Road to SnagIt 9 - Paul Middlin, Lead Developer
Posted on Wednesday June 11, 2008 by Betsy Weber
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I thought you might like a glimpse into what happens behind the scenes at TechSmith and how we created SnagIt 9. I asked several teams to do a guest blog post to share their role in the release of SnagIt 9. Up first is SnagIt Lead Developer, Paul Middlin. Enjoy!
SnagIt 9 was a huge release for us; we’ve been working on it for a long time. The team has had its nose hard to the grindstone for nearly 18 months. We work in an “agile” environment, to use the buzzwords of the day. This means that we regularly reassess our progress, try to take on small iterations of work, and generally make sure we’re always working on what’s most important for our users. Despite that, it was awfully hard to estimate how long this release was going to take; we were surprised at how “big” it was! That’s what happens when you have a strong dedication to doing it right- sometimes it takes a while.
We spent a lot of time exploring and brainstorming ways to really make “multi image” happen. We could have just said “hey, let’s throw some tabs in there.” We could have just introduced the “Open Captures Tray” and left it at that… but then you’d have a toolbar on the top, a pane on the right, a pane on the left, a tray on the bottom… and a pain in your…well, you get the gist. There would be no room left! I full rehaul of the Editor was in order. And while we were at it, we might as well finally converge all the many functions- the Editor, the Preview, the Catalog Browser. All for one and one for all.
There was a lot longer stretch between the “pretty UI complete” milestone and final shipping. That’s because between the early paper prototypes, workflow testing, UI testing, advisory groups and 750 person beta testing, we put this thing through the ringer. We wanted to make sure that if we were going to up and change our most beloved features that we did it well. You can’t just change how the arrow tool works and hope for the best!
We also spent a very long time in our ‘testing’ phase with this release. Yeah, we’re shipping with some known issues- but that’s because we tested it so much. Anybody who tells you there are no known bugs in their software at shipping time isn’t testing it hard enough. So, our team spent almost 5 months fixing, testing, refixing, retesting, polishing, scrubbing, rinsing and repeating. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.
It might have been a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. It’s very rewarding working so closely with our users and trying to really solve their problems in ways they might never have dreamed of. We’ve really created something here, and I hope you all like it!
FAVORITE FEATURE:
My favorite feature is the open captures tray; being able to capture away and work with multiple images saves me a lot of time and headaches.
Paul Middlin is the SnagIt Lead Developer. He graduated with a BS and MA from MSU and has been working at TechSmith for 5½ years, mostly on SnagIt.
Comments (10)
Nice article, Betsy; I am anxious to put the new SnagIt through the wringer myself...
Please note, though, ol' buddy, it's tough to put something "through the ringer", since a ringer is the part of a telephone or a doorbell that makes the noise.
Better would be "wringer", the part of an old clothes washing machine that would wring water out of wet clothing. I guess you never saw one of those, right?
;-)
Posted by John | June 12, 2008 9:08 AM
Posted on June 12, 2008 09:08
Hey, now that you have Jing on the Mac OS X..
How about SnagIt for the MAC!!!!
That is one of the *best* programs I have ever used on Windows and I really miss it now that I have moved to Mac.
Posted by Jon Gillies | June 12, 2008 2:05 PM
Posted on June 12, 2008 14:05
Great work on SnagIt 9! What a great release! I'd pay alot more than you sell it for (don't tell the sales people I said that) :)
Keep up the good work!
Posted by Jeff | June 12, 2008 2:05 PM
Posted on June 12, 2008 14:05
I absolutely love this product. I tested it for several months, and it was the most stable product I've ever tested. I use this program everyday, and the multiple image capture totally rocks. You guys are fantastic.
Posted by Ann Miler | June 13, 2008 7:45 AM
Posted on June 13, 2008 07:45
I almost goes without saying that SnagIt 9 is a great product that I will enjoy using.
BUT -- and it's a big "but" for me -- I continue to be disappointed that the Region Capture feature limits the captures to boxes/rectangles. I would very much relish the capability to capture a CIRCULAR area by simply dragging to draw a circle around images that I want to capture. This would then allow me to easily turn a circular capture into a button, with shadowing, beveling and other edits if I wish, that I could use very creatively. I know there are convoluted ways to accomplish this, but it really ought to be possible to add this option as almost a one-click feature. I urge the developers to figure out a way to add this feature in a future incremental upgrade. The freehand draw feature is not a good alternative because of the near impossibility of using it to draw a precise circle. -- Otherwise, congrats on a great upgrade!!
Posted by David Berman | June 13, 2008 5:57 PM
Posted on June 13, 2008 17:57
@David Berman,
If im understanding you correctly, I think SnagIt can do the kind of capture that your looking for. Here is a quick Jing of what we can do, hopefully it does the job: http://screencast.com/t/PgvmAp6Pa
Bryce Hauptman, SnagIt Developer
TechSmith Corporation
Posted by Bryce Hauptman | June 17, 2008 9:24 AM
Posted on June 17, 2008 09:24
Thank you for your reply, Bryce.
I know the ellipse tool will allow me to draw a perfect circle to enclose a region by holding down the shift key while defining the region with the shapes option. But you will notice that even with the Jing demo, what I get as a result is still a square, with the circular portion embedded in the square. So ....what do I do to accomplish the task of ending up with a CIRCULAR area, not a circular area within a square? Remember that not only do I want to capture a circular area without any unwanted area outside of the circle, but I then want to be able to work with that circular area to perhaps shade it, shadow it, bevel it, etc. How would I do this without being encumbered by the area constituting the square in which the circle is embedded? -- I'm a comparative layman, so I hope I'm explaining this correctly. Work with me -- ggg!!
Posted by David Berman | June 17, 2008 3:47 PM
Posted on June 17, 2008 15:47
I'm a long-time fan of SnagIt and think you guys have done a GREAT job with 9.
NOW, how about porting it to OS X? I, like @gillies, have moved from a PC to a Mac. There are a couple apps that I really miss, and SnagIt is one of them. Jing is great, and better than nothing, but a full version of SnagIt--heaven!!
BTW, the other app is ACDSee which blows iPhoto out of the water as a photo manager.
Posted by Ron Lockhart | June 19, 2008 4:59 PM
Posted on June 19, 2008 16:59
@David Berman,
Ahh, ok i see what your trying to do. Unfortunately we cant do that at the moment =(.
Bryce Hauptman, SnagIt Developer
TechSmith Corporation
Posted by Anonymous | June 20, 2008 10:49 AM
Posted on June 20, 2008 10:49
Thanks again, Bryce.
To paraphrase "Mission Impossible," your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to work on that feature for the future. I'm not a programmer, but I'd tend to think it can be done without mortgaging the company. Let's get that onto the developers' to-do list.
Otherwise, thanks for helping to make SnagIt the wonderful product that it is. You ARE appreciated for what you have accomplished. -- Over and out!
Posted by David Berman | June 20, 2008 2:09 PM
Posted on June 20, 2008 14:09