Progress Updates on Logos Mac Edition

1/10/2008

Just a quick note to say that Logos Bible Software for the Mac is still progressing. Just yesterday we got a build in which book navigation, searching, and the Passage Guide were up and running. (As well as all of the internal features required to support those top-level behaviors.) We can run the basic Logos “demo path” straight through.

Some more testing and bug fixing needs to be done before we can release an Alpha, but we're hoping that it’s not too far off. (Please remember, there is no need to get on a special “beta list” — we will run Alphas and Beta publicly at www.logos.com/mac.)

The Mac port is coming together, and all the work “underneath the hood” is finally surfacing in top-level functionality.

7/11/2007

Work continues on Logos Bible Software for the Mac. As of late June's intermediate release:

Search Status:

• Basic Search is completed
• Topic Search is in progress
• Bible Search is completed, this still requires bug fixing

Book Display Status:

• Tool bar continued work is in progress
• Resource Window Navigation Controls is completed
• Reference/Index items in Resource Display Toolbar is completed
• Window Linking is completed
• Tooltip Support is in progress

Reports Status:

• Company Info is complete
• About This Resource is complete
• Bibliography Report is complete
• Passage Guide is under development
• Passage In All Versions is complete except for some Toolbar areas
• Parallel Bible Versions is complete except for some Toolbar areas
• Compare Parallel Bible Versions is complete except for some Toolbar areas
• Auto-Lookup Report is under development
• Exegetical Guide is under development

4/25/2007

Searching works! Logos Bible Software for the Mac is continuing to progress, and the latest drop has searching up and running. The screenshot also shows My Library and the Bibliography report.

For a closer look, choose the medium (900px) or large (1600px) version.

3/16/2007

Good news! Logos Bible Software for the Mac continues to progress. This week we saw searches running and the first reports completed.

The full search syntax and the Passage Guide are underway, and we're expecting to see features come online at a faster pace, now that so much of the underlying infrastructure is in place.

Below is another example of the weekly progress report.

Date: Mar. 13, 2007
Weekly Status Report

Executive summary of the overall progress of the project:

1. We have received feedback on the licensing area and the specified areas are changed and will be reflected in the next build. The next Build will be Milestone A1. The date for this delivery will
be determined after the onsite meeting at Logos on Mar.14, 2007.

2. The weekly meeting will be onsite at Logos at 11 am.

3. Book Display Status:

• Status bar work is completed
• Starburst animation is completed
• Citation will be completed by Mar. 14, 2007
• Final copy/paste work will begin Mar. 15, 2007

4. Reports Status:

• Company Info is complete*
• About This Resource is complete*
• Passage Guide is under development
• Company Info is under development
• NOTE: * - right-click menu and event bridges from the C++ code does not exist in any
  report at the moment

----
Bob Pritchett - bob@logos.com
Logos Bible Software - www.logos.com
1313 Commercial St. - Bellingham, WA 98225-4307
(360) 527-1700 - Fax (350) 527-1707

2/12/2007

Dear Mac User,

I wish I had more news! It certainly seems like I have more Mac enthusiasts clamoring for it every day. (Those commercials must be working!)

While progress is being made on Logos for the Mac every week, the reports on progress make for pretty dull reading. (There's an example below.) I can say that we've received another internal drop, and some very important features like licensing, license synchronization with the server (to let you move backup licenses or restore them from a Windows installation), and "data type highlighting" are up and running.

The features we all want to see and play with, though, are still under development: searching, reports, etc.

And there is no good answer to the question I'm asked almost daily: When?

The best we can say is: When it's done.

In the past few months almost all of the progress has been inside the application; the only new screenshots we could provide would be of some pretty dull dialogs for license management. Once the work on searching, reports, etc. "breaks through" to the UI surface we should be able to provide more interesting (and encouraging) updates.

Thanks again for your patience.

Bob Pritchett
President & CEO, Logos Bible Software

bob@logos.com

Recent Progress Report:

Project: Logos for the Mac
Date: Jan.16, 2007

Weekly Status Report

PROGRESS:
Executive summary of the overall progress of the project:
1. Unfortunately, Milestone Y will be postponed until **. The areas for this milestone
are code complete, however the delay is due to failing unit tests. The issues for this build are
currently being worked on, however we require at least 3 days to sort out these problems
before QA can make another build for testing for this Milestone. The following problems are
what we are currently fixing:
- NASB95.lbxlls: failed because LlsUtil::InitializeLanguages() was not called, and a
global variable g_aMsToIsoLangTable is needed by this resource. Other resources
would also need this information.
- HODGE_ST.lbxlls: failed in LlsUtil::ConvertBiblePassageToReferences() when calling
push_back() to add string reference to the vector. This is causing memory violation.
2. The weekly conference call will be at 10:00 am.
3. Book Display Status:
- Datatype Highlighting will be completed for milestone Y
- Toolbar will be in progress
4. Licensing Status:
Licensing will be completed for the Milestone Y build.

OPEN ISSUES:
1. Licensing Stabilization

TASKS IN PROGRESS:
Development:
The following features are currently under development:
1. Licensing
2. Generating COM infrastructure
3. Search integration
4. Book Display
4.1. DataType Highlighting
5. Topic Browser
6. Reference Browser

QA:
- QA built Build 62 as an interim Milestone Y build. Its purpose was to test a number of bug fixes
submitted.
- as of eod Friday 15 new defects have been entered against Builds 62. Additionally, 23
defects have been marked as resolved and ready for testing in Build 62. Of those defects, 19 have
been accepted and closed and 4 have been rejected and re-opened.
- continued triaging the Dev Priority settings on all defects. Currently we still have marked 42
of 217 (previously 41 of 219) open defects as Priority 1 with 67 currently unassigned and awaiting
triage.
- 491 automated test cases out of a total test suite of 1694 tests.

9/21/2006

Dear Mac User,

I am sorry for the length of time between updates about Logos for the Mac. I know it's frustrating for all of you, and it is frustrating for us, too. Let me catch you up on some details of where we are now.

Logos has been developing Logos Bible Software for Microsoft Windows for 15 years. We know a lot about Windows, and over the years we've built a pretty powerful application with a very large code base.

Our developers are a very talented bunch, and I have every confidence that they could master programming for the Mac platform just as they have mastered programming for Windows. But a) we need to keep them developing our Windows application, and b) I know that there's no substitute for years of experience on a platform. We want Logos for the Mac to be a first-class Mac application, and to reflect a deep understanding of -- and love for -- the Mac platform.

So we partnered with a third-party organization that specializes in Mac software development. They love the Mac and have years of experience building Mac applications. The plan was to have them do the bulk of the Mac development, working with our existing team to share code and expertise as needed.

The plan has worked fine, except that our partners dramatically underestimated the size and complexity of our code base and the time required to recreate it on the Mac.

I don't want to point fingers or assign blame. Neither of us understood how big this project was.

The project is not in trouble, it is not undoable; it is just taking longer than we planned.

I wish I could tell you that I know when it is going to be done, but (as you can see) we've already been burned by announcing dates.

The two development teams exchange emails every day. Every week a progress report shows what code has been completed and tested, and the "percent done" keeps going up. Sometimes it takes less time than planned to complete a component, but sometimes a lot longer. We just don't know.

Why haven't we provided more screenshots or even video clips along the way?

The short answer is that the majority of the development work is "under the hood" and results in nothing to show visually.

For those who like technical details: the Libronix Digital Library System is actually a very large programming platform composed of hundreds of objects and interfaces that we code the reports and user interface against. The object model grew organically over the years, as we added features to the product. Today's reports and features use the whole library, and to implement even one of them on the Mac requires having almost the entire library ported.

So the reason there aren't many new screenshots is that we need to have this whole back-end library available in order to implement almost any report, and that's the bulk of the coding. Once that back-end library is done, it is almost trivial to implement the reports that use it.

At the moment we have an application that runs, has a functioning "My Library" dialog, and reads and displays our existing electronic books correctly (and without modification). This is the hard part, and it's done. What's left is completing the port of the back-end object library. It's not particularly hard, it's just a lot of work. It is very far along, but it needs to be 100% complete before we can show search results or run a Passage Guide. (And we won't beta test without those things.)

Then we'll test, polish, and ship.

I apologize for the delay, and for the lack of communication. I am not trying to put the blame on someone else. (That's why I have said so little along the way.) I am just trying to explain why there isn't much we can report or do, other than wait.

I will try to do a better job of reporting progress in the future and appreciate your continued patience.

Bob Pritchett

President & CEO, Logos Bible Software

bob@logos.com