PictureAlbum preview

For the last few weeks I've been writing a unique(?) picture/album browser for OS4, and am close to adding all the main features. While it still needs polishing, it already works pretty nicely, and I was wondering if there was interest in me releasing a "preview" version of it?

What it does is allow you to browse your folders, see thumbnails of all the pictures, open those pictures & put them where you like on the screen. When you go back to the folder, the pictures will appear where you left them! You can also rename/delete/move pictures.

All the previous "picture cataloguers" & "photo management" programs I've tried on the Amiga felt clunky, and in general really sucked, so this is my attempt to "do it right" (and so far I am loving it). I want it to be as easy & natural to use as possible, with as little configuration required as possible.


EDIT: The latest release is given in this post.

@ChrisH

I like the idea alright And I was planning on writing a similar app myself if I ever got the hang of MUI so I could finish my current project Good luck with it!

@ChrisH

This sounds very interesting - up to now I mostly use Photoalbum (http://home.arcor.de/helmuthoffmann/photoalbum/index_de.html ) or sometimes Holger Papajewskis Picview. But with a native OS4 software with some nice new ideas this will probably change...

@cha05e90
PhotoAlbum was the program I *had* been using for some years, because it was the "least sucky" program available :) . But the author lost interest in it & CyberShow, due to lack of people paying the shareware fee (and perhaps also due to lack of interest in the Amiga).

Although my program is effectively a PhotoAlbum replacement, I will probably make it act as a picture viewer program (ala CyberShow) also. CyberShow totally lacked the ability to "drag scroll", which is something I love, so I definitely want to picture viewer with that ability.

@Daedalus
At the moment I don't use MUI or in fact any GUI system, but that actually has some advantages in giving me the freedom to do some interesting things.

@ChrisH

Sounds nice!

I'm mostly using MysticView (yeah, even on OS4). For me, the ideal way to view pictures is to get them (optionally) automatically scaled to the current screen size, while keeping aspect (even on a wide screen monitor, please), and to be able to browse forwards and backwards through e.g. a drawerful by simple keystrokes. Loading speed is naturally also important, especially when viewing 14 Mpixel JPEGs from my digital SLR; MysticView is not exactly shining in that department, of course (being an old 68k app and all).

On any PCs I have the misfortune to use, I always install IrfanView as one of the first things; it gives me the same (or better) feeling. In addition, it has lots of useful features like screen grabbing, simple picture manipulation etc.

So something that can work much like these programs would be my wish.

Best regards,

Niels

I normally use picshow together with tumbnail viewer.

@ChrisH
Only programms which i use for watching pics, it's ACDSEE on win32, and LoView on os4 (that is Hollywood based viewer, but still simply, fast and good done, many nice features like classic "space" or "left/right" keyboards keys for swith beetwen picts, and alt).

Still, i really in interest to see your programm :) From other releases from you, i think it must be something interesting.

So, please, preview/beta/alpha version :)

ps. btw, what language you use when make it ? Your PortablE, or plain C , or something else ?

ps2.
Quote:

What i like, is that you call the problems by their names. If most of (if not all) amiga progamms in that area are suck - then they suck. Interesting to see your first attempts , and hope you will polished/finished it well.

@kas1e Quote:
I *only* program using my PortablE language

I dislike C's syntax, amoung other things, and it misses two important modern features (OOP & exceptions). I loathe C++ with a passion. I have used ARexx in the past, but it's a terrible language for writing anything non-small (somewhat like BASIC in fact), and I no-longer need it now that I have a nice ARexx port module for PortablE. I still sometimes use AmigaDOS, but you won't write anything interesting using that, and I try to avoid it where possible these days.

Never tried Hollywood, but it's interpreted (and thus slow when your wishes exceed the language designer's imagination). I hope that my program will be faster (and more memory efficient) than what could be achieved using Hollywood, even if not quite as pretty (no anti-aliasing nor alpha-blending).

Quote:
Not sure if you said that tongue-in-cheek or not :)

@ChrisH

that's a great idea as we need a good one for OS4.1 ..till now I've been liking the GQview under AmiCygnix and havent found a comparable one for OS4.x

@ChrisH
I'm interested too!

@ChrisH

I like your idea very much and wanna see a prev version of it. I use mostly picshow with the thumbnail viewer thumbs. With thumbs you can e.g. copy, delete and so on too, but it have to read the pictures every time you leave the dir, because it can't cache the thumbnails in a file permanently. So please release your prog

@ChrisH

Definitely interested!

@ChrisH

I'm using AmiPhoto, which I find powerful enough for my needs, but I'll gladly welcome a new photo/album manager

@ChrisH

Sounds nice..I'm interested too!

@ChrisH

Yes I am interessed in it too if I can save a kind of thumbnails index.
I would like a program which I could add directories recursively whatever the size. I used a program (don't know the name) which hanged with a too high number of files.

I am waiting for your release. I will test it for sure.

YesCop

@yescop
It only shows the contents of one folder at a time.

The "preview" release will be forthcoming shortly.... Just got to write some minimal docs!

@all
OS4 users can download the first preview here:
(EDIT: old version removed)

Although I have called it PhotoAlbum (*), I am open to suggestions. For example, maybe PhotoBrowser would be better?

(* = yes, I know there is already a 68k program of the same name, but it hasn't been developed for years.)

@ChrisH

Man! I've wished we had a "proper" acdsee clone for years! That's just great news you're making something like that, judging from your work in RunInUAE, it'll be "proper" no doubt! :) Gonna try the preview soon. How about Image Album or Picture Album for name as it's not really just photos it works with.

@Vulture
PictureAlbum sounds like a good idea :)

I've never used acdsee, nor any other similar windows software, so I will be interested to know what you think. It is *not* a specific clone of any particular software!

@all
An updated preview can be downloaded here:
(EDIT: old version removed)

Changes include:
* Drag'n'drop will hopefully no-longer fail for some people.
* Changed the name to PictureAlbum.
* The Page Up/Down keys now work, as does Home.