Software:SoftwareZator

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SoftwareZator
SoftwareZator 2012 icon.png
Function editor of SoftwareZator 2012.png
Visual programming editor of SoftwareZator 2012
Developer(s)Etienne Baudoux (veler)
Initial release1 November 2009; 15 years ago (2009-11-01)
Final release
4.0.0.0 / 8 March 2014; 10 years ago (2014-03-08)
Repositoryhttps://github.com/veler/SoftwareZator-2012
Written inC# and VB.Net
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
Available inEnglish, French
Typesoftware development tool
Websitesoftwarezator.velersoftware.com

SoftwareZator is a discontinued program for the development of software for Windows, created by Etienne Baudoux under the pseudonym Veler and Veler Software. The primary goal of SoftwareZator was to allow users to build software through a block programming model instead of a more traditional scripting language model.

Main features

All versions of SoftwareZator included a user interface designer, a visual programming editor and a VB.Net code generator.

User Interface designer

A WYSIWYG designer allows to draw the user interface of the software. It is using the same Windows Forms Designer than Microsoft Visual Studio and adopted a similar workflow where the user can add controls from a toolbox and edit them through a properties window..[1][2]

Visual programming editor

A visual programming language allows to write the logic that the software should run. A set of 450 pre-built actions, also called functionalities[3][4], can be used to add logic allowing to perform, for example, user interface interaction[5], file treatment, query a database[6]

Code generator

When the user wish to run the program developed with SoftwareZator, this latest generates VB.Net programming language code from the content of the User Interface designer and Visual programming editor and uses MSBuild to compile it.[7]

Version history

Early development

Etienne Baudoux explained that he started to develop SoftwareZator in 2007 when he was 14.[8][4]. Between early 2007 and early 2009, he restarted the project several times due to lack a of technical skill preventing him from reaching out his goal.[4]

SoftwareZator 1.0

In February[9] or April[4] 2009, he started a new prototype from scratch and made it working 2 weeks later. On May 29th, he recorded a video demoing SoftwareZator with the User Interface designer, Visual programming language and code compiler pipeline.[9]

In November 1st, 2009, Etienne Baudoux released the first version, named SoftwareZator 1.0.0.0[10].

The look and feel of SoftwareZator 1.0.0.0 was largely inspired by Microsoft Visual Studio since it demonstrated moveable panes and naming like toolbox, properties, Solution Explorer.

SoftwareZator 2011

SoftwareZator 2011 (2.0) was a new major version and has been release in November 1st, 2010.[11] It featured a refreshed user interface mixing Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft Visual Studio.[12]

SoftwareZator 2012

SoftwareZator 2012 (3.0.0.3) is the last version considered stable.[4] It has been announced under the name "SoftwareZator 3.0" until its release. This version feature the following changes:[13]

  • A refreshed design.
  • The ability to display some statistics about a project.
  • A new visual programming editor.
  • A component accessible in some actions allowing to treat many kind of values such text, numbers, boolean, colors.
  • The possibility to insert some VB.Net in any action.
  • A debugger supporting breakpoint.
  • An Errors pane, indicating building errors to the user.
  • 272 actions as of November 7th 2011.
  • A better documentation.
  • The ability to export a project to Microsoft Visual Studio.

SoftwareZator 2012 has been release in November 2012[14] and was supported on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 but not Windows 10.[3]

SoftwareZator 2014

In 2014, Etienne Baudoux release SoftwareZator 2014 (4.0.0.0). In a teaser video[15], Etienne Baudoux showed off the possibility to develop Windows application that can be deployed on the Microsoft Store.

However, the released version to end users did not come with the support of such a functionality. Etienne Baudoux explains that changes in the WinRT technology made him getting late and pushed back the feature to a future version.[16] SoftwareZator 2014 includes new features like a clipboard history, Version control and backward compatibility with SoftwareZator 2012.

SoftwareZator 2014 is considered by Etienne Baudoux as "sloppy" in comparison to the previous version.[4]

Reception and legacy

In 2016, Etienne Baudoux announce the abandon of SoftwareZator due to a lack of personal time to continue to work on it. Between 2009 and 2016, SoftwareZator got 300,000 worldwide users, has been used by 5 middle school in France and 8,000 small companies.[4]

SoftwareZator 2012 is open source under Apache License 2.0 since 2016.[14]

Since 2018, Etienne Baudoux is a software engineer who contributes to the development of Microsoft Visual Studio.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "SoftwareZator 2011 showing the toolbox (left), Windows Forms Designer (middle) and Properties window (right)". https://web.archive.org/web/20110827135130if_/http://softwarezator.velersoftware.fr.nf/images/galerie/capture1.png. 
  2. ↑ "Visual Studio 2005 showing the toolbox (left), Windows Forms Designer (middle) and Properties window (right)". https://www.graphicsmill.com/docs/gm5/QuickStartinWindowsForms2.png. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "SoftwareZator website". https://softwarezator.velersoftware.com/. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 "[SoftwareZator This Is It"]. https://blog.velersoftware.com/2016/03/softwarezator-this-is-it/. 
  5. ↑ "Screenshot of SoftwareZator 2012 showing a set of actions in the toolbox (left) allowing to interact with list box and list view controls". https://medias.velersoftware.com/images/softwarezator/6.png. 
  6. ↑ "Screenshot of SoftwareZator 2012 showing a set of actions in the toolbox (left) allowing to interact with a Microsoft Access database, along with an action in the editor (middle) allowing to detect whether a file exist on the hard drive". https://medias.velersoftware.com/images/softwarezator/7.png. 
  7. ↑ "GitHub repository about a project made with SoftwareZator and built in VB.Net". https://github.com/fanfan54/NavigoExpress/blob/master/README.md. 
  8. ↑ "Etienne Baudoux website's introduction". https://www.velersoftware.com/. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "(Archive) SoftwareZator 1.0 (29 May 2009)". http://blog.velersoftware.com/?p=14. 
  10. ↑ "Old website of SoftwareZator". http://softwarezator.velersoftware.fr.nf/. 
  11. ↑ "Website of SoftwareZator 2011". http://softwarezator.velersoftware.fr.nf/. 
  12. ↑ "Screenshot of SoftwareZator 2011 showing a blue color theme, a ribbon menu and moveable panes.". https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tBWW3Gj0fhg/maxresdefault.jpg. 
  13. ↑ "Blog showing many articles about new features in SoftwareZator 3.0". http://blog.velersoftware.fr.nf/. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "GitHub of SoftwareZator 2012". https://github.com/veler/SoftwareZator-2012. 
  15. ↑ "SoftwareZator 4.0 - Teaser". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APhOX2HDzUc. 
  16. ↑ "SoftwareZator 2014 (4.0.0.0)". https://blog.velersoftware.com/2014/03/softwarezator-2014-4-0-0-0/. 
  17. ↑ "Resume of Etienne Baudoux". https://www.linkedin.com/in/etiennebaudoux/. 

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