updated 2004/03/11
Change Log

JSticky is a notebook program that is useful for keeping a notebook full of notes that are otherwise difficult to catagorize - especially notes that are needed only once in a while.

Project page

Screenshots (new window).

Notice! You must first download and install a non-Microsoft Java runtime environment. A good one can be downloaded from Sun at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html

A Java Runtime Environment of at least version 1.4 is required.

This Internet location is new for my JSticky project. For your convenience, so that you don't have to compile and install from scratch, here are some handy installers of JSticky.

Installers:

For Windows:
setup.exe.

For unix:
jsticky2.52.tar.gz

Technical Note for NT systems: The icon for JSticky is placed in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop. This should place an icon on the desktop of everybody in the system. Well, it does't seem to always make a copy for everybody; so you may need to copy one of your own from that location.


Change Log:

2004/02/20 - Rearranged the frame title so that it has the name of the file first and the name of the program (JSticky) second. This improvement can simplify keeping track minimized instances of JSticky when each instance has a open a different notebook. I also made some other minor improvements and have noticed one more that ought to be improved - but it will have to wait. It is very minor but will take a lot of work to implement.

2004/01/21 - Improved the unix launch script so that it can handle either a relative file name or an absolute filename. This improvement is probably subtle for muse users; but it is a deficiency that has been driving me nuts! I'm not a very good script writer and maybe this excuse is what has been taking me so long.

2003/10/01 - Modified the Windows installer to set an icon that sets the classpath. It seems that some Windows 2000 computers have a classpath variable already set and it interferes with the execution of JSticky. Hopefully, this little patch to the installer will resolve the issue on those systems - all two of them.

2003/08/04 - Added a simple request of focus to the "title" text field for when user saves the document, he'll be ready to enter a text into the most likely text field he desires

2003/08/04 - Added a Mnemonic to the Save button on the "New" tab. I did not bump the version number for this small addition.

2003/07/29 - Fixed what I consider to be a bug: The Find tab sort order was not preserved between sessions. Well, now it is.

2003/07/29 - Fixed another of what I might consider a minor bug. When the wrapping preference is changed, JSticky noted that there was a change to the data and if other data is opened or JSticky is closed, a message to save the notebook is presented. If user says "no" in this case then the wrapping function is not saved. So, like other things, when the wrapping preference is changed, it is imediately saved to the file.

2003/07/14 - By request, put the frame and decorations around the password windows.

2003/06/24 - On the way to work today, I thought of a "bug" in my new code. I tested it and indeed, it is (was) a bug. I don't know if I should tell you because if you have a copy of it, then you have a secret weapon. This is the symptom (by the way, it has been fixed): If you merge a notebook - even an empty one - with another notebook but that other notebook has a password - then it'll go ahead and merge the notebook without asking for the password. As you might expect, this was a problem. If you wanted to crack into a file you could just start a new notebook and merge in the passworded file. Well, it has been fixed with an awful kluge. If you review my code you may not think it so elegant. Heck, if I have to go through it in several months, I may not be able to figure out what was going through my mind.

2003/06/23 - I finally got the password authentication working nicely (I think). It was easy to update the data to include a password - and to disguize it so that it would take considerable effort to crack it if you don't know where and for what to look. Getting the password entry GUIs to function nicely was more challenging. This new feature is in the 2.4-beta version of the program. If you update to this version, your data will also be updated and will no longer be usable in the earlier versions. Please test this version on a copy of your data.

2003/04/10 - I did a personal code review of the Find routine. I had an idea to improve it's memory usage. Lo and behold, that's how I set it up in the first place. It isn't going to get any leaner. Since I have added a couple almost unnoticable improvements, I went ahead and updated the release.

2003/04/03 - Added as a feature: When a Find yields only one hit, go ahead and open it (suggested by Zack Jarrett.)

2003/04/02 - Changes to an existing notebook automatically save the whole notebook.

2003/02/18 - Added traps for 'Ctrl + s' (quick-save) in the View tab; so that particular key-combo doesn't turn the "Save Changes" button red.

2003/02/18 - Added traps for 'Ctrl + C' in the View tab; so that particular key-combo doesn't turn the "Save Changes" button red (suggested by Zack Jarrett.)

2003/02/17 - Relocated the keywords search field to the top of the GUI, to the right of the Help menu (suggested by Zack Jarrett.)


Wish List:

Support a NOT boolean search operator.

Write my own printing modules to give the source a clean BSD license - and maybe fix some strange crossplatform printing behavior I have noticed.

Implement text only mode.

In Save As, you should be warned that the file you specified already exists.

There have been several requests to have the program recognize an internet URL and set it as clickable. That may be a nice feature to add one of these days.