Hello everybody and merry Christmas, 🎄
it's story time. 😅
StaxRip, founded by stax76, started in or around 2002 as a GUI for eac3to and over the years it became so much more. It got my attention as it uses (at least sort of) native binaries and external libraries to achieve the encodes. This makes it powerful, but also transparent as the script can be reviewed and analyzed separate from the encode itself which made it my personal #1 choice when it came to encoding - this was at the beginning of 2020.
What started as questions and suggestions became pretty quick feature requests and finally pull requests. As stax76 wanted to retire from StaxRip, he asked me and after a short discussion I got Admin rights along with some encouraging words ala "It's yours, good luck and in case there are some issues, don't bother me!". At least this is how I remember it. 😅
Over the last years I often came across some limitations due to StaxRips old underlying .NET Framework. It is more or less responsible for StaxRip being bound to Windows and its old-school appearance. Further it causes also some internal limitations I sometimes run into. Not ideal, but this is something you have to deal with with an app, that is over 20 years old. Because of its steady development into "more" we have still have to deal with some cool features, that can cause issues for example regarding backward compatibility when updating.
A few months ago, during developing some new features, I had an idea, that I could not get out of my head for weeks. Then I have read more and more about how Microsoft bloats up Windows 11 with more and more AI-features like the Recall feature. I guess we all agree to some point, that it will become worse ... and worse. Who knows how long those features stay sort of optional? Microsoft already forces us more or less to use an online account for our local system. Even when their plans change, a choice would be nice. Along with my above mentioned idea, that is impossible to realize with StaxRip in its current form, I came up with another idea: It's time for a successor! 🫢🥹😏
I have already started testing some things out and to build a more or less flexible structure, that will allow me to solve all current problems while be able to handle future plans and extension, so everything stays backward compatible and easy to maintain. Quick fixes and solutions made StaxRip vulnerable for inconsistencies as well as bugs and made it also hard to maintain or even extend. That shall not happen with the successor. Unfortunately that means, that, at least at the beginning, development will take a lot of time.
The main feature, that's been floating around in my head, will act as the foundation for the new app. Unfortunately I cannot disclose it yet as it is kind of unique and might change a lot for many users. But let me give you some key features I have in mind:
Modern looking Desktop app running on Windows, Linux and macOS
Single resizable window instead of opening and closing windows, that process something (with some exceptions I guess)
Better Preview and Code Editor
Proper backward compatibility, so updates don't destroy any settings (whenever possible)
Majority of settings will be saved in plain text
API to receive information and/or send basic instructions (at a later stage)
Some features won't be "transferred" to the successor for many reasons, but I will try to extend various behaviors, so everything stays flexible and customizable, partly maybe even more than in StaxRip.
Currently I am still debating with myself about the final structure and the workflow I want to achieve. The plan is to dive completely into coding right after New Year and I hope to have the first Alpha around summer/autumn.
This of course means, that I will have less time for StaxRip. I will lower the frequency of releases and the amount of new features. Tool related updates are not affected by this, but unless there are crucial bugs, I won't make releases filled with new features and updates on a weekly basis anymore. I hope you can understand that. When it comes to tool related updates or some Supporter requests, I will give my best to make them happen as soon as possible. Also I have already some features in development, that I will finish and share with you. But: StaxRip won't stop being maintained suddenly, so no reason to panic. 🙃
The amount of support, encouragement and demand I get in that period of time will have an impact on how fast I can get there and how the project will turn out, so please understand, that I can't give you a timeline or so. All Supporters are welcome to give me some ideas or point on important things like necessary features or possibilities.
I hope my broken English was not too confusing and that everything was understandable. If you have some questions, please feel free to ask me by writing a comment, a chat message, an email or a DM.
In case you like the development:
Please like this post so I get a rough idea how it is received. Thank you!
Best regards
Dendraspis