SmallDVD 

Friday, January 01, 2010

When I first created SmallDVD, it had a very specific purpose - putting MPEG2 files onto a DVD with a very simple menu. This is why it remained unchanged for 2 years prior to v1.0 being released. Then v2.0 added a commonly requested feature - the ability to convert video from non-MPEG2 formats; I wrote about this here.

Since then, I've had a lot of requests for greater control over the DVD menus and burning the image to DVD. I was initially resistant to these as I felt that this was really iDVD's domain - if you want quick and easy DVD authoring, use SmallDVD; if you want fancy menus, use iDVD. But I have now been convinced by a couple of people that the simplicity of SmallDVD can be retained while adding more flexibility to the menus, and that it would continue to serve a purpose that iDVD does not.

So I am planning a number of 2.x releases to incrementally enhance the menu functionality.

• 2.2 has been released today. It adds more control over font selection, and allows additional text to be added to the menu.
• 2.3 will (probably) add the option of creating DVDs without menus.
• 2.4 will (probably) give greater control over the background of the menu, and maybe the button and text colours.

Additionally, the documentation is getting a long way out of date, and needs a significant update.

However, the current AppleScript code for SmallDVD is becoming increasingly hard to maintain. What started as 100 fairly elegant lines of AppleScript has now becoming a rather more unwieldy 1300+ lines that has been added to regularly over the last 4 years. At the start, AppleScript seemed like a nice, easy way of creating a simple user interface to the command line tools that do all the hard work in SmallDVD. But it's not a great way of building larger applications. Also, from Mac OS X 10.6, Apple seem to have deprecated the AppleScript Studio part of the development tools, encouraging greater use of Objective C. This is a pity in many ways, and not a very developer-friendly thing to do. However, there's no doubt that SmallDVD's code needs an overhaul, so it makes sense to convert it to Objective C.

So, in parallel with the 2.x releases, I am going to start work on SmallDVD 3.0, which will be a complete rewrite in Objective C. The initial releases will almost certainly have less functionality than the latest 2.x version, but over time it should catch up and overtake. It should also provide a more sustainable basis for future enhancement.

The priority with SmallDVD 3.0 will continue to be keeping it as simple as possible. If a feature would require too much complexity in the user interface, it probably won't get in.

As always, all suggestions very gratefully received. The forums on Get Satisfaction are the best way to submit feedback, but you can also e-mail me directly.