Hello!
Two weeks ago I made a poll on the Discord server asking you whether you liked the idea of longer devlogs with more details. The majority of you said you do, so I decided I’ll create this simple blog website.
Previously, you had only been able to read about SkEditor development on the Discord server in the form of my short messages and rare official announcements that were pretty concise, formal and didn’t go into much detail. This blog is based on an entirely different concept. I’ll share many more details, thoughts and ideas here, with a more casual tone.
SkEditor isn’t all that popular as it is generally used by a niche group of people. But it’s not that small either, and I can expect its popularity will grow in the future if I commit to it and keep improving it. So, even if only a small percentage of users will read this blog, I think it’s worth it. I also treat this blog as a way to group my thoughts and ideas, and to keep track of my progress, so it can always be useful for me, even if no one else reads it.
I would love to see your feedback on this format, so please let me know what you think about it on the Discord server.
When is the promised pre-release coming?
It was a month ago when I posted the last announcement. I said I was planning to share some sort of pre-release versions before the stable release.
There’s still a lot to do before I’m able to share anything. SkEditor is literally in pieces right now. So, I’m sorry if that’s disappointing, but I won’t even provide any estimate on when the first pre-release will be available in this post.
But now, I can share with you the “why” behind it.
Why is it taking so long?
SkEditor 2.0 was released in November 2023, after a few months of development. Now, the break alone has already lasted more than 8 months, and the development of the next version is still in its fairly early stages. Why is it taking so long?
To be honest, the original SkEditor release was pretty rushed. I just copied a lot of things from the old codebase (not the code itself, but the structure and the way things work), many things were missing, and I had to add them later.
The next SkEditor version is pretty much the complete opposite. I’m not rushing anything, I’m not focusing solely on the features, but I’m trying to build a solid foundation for the future development. Most of my work in recent months has been focused on the internal structure of the code and the way things work. Normal users won’t even notice most of the changes.
My biggest problem was that, honestly, I’ve never learned the theory of any UI framework. I just started experimenting with WinForms a few years ago, then jumped to WPF, and with the current version - Avalonia. I created a project from the template, and started modifying it. I still think it’s the best way to learn, but it also means that I had, and still have, a lot of things to fix.
What does it mean for SkEditor?
So, what I’m trying to say is that SkEditor is going through a pretty big refactor right now. I’m implementing the MVVM pattern alongside DI, and it requires refactoring pretty much the entire codebase. Also, when I’m refactoring a system, I’m not just trying to adapt it to the new architecture, but to make it better overall. I’m already seeing the huge advantages that these changes bring, and I’m excited to finish the work.
There won’t be any direct benefits for the users because of these changes. That said, we can assume it will make the development faster, easier and more enjoyable for me, which should result in a good outcome for you in the long run.
In light of that, it’s a good time to share what I’m currently working on, and what you can expect in the future.
What am I working on?
As of right now, the one exciting thing I’m working on is the long-awaited, built-in SFTP support!
As you can see, it looks much better than the current folder management system (“Projects” experiment). The thing is, with the SFTP support, we will also get the refreshed UI for the local file management! That’s the first proof that the refactor is already bringing some benefits. The entire system will be abstracted, so both SFTP and local file management will be using mostly the same code. I also plan to finally fill in the gaps in the local experience, like proper change detection (automatically refreshing the file list when something in the folder changes).
What about AI features?
I’d like to talk a bit about AI in SkEditor. A year (!) ago, there was a simple poll:
What feature would you like to see the most (and earliest)?
So, everything’s clear, right? I should work on the AI Copilot! Well, I did work on it. I created it in the form of an addon, with fully working AI Chat in SkEditor. It was probably the most advanced Skript AI at that time. Why didn’t I finish it? Will it be finished?
The last year has been pretty crazy for AI. A few years ago, an AI-powered autocomplete (GitHub Copilot) was already a pretty big deal. Then, we got AI chatbots - the same idea I wanted to introduce in SkEditor, to help users in their work. Over the past year, the simple AI chatbots were deemed obsolete. Now, there are AI agents everywhere. People who know nothing are pretending to be experts, and they are using AI to create content that they don’t understand.
Because of this entire AI hype, we even got AI in Windows apps like Notepad. AI is everywhere, and I 100% believe it’s a bubble that will, and should, burst at some point. I don’t want to be a part of this fake hype. I know that I’m not alone in just being bored by AI being put in every single thing. I won’t be the moral police, I won’t tell you what you should and what you shouldn’t do, but the outcome is that the concept of official AI in SkEditor is dead.
Conclusion
This was an interesting experiment, I think I enjoyed writing this post, and I hope you enjoyed reading it, even my long rant about AI. I will try to post something like this every time I have something interesting to share. For example, I definitely haven’t written all the details about what I’m working on right now, and I will probably share more of it in the next post, when I have more to show.
As I said at the beginning, I would love to see your feedback on this format, so please let me know what you think about it on the Discord server. Also, if you have any suggestions for future posts, or if you want me to talk about something specific, please let me know!