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Quoll Writer - A writing application that lets you focus on your words.

garybentley/quollwriter00

MoltPulse

Based on repository activity, growth velocity and community engagement.

24

Growth3/30

Activity4/25

Popularity9/25

Trust7/20

214

Stars

High

Sentiment

Votes

214

README.md

About

Quoll Writer is a desktop writing application, written in Java that is designed to allow you to focus on writing and your words. It removes standard word processing conventions such as margins, indents and formatting in favor of a simple interface that keeps you focussed on writing and improving your writing skills.

See the website for more details: http://quollwriter.com

License

The Quoll Writer code, that is everything under the src, data directories, are licensed under an Apache 2.0 license. The license is included in the repository and also can be found at: http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html

Requirements

At least Java 1.7 is required to run Quoll Writer.

Ant is required to execute the build file.

Running

To run Quoll Writer either use the default task or the command:

ant run

Directories/files

The following is a brief outline of the major directories and files in the repository.

data - directory containing the data files used by Quoll Writer such as properties and definitions.
data/prompts - directory containing the writing prompts.
data/schema - directory containing the schema definition files including the upgrade scripts and view definitions.
imgs - directory containing the images used throughout the application. Quoll Writer expects to use .png files for icons.
imgs/bgs - directory containing the background image files used in the Idea Board and full screen mode, generally these are jpgs.
src - directory where the java source code resides.
src/com/quollwriter - directory containing general classes. The Startup class has the main method and is called to start things up. It then passes responsibility onto the static method Environment.init which then decides what should be done (either start the last project or show the find/open window. is the central hub controlling and tracking the various project viewer instances. It keeps track of which projects are open, it also handles the user and system properties.

Environment

Look-n-feel implementations for Java on Linux are pretty poor and it's difficult to get a nice one that would be compatible with the existing code. You can't just switch look-n-feel and hope for the best, especially not with the visual style Quoll Writer uses (I know I've tried).
Mac has a couple of nice look-n-feels (for example Quaqua), however getting support across the various flavors of Mac is difficult. Also the Mac platform is positively hostile towards tabbed interfaces. The Mac UI guide recommends them only for configuration. However Quoll Writer currently makes heavy use of tabs. The reliance on tabs can be removed but it is quite a lot of work to do and time is against me at the moment.
No menu bar. I imagine Mac users may have a fit about this one, also certain Linux distributions (Ubuntu for example) expect an application to have a menu bar. I understand this but my own opinion is that menu bars need to die off from applications. Mobile apps don't use them and most modern browsers don't either. They are an information hiding anacronism that rely on memorization for their functionality, they are hostile to feature discovery. They prevent you from using an application not facilitate it, don't believe me? Why do you think Microsoft invented the ribbon?
Mouse triggers. Different platforms have different buttons that trigger different events. This is a complete break of the Java "write once, run anywhere" promise and Swing does not help you out with it. You can encapsulate yourself from it somewhat but there is always something you miss. Personally I don't have time to try and sort that out across 3 platforms.
Macs are hostile to Java. I'm not convinced, now that Oracle are at the helm, that Java will be present on Macs for too much longer. Oracle are interested in Java as a middle-ware technology not the desktop. Also, the iOS/Mac ecosystems are becoming more closed down and controlled so there is little incentive for me to put effort into something that will probably disappear soon.
Linux users tend to be Java averse on their desktops. Sorry guys but I hear too much "Java is slow", "Java is crap", "Java is pants compared to X". I personally don't find it to be true but I try hard not to write slow software.
Mac users expect their software to have a similar look to their other software. Quoll Writer is very different to standard apps you see on a Mac and I won't be changing it to fit in with how Macs work.