pro?

We already have issues with Designer Pro X being version 8.
And not 10 as some have thought.

So, post Xtreme users will find this confusing, I think.

Also, can I ask what the 'Guides Color' changes?

[morris]

I don't know whether this is the right place to ask: have you considered adding (to XaReg) a possibility to create a list of predefined line widths and zoom levels (that will be presented in respective comboboxes)?