I’ll be officially cutting the new branch of MarcEdit 7 for all the code in the project following the next release of MarcEdit 6.3.x. The first thing I’ll be doing is updating all the dependencies to the new version of .NET 4.6.x essentially ending Windows XP support for MarcEdit 7. I’ll be updating namespaces, and prepping the files for a first alpha release. The very early releases will be preview releases for those that code against MarcEdit interested in testing the new namespaces, and for IT folks interested in testing the new installers, as this will also be the first version to include installers that can provide installation either in the current, traditional setup, or as a user. The way I’ll be providing installation will be much the same way google does it. Rather than selecting an download, users will download a single installer (likely an exe). The installer will ask the user if you want to install for everyone (must be an admin) or just for the current user. If you pick everyone, it will check your operating system, and download the appropriate installer. This installer will require that you authenticate as an admin. If you choose just the current user, it will check your operating system and will download the installer to install just within your user space (non-admin). From the users perspective, the program will work exactly the same. I’ll also include some detailed instructions for IT administrators that want to download the MSI files directly — this way folks that manage software via software distribution tools can still do that. Additionally, to make management easier for IT folks, each version of MarcEdit will have its own SKU (or product code). This is important when managing software distribution and one of the reasons most IT folks hate the way Google manages Chrome (all versions share the same ID).
Once MarcEdit 7 alpha is available, I’ll likely post updates to MarcEdit 6.3.x and MarcEdit 7 concurrently until about Sept. 2017. At that point, I’ll freeze 6.3.x. That will be the final version supporting XP, and then will focus on updating MarcEdit 7. Additionally, I’ll likely be posting a few wireframes of how I envision changing MarcEdit 7’s interface. I will be updating the Main Window, the MARC Tools and the MarcEditor. In fact, the MarcEditor will likely shift from the current menus, to the more traditional ribbon interface that you now see in most Windows applications, while the MacOS update will continue to follow Mac UI design guidelines.
Questions, let me know.
–tr