On Ubuntu there is a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory and files included there are automatically loaded by apt.
Google Chrome uses this mechanism and it seems to work well. You install the .deb package manually the first time and then the package manager will update it automatically.
I thought that this solution was really great when I saw it.
I don't bother with aesthetics and just mix everything. A usually add a boiled potato, chopped bacon along with the egg to make the salad more consistent. This makes the salad a main dish of its own. I use other ingredients like beans, peas, spinach, boiled beet, salmon, tuna, cheese, avocado, various herbs etc. Quite often I put a shredded carrot in the mix.
The salad is pretty quick to make. I cook an egg and a potato in the same pot. I take the egg out after 5 minutes of boiling and leave the potato a bit more. Meantime I wash and chop the greens, tomatoes any other ingredients that I have. I add the egg and the potato, put some balsamic vinegar and olive oil and it's good to go.
I make a point to buy the best vegetables and greens I can. This means that I always try to get them from the market, directly from people that produce them. It's not always easy when you are living in a big city.
I think the update system got better in later versions although there are sill some usability problems and I am not a big fan of it.
I realize that Eclipse is not for everyone. But a plugin for IntelliJ or some other IDE is a completely different product. FWIW there is a "standlone" version of WireframeSketcher that you can get through Yoxos: http://wireframesketcher.com/install_details.html#yoxos
I'll see what I can do about the immediate edit box. Obviously an option for it could be a solution. I'll see if there are more requests for it.
Take a look at master screens. I think it might be what you are looking for. You can reference screens from other screens and create reusable units this way. Changes to referenced screens are propagated automatically.
I plan to add editing inside groups. I think your idea of logical grouping is good. It was actually this issue that was stopping me from adding the possibility to put in Outline the complete contents of a group. Logical hierarchy would give much more appropriate results.
Just tried master screens. Did exactly what you said it would do. Nice feature. Would be nice to have a poor man's layer system where you can quickly toggle the visibility or at least dim the master screen(s) so they kind of become the background/grid.
Suggestion - include some sample screens built to your best practices and a couple storyboards using those screens.
Yes, I've had other requests for dimming masters. For now you can overlay a semi-transparent panel to achieve the same effect.
Better samples, better screencasts - all this is on my list. But like for any coder it takes some great effort for me to spend my time on website/marketing. But I'll get there I promise.
Nice side project. Your investment in the coding really shows off.
In case you did not see Dan Grover's response about the work breakdown on his Etude sheet music iPhone app:
"Were you the only one developing it? How long did it take? Love the app and the video on the webpage, by the way."
"Luckily, I have a precise answer to this because I have this weird habit of tracking every minute of my time on my own projects. Here's the breakdown on Etude in hh:mm
Actual iPhone app: 210:11
Song converter: 72:52
Store (UI + server side): 82:23
Building site and designing marketing materials: 44:52
I did most of the work, but I did contract some of the graphics I had trouble with to a designer, and I've taken someone awesome on board to work with music companies and other "strategic" stuff for the future."
In my case I've started working on WireframeSketcher roughly at the same time Peldi did. He just was much more successful than me :). You can see that my blog posts go way back to October 2008. So WireframeSketcher didn't start as Balsamiq's copycat but it certainly looks like it now.
To give credits where it's due, the original idea came to me after seeing MockupScreens. I thought that with my Eclipse experience it would be easy to do something like this but better for Eclipse. I was looking for a side project and this one seemed like a perfect candidate to me.
You can export to PDF. Also take a look at storyboards which let you create something similar to PowerPoint presentations. Those can be exported into a multi-page PDF: http://tinyurl.com/yczskbh
Exporting to, say, XCF or a similar image file format with layers (is there one out there that will work across Photoshop+GIMP?) would be much more useful to a graphic designer than a PDF. PDFs are great for printing and overview, but having wireframes in a layered image file format for your graphic designer would be a huge plus.
You can also do PNG exports. There is batch export that will let you export a set of screens all at once. You'll have multiple files but I am not sure if it's a limitation.
Layers, I think, are more important for individual sections of the wireframe - this allows the eventual visual designer to take portions of the design atomically, leading to greater internal visual consistency throughout the site. It also eases the pain of slicing and dicing ;)
I target specifically Eclipse users. There are many advantages of having the tool integrated into the IDE: familiar and customizable interface (views, window system), use the same resource management (files, projects), version control.
Feature-wise it's more difficult to differentiate but WireframeSketcher has some distinct features like master screens and storyboarding. There are more subtle differences like the possibility to insert icons in any piece of text which gives a lot of flexibility. Take a look at this blog entry: http://tinyurl.com/yeuo3v4
Speedwise I'd say WireframeSketcher is as close to native speed as it gets considering that it's also cross-platform.
Google Chrome uses this mechanism and it seems to work well. You install the .deb package manually the first time and then the package manager will update it automatically.
I thought that this solution was really great when I saw it.