WadAuthor Progress Update #5 (06/20/03)

The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul is Ending

Those of you who got all excited when I started working on WadAuthor again—over two years ago I should add for the sake of honesty—probably wondered what happened. I got back to work on the code base, intending to put out a final release in the summer of 2001. Obviously, that didn't happen. I'm writing this latest "update" to explain why the project has been largely ignored since then. I figure I owe it to the community, which just doesn't seem to die, may God bless you all.

The reason I've accomplished nothing substantive with WadAuthor for over two years is because I've been working toward my Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Southern California since the the fall of 1998. It was shortly after I started working on WadAuthor again that I really started on the long death march that is dissertation hell. I've been working on my dissertation, to the exclusion of virtually everything else in life, for more than two years now. So the bad news is that I haven't done much with WadAuthor since the last update was written on 03/08/01.

The good news, however, is that my dissertation is now largely complete. My committee chair has given the go-ahead to schedule my verbal exam, which is the last substantive hoop through which I must jump. If things go as presently planned, I should defend my thesis sometime in July. If the force is with me and I can dazzle my committee with my vast philosophical knowledge, or simply baffle them with a bit of linguistic legerdemain, then I should hopefully be able to file my paperwork with the graduate school in July or August. If that all comes together, as is looking more and more likely each day, I should receive my Ph.D. in the late summer or fall of 2003.

So why is that good news? That's easy. Once my degree is completed, I will finally be able to return to working on WadAuthor. All of the added features mentioned in the previous updates are in place and working. I've also fixed several bugs reported over the last two years. My intent is to finish adding resource/lump-management code, and perhaps add another feature or two, before releasing the next version to the public. I know it's sadly overdue, and I know my credibility is probably as close to zero as it can get at this point, but I hope you'll forgive me in light of the circumstances of life.

Suffice it to say that WadAuthor is not dead. It's got at least one more release coming, and I will get it done. It's just a question of time. Thanks for your patience.