Today, I’m finally announcing the latest major release to DestroyTwitter along with its dedicated website. It’s true, both went public two days ago, so I guess this is considered a belated announcement. DestroyTwitter 1.5 got off to a rocky start due to a happy trigger finger, so we’re already at 1.5.1 now. I made an update to the Regex code that highlights URLs, but forgot to change a $1 to $2. This simple typo on my part added an extra “http” to URLs and caused all sorts of havoc. The really bad part was my decision to launch it right before I went to sleep. I woke up with 100+ bug reports in my inbox and just as many Twitter replies. Now that it’s all sorted out, let’s go over what’s new.
The biggest feature in 1.5 is the introduction of Themes. At first, I felt reluctant to integrate color configuration. Then, I thought about it for a while and in order for me to include it, I’d want to make it more than just customizing the app on the users computer and keeping it at that. To keep memory usage low, I didn’t want the configuration to be inside the app, so I made a Theme Builder. Next, I thought about the importance of sharing these themes, so I created my own filetype, .dtwt. It’s an extension of XML and can be double-clicked to install the theme. There’s a repository of user-designed themes on the DestroyTwitter website and the list of installed themes can be found in the Preferences canvas.
This next feature came really late in development of 1.5. I’m a big Twitpic user. It’s perfect for sharing screenshots, especially with DestroyTwitter’s ability to upload via drag and drop. The problem I had with Twitpic, though, is that it’s a website. I like how DestroyTwitter is a standalone application because it’s small and lightweight—a browser window is not. On top of that, opening an entirely new browser window for a single lo-res photo?—no thanks. With that being said, I decided to build a Twitpic viewer into DestroyTwitter. It scales itself to the window whether you’re using a single canvas or wider workspace.
The remaining features and fixes are a long list of little things. Each one has great importance, but not enough to justify a screenshot. Let’s just list through them. URLs without the protocol “http” are now highlighted and clickable. This caused the hiccup with the launch, but it’s all fixed now. Once again, I managed to reduce memory and CPU usage. I’ll be working to get this even lower next time around. A number of hotkeys have been added as well. These include: clicking L with a tweet selected will open the first link in its text, control+tab and control+shift+tab navigate through canvases, and holding shift while prompting a reply acts as a “reply all.” In the preferences department, ones hav been added to open user profiles in the browser, position notifications in the bottom right, and clear themes. Dialogue is now threaded, so pressing the right-arrow when in the Dialogue panel will continue down the conversation. Quick Friend Lookup now works with direct messages when typing “D” followed by a space in a new tweet. The remaining aspects of 1.5 are mainly fixes that can be seen on the development page.
Now onto DestroyTwitter.com. To be honest, I’m really surprised it was finished on time. There is one aspect, Discussions, that’s missing, but it will be appended shortly. With the growth of DestroyTwitter and the introduction of themes, I knew it was time for a dedicated website. On top of that, I wasn’t happy having multiple places to report bugs or suggest features as I had with GetSatisfaction and Google Groups. They’re great services, but I much prefer answering emails via Gmail. Nothing beats “Send and Archive.”
The website consists of a handful of pages, with a lot more space for content than the 450px column on Destroy Today could provide. The landing page is an overview of DestroyTwitter. It shows the latest release, new themes, info about the app, and what’s being said on Twitter.
The Download page is pretty much the project page on Destroy Today for DestroyTwitter, which now links to the new site.
I added a page for screenshots for those who need to see what they’re geting themselves into. With a name like DestroyTwitter, you can never be so sure, right? The Development page is home to the release history and roadmap for future builds.
The Theme Builder is a dedicated web-app for designing themes to use in DestroyTwitter. You can import, download and submit themes. A color picker is available for easy configurating and there’s a long list of parameters to modify.
The Themes page is a repository for all the themes designed with the Theme Builder. You can sort by most recent, downloads, and awesome. I added an FAQ page because some questions were getting to the point where a dozen DT(w) users would answer it for me. It’s about time for a list to reference. I condensed the bug report and feedback forms to one. Lastly, I added a Donate page for those looking to support my work. Donations are accepted through either Paypal or Dreamhost referrals. With every referral I get from someone signing up for hosting, Dreamhost donates $100 to DestroyTwitter. Pretty cool, eh?
As soon as I’m done posting this write-up, I’ll be back to work on 1.6. I love developing DestroyTwitter and, even more, I love seeing the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the app. It really means a lot and makes me feel like it’s not just another Twitter AIR app. Thanks.
