News and announcements

StackApplet 1.5.1 Released

Written for StackApplet by Nathan Osman on 2012-01-13

Although completely unplanned, StackApplet 1.5.1 has been released and is now available for download. This release fixes two rather critical bugs in the application. The first is a security hole that affects a computer with multiple users logged on. StackApplet 1.5 would only allow a single instance of the application to run and would allow other local users to modify settings for the application. The second bug was a race-condition that would retrieve API data in the incorrect order, causing later requests to fail.

Both of these issues have been fixed in 1.5.1 and other than some changes to the translations, there is almost nothing else new in this release.

StackApplet 1.5 Released!

Written for StackApplet by Nathan Osman on 2011-11-17

Today, I am pleased to announce the release of StackApplet 1.5. After much planning and hard work, version 1.5 is now complete and has passed all of the testing stages. There are a number of new changes in this release and I'll try to briefly touch on some of the major ones below.

First and foremost, StackApplet has gained a new platform: Microsoft Windows. There is now a Windows installer for StackApplet that will install and configure the application. The installer includes all of the GTK+ runtime libraries as well as replacement modules for Linux-only functionality like AppIndicators and pynotify. The program runs in the system tray area and the menu can be opened by clicking on the icon.

Secondly, StackApplet now integrates into the messaging menu, allowing you to keep track of new comments and answers while you're away from your desktop. There is even an option that enables an entry for StackApplet in the menu when the application is not running.

Thirdly, the preferences dialog has been completely replaced by an interactive AJAX-based web page that you can view in your browser. Changes to settings are applied instantly and there are many more customizable options. You can even reorder items in the menu by dragging-and-dropping them.

The translations for StackApplet have been updated and I take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in translating StackApplet into your language. There are now 11 translations for StackApplet, allowing many more people from all over the world to use the application.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this release a success!

StackApplet 1.5 Release Candidate 3 Is Available

Written for StackApplet by Nathan Osman on 2011-11-09

Unless a very serious security bug is discovered, this will be the last release candidate before StackApplet 1.5 is officially released - an event planned for later this month. This release candidate and the previous one (rc2) weren't originally planned for but were brought about by necessity due to some rather unfortunate bugs. However, I believe that all of these bugs are now fixed and everything is working properly.

I know that this is probably overstated but it is extremely important that any new bugs are reported right away so that they can be addressed in a timely manner. Any modifications to the current set of translations are welcome as well.

The First StackApplet 1.5 Release Candidate Is Out

Written for StackApplet by Nathan Osman on 2011-07-31

After a rather unfortunate and long delay, StackApplet 1.5rc1 is now available for download. The delay was caused by some bugs and packaging problems with the Windows version, which have since been identified and fixed for this release.

Not much has changed since the last beta release. Some minor code tweaks were made and some new translations were added. Speaking of translations, a very big thank you to all of you who participated in adding the new translations to StackApplet. Your contributions are very much appreciated and truly make StackApplet a global application.

Since this is a release candidate, any bugs that you find need to be reported immediately. If none are discovered, this release candidate will actually become the release. Also, if anyone else would like to contribute a translation, please do so quickly as time is running out to get them into the 1.5 release.