BlueGriffon logoI have released a first public version BlueGriffon, milestone 1 (v0.5), on Mac OS X, win32 and linux32. It's already stable enough to be used to a daily basis even if it's obviously not feature complete. Since BlueGriffon is the successor to Nvu (and KompoZer), let me highlight here the main differences between the two apps:

  • completely rewritten from scratch, zero line shared with Nvu/KompoZer
  • based on mozilla-central (Nvu was based on Gecko 1.7...) ; does not patch at all the trunk
  • CSS Properties panel offering control on all CSS 2.1 and implemented CSS 3 properties in Gecko 2, including CSS 3 multiple gradients, columns, shadows, transformations, transitions, flex box model. The underlying code is also much more robust than the old CaScadeS editor included in Nvu: it will automatically generate the necessary style rules in the last editable stylesheet in your document, embedded or included (in a file for the time being, http://.. links not handled yet)
  • there's now one source view per document, you're not forced any more to go through normal view to switch between two source documents
  • the Table Properties dialog was entirely rewritten. A lot of its features were buggy in Nvu/KompoZer and they now all work correctly.
  • there is a New Document Wizard in the File menu allowing the user to create a document using Yahoo! Grid Templates
  • SVG Edit, a superb SVG Editor that is an add-on to Firefox, is included
  • BlueGriffon can deal with HTML4, XHTML1, HTML5, XHTML5 documents
  • it already has UI for <video> and <audio> elements
  • it has an update manager able to tell you if a new version of BlueGriffon is available
  • uses Skywriter/Bespin for the source view ; the old hack based on the plaintextEditor is gone, finally
  • has zoom controls in the sidebar
  • some code written in C++ for Nvu moved to JavaScript, thanks to the dramatic speed increase of JS in Gecko
  • the horizontal and vertical rulers around the content area are now SVG-based
  • much better architecture allowing a wide set of add-ons
  • nicer table insertion panel

Known issues:

  • there are big issues with XUL content contained in an iframe itself inside a <panel> on linux; I had to downgrade the CSS Properties panel into a standalone window on Linux
  • the Insert and Format menus are still empty, the context menus on the content area and tabs are still empty, that's not a bug
  • the class dropdown menu in the format toolbar is horked

There is still a lot on the radar but after long months spent on the underlying architecture, I am now progressing at (I think) really fast pace. So don't be surprised if you see new public versions of BlueGriffon appear earlier than expected. On the radar for the coming 7 days

  • Insert menu, including all HTML 5 elements
  • fixing the class dropdown
  • Code Snippets add-on
  • content area's context menu
  • better jQuery integration in the New Document wizard

Yay!