A major addition to 2.1 was script error notification, as a result we’re seeing some applets are requiring some fixes. The community has been fantastic and gotten together a list of applets that are error free.
The 2.1.02 release adds in the outputting of the error messages to a text file so this information can be fed back to the applet developers.
An important component of the 2.1 release was the inclusion of a Common script location for useful functionality and customisation. We have included classes for Bitmap Label, Variable Edges and Twitter. Pro also users have access to extending Screen related methods for a large part of Home.
We’re kicking off Community Focus with an interview of a long standing supporter and very active community member Montecristoff. In part 1 of 2 of the interview we focus on his role developing applets and other functionality in Home 2.
Pointui: Hi Montecristoff, by way of introduction for those who don’t know you can you please tell us what country you are from, the Windows Mobile device you use and how long you have been using Home 2.
Montecristoff: I’m a World citizen but I’m currently live in South of France. After using an old Palm Treo 270 (one of the very first PDA phones, with color touch screen!), I’ve bought a Qtek S100 (also known as Magician). This was my first Windows Mobile device. The beginning of a long suit of WM devices… Currently, I’m using a HTC Touch HD which is for the moment the best mobile device I’ve ever owned. Of course, I use Home 2 daily since the very first release.
Pointui: As someone who has been using and actively supporting Home 1, 1.5 and now 2, what is it that keeps you coming back for more?
Montecristoff: Home 1 have been as an electro shock for me: something completely new, never shown before. I felt in love with it and this was the beginning of a long story… 1.5 version brought very nice evolutions and was a real complete UI, while Home 2 was under construction. Now Home 2 is here. THE Revolution, TNT for WM ;) I was atomized when I discover it whith all its customization abilities and above all, the fabulous and powerful scripting engine. Home 2 is a new chapter in Pointui history. I know there will be others… I’m proud and happy to be a member of this adventure.
Pointui: You have created some applets (and other functionality), for those who aren’t familiar with your work can you please list them and give us a short description?
Montecristoff: Well, I’m not a “hardcore” coder because my code skills are a bit rusty. Anyway, like many community members, I’ve began to modify existing applets, especially World applet.
Wild Wide Home is my first applet. A concept build to use all the screen. The idea is to let users play with objects (clock, weather, calendar, …) to place it wherever they want on the screen and to minimize/maximize them (and give more informations about the item in maximized mode).
Panoramic was build to display a same background panorama in all loaded applets. The first version was really basic -with empty applets- but now with the help of our great costp it can be done on every applet and there are many new interesting options.
Last thing is Pro Tweak, a kind of tool-applet which allow you to easily configure your interface.
As you can see, I’m more an idea and concept provider than a developer… Fortunately, Community is here!
Pointui: Apart from your own work are there other Applets which you find very useful?
Montecristoff: I’m trying to test each applet from the store… There is a lot of good ideas and very well-coded applets. Some developpers are excellent and when graphics meet good development, result is really great. I’m a big fan of Marc Landis’ Analog Clock. I reused part of it in WWHToday applet.
Pointui: Now that you’ve created applets for Home 2 and had time for some reflection, what is the one thing you’d like to see added to scripting so you can take things to the next level and why?
Montecristoff: A complete debugger will help any developper in building applets. Also, a downloadable code library with samples (class, method, screen, …) would be a great enhancement. Very active and brilliant tech support bring us all what we need and Roadmap is here to tell us when it will be avalaible.
In the second part of the interview Montecristoff shares with us some of the work he has done designing themes.
Only a week after releasing Home 2 Free and we’re seeing requests for a wide variety of applets. Even more exciting is the development of community applets.
We’re working hard to extend the capabilities of the scripting in the Revolution Engine with the next release allowing for text input among other updates/improvements.
We have begun adding the documentation for scripting that will be available in Home 2.
Over the coming weeks we’ll be populating the documentation for Product Details, Scripting and Themes so you can prepare for the release of Home 2.0. After release we’ll add a FAQ and extend on the various tutorials we have planned.
We’ve frozen the feature set for the 2.0 release and have some serious testing underway. We’ll be announcing what you’ll get in the free and paid versions of Home and other information for those keen to get into some Applet scripting.
