spring is in the air

And so is the rain I'm afraid. But warmer, expecting around 20 degrees C this weekend...

And with spring comes tourists, less layers of cloth, more to look at for us chaps and some colour to life.

Doing some finishing touches to a works-nicely with-a-little-list-of-missing-features version of the thingamy (you'll never hear me say pre this or that, and no alpha, no beta) that will go out to a few IT consultants and system integrators for some real life playing.

Thus the layout and quirky icons required a spring cleaning... perhaps some spring colour...

Retro 70's I guess, no web 2.0 rounded corners and subdued colours.

[It's a screenshot, Firefox, from a branch with a single "link" to another workflow (expanded), thus I could show all the neat instruction-icons made by Jeanette, red for user-tasks, green for flows, yellow for transfers, blue for object creation and manipulation :)]

Knowing that I have no chance to please all I'll leave the CSS file and icons folder open for the user to change as he please, any time, any day.

And soon an operational interface protocol based on XML-RPC for no limits at all to build whatever front-ends!

It's fun tinkering with though ;)

Comments

[Ric]

When, Sig, when??

[sig]

You beat me to it Ric! One thing left, then some testing to get out the worst stuff... Monday?

You're on the list of course ;)

[Curt]

I like the use of both shapes and colors to signify different functions. No rounded corners a good choice as well -- sharp corners make the shapes more distinct, [hopefully] leaving no doubt upon a quick glance by the user what each shape represents.

Obviously, you know that I'm eager to "kick the Thingamy tires" as well :)

[sig]

Curt, you're of course on the list! Expect... ehh... Tuesday :D

[Matt]

I'm more impressed with you open CSS standards than I am with your bucking the 2.0 rounded corners trend.

Really want to take thingamy for a spin soon!

[Dennis Howlett]

Ping me when Tuesday...or is it now Wednesday...when it comes?

[David Terrar]

Looking good, and I like the retro - don't forget David Squared on the list

[sig]

Guys, guys, nobody has been forgotten ;)
Seems we have all (for this thingie) in per tonight, so some testing and building and we should be ready to go :)

[Peter]

Will some demo be available for the "greater public"... well, someone like me who reads most of the stuff here and sometimes have a comment or two as well to try out? I got rather interested and starting to see a market for the thing around me here...

[sig]

Peter, what's happening now is:

1. I'm letting out a few very early stand-alone apps/exes including a reference manual MK 0.0001 (hate manuals! Goal is to make it manual-redundant :) - but only after having done a web-based demo as introduction.

2. With feed-back from this early group - first time really out there without me hanging over the shoulder I expect "some" feed-back (and frustration noises). Then we will tweak, change, add, substract, whatever to make it easier for the next few.

[Repeat cycle until all happy :)]

As you will appreciate this is a bit time-consuming just now - and thus I try to keep it to IT Consultants / System Integrators (and a few others) as they would be the natural first adapters with the biggest poetential for us to.

It seems the system will give these a great sell-in tool (whip up a working demo in an hour say) as well as a way into systems delivery and long term support without having a "diploma" from the big enterprise systems guys on the wall... hint, hint

But if you (or others) falls (even remotely) into that category I'll gladly skip lunch or whatever and do a demo promptly :D

In any case, mail me at sig at thingamy dot com, and you're on the list!