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Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:06 pm
by SDempsey
It's been a little while since we've heard from the folks at Mellel. How are things going? Any big plans in store for the future of Mellel?

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 1:36 am
by skaertus
Agree. There is silence over here. Mellel was last updated two months ago. The last post by Eyal Redler was on August 19, more than two months ago. Is there anybody out there?

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 1:02 am
by skaertus
Well, no news from the developers so far. Mellel has been updated more than 3 months ago for the last time. And there is no post of any of Mellel's developers on this forum since August. Is there something going on? Mellel is such a great piece of software, there should be any news on it...

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 4:34 pm
by Eyal Redler
Hi All,

We are all here and well. Working very hard on the next version of Mellel and the expansion to a new platform.
We are also working on a small version to correct some issues on Yosemite. If you're seeing anything odd this is the time to let us know.

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 5:48 pm
by Declan
Good news.

"New platform" sounds interesting. Not the iwatch, I hope.

Declan

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:43 pm
by macsailor
Declan wrote:Good news.

"New platform" sounds interesting. Not the iwatch, I hope.

Declan
Commodore C64? :lol:

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:32 am
by skaertus
Eyal Redler wrote:Hi All,

We are all here and well. Working very hard on the next version of Mellel and the expansion to a new platform.
We are also working on a small version to correct some issues on Yosemite. If you're seeing anything odd this is the time to let us know.
Great to hear that.

I wonder which platform this is. It could be Windows, but I suspect it is iOS.

Anyway, it will hopefully expand Mellel's audience.

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 3:44 am
by rpcameron
skaertus wrote:Great to hear that.

I wonder which platform this is. It could be Windows, but I suspect it is iOS.

Anyway, it will hopefully expand Mellel's audience.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'd like to see improvements to Mellel that many have been waiting for before expanding to new platforms:
  • Cascading styles
  • Customizable numbering schemes
  • Table styles
  • Better support for table headers/footers and tables that span multiple pages
  • Indexing
  • Parallel/linked columns (for translation)
  • Better support for mixing portrait and landscape
  • The DTD/XSD for Mellel's format (this was promised many years ago, and still has never been released. I understand it's not important to many, but it would help for integration with other apps.)
  • Either real Word support, or remove the menu entry for the confusing fake Word export

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 9:31 am
by Declan
I don't think you are in a minority.
I have my own (shorter) list of things I'd like to see developed in the Mac version, prior to any leap to new platforms.
Still, it's good to get signs of life from the developers. Better than silence, in my opinion.

Declan

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 7:57 am
by Declan
It could be that rather than the Commodore 64 or the ZX-81, they are planning to do what they pre-announced in the May Newsletter:

>In the near future, we believe you'll be able to fix and change Mellel documents on your iPad, or send a Mellel document - as-is - for review and changes by someone who does not own Mellel. Once the document is sent back, you'll be able to open it just as you would with any Mellel document... without losing formatting, auto-title or any of the other advanced features you have in your document.<

Sounds useful.

Declan

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 2:29 pm
by macsailor
Declan wrote:It could be that rather than the Commodore 64 or the ZX-81, they are planning to do what they pre-announced in the May Newsletter:

>In the near future, we believe you'll be able to fix and change Mellel documents on your iPad, or send a Mellel document - as-is - for review and changes by someone who does not own Mellel. Once the document is sent back, you'll be able to open it just as you would with any Mellel document... without losing formatting, auto-title or any of the other advanced features you have in your document.<

Sounds useful.

Declan
I hope you're right. Another reason to get an iPad.

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 10:55 am
by Timotheus
I fully agree with rpcameron. Personally, I care very little about versions for other platforms. I'd rather see improved the present version of Mellel, which for me (and perhaps not only for me) will remain the only that really matters.

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 12:39 pm
by suavito
I second what rpcameron wrote too.

Of course there are still some features missing, vital for some, not so vital for other users. But what is really crucial about Mellel—and has been for many, many years—is the fact that it is more or less isolated from the rest of the writing world. You can do a whole lot of things with Mellel, it is rock-solid etc. But for many users exchange with other programs is extremely important.

Spreading Mellel to other platforms instead is not a solution even if the Redlers were 20 brothers instead of 2. Many formats are used cross-platform so the goal should be to thoroughly support as many text formats as possible to become useful in inter-platform working environments.

I get specific about my workflow: Writing bigger manuscripts in a classic word processor in my opinion is dated. There are dedicated programs for that, far ahead of the rest is Scrivener.

Don't get me wrong, this is not an anti-Mellel statement at all! The finalization still must be done in a word processor (or InDesign or LaTex) and the best choice for huge manuscripts with many footnotes is Mellel. Mellel also works very well with Bookends, and so does Scrivener. What a great team these three would make—if only it was possible to get both formatted and structured text from Scrivener into Mellel without hassle. But it is not.

Instead we get ping-ponging Mellel documents between Mac and iPads? It is not bad to get this option in general—it is never bad to get more options—but not when you get it instead of something that is needed more urgent.

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 2:19 pm
by macsailor
Very well written Suavito, very well written indeed. Agree 100%.

Re: Mellel developers... you out there?

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 7:55 pm
by skaertus
suavito wrote:I second what rpcameron wrote too.

Of course there are still some features missing, vital for some, not so vital for other users. But what is really crucial about Mellel—and has been for many, many years—is the fact that it is more or less isolated from the rest of the writing world. You can do a whole lot of things with Mellel, it is rock-solid etc. But for many users exchange with other programs is extremely important.

Spreading Mellel to other platforms instead is not a solution even if the Redlers were 20 brothers instead of 2. Many formats are used cross-platform so the goal should be to thoroughly support as many text formats as possible to become useful in inter-platform working environments.

I get specific about my workflow: Writing bigger manuscripts in a classic word processor in my opinion is dated. There are dedicated programs for that, far ahead of the rest is Scrivener.

Don't get me wrong, this is not an anti-Mellel statement at all! The finalization still must be done in a word processor (or InDesign or LaTex) and the best choice for huge manuscripts with many footnotes is Mellel. Mellel also works very well with Bookends, and so does Scrivener. What a great team these three would make—if only it was possible to get both formatted and structured text from Scrivener into Mellel without hassle. But it is not.

Instead we get ping-ponging Mellel documents between Mac and iPads? It is not bad to get this option in general—it is never bad to get more options—but not when you get it instead of something that is needed more urgent.
Agreed. However, I still tend to prefer Mellel over Scrivener. The main issue for me is that Mellel should play better with others. All publishers expect to receive a Word file, and they always send me a Word file back. It would be really great if Mellel exported and imported seamlessly from Microsoft Word. They don't need to have the same features, but they should translate well from one another. I hope it is possible and it can be done some day. Word export has improved a lot and I hope it keeps improving.