Announcing Sapphire 9.1 and 8.3 Releases

Sapphire 9.1 and 8.3 releases are now available. These releases introduce TextSelectionService that allows the framework users to observe and manipulate the selection in a text property editor. Additionally, a number of fixes have been made to the localization system. Sapphire 8.3 is intended for adopters who are not yet able to require Java 8.

Announcing Sapphire 9.0.5 and 8.2.5 Releases

Sapphire 9.0.5 and 8.2.5 releases are now available. Both include a fix for the validation messages appearing out of order in some cases and a fix for the diagram editor context menu not displaying if the editor has been scrolled. Sapphire 8.2.5 is intended for adopters who are not yet able to require Java 8. Sapphire 9.0.5 will be part of the upcoming Neon release of Eclipse.

UX Fail: No multi-select in Windows 10 Mail

Windows 10 Mail application is a curious creature. It’s clearly designed primarily for tablet touch experience, but I am giving it a try on my desktop because there is a dearth of modern desktop mail clients. As a desktop application, Mail has numerous UX failings. Perhaps the biggest is the absence of multi-select support for messages. This makes managing an inbox that receives a large amount of automated messages unnecessarily tedious.

UX Fail: Invisible Title Bar Bounds

The minimalistic design aesthetic that’s pervading the software world has produced some spectacular UX fails. Here is an example from Windows 10. The subject is the humble Notepad application, but the same issue can be seen in other place. Notice how there is no visible separation between the title bar and the menu bar. Both have white background. The problem is that a user with a mouse needs to know the bounds of the title bar in order to be able to drag the window. Without visible bounds and without any other feedback (such as changing of the mouse pointer), the user is left to click and try. Sometimes the window moves, sometimes the window doesn’t move. In other words, a UX fail.

Announcing Sapphire 9.0.1 Release

On behalf of all who contributed, I am very proud to announce the availability of the Sapphire 9.0.1 release. This release includes a number of fixes in the areas of installation experience, performance and usability. It includes all of the fixes from the 8.2.1 release and is part of the Mars.1 release.

Announcing Sapphire 8.2.1 Release

On behalf of all who contributed, I am very proud to announce the availability of the Sapphire 8.2.1 release. This release includes a number of fixes in the areas of installation experience, performance and usability. It is intended for adopters who are not yet able to require Java 8.

Announcing Sapphire 9 Release

On behalf of all who contributed, I am very proud to announce the availability of the Sapphire 9 release. This release includes various API improvements, including integration with Java 7 and 8 language features (AutoCloseable and repeatable annotations). Additionally, reference properties now support transparent reference setting, meaning the target of the reference can be assigned to the property, but the model will still store just the id. This release is part of Mars.