We are happy to announce that Hastymail2 RC8 has been released. The updates and improvements since RC7 are substantial. New plugins, theme improvements, new features, a ton of fixes, plugin API updates, and more. The change log has 65 entries total. We believe this to be the best version of Hastymail2 yet and urge all users to upgrade. Thanks as always to everyone who has supported the project through feedback and testing.

    We are way over due for a new release, the change log since RC7 is getting HUGE. Things are looking good however. All of the issues reported since the last release have been addressed and are either resolved or awaiting feedback, and some cool new features have been added. I really think things are shaping up for our first stable release, though the next will be yet another candidate. I am targeting this time next week for RC8, then the first stable version before the end of the year. Here is what is new since the last news update:

    I am happy to say it has been a busy 10 days in Hastymail-land since the last update. We have only a few new entries in the CHANGES file but they are significant and worth mentioning. First up is a new plugin called js_sign. This plugin converts the "Sign" button on the compose page from a normal HTTP POST form submission into an AJAX call that inserts the signature into the in-process message at the current cursor position. Also new is an enhancement to the plugin system that allows plugins to register javascript event handlers without stomping on any core Hastymail events or those supplied by other plugins. Finally we have a new option that enables periodic AJAX updates of the mailbox view when the folder dropdown/list is updated.

    RC7 has been out for a while now and things are looking good. Feedback has resulted in a handful of new features, many fixes, and three new plugins. The new plugins are a uuencode plugin that decodes uuencoded messages, an auto-complete address plugin for the compose page, and an IMAP quota plugin that displays quota information. All could use more testing in different environments (I posted an SVN snapshot for anybody interested in doing so, link below). Here is the complete list of updates and fixes since RC7 was released:

I am happy to announce that Hastymail2 RC7 is now available for download. We have been way behind on releases so while there are still a few issues being working on the list of fixes and additions since RC 6 is significant enough to warrant a release. We've got a few new plugins, several subsystem improvements, much improved w3c xhtml compliance, and a slew of miscellaneous bug fixes throughout the code. Here is the full set of changes since the last release:

   Development continues since the last release and we have some nice improvements and fixes thanks in no small part to feedback from the forums, email, and bug reports. As always thanks to everyone who supports the project. I am happy with the way things are settling down with the code but I plan on putting out at least one more release candidate before considering a stable version. The next release will utilize a new GPL'ed class for a few things, an HTML to text converter, thanks to a suggestion in the forums. It is small, well written, and available at http://www.chuggnutt.com/html2text.php. I have also added to SVN a rough draft of a new theme based on a design submitted in the forums. It needs testing and work but I hope to polish it up in time for the next release. Here is the breakdown of what is new since RC6:

    It has taken longer than I wanted to get this release out the door, mainly because some of the changes were bigger than I anticipated. Things are looking good though with lots of fixes and updates since the last release. Thanks as always to everyone who has been supporting the project with testing and feedback. Lots of bugs have been squashed and several areas have seen some nice improvements, like folder list handling and theme capabilities to name just two. I had hoped to have a new theme ready for this release based on a design posted in our forums but I am just not happy with it yet. I will add that to SVN in the next week or two once I find some time to whip it into shape. Here is the full list of what is new since RC5. If you give Hastymail a try we want to hear from you so check out our Contact page and let us know what you think.

    I had hoped to have RC6 out by now, but just have not had enough time. Development has been busy though and the main things I wanted to complete before the release are in place in SVN, so after a few days of testing I hope to get the next candidate out. Once again thanks to the folks posting in the Forums and Tracker, feedback and support have been great. While working on improving the theme system I noticed some duplicated code and spent some time unifying it, which is the main reason things are a bit behind schedule. Here is what is new since the last update:

  As much as I wanted to get RC6 out this past week it just did not come together. Development has been busy though, including a few additional bug fixes as well as some updates to the theme system. A generous poster in the forums put together a nice new interface design in a PSD file, and implementing the layout has illuminated some shortcomings of themes that are in the process of being improved. You can check out a screenshot of the current state of this new theme at the bottom of this post. Unless some new issues come to light I hope to have an initial version of this new theme done this week and RC6 out by early next week. In the meantime here is what is new in SVN since the last news post:

    RC5 has been out for about a week now and the feedback has been great. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to test and report issues. We have a few fixes and updates in SVN already, and I think I am going to push out RC6 sooner rather than later (probably within another week). I am going to stop adding new features, except in plugins, and really focus on getting things stabilized. Here is whats new in SVN since RC5: