Fantail is here!

Since the release of Fantail 0.1 I have been hard at work getting a bunch of new features ready for Fantail 0.2. Of course, I am the only one that’s working on this, so things can take a bit of time to come to fruition, but trust me, I’m working on it!

Fantail 0.2 is about bringing in different views, and that’s exactly what it has got. In the original release, you could only view your Timeline, Replies and Direct Messages from other people (as well as the Catch Up window).

The biggest request I heard from people is to allow for groups, so yes, they’ll be in there.

Plus, search is quite important now, so Fantail 0.2 will support Twitter Search as well, including saved searches.

That’s not all though, but over the coming weeks I’ll let you know more as it comes along. Just believe me when I say, it’s being worked on.

Update If you were still having issues before, I have reuploaded it. It should solve this mess.

Fantail 0.1.1 has just been uploaded. Sorry about the lateness, unfortunately a back-up went awry causing me to rewrite the minimal install script.

This actually fixes two problems:

• Will no longer suffer from the Twitpocalypse. A database conversion needs to take place, so it may take a minute or two to get going at first.
• Has the sending bug fix that affected a number of people at random instances.

Download it now

Oh dear, I’m quite embarrassed about this. I have discovered that Fantail wasn’t quite ready to handle really, really big numbers. The Twitpocalypse has happened, and this has affected Fantail.

Fantail won’t update, and may crash from time to time. You can still send Tweets, but you won’t get any notification that it was sent successfully. The only way to fix this is to release a new version. 0.1.1 will be released later tonight.

So, Fantail has now been downloaded a few times now and I’ve received lots of positive comments. Thanks everyone who has downloaded it! If you still haven’t, then check it out at the Fantail subsite where you’ll find a big download button and more information about it.

Recently it has come to my attention of a problematic bug however that I can’t seem to get rid of. It doesn’t affect everyone, from what I can tell, most users can use Fantail without trouble.

When you go to post an update, Fantail will just sit there with the busy indicator spinning indefinately. This is due to a problem in the communication between Fantail and Twitter, specifically, Twitter has returned a 417: Expectation Failed exception. I’m busy trying to work out the cause of this and why it affects only a few people.

I am curious about one fix though, and I’ve attached it over the break. If your version of Fantail isn’t sending tweets, then please try it. It does require your hands getting slightly dirty. Otherwise, it’s onwards to version 0.2!
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After working on it for months, and having a month of testing I’m pleased to finally present the first proper release of Fantail!

I started Fantail purely because I didn’t think the other solutions were adequate enough, they required AIR which didn’t work on my computer, and I thought there were better ways to show tweets.

This first release, admittedly, doesn’t have a bajillion features just yet. It is just the beginning. I have many ideas and I hope to realise them through Fantail. A special thanks goes out to all those who helped test out the release candidate versions and gave feedback and support.

You can download version 0.1 now by clicking the link. Go over the break to read a quick start guide, and any changes made since the release candidates.

Before you begin, please make sure you have the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 installed. If you have Windows Vista, you already have this. If you have Windows XP, visit Windows Update to make sure it is installed.

Download now!
For Windows XP, Vista and 7 (32-bit only) – .Net Framework required

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So I’ve been hard at work trying to get something out to everyone. First the Twitter client needed a name. I did come up with one, but it was taken, and then another, but that was also taken. Then I decided to take a challenge and not have Twitter in the name at all and decided to call it after a bird – Fantail.

The fantail is a bird that is common across Asia and Australasia and was a common sight when I was a kid. The name seemed to fit, for one it’s a bird, two, it tweets, and three the words “fan” and “tail” (tailing) seem to go well when talking about Twitterers.

There have been lots of changes going on, and the reason for no screen shots is because they weren’t screenshottable, they would look just like the last screen shot I gave. But, here, for the first time, I give you all the main Fantail windows in all their glory. Note, this screen shot is a week old already and some subtle changes have already been made.

I’m working hard to get a release out as soon as possible. It is close…

It has been a little while since the last Twitter Client update so here it is…

Currently I’ve pulled back from working on other areas to get the main window working just right. I took it to work last week to put it through its paces over a day, and came up with a list of bugs and features to add before considering it as working.

I came up with a name for it, but after making the changes I found that it was taken (again!) so now thinking of another name.

It’s been a while since my last update on the Twitter client, and my numerous Tweets about it don’t give away much.

Clearly there is still some more work to be done, however it is trucking away. Getting a MacBook to continue development on away from my desk has encouraged me to get the client to set itself up (before it was using a database I had created in Visual Studio, and hard coded in). The scroll bar is presenting some quirks, which is unfortunate, but hopefully will get those sussed. It is pretty runnable, it sits in the task tray and even shows notifications (they’re nice and animated).

The Catch Up window is the whole reason why I’ve been making this Twitter client. It’s one thing that has bugged me, if you are away for any period of time and you are among a pretty chatty bunch of Twitterers, you tend to miss out on stuff. Catch up breaks it down in easily digestible pieces. The above is a very early form, and will be expanded upon (like, removing the “s” from “tweets” when there is only one).

I’m guessing after fixing some of the hitches I could get a preview release rolled out, however there are no promises that one will come soon. Development is already rather glacial.

Oh, and I ran the Twitter client through the Mono migration tool to see if there would be any problems in porting it to the Mac. So far so good, there are some P/Invoke methods required for the Notifications window, but I’m sure I can replace that with Growl.

If you’ve been following my Twitter stream you would have seen me mention the creation of a Twitter client here or there. Well, here’s the first screenshot of it:

Yeah, there is nothing special about it yet. It’s showing tweets. Woo. All in good time though…

I do need a good name for it first.