Genesis - The Next Version

Last updated 5th February 2002

Back in February 1997, I suffered a major disk crash on the PC used to develop Genesis. Luckily I did have backups, however, the most recent of those was corrupt! I managed to restore the project with an earlier backup, but lost a lot of work into the bargain.

At about the same time, various family commitments, work and other projects forced me to decide whether or not to continue developing Genesis at that time. Genesis had to be put on the back-burner for a while.

I am now approaching the point where I feel that I can start to put some time into re-developing Genesis (in VB6). This should be of advantage to all current Genesis users as well as those yet to come.

I apologise to all Genesis users (especially those of you who have registered your copies), and thank you for bearing with me until I can catch up with things.

As always, please e-mail me if you have any queries or problems.

The next version of Genesis will be 1.0, and the expected release date will be June 2002.

This new version will be 32-bit only (i.e. for Windows95/98/NT). Because versions of Genesis up to and including 0.826 were developed in Visual Basic 3 (which is 16-bit), upgrading to 32-bit will involve quite a few changes to the actual project. This means that the new release may not contain all of the functionality of the current 16-bit version, but more features will be added over time.

Project Schedule:

Task

Comments

Status

Convert the 16-bit VB3 project to VB6 format.

Certain 16-bit controls are not available to me under 32-bit. This will result in several features of Genesis to be disabled from the word go. These features will be temporarily archived and brought back in as the project is developed further.

Complete as of 2/1/99 ... update as of 5/2/02: all features appear to be implemented now, but testing is continuing to ensure that there are no nasties lying in wait...

Manually replace controls that could not be converted automatically, and debug any conversion issues that may arise.

Boy is this a bit more involved than I expected, or what?!

This is in progress, but is taking much longer than I had hoped for. But I'm pushing on regardless!

In progress (still!).

Amend all database-generation and access code to use the proper format for Jet 3.0

Complete as of 4/2/02

Create a 32-bit custom control to replace the AWK control from VideoSoft previously used.

The vsVBX control from VideoSoft was used in VB3. However, although there is a 32-bit control available, it would cost me approx £150 to buy the upgrade.

As it happens, VB5 supports the creation of controls - so that's what I did!

Complete as of 2/1/99

Create a 32-bit custom control to replace the ViewPort control from Videosoft previously used.

The vsView control from VideoSoft was used in VB3. However, although there is a 32-bit control available, it would cost me approx £200 to buy the upgrade...So I'm creating my own!

This will (hopefully) allow me to include all of the reports that are currently available in Genesis V0.826 (but don't hold me to that!).

Complete as of 17/3/99

Amend all code that used the VideoSoft control to reference the new AWK control.

Complete as of 24/1/99

Rename all variables to conform to globally recognised naming conventions

This will help in the detection and (hopefully) prevention of programming errors.

In Progress (still! and loads of bugs are falling out of the code...so I'll continue!)

Re-visit all repor-generation code and amend to utilise with the new ViewPort control. This should provide some or all of the reports currently available. Not yet started.

Make improvements along the way!
MDI window handling was very buggy - this has been fixed.
In progress.

Release V1.0a for public alpha testing.

This version should be usable, and provide most of the functionality previously found in Genesis. Exceptions will be reporting. Some reports may be produced using Crystal Reports, but graphical reports will not be present in this release.

The database may be amended during this period, and any users of this version would be advised to keep a copy of their data in GEDCOM format for future import/export, as no database upgrade features will be provided from alpha release to beta release.

Expected June 2002.

Release V1.0b for public beta testing.

This version should have had most of the bugs from the alpha version fixed, but will not include any extra untested features. As stated above, the database may change between these releases, but no conversion routine will be provided (so save your data in GEDCOM format!).

Expected August 2002.

Stable release V1.1

Expected September 2002.

Task	Comments	Status
Convert the 16-bit VB3 project to VB6 format.	Certain 16-bit controls are not available to me under 32-bit. This will result in several features of Genesis to be disabled from the word go. These features will be temporarily archived and brought back in as the project is developed further.	Complete as of 2/1/99 ... update as of 5/2/02: all features appear to be implemented now, but testing is continuing to ensure that there are no nasties lying in wait...
Manually replace controls that could not be converted automatically, and debug any conversion issues that may arise.	Boy is this a bit more involved than I expected, or what?! This is in progress, but is taking much longer than I had hoped for. But I'm pushing on regardless!	In progress (still!).
Amend all database-generation and access code to use the proper format for Jet 3.0		Complete as of 4/2/02
Create a 32-bit custom control to replace the AWK control from VideoSoft previously used.	The vsVBX control from VideoSoft was used in VB3. However, although there is a 32-bit control available, it would cost me approx £150 to buy the upgrade. As it happens, VB5 supports the creation of controls - so that's what I did!	Complete as of 2/1/99
Create a 32-bit custom control to replace the ViewPort control from Videosoft previously used.	The vsView control from VideoSoft was used in VB3. However, although there is a 32-bit control available, it would cost me approx £200 to buy the upgrade...So I'm creating my own! This will (hopefully) allow me to include all of the reports that are currently available in Genesis V0.826 (but don't hold me to that!).	Complete as of 17/3/99
Amend all code that used the VideoSoft control to reference the new AWK control.		Complete as of 24/1/99
Rename all variables to conform to globally recognised naming conventions	This will help in the detection and (hopefully) prevention of programming errors.	In Progress (still! and loads of bugs are falling out of the code...so I'll continue!)
Re-visit all repor-generation code and amend to utilise with the new ViewPort control.	This should provide some or all of the reports currently available.	Not yet started.
Make improvements along the way!	MDI window handling was very buggy - this has been fixed.	In progress.
Release V1.0a for public alpha testing.	This version *should* be usable, and provide most of the functionality previously found in Genesis. Exceptions will be reporting. Some reports may be produced using Crystal Reports, but graphical reports will not be present in this release. The database may be amended during this period, and any users of this version would be advised to keep a copy of their data in GEDCOM format for future import/export, as no database upgrade features will be provided from alpha release to beta release.	Expected June 2002.
Release V1.0b for public beta testing.	This version *should* have had most of the bugs from the alpha version fixed, but will *not* include any extra untested features. As stated above, the database may change between these releases, but no conversion routine will be provided (so save your data in GEDCOM format!).	Expected August 2002.
Stable release V1.1		Expected September 2002.