When will v3 be available?

[Anastasis]

Not wanting to sound impatient or anything as this is already a great application, but do you know yet when v3 will be available?

It's just that reading some of the answers on the Wish List forum with the indication that it will have video streaming capabilities, I get very excited as this is something we have been looking at doing. Will this only be for video files (e.g. AVI) or for incorporating live video input as well?
Another feature I would like to see would be the facility to do transitions between the different input sources rather like a video mixing desk. Is that likely in v3 or is this in your plans for inclusion at some time?

Thanks again for a great app - by the way, I'm guessing based on the icon used for the .exe, but is ZionWorx written using Delphi?

[Christian]

Hello Anastasis,

I'm still aiming to have v3.0 finished for the end of the year, and yes video backgrounds are on the agenda - definitely AVI/MPEG backgrounds and hopefully live video capture too (once I can find the time to get it working)!

I think that 'transitions' between the different input sources are probably a bit adventurous at this stage, but maybe for v4.0

You are quite right - ZionWorx is indeed written in Borland Delphi - and yes the icon really does need changing - mmmm that gives me an idea...

[Anastasis]

Thanks for that Christian. I look forward to seeing version 3 and all the improvements you have planned.

Interesting to hear that ZionWorx is as I suspected written in Delphi. I use Delphi 7 Professional in my job (I work in software development) so if I can be of any assistance in the future (alhough I don't have a copy of Delphi on my home PC) please let me know. To produce such a cool and intuitive app as this you are obviously well up on what you are doing, but the offer is there if I can ever do anything to help.

Thanks for providing this fabulous resource to the church.

[intuitas]

Thanks for the questions Anastasis, and your reply Christian.

I concur with the sentiments about the quality of the app and I too am interested to know that it is written in Delphi. Unfortunately my former workplace abandoned Delphi at Version 1 (in favour of Micro$oft), so am unable to help directly. Had thought of developing a small app as a "database companion" to provide a standalone creator/editor to help those currently using Excel or Word etc. and to perhaps allow external format conversions. From my perspective it would have to be developed in VB 5 (since I don't yet have enough background in Visual C++).
Like so many other things it would have to be spare time activity - but if others have a better idea or could make it more relevant that would be great.

Blessings,

Paul

[zer0burn316]

hey all i cannot wait either there are alot of things going on for example i am using zionworx the media presentation for our yoth, but just got took over my media shout, but i am still big with zionworx still my top choice. i hope version 3 makes the abilities i am hoping for better and useful for my personal ministry

[hadlevad]

any further updates when v3 will be around?

cheers

ad

[Christian]

Hi ad,

Despite my optimism, time continues to race by

Although I'd planned to have v3.0 ready by the end of 2003 there just wasn't enough time in the end.

But rest assured I haven't given up! Due to other commitments my spare time continues to be in short supply, but major components should be ready for beta testing next month.

At the risk of raising expectations once again, realistically I think we're looking at June/July this year...

Thanks to all users new and old for sticking with ZionWorx - v3.0 will happen, just keep praying for that 30 hour day and 3-day weekend!

Christian.

[AliBy]

Hi Christian

Where or How can I get involved with Beta testing?
If there is anyway that I can help let me know.

Alistair

[Diceman]

How modular is the development? - Can it be made more so? - Can we have support for pluggins so that at least if something we want doesn't exist in the current release we can develope a pluggin to provide functionality? Can you publish the source under GPL - or at least API for pluggins? Since Zionworx is free anyway, what is the restrictive element? At what point will interest and support become so large that it will become counter-productive to not use open source development techniques? How can it be justified what level a project must get to before it warrants opensource development?

In short:
If we can help - we can't winge
And if we want to help and don't have the nessesary know-how - then we have a good reason to learn.

Diceman

ps If Anyone wants to try the opensource free world of Linux without wanting to install anything or even touch your hard-drive - try knoppix. It's a live CD of linux which you can boot your pc with. It just operates in memory so it doesn't touch your hard drive. It boots faster than windows XP with 128Mb RAM (even from CD) and gives you a complete office package, web browsing, email, games, utilities and tonnes more all with a nice windows style interface for the princely sum of zero dollars/pounds/euros/yen. You don't like it, you switch your pc off, pop the cd out and everything is back to normal when you turn your pc on again. You can download the ISO (CD image) from http://www.knoppix.org/, and burn it to cd using your favourite cd burning software. It runs alot of windows software through WINE, and if not already compatible could run Zionworx - which is definitly worth testing.

[Diceman]

Trial the Opensource development technique.

Ask for volunteers to establish a Zionworx Documentation project for version three. It could run in tandem with Beta testing and allow you to get 3 ready even faster!

Then, if the open source development technique works, develope a pluggin architecture and API for version 3.x and see what the community can offer.

Kind regards

Diceman

PS - If anyone wants to try Knoppix (see above message) and hasn't got a broadband connection, and lives in Europe, email me and I'll burn a CD for you - if I get too much response I'll have to edit this post and remove the offer.

[CardassianScot]

I've never tried it under Linux through wine, but I don't expect it to work because the way of handling dual screens is completely different. It's the same reason, I haven't asked Christian for the source code to try compiling under Klyx (Delphi for Linux). I played with Klyx for a while but my knowledge is nowhere near good enough to figure out the dual screen thing and Zionworx would be pretty useless without it.

But if anyone out there has the knowledge ...

[CardassianScot]

BTW, I think Mandrake Move is a nicer intro to Linux newbies. For one thing the menu layout is a lot clearer. Although you do have to answer a couple of questions to get it boot, but nothing complex stuff like which language do you want to use.

[Diceman]

I'll have to try Move - thanks for the tip-off. I'm currently running Mandrake on a multiboot with XP and 98se(I used Knoppix to partition and check my drives), but considering doing a slackware build to really get to grips with linux.

The Knoppix Distro I've got just boots straight into US english without any cmd line input required, you have to interupt the boot sequence by pressing a key if you want to use any of Herr Knopper's cheat codes.

Re Porting: The GPL Lyric Display System does dual-display from perl through x11, so perhaps you could take a look the GTK-Lib calls it makes. Saw a thread on dual-display support in WINE a couple of weeks back - so I wouldn't rule it out completly.

Dice

[CardassianScot]

Interesting I used to run an almost exactly the same OSs (what is the plural of OS), I had to use win98 to get my DVD card working properly. Now I just run Mandrake and WinXP. But this is getting really off topic.

[chris_h62]

Just wanted to say that i am really impressed with v2 of zionworx that we have just recently started using in our services so thanx to everyone involved in it's development.

Just wondering whether v3 is still on target for June/July time this year

God Bless

Chris