Toucan 3.1
I am hard at work on Toucan 3.1 and thought I would give you all a quick update on what I plan to add for the new version. I will update and expand this when progress is made on each of the sections.
Improved Progress Output
The way Toucan sends output from the worker threads to either the user interface or the command line has been completely overhauled to use a message queue rather than events. What this means for end users is that the progress window will be even more responsive than before, and that output to the command line is finally properly fixed and will not randomly break in the future. There have also been a number of improvements to the progress window. Firstly it is now a proper modal dialog, this means that it should minimise properly along with the main window, amongst other things. A toggle button for toggling autoscroll on the output has also been added. Finially I plan to add saving and loading of the windows position and size, just like in the main form.
Current progress: All complete expect position and size saving
Rules
The rules system has been a bit limiting for some time now. One of the main problems is that it doesn’t allow you to completely exclude a folder. At the moment if a folder is excluded then Toucan continues to traverse that folder to check if there are any includes, this gives problems in a number of situations, and reduces performance. The next version will split the existing rules into five subtypes: File Include, File Exclude, Folder Include, Folder Exclude and Absolute Folder Exclude. This will allow maximum flexibility. Also rather than using special syntax to denote the type such as regex it is now a separate option.
Current progress: Finished, extensive testing needed
Debugging
As of 3.1 Toucan will no longer UPX as the Boost message queue doesn’t seem to play well with it. Because of this I am adding better debugging support to Toucan as it requires the exe not to be upxed. This will allow users to create proper crash reports when Toucan crashes and should greatly aid in debugging.
Current progress: Not started
Scripting
At the moment the Toucan scripting is very powerful but not very understandable for new users. An aim for this, and the next few releases, is to improve the usability of the scripting tab. This will mean making it look more like a proper editor, and adding ways to easily add exising jobs and command to your script.
Current progress: Not started
File Paths
Leaving what for many people is the best feature until last I aim to have full support for UNC paths in 3.1, at least for Sync. I also aim to support running from a UNC path as well. Support for Backup and Secure of UNC paths will be more tricky, I will aim to get Secure working for 3.2 however.
Current progress: Finished sync and application running support