I've released a change that I mentioned I was going to do some time ago whereby the JOSM startup screen content is dynamic rather than built in to the program.
Once people get this or later versions of JOSM (and everyone will presumably get a new one when API0.6 arrives) it will be possible to make announcements about major and forthcoming JOSM and OSM changes to those users who don't subscribe to the mailing lists or study the wiki intently. The announcements are constructed from the JOSM wiki (like the Help already is). The top level message, which is always displayed, can be found on the JOSM wiki at MessageOfTheDay. This then references other wiki pages named in the style MessageOfTheDay<123 where the symbol can be <, <=, >, >= and the number is a JOSM revision number. The message is only included if the version being run is earlier or later than the number according to the condition. (Any other wiki references will display as ordinary links and not be substituted). In this way we can tell people "there's something new and exciting in the most recent version of JOSM so you might want to update" or "you'll soon have to update because there's an incompatible change heading your way next month" (and the message goes away when they do), and for those who get a new version we can tell them what major changes they will see. < and <= messages remain until upgraded to a later version; and > and >= messages are suppressed once they've been read once. The prospective revision number for any changes is shown when you commit a change, and it is also on the About dialog for already built versions. The Trac wiki for JOSM already produced pretty conservative HTML, but Java is pretty picky, so keep it simple. It can include links to the JOSM wiki, the OSM wiki or indeed anywhere else, so messages can be brief with a link to more information (not least, hopefully, how to actually upgrade if that's what is being suggested). Since the obvious reference to detail of new features is a link to a Help page, this might encourage changes to be documented in the Help as well. Also, I'm sure it will get annoying if this is overused or used used frivolously, so please don't abuse it. This wiki is completely open to the world to change, so it is protected entirely by obscurity at present. If it starts getting vandalized, I guess it can be protected by a login. David _______________________________________________ josm-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/josm-dev
