After yesterday’s “OOPs” email posting, we have picked up SEVEN people volunteering to help beta test LIDA! Wow! That is absolutely wonderful.
Because I wanted to give all these new volunteers a timeline for when they could expect to receive their version of LIDA to test, I took a deep breath and gave my best-guess estimate as to when the Beta version would be ready for them:
In about two weeks.
Yep, since we are right now just a few days before Christmas, that means some time in the first week of January.
Okay, so I have a LOT to do between now and then, to get LIDA ready for Beta testing. What do I have to do, you ask? Here’s the list:
- LEARN TO BUILD AN INSTALLATION PACKAGE. I’ve got a line on an excellent installation package builder, but it is learning an entirely new skillset for me, a new scripting language and compiling process, and after I learn this, I have to actually build the package, then I have to test it and make sure it works perfectly before sending it out to the beta testers. This is the biggie, and is number one on my priority list.
- ACTIVATE MORE CAPABILITIES IN LIDA. I need to add a new [Duration] field to the main data table, along with a [IsMultiMovement] checkbox; I also want to build and activate the capability to produce query results in a printable form – this should be relatively easy since all the query building work is in place and I simply need to route the results to a report; and possibly – add a second query group, which will allow the user to have a group of ANDed conditions along with a group of ORed conditions. If you don’t understand all that right now, don’t worry – it will become more clear as you use it.
There may be a few more things to do before sending LIDA to the entire team of “Tester-Suggesters,” but those are the two big things.
So for me, the deadline is set, and the countdown has begun. Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly, and maybe, just maybe, I can get to beta early.