Xara LX Update Status

Although everything's been quiet for some time, we've been beavering away on Xara LX, so this is an update of the current situation.

Open Source delayed

Following advice from those with more experience of managing large open-source projects, we've decided to delay making the source code fully public until we’ve progressed the port a little further and the program is more functional on Linux. To make the source code fully public, in it's immature state will probably result in chaos for our internal developers, who would be spending all their time answering questions. So we've been doing some more foundation work, such as changing some system types (to make it 64-bit compatible) which are best done by our engineers who understand the code base.

So our focus right now is trying to get it into a more finished state, so it's a lot easier for third party developers to contribute.

But here's how you can get access

Having said that, we are giving some volunteer developers private access to the source so they can help us right now, before we release the source publicly. Because of the nature of the early porting work we're restricting this to those who are interested enough to devote some time over the short term, and to the more experienced C++ developers. I know many developers have contacted us expressing interest and willing to offer support, but if you've got the time and experience and want to get in early please contact us again on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and help us with the port.

Because most of the effort has been going into core framework code, automated build systems, sorting our Subversion server etc, there has been little visible progress in the latest version of the program. Once the fundamentals, such as the tools framework, are operational, the tools and other features should start appearing faster! Xara are also cranking up the number of internal developers working on the Linux build.

RIP wxDockit, hello wxAUI

A new wxWidgets docking library has recently appeared, called wxAUI, and we've been so impressed with this we've replaced the old wxDockit library with wxAUI. This promises to provide some really nice bar and window docking features, better even than on our existing Xara Xtreme for Windows.

Mac version

We'd really like to get it working on the Mac - we're almost there, but do not have the time or Mac experience to work through the final issues. We really need the help of an experienced C++ Mac developer who can spare us some time, short term. We have a LOT of Mac users really interested in this product for the Mac, but we need the help to make it happen. It would be really good to get the Mac version in sync with the Linux one. So if you're a C++ Mac developer who can spare us the time please contact us again: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

New documentation

There are new documents put up in a new Developers section of the website http://www.xaraxtreme.org/developers/

Here you can find out about the basic Xara Xtreme architecture, a detailed description of the UI, and other documents.

Daily Builds

We now have an automated daily build server that places the current version on the website for download. You can find this on the downloads page. Because this is work in progress, we don’t recommended you download this as it tends to be more broken than the old 0.1c stable build.

Libre Graphics Meet

Xara are proud to be a sponsor of the Libre Graphics Conference being held in Lyon France in March. We'll be there demonstrating the current state of Xara LX.

http://www.libregraphicsmeeting.org/

Awards

We are also proud of the fact that Xara Xtreme has recently won a spate of awards. OK this is the Windows version, but this is the exact same product we are now porting. So with your help, Linux and the Mac users, you can have this same award winning product on your platform, AND for it to be free and open-source.

Help us make it so.

Computer Shopper: Best Buy
"..is almost an obligatory buy even for those with only a passing interest"

Person Computer World: Recommended
"Provides just about everything you'll need for creating and editing graphics"

About.com: Guide's Choice 2005
"It may not be one of the 'big three' drawing programs but it beats them in features, price and performance"
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/vectorbased/gr/xaraxtreme.htm

Happy New Year to everyone.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 July 2008 18:13 )