[note] We're Building Zipgenius 6.3 (and More)

[ZipGenius]

While ZipGenius 6.2.0.2008 has been just released, weare not sitting back to wait and we are working on ZipGenius 6.3.

What will ZG 6.3 offer?

It will be one step forward to perfect compatibility with Windows 7, even if won't have shell extensions in 64bit versions of Windows. Good news coming from Embarcadero, the company that now produces Delphi 2010: somewhere in 2010 we will see a native 64bit Delphi compiler. This means that we will finally produce the 64bit shell extensions missing to ZipGenius.

Moreover, ZG63 will offer the bugfix to "Picture preview" mode and no flipped pictures.

A new clickable status bar will appear, too.

... and what about ZG 7?

I know you heard many times about this version. Trust me, it is not vaporware. ZG6 is still widely used and performing well, so much that no one is urging for a new major release. That appears clearly if you think that ZG6 is holding on from 2004!!! It crossed Windows XP, Windows Vista and now it's on Windows 7, passing through some Linux distribution running WINE.

This has been made possible because we used good free and open source components, which were always update from one Delphi edition to the other, and when those components were not upgraded anymore, we easily found better replacements. It is happening right now with ZG6 compiled on Delphi 2010: some free component didn't install in D2010 and no new version was available (that happened to the old status bar, as example), so we went out and searched for a replacement. However, it is really noticeable how well-written code doesn't need to be updated each year: the 80% of components used by ZipGenius quickly passed from D2006 to D2010 (hopping three Delphi editions!) without any problem and they got installed as expected. The best piece of code, IMHO, is the TExBar used for the sidebar and the home panel in ZG: not a bit has changed from its first usage!

This fact tells why ZipGenius 7 is currently defined as "experimental project in Alpha Stage": we are still developing it but without hurry, because nobody need a radical ZipGenius revolution. We are using ZG7 to experiment components and new bits of user interface (believe me: ZG7 has a great UI ). Some of this experiments are making their way to ZG6 and they will appear from time to time in the next releases; this method will put ZG6 closer to ZG7 day after day and, at some time, ZG7 will succeed to ZG6 in a very natural way and in a shorter time.

[frman]

Well done.

I'm very happy to know about the native 64-bit compiler on Delphi. This could better change the future of ZipGenius