_{Jamie Balfour's}Personal blog

Do you remember what you were doing 20 years ago right now? Probably not. But I do remember 20 years ago, at this point, I was learning to program for the first time. 

My first project was FusionScape (at the time it was called Doors). It was what I called a Desktop Replacement Interface Program (DRIP). FusionScape was awesome; it was well-received and liked, but it was bloated and challenging to maintain. You see, all of the programs built into it had to be updated at the same time. I then decided to separate FusionScape into separate programs. These programs were:

1. Autorun Express
2. Data Project (a notebook-like program that was designed for project records)
3. Cobweb Internet Browser (a web browser with so much more than Internet Explorer or even Firefox at the time)
4. Painter Pro (my bitmap and vector graphics editor, and the longest-lived of all of these programs)
5. Quick Quiz
6. Record Checker
7. Tutorial Master
8. Wonderword
9. VUEBB

Development on Autorun Express was stopped in 2006 when I decided it didn't need anything more and was pretty complete. Data Project development continued until about 2008 or early 2009. Cobweb was in late 2009. Painter Pro was somewhere in early 2010, but I did pick it up again in 2017 until 2018. Quick Quiz was stopped in 2008. Record Checker was in 2009. Tutorial Master was also in 2008. Wonderword was in early 2009, and VUEBB was in late 2008. 

Painter Pro was, by quite a long shot the longest lived of them all. Cobweb received updates for a long time, too, but Painter Pro was my baby. It was powerful and had so many features that no other editors had back then. 

All of my software back then was powered by Balfour's Business Class Library, a class library of tools and features for the .NET platform. It featured controls like Painter Pro's drawing platform, Wonderword's rich-text editor, and Cobweb's Yorkshire Hill browser, which was an extended version of the Trident engine. It actually meant that the software itself, like Painter Pro, was just a graphical extension of the class library, providing access to its features. It was a powerful way to enable direct interoperability between the software. For example, Wonderword could use Painter Pro's drawing features, and Painter Pro could use the Cobweb Yorkshire Hill browser when necessary. 

Wonderword, as feature-rich as it was, never reached the point I wanted it to. I'd always dreamed of writing a page control that had proper pages like in Microsoft Word. That never happened and was the main reason Wonderword development stopped in 2009. 

Wonderword was always my dream. I always wanted to make it into a full-on word processor. It featured so many things that weren't really even in existence back then, and the bookmarking system was absolutely brilliant. 

Now...

And, after all these years, I'm finally revisiting Wonderword. However, as my ZPE Programming Environment, eTraxion, BalfLaf, and more are now written in Java, it's time for me to bring Wonderword to Java with a new philosophy.

I am exceedingly proud to announce that for the last two days, I have been redeveloping Wonderword from the ground up in Java. The paged view was built with the help of AI to speed up development. I will be bringing so much more to Wonderword over the next few weeks, but for now, it's got all that you'd expect from a simple word processor, including the ability to save in DOCX format and text formatting and bookmarks. 

My plan is this: make it more useful than before, whilst making it fully interoperable with other software and file formats. I'm also looking at bringing the WUX2 file format to it, which will be based on the same concept: a broad file format with 'Data Channels'. The following is a list of features I aim to bring to it over the next few weeks:

1. Opening of DOCX files
2. Macros written in YASS
3. More formatting options
4. Named bookmarks
5. Headers and footers
6. Locked view (set by the file itself)
7. WUX2
8. Tables
9. AI dictation mode
10. Printing support
11. Image support
12. Shapes
13. Built-in Pixabay embedding
14. Links
15. Styles
16. Page breaks
17. Mail merging
18. Converting to HTML

Here's a little screenshot of it after a day's development:

Consistent DragonDocs auto-marking is finally here. And it's brilliant, even if I may so myself.

In late 2023, I added auto-marking, but it was on an assessment-by-assessment basis. So, it wouldn't be consistent and would vary slightly for each person. 

The latest version I've built today now works consistently, but requires the teacher or administrator to tell the system to mark all of them simultaneously. 

I'm seeking to create a free online system for creating your own DragonDocs in the next few months, and auto-marking would be part of this, too.

After a week from hell, I have been working extremely hard to bring the next generation of my Java UI, known as JBUI (soon to be a part of BalfLaf) My new design language is all about lovely, sharp, and pointed edges, with very few inner borders and a clean look.

This all starts with my new BorderedRoot—the core of the interface. This defines the simple borders, removes the existing chrome, and lays out the shape. It also adds back resizing features.

Next, it's all about the header or titlebar. The title bar is simple and is designed to work with macOS and Windows, switching automatically. It also adds dragging and moving features as well as minimising. It adds handlers for the cross or maximise button being pressed. Unlike other programs such as Microsoft Word, my layout's central heading (the title) should never change. In my JBUI, the glowing text on the left should be the name of the activity taking place (or file name). Finally, the titlebar adds a layout zone on the right-hand side that users can use to add buttons for quick-access activities. 

Finally, to complete the whole package, there is a simple footer. Currently, the footer doesn't do much, but I'm looking to expand it.

JBUI is free to download, and you can get it from my website.

jbTAR or JB Tracking and Reporting is my latest project. I needed a new project to work on, so I thought, why not dabble in reporting? Since Tuesday, I have developed a fully working Java-based reporting system that makes generating reports so fluid and seamless. I'm still working on it right now.

The latest project already has a new webpage on my website. As a result of adding all the new projects to my website, I've had to increase the size of my 'Projects' menu item and update BalfBar to accommodate this. 

This week has been very tough on my mental health after feeling bullied by a doctor and feeling depressed as a result of it. I've needed something to take my mind off the whole situation. 

Visit the jbTAR webpage to learn more about what it is.

BalfML, my own markup language, is now available to view on my GitHub as a formal specification.

Whilst the specification is clear and provides some clarity as to what the language context will look like, it's is far from finished. There are plans to update the formal specification and indeed the markup as I begin to develop Java, Python and C# libraries that will parse the data to the correct format. 

The formal specification of BalfML is similar to that of the specificationless INI format and the TOML markup language. However, BalfML has a few additional data types and features. 

I will soon build this in Java as well as for ZPE. 

I also intend on using this as a configuration format for ZPE soon enough.