FoldingText 3 (Project Preservation)

FoldingText
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PLANS CHANGED: I’m sorry for all the confusion and not being able to stick to a plan. I’ve just sold FoldingText to another developer (also long time FoldingText user). This was very recently, I’ll post more news when they are ready. In the end this gives me a little funding and takes some todo items off my plate. Gets me a little closer time wise to public start of my next app. Again, sorry for all the plan changing.

OLD PLANS This were some plans, but they are not outdated due to the above.

FoldingText got stuck. A key technology was deprecated and sales dropped to unsustainable levels. We (Mutahhir and I) have been unsure what to do next and FoldingText has languished. We are sorry about that. Our goal with version 3.0 is to ensure that FoldingText is available and working into the distant future. Here’s our plan to do that:

Expectations

FoldingText 3.0 will not have the full FoldingText 2.0 feature set. It also likely won’t have enough sales to support major new development. Thus, our goal will be preservation, keeping it clean and easy to maintain for the foreseeable future.

Replace deprecated technology

FoldingText 3.0 starts with a new much simplified “native” app implementation. No more deprecated technology, also many missing features.

Provide source and allow contributions

As FoldingText languished we had a number of people volunteer to take over the project. But FoldingText 2.0 is big and complicated, it seemed unlikely that anyone but us could get it working without using deprecated technology.

Now that we’ve taken that first step we invite anyone who’s interested to help improve the project. Modify the app for your personal use. Try porting a feature from the 2.0 codebase to the 3.0 codebase if you are ambitious. Submit a bug fix. Keep the project going if Mutahhir and I both get hit by a bus.

Membership in app purchase

FoldingText 3.0 will be a free fully functional download. It will also have a “membership” in-app purchase for those who want to support FoldingText’s continued development. In the future, and if there’s enough to support us doing so, we may add membership only benefits. Even then, the core app will remain free. For now though, there aren’t any membership only features planned, the membership will just be a way to show support.

…That’s the official story/plan for FoldingText 3
…This is just me blabbing

First here’s the first FoldingText 3 beta:

FoldingText 3 (Project Preservation).zip (2.7 MB)

NOTE: You will need to Option-Click on FoldingText and choose context menu item Open to open FoldingText 3 for the first time. (It’s not notarized).

Perhaps underwhelming (no spell check, plugins, find, and lots more). But it does provide the core editing experience in a modern macOS SwiftUI based app.

I’m just about to be out of network contact for most of the next week (so my replies to any questions will be late), but I would love some feedback on this plan. It’s flexible. The goal here is to preserve FoldingText so that it works long into the future.

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These are good news.

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I’m delighted that you’ll be keeping this alive!

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This is good news; I have been trying many apps but always go back to FT. I’m happy to support future development with a membership option. In my opinion, the only thing I would appreciate in a future version of FT is the ability to somehow group different FT files together in one place, but I’m very happy with it as it is.

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Wow. I haven’t used FoldingText in years, but I needed an outliner just now and I fired it up and it was just like old times! I came here to see if it was still alive at all, and I was floored to find this news so recently posted.

Thanks for making it publicly available — and thanks for writing the software in the first place. There are precious few productivity tools I’ve loved as much as FoldingText. It’s a real shame it didn’t prove sustainable. I’m going to try real hard to find time to take FoldingText 3 out for a spin and check out the codebase.

(Speaking of the codebase, am I missing a link to the source somewhere, or has it not been made available yet?)

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Codebase is still planned for release, just haven’t got to it yet.

I think app is pretty much where we want it, but need to add membership option. Also need to updated website, cleanup repository, remove documentation that’s outdated, etc. To go with those todo’s I’m deep into another project that’s taking most of my energy at the moment.

The release will happen, just likely to be delayed into fall. If anyone is interested in messing with the code now email me (jesse@hogbaysoftware.com) and I’ll add you to project in github.

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Awesome. Can’t promise I’ll find time but I’d love to play with it. Will email as requested!

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Never stopped using Folding Text. Goto for almost everything I do. Will be happy to look at later versions and my membership is assured.

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This is amazing. I love Folding Text as it is and use it all the time.

If I can support FT as is I would be happy to.

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I have used FoldingText daily for years, and come to depend on it for both work and hobby projects. There is no other tool with such a perfect set of features. I’d be happy to support further development with a membership.

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Bit late to the party, but only just seen this. Really good news to have FoldingText working once again. I only need the basic functionality. So, for me, FoldingText 3 as it stands is so very almost good enough. Add spell-checking, search, and a way to select another monospaced font, and I’ll be more than happy. And, also happy to pay. And, happy to continue paying for updates to keep it working and looking pretty as the inevitable tide of progress sweeps forth. Many thanks Jesse!

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Longtime user of Folding Text … to this very day. So pleased to see folks at work. However, option-click didn’t seem to work, so I’m staying with my older version (2.2), which still works. Here’s hoping Apple doesn’t do something to crash it.

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I’m in line with previous replies above! With thanks.
Just noting that plugins appear to work for me: FT3 apparently loads those I setup on FT2.

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I’m sorry for the confusion but FoldingText plans changed. Please see edits to the original post. Thanks.