FutureDevelopment

Despite having said these are not promises, there are some promises which can be made. Here they are:

• AutoRealm? will be ported to wxWidgets. Once that's done, it will be released as a line-for-line type port of the program, including all the warts in the sourcecode. This will be version 2.4.0.

• Once the wxWidgets port is done and released, the next version will focus on profiling/performance enhancement. One of the things which is most noticed about AutoRealm? is that it uses a lot of system resources for complex maps. We want to try and reduce that load. This will be version 2.6.0.

• Another significant issue is the user interface itself. While it works, it could be noticeably improved. Speaking for myself, I'm thinking something on the lines of the GIMP (with a palette/tools options area) meets Mozilla (with multiple tabs, though these tabs will point to the same map, just different areas/views). This will also include other updates, enhancements, and will, in general, be the first release to sport major new features. What features those are has yet to be defined, though. This will be version 3.0.0.

So, we're looking at a minimum of two releases before the next major features changes (unless somebody submits a patch, that will likely be accepted).

That's that. Those are all that I'm willing to commit to. Everything else is an idea that is up for consideration.

Well, there's a lot of ideas for the far flung future (hey, 6 months away feels far flung to me). Here's a few of them that have been mentioned on the mailing list numerous times, and are probably well worth doing.

• Some sort of terrain/city wizard, which will allow the user to select a symbol library and build a basic map of an area, ready to be filled in.

• Customizable fill patterns, etc. Basically, make the built-in patterns/etc into nothing more than defaults, and allow the ability to add more.

• An ability for AutoRealm? itself to go online and download new symbol libraries, maps, and the like.

• libnoise integration, to help with producing different maps/terrains, and provide added realism.

• Making AutoRealm? into more of a GIS application, as opposed to a vector drawing application.

• Sourceforge Enhancement Ideas Page also has several other enhancements which I'd like to see make it into AutoRealm?.