Spans
posted by Martin Cohen in Miscellaneous 
January 19th, 2009
Intype’s editing component has been just brought to another level. The new feature we call Spans gave us possibilities we were not counting with when we have started the development.
Spans allows us to split the document into an virtual fully automated tree. The feature allows us to unify all the required automation we’ve all wanted in a layered manner. With current model of stacked behaviors we were not able to layer the automation effectively (i.e. having paired character automation within a snippet).
This new functionality also affects the undo/redo which is now able to contain the information about serialization and restore it. So you can return back to snippets edited in past through undo.
The advanced highlighting system allows us to also highlight active spans within current context which enormously affects overal usability of the automation. This video shows multiple snippets within multi-insertion using spans.
New in the current development. We’re finally finishing last tasks for the first internal testing launch of 0.3.5. As whole UI backend has been replaced with our UI framework, we expect a little longer testing phase.
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1. Yarden
19.01.2009 at 12:41 pm
sounds great! cannot wait for the release!
2. Huseyin Tufekcilerli
19.01.2009 at 12:53 pm
It seems Intype will beat “Duke Nukem Forever” in release schedule plan :)
3. dijon
19.01.2009 at 1:15 pm
Very happy to hear that things are still moving on, and look forward to the next release!
4. Nikolay Kolev
19.01.2009 at 1:35 pm
To me at least, Intype is a typical case of “feature creep”.
5. kib2
19.01.2009 at 1:48 pm
Nice to see the work being done, but please don’t let us wait any longer!
6. Ali B.
19.01.2009 at 2:28 pm
Yipeee!! Something’s comin’ up! :)
7. icyleaf
19.01.2009 at 2:55 pm
Spans is amazing!
Hope it testing for public.
8. Julio Protzek
19.01.2009 at 4:38 pm
Great!
Can’t wait to get it in my hands… err… OS. =)
9. Sagun
20.01.2009 at 3:22 am
I am getting really excited for Intype 0.3.5 release, can’t wait to try out the new “Project manager file operations” feature. Hope you guys are still planning on including it in this release.
10. ccblaisdell
20.01.2009 at 6:08 am
@icyleaf: amen, brother!
Good job devs, I look forward to giving you my money :)
11. Deadelus
20.01.2009 at 11:16 am
Wohoo! That movie looks awesome! Can’t wait to try it out.
12. Sebastian
20.01.2009 at 1:08 pm
Great news!
I can’t wait any longer for the release. I thought Intype wouldn’t be developed anylonger.
13. Ajmacaro
20.01.2009 at 1:36 pm
At last! i thought this project is abandon.
Thanks for the wonderful apps. Will wait
till the next release.
14. h
20.01.2009 at 3:03 pm
Still here, still keen for the next release :) Glad to hear the project’s still moving.
15. Sharn
21.01.2009 at 12:29 pm
You guys rule!
16. dylan
22.01.2009 at 3:41 am
“we expect a little long testing phase”?! Please, no!!! I still use Intype as my go-to HTML editor but it is so frustrating to have to wait so long between releases (alpha, beta, or anything in between). A handful of blog posts and one “official” release since August 2007 is pretty poor going. I say this in all honesty: you guys could use a more realistic release plan. One that takes in to account your limited time resources and still allows you to release once every 12 months minimum.
Don’t get me wrong, I admire the quality of Intype and look forward to using it. And I’d even *pay* for it in it’s current state (yes, really, just put PayPal on the site). But frankly I have no confidence that you will release anything before June 2009 because the last two promises have met with nothing but months of…well, nothing.
Well, I’m glad I got that off my chest. Keep up the good work, but more importantly *release* the good work. And best wishes :-)
17. Courageous Anonym
23.01.2009 at 7:16 am
If nothing else, then please release a version that has drag and drop!
But alas, I’m moving on… to Aptana! :D
Cheers,
Courageous Anonym
18. ollu
23.01.2009 at 5:29 pm
Hurray!!
19. Shane
23.01.2009 at 7:29 pm
Hi, I have just started using inType and I am really impressed with it and I cannot wait for the next release, keep up the excellent work, I know it must be tough but thanks for doing it! :D
20. Anonymous coward
23.01.2009 at 9:13 pm
Anonymous coward would like to request intype’s awesome team to at least release more unstable versions with the newest cool stuff ^^ don’t worry about stability too much with unstable alpha releases, both the word unstable and teh word alpha warn the users that it isn’t perfect.
21. seb
24.01.2009 at 6:59 am
I am fan of Intype, I can’t waittt for the 0.3.5!
^^
22. Theudas
24.01.2009 at 6:40 pm
jay my weapon gets an upgrade XD
23. detj
25.01.2009 at 9:44 am
late….but worth the wait!!
24. Danila99
25.01.2009 at 3:25 pm
Hope I’ll try the actual release before my reincarnation!
25. Martin Cohen
26.01.2009 at 11:12 am
Thank you all for letting us know your support! It’s really boosting!
26. Blomqvist
26.01.2009 at 5:59 pm
Oh! An actual update! Awsome!
I kinda like the combination of Intype and WinSCP (for uploading files, because Intype doesn’t support SFTP/FTP :))
27. Anonymous coward
27.01.2009 at 12:01 am
What happened to the latest blog entry?!
28. Dan
27.01.2009 at 1:32 am
@Blomqvist that’s my magic combination also.
As has been said a few times above, I’d also be willing to pay for Intype beta releases as a pre-order type arrangement.
29. Ivan Čentéš
27.01.2009 at 2:42 pm
@27:Anonymous coward
What do you mean?
30. Brendon Kozlowski
28.01.2009 at 12:35 am
Martin:
I’m very glad, as everyone else is, to see some updates to the news. Even if only small changes were made to the code (or even none) during certain spans of time, it’s important to communicate - I hope you’ve noticed recently just how much!
With that being said…I’m very glad to see vertical column editing to be re-introduced; I kept looking for it in 3.1.734 only to eventually realize it either wasn’t there, or I just didn’t know the key-command sequence. It’s such a helpful thing to have.
Spans certainly are interesting. I think it’d be something I’d have to get accustomed to; and once I did I’d probably never want to be without it.
Might I ask what software you used to create the video demo?
Looking forward to any other news you happen to post in the future (including the one you already did), even if it’s simply a Happy Valentine’s Day wish or an April Fools prank. :)
31. Juanma
29.01.2009 at 4:46 am
This is similar to the option “Column Mode” in Crimson Editor, it’s very usefull :)
32. Brendon Kozlowski
30.01.2009 at 6:58 pm
@Juanma: Actually, it’s more powerful. Although he’s using “column mode” editing (which I’m very familiar with, I too am a Crimson Editor user), that feature was implemented long ago (though I believe due to all the changes being made, was removed from all alpha versions as it relies heavily on all internal code being “finalized”).
What’s being shown here, if you watch the video carefully, are that specific breakpoints are chosen (somehow, perhaps by mouse click, it’s hard to see) for where new elements are being created *within* the column mode editing.
33. Martin Cohen
04.02.2009 at 9:55 am
Brendon Kozlowski: Columns are available in 0.3.1.734 too. You can make a column selection by Alt + arrows combinations and also with Alt+mouse. Though, in 0.3.1.734 the column selections are strictly limited to the real document boundaries (like you cannot drag a rectangle selections after the line end — which would be very handy). We have upgraded the feature for 0.3.5 and it fixes most of those little quirks. I will make a screencast about it.