I love diamond, or at least it's potential.

Its a great replacement for textedit/other editors for ripping out a quick email/blog post or two... But, there's always a but.

Its a bit inconsistent. Sometimes clicking in a titlebar doesn't react. The options for changing the look are hard to decipher, and don't always do anything until you a) open a new document or b) restart the app, so its very difficult to just try things out. The backdrop raise/lower is confusing.

Really there should be two pref panes. One for app preferences (like backdrop) and one for window preferences (like bg-color), with a set as default for window prefs (similar to Terminal.app).

The workflows etc should be inside the app bundle, and copied to the User's dir as needed.

I'm not knocking what's been done so far, but it's just not a finished app...

I also personally feel that good apps should be paid for so charging for an upgrade/fix (say $15) would be great.

Anyway, look forward to seeing what comes of it,
-Adam

I like what you've done with Diamond -- many thanks for throwing it out on the net rather than just keeping it for yourself. For anyone who uses it, it will become a Writing Environment rather than a mere text processor. The flakiness of operation you mention -- needing extra clicks, changes sometimes not showing up until restarts -- I can live with in freeware/beta software.

What I would want more urgently is for Diamond to remember the screen location of the windows I was using: snippets and lists over there, collapsed, perhaps; main text there at that size; endnotes down there.

Longer term, I'd love to see Diamond save the whole mess (perhaps including custom colour schemes) as a single Diamond document... a project. I frequently have several writing projects on the go at once, it would be nice to double click a Diamond project and have it all open at once.

Good luck ironing out bugs and thanks again! -Conrad

Thanks to both of you for your comments. Yes, I added the title bar in as a request from a few users, and the reason I hadn't for my own purposes was because of the resulting flakiness you see (an Apple bug in window focusing due in part to the fact the titlebar is custom and not 'for-free' in Apple code) and that will be ironed out.

Actions that are Diamond specific are in the app bundle, but putting Workflows there is against Apple guidelines, and I agree. Also, and I think this is good for two reasons -- it allows users to edit the workflow, post it back to me here, and then I can share the wealth (I'm more than happy to post your Workflows here for everyone to use) and -- most important -- anything included in the bundle adds to the application file size on disk and in transfers. At one pint I had all the actions included in the release package in the bundle. The app file was 10MB. Not workable, especially when you consider how many Workflows we are going to end up with here (it's the way I plan on developing the Diamond text capabilities).

Re two pref panes, yes I agree (now that there are that many prefs -- there didn't used to be :). Obviously those that really are app or session specific should be move to a regular Pref window. Those that are used to create window styles would still be kept in the Tools window -- it was once called the Interface Palette to underscore it's interactive nature. And the layout is tight now and a looser layout with some explanation would be good. The only thing that requires a restart in terms of window design is the backdrop color; getting window color to be interactive is more problematic but for now just popping open a new window as a sample when you change the color or whatever I thinkis workable. At any rate it encourages experimentation :)

But look for the prefs issue to be resolved somethime around release 2.5, which will probably be reached next month sometime. I'd get on it sooner, but the summertime in Des Moines means constant festivals, parties, events etc. and not as much gets done even with our Iowa work ethic -- not to mention this is a Political year and that's our national sport so to speak, so I'm distracted, to say the least.

Diamond Project Layouts: Yes, I do have plans for that. Getting groups of windows to remember their relative layout (and not just their own size and position) is is tricky within the app code per se, and is easiest done using an externally controlling app, and this would allow that one-click set up of different workspaces (and allow sharing of workspace layouts). I want to complete some Applescript support things to do this though, so look for this feature in Diamond 3.0 at the earliest. One of the reason I love the RTFD format is that more than just imbedded image data can be written to the file bundle. All sorts of metadata about the project can be put there. There's a second app in the works called Emerald that will snap on top of Diamond for just this purpose, and offer addtional optional window environments (like line-numbered windows, split-pane views, much incredibly wonderful bookmark thangs, XHTML rendering, and xtra goodies....) and full project management. [!!]

Those of you who have been hanging round for a while have heard about Emerald. I should have something to release this August. ps. using Emerald (as an external, snap-on master application) will allow Diamond to be Diamond, but renders it (so to speak) as part of a larger document handling ecosystem as needed. Modularity is a key concept of the Diamond Way (just as using Automator to extend the text processing engine is part of that paradigm).

Diamnond is and will always be Freeware, and I will continue to develop and support it none the less (you may get tired of my frequent updates -- I've taken a well-deserved break the past couple of weeks but I usually average an update or two a week, so keep the "Check for Updates" feature toggled on (and the suggestions coming) -- right now I'm working on window-focus bugs introduced with the titlebar option.

Charge for upgrades or support? No, I'm well paid for what I do, and spend more on my restaurant tab in weekend than what I would make in a year by by doing that. Diamond's too good to charge for. Diamond is ours. Let's share it.

And thanks for the feedback. It's the old cliche, but that feedback -- and your using and liking it -- is really payment enough.

Just wanted to add my kudos for one bit o' the paradigm: column view scrolling. I was writing an essay yesterday and decided to try out Diamond for that purpose. When I got to the bottom of the column and it jumped up to the right, shifted the first bit over to the left, I thought, Exactly! Never knew how much the Big Long Virtual Roll of Paper bugged me until now, and I've been word processing since Apple Writer on the II+.

Thanks for a great app!

Just found Diamond and I love its potential. The "Writing Environment" paradigm is great, and the side-scrolling is something someone somewhere should have thought about ages ago. I agree with Conrad about the idea of being able to save "Projects". That would definitely increase the value of this program to me.

I am hoping that someday I can change the background colors, etc of the current document rather than having to wait until the next new doc to have the changes take place. ...[Edit]

Thanks for developing such a unique writing environment. And whatever the upcoming "Emerald" is, I've no doubt that it will reflect a similar innovativeness.

Enjoy your Iowa summer. I'm finally getting one here in Montana and I plan to enjoy mine too.

Bob

Any way to easily bring iClip and/or CopyPaste into the Diamond writing environment?

Thanks

Bob

Copy and Paste are fully supported. I don't have a copy of iClip but I'll obtain one and check it out and if there are issues I'll see how to address them. There shouldn't be, because other than the custom window options Diamond is a full-blooded Mac app. What issues are you seeing?

I can't get either application's floating palettes to display.

The enlarged previews from iClip's floating palette are very useful for reference purposes. CopyPaste's multiple palettes are useful for assembling a new document from individual clips.

Thanks

Bob

I put up a new thread for this and similar issues, "Using Diamond with Other Applications", so we can address these issues in detail.

Greetings -

OK, I just gotta say it.

Ever since the dawn of OSX I have been waiting for something like Diamond, and the early stages of what you've done go a long, long way in fulfilling that hope.

The notion of a control-less, chrome-less, border-less auto-columnizing, clean interface where tools and navigation elements come into being only when needed is indeed a dream come true.

Thank you sincerely, Geoffrey.

It doesn't take very long to become accustomed to the environment, and I will look forward to the ability to change window props in real-time.

Paired with the wonderful PhotoStickies, I can almost fulfill the dream of no chrome, no borders, no scrollbars! You should see the awesomeness!

Now if I could only find a browser that does the same. :)

So, my wishlist:
- easily changeable window props on current window
- save workspace
- 'Open Recent' menuItem
- and out of the blue - print the column view as columns! You mentioned the wonderful Tofu somewhere, and what it screams for is a printed version of what you see on the screen. I've searched high and low for such a beast, but it continues to elude.

And found a slight bug, the window focus seems to sometimes stick with the wrong window, or perhaps I'm missing something with the order in which I'm opening them. But it's highly intermittent, and not easily duplicable. I'll let you know if I can understand what I'm seeing.

So thanks again, Good Sir.

Can't wait for continued progress!

[written in Diamond!]