Monday, August 31, 2009

reddit is fun v0.7.0 - My last major release for awhile

reddit is fun v0.7.0!





New features:
  • check your reddit mail. change the mail notification style, or disable, in Menu->Settings.
  • automatic background mail notification service, off by default. (Menu->Settings)
  • change sort order of threads and comments. new, hot, top, etc.
  • pick from your personalized subreddit list
  • let you change default starting reddit (Menu->Settings)


This'll be my last major release for awhile since I'm going back to start my Masters program. I'll work on new features when I have time though. Thanks for everyone's support!

EDIT: Oops, I forgot to implement "load more comments". I'll do that soon.

EDIT: 0.7.1 fixes some bad formatting of titles and comment bodies. Thanks to Todd for bringing this to my attention.
EDIT: 0.7.2 fixes couple minor bugs. thanks to jk3us again for pointing out force close when replying to thread while not logged in.
EDIT: 0.7.3 fixes a force close when selecting "pick subreddit" without internet connection
EDIT: 0.7.4 finally implements "load more comments". not inline, unfortunately (how would I handle all the indentation?). also adds "go to parent" context menu option for more convenient navigation.

 Also if you'd like to donate, please use the "reddit is fun donation" app in the Market. I also have a paypal account (talklittle, gmail). Thanks very much! :)

Friday, August 28, 2009

1000 downloads!

I just hit the 1000 download mark on Android Market for reddit is fun! Thanks, reddit.com!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Intent filter for "Share link"

I just released reddit is fun v0.6.4.

The main feature was a suggestion by jk3us which was to add the app to the list of destinations for sharing, for instance when you click "Share page" from the Browser menu.

To do it, I had to add an intent filter. It looks like this:

            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
                <data android:mimeType="text/plain" />
               </intent-filter>

I also fixed a long-standing possible force close due to a race condition around dismissing the login dialog and reading from the dialog's members. I never experienced the force close until today, but I have a feeling some other phone models experience it more often than the G1. I was moving some stuff around in the code, which caused the force close to happen very, very frequently. Which makes me think that other phone models could easily have had a higher frequency of this happening, if it was really due to a race condition. Oh well, it should be gone now.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

reddit is fun v0.6.0 - You can submit links

I just released reddit is fun 0.6.0 and it feels awesome. (the act of releasing a new version, that is.)

The big feature of 0.6.0 is posting new threads (links or self posts). Yessss.


Sssssssss.


Anyway, there's still a long way to go before my app reaches "pro" status. First up are things like the orange-red envelope, expanding and collapsing comment trees, and viewing user posting histories.

I also have a long list of big and small changes I'd still like to make. So there's plenty left to do. Too bad when school starts I'll have a lot less time to work on this.


Reddit post:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/9d6dg/reddit_is_fun_060_is_out/

EDIT: 0.6.1 lets you follow links embedded in comments. It was annoying not to be able to get to those. I copied the behavior of the Android Messaging app.

EDIT: 0.6.2 lets you hide comments by long-pressing and using the context menu. I figure the context menu can be used for less frequently used (for me at least) actions, while regular clicks will show the frequently used actions -- voting, reply, and visiting links embedded in the comment.

Edit: 0.6.3 lets you go to the next/previous pages in threads list. hooray! It was weird implementing this because the reddit API requires you to provide the correct "count" value in the URL, or else it doesn't tell you how to get back to the previous page. Whatever. Details...
Also fixes the bug with rotating the screen putting you back at the reddit frontpage instead of whatever subreddit you were in.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

reddit is fun v0.5.3

I just released 0.5.3 of reddit is fun!

So, thanks to helpful feedback from people, I fixed quite a few stability issues. It sucks to admit it, but the first release had lots of synchronous tasks that should have been asynchronous. I hadn't realized that was really necessary until people told me about their crashes. So I went back to eclipse and pounded away at the app for hours, refactoring until I turned all the synchronous crap into AsyncTasks, which are EXTREMELY useful on Android. (Before I knew about AsyncTask, I was trying to use Threads and Handlers and callbacks, and keeping track of the state of the Activities. AsyncTask takes care of the nitty gritty stuff and makes it much easier and more robust.)

Anyway I'm also getting good suggestions for UI improvements. Awesome. I really like my pace on this project because it feels like I can just get into it and keep going full speed. Maybe it's the fact that it's all Java and that Eclipse fills in a lot of the uninteresting stuff for you so you can worry about the program instead of the code. There were a couple debug sessions that dragged on, though. But it's always nice to take a step back and think of a possible cause and solution for a bug, and even nicer when it works. It kicks butt. No, it kicks two butts. Make that three.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

reddit is fun - first release, version 0.5.0





reddit is fun


My first app is now on the Android marketplace! "reddit is fun" is an app for browsing reddit.com with IMO a less annoying interface than dealing with the Android browser.

For this version, 0.5.0, you can look at the hot stories on different subreddits, login and vote, and leave comment replies.

In future versions I still have a lot of things to add:
  • Posting new threads
  • Better UI (some dialogs are wonky)
  • Looking at user info
  • The "red envelope" for replies
  • Sorting the subreddit and comments by things other than "hot"
  • "load more comments"
  • View more pages within a subreddit
  • Handling embedded links in comments
  • A few other features that might go into a paid version :)
So I guess this initial release took me about two and a half weeks. It felt like much longer though.... I've been working on it in my spare time after my day job.