The transition of BeAIM to Layout Kit and full support for HiDPI screens is now complete! Expect a new release very soon.

Originally I wanted to finish the next big BeAIM release today,but then I noticed that my Haiku computer could no longer reboot,instead it was...Originally I wanted to finish the next big BeAIM release today,but then I noticed that my Haiku computer could no longer reboot,instead it was hanging at "Asking other processes to quit".I spent the rest of the day investigating the issue,building multiple hrevs from source and could finally trace it down to this specific commit: codeberg.org/haiku/haiku/commit/2e46e092dbb7b2dd4b… It's not yet clear how it will be fixed,but that's way above my knowledge level,so I'll let the experts handle that.A ticket is created at dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/19530 Show more

There's now also a Revolt chat server dedicated to Haiku,BeOS and retro-computing.You can join the main chat group here:...There's now also a Revolt chat server dedicated to Haiku,BeOS and retro-computing.You can join the main chat group here: revolt.retro-os.live/invite/Pxr9kskE Show more

I just noticed that we do now have a Wiki at wiki.beos.retro-os.live ? Seems to be rather new and doesn't have content yet,but it's a great addition...I just noticed that we do now have a Wiki at wiki.beos.retro-os.live ? Seems to be rather new and doesn't have content yet,but it's a great addition to the site.Only a few days ago I was thinking about the fact that I have to answer the same questions over and over again in the forum,and that it would be good to collect that information at a central place and simply put a link to it.I'll try to fill the Wiki with content when I see questions about common topics again.Oh,and I could probably document some stuff about programming that isn't that clear and understandable in the current Haiku Book and BeBook. Show more

Finally, the rewrite of all BeAIM user interface components is complete. Everything should look and behave like it did before, minus a few fixed...Finally, the rewrite of all BeAIM user interface components is complete. Everything should look and behave like it did before, minus a few fixed glitches probably. The code isn't exactly clean right now, I added many BRect(0, 0, 1, 1) calls as placeholders where a BRect was previously needed. The next task is trying to need those BRects as few as possible since the LayoutKit will automatically create them at the correct position and with the correct size anyway -> Remove them where it doesn't horribly break stuff. After code quality is improved, I'll look into making HiDPI work right. Many elements still use fixed sizes, especially font sizes, which isn't good practice and should be replaced with dynamically calculated values. Show more

Today I started the rewrite to using the LayoutKit with the AboutBox, which is probably the easiest window. Of course it took me some hours to get...Today I started the rewrite to using the LayoutKit with the AboutBox, which is probably the easiest window. Of course it took me some hours to get into how that all works, but I'm quite happy with the results. You can barely notice any difference, but the little differences that exist make the new version better, I'd say. Also, it does now scale properly with HiDPI as I replaced all hardcoded font sizes with calculations based on the users font size preference. Left is new, right is old. Show more

The next big change I want to do with BeAIM is rewriting the UI code to make use of Haikus Layout Kit. That allows for automatic resizing of...The next big change I want to do with BeAIM is rewriting the UI code to make use of Haikus Layout Kit. That allows for automatic resizing of elements according to the font size, so that the application can work fine with HiDPI screens for example. Also, once rewritten, the Layout Kit should make it a lot easier to add new UI elements withoutmanually recalculating the positions of all elements. Back when BeAIM was initially created, the Layout Kit didn't exist so all positions are hardcoded. This will be a lot of work, but adding more features now and moving to the Layout Kit later would only result in even more work to also rewrite the new stuff, so I decided it's better to do it now and not to have to worry about it anymore later. Luckily I found a great tutorial for getting started with the Layout Kit that explains how MidiPlayer has been rewritten for the Layout Kit: www.haiku-os.org/documents/dev/laying_it_all_out_p… Show more

I've just released BeAIM 1.6.3 which can be downloaded from codeberg.org/nikisoft/BeAIM/releases/tag/1.6.3 or built from source by clining the repo and...I've just released BeAIM 1.6.3 which can be downloaded from codeberg.org/nikisoft/BeAIM/releases/tag/1.6.3 or built from source by clining the repo and running "make package". This time it brings you the ability to format the text you send bold, italic, underlined or struck-out, and change the font size and font family. Besides that, a few other small features and bugfixes made it into the release. Show more

Another possibility I was thinking of is Polyglot (i18n.kacperkasper.pl), a translation service made especially for Haiku applications and...Another possibility I was thinking of is Polyglot (i18n.kacperkasper.pl), a translation service made especially for Haiku applications and perfectly optimized for the Catkeys format. Unfortunately using it requires an M$ Github accoun, which is unacceptable. I talked to the developer, who does consider adding login with other providers, such as Codeberg, but that will take time. I'm still not really sure which way to go. I might set up my own Polyglot instance. It's a bit much for only a single project, but I can't think of any alternative that's better for now. Show more

For the last few days, I was thinking about making translations for BeAIM easier. Obviously, none of the big translation services supports the Haiku...For the last few days, I was thinking about making translations for BeAIM easier. Obviously, none of the big translation services supports the Haiku Catkeys format. I added support for Catkeys to the open-source project Weblate (weblate.org) only to find out that the concept of Weblate doesn't really fit the Haiku translation system - Haiku modifies only en.catkeys as template from the source code, but for Weblate, new strings must be added to each language separately, it can't sync them again from English after an initial sync, where it works fine once. Also, nobody has yet sent my patch upstream, so it's not usable anywhere outside my test server. Show more

Working with code that originates from someone else can sometimes cause good surprises. I've been working on BeAIM for quite some time now, but only...Working with code that originates from someone else can sometimes cause good surprises. I've been working on BeAIM for quite some time now, but only today I saw that the input server filter for idle time detection is actually fully functional, but was supposed to be built separately with its own Makefile. I included it in the main Makefile and package target now, so future releases will come with Idle Time Detection (as well as many other cool features). Show more

With all the discussion of dropping 32-bit support from WebPositive and HaikuWebKit, I've been thinking about JavaScript compilation that's AOT...With all the discussion of dropping 32-bit support from WebPositive and HaikuWebKit, I've been thinking about JavaScript compilation that's AOT instead of JIT.

I've forked QuickJS already and am going to be looking at the bytecode to see if I can feed it into LibGCCJIT in its AOT mode to generate a .so file for Haiku for each JavaScript file WebPositive encounters. Show more

I've just released BeAIM 1.6.2 which brings some bugfixes and makes it a lot easier to build your own package. Pre-build packages are available at...I've just released BeAIM 1.6.2 which brings some bugfixes and makes it a lot easier to build your own package. Pre-build packages are available at codeberg.org/nikisoft/BeAIM/releases/tag/1.6.2 again, but you can now also create your own HPKGs by downloading the source and simply running make package. Previously packages were handcrafted using BeSlys excellent HPKG Creator. Show more

Looking at fixing sound effects in BeAIM, I found a rather small but surprising file in Haiku that should actually handle the playback:...Looking at fixing sound effects in BeAIM, I found a rather small but surprising file in Haiku that should actually handle the playback: grok.nikisoft.one/opengrok/xref/haiku/src/kits/med… Seems it's only a placeholder for BeOS ABI compatibility and doesn't actually do anything. Not sure if I should contribute to Haiku to implement that, or simply implement playback in BeAIM in a different way. The former would surely help more in the long run, but the latter will be a lot easier for now and avoid having users wait for the next Haiku release to make sounds work. Show more

Today I created the Haiku User Map, a little toy project that can show where Haiku developers and users live (if they want). It's more or less the...Today I created the Haiku User Map, a little toy project that can show where Haiku developers and users live (if they want). It's more or less the same thing SerenityOS also has. You can see it live on haiku-usermap.codeberg.page or you can see the source code at codeberg.org/haiku-usermap/pages Show more

I've just released BeAIM version 1.6.1 which brings support for system colors (just finished!) and translations using Haikus LocaleKit rather than a...I've just released BeAIM version 1.6.1 which brings support for system colors (just finished!) and translations using Haikus LocaleKit rather than a custom-made solution. You can download the new version from here: codeberg.org/nikisoft/BeAIM/releases/tag/1.6.1 HPKG packages for both x86 and x86_64 are available, but you can also build it from source if you like. Show more