New version 7.2.0 was released for sponsors and contributors

[Proektsoftbg]

Dear friends,

Thank you all that supported the Calcpad development. The great news is that we reached our goal and collected the funding required to make Calcpad self-sustainable for a long time in future. With your help, we managed to release a new and better version of Calcpad VM 7.2.0. The development is now focused mainly in making Calcpad more handy and productive for real work, satisfying feature requests and our development roadmap.

Users with 20$ donation tiers can access the release directly on:
https://github.com/Proektsoftbg/CalcpadVM/releases/tag/v.7.20

Users with 10$ donation tiers, please send an email to proektsoft.bg@gmail.com with your GitHub username and you will recieve a download link for the update.

What's new in version 7.2.0:

1. Added support for markdown in comments.
2. New report formatting toolbar.

3. Added more formatting shortkeys: Ctrl+3 to Ctrl+6 for headings 3-6, Ctrl+L for paragraph and Ctrl+R for line break.
4. Added inline and block level custom number formatting, e.g. #format E4 or a = 2m:0.00e+00.
5. Added "default" keyword for #round and #format commands: #round default and #format default.
6. Added "Paste as comment" menu command - Ctrl+Shift+V.
7. Added "Comment/uncomment selected lines" menu command - Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+Shift+Q.
8. Quotes in comments ' can be escaped by adding two quotes ''.
9. Improved color palette for plotting with more beautiful and distinct colors.
10. The old WebBrowser control, based on IE11, was replaced with the newer and faster WebView2, based on Chromium.

[Proektsoftbg]

BTW, we are also quite ahead with CSV and Excel import/export, so expect this soon as well. :)

[sononicola]

Could there be some compatibility issues if someone with a Calpcad version <= 7.19 open a file created with >=7.20 ?
I think the markdown things won't work

[Proektsoftbg]

Hi! No, Markdown will not work. It will simply display the tags. Also, the new number formatting and escaped quotes.

[finickyFalcon5]

Do users who contributed with a one-time donation get access to the update? Or is it only for subscriptions?
Will this update (and future updates) eventually become public?
Is the plan to eventually make Calcpad fully paid or will there always be a free version?

[Proektsoftbg]

Hi! Users with one time donation will recieve only one update while those with monthly subscription will get all updates for the period of subscription. I think this is fair.

Calcpad will never get fully paid/commersial. All updates will eventually become public including with the source codes, maybe after several months. Just sponsors have the benefit to recieve them before all others.

Calcpad has become very popular recently which arrose a great demand for support and new features which significantly exceeds what anyone can do in his free time. So, there are two options in this situation: to wait too long until you get anything or support the development to make things happen faster. It is also fair that those who contribute for that to recieve the things faster than those who doesn't.

[finickyFalcon5]

It's your project, so you can run it however you want.
I think that restricting people who've donated to a single update, and requiring additional "donations", or subscriptions, for future upgrades makes this a paid software with a free version. This subscription model is no different than many other commercial software licenses. I understand that it is the most lucrative for companies, but I personally dislike it.
I think that people who donate to FOSS projects do so because they want to support the project and to show their appreciation. Not because it is required for access to an updated release.
To me, a subscription for technical support and custom functions/plugins makes sense. Not for access to updated software versions.
If the software is widely used in commercial settings, then a commercial license requirement could also make sense. But a subscription requirement for individual users, especially this early in the project's life (are we not early adopters?), is not the way to go
That's my opinion.

[Proektsoftbg]

Hi! Thank you for sharing your opinion.

Everyone is still free to donate just because he/she wants to support the project and show appreciation. This would be accepted with gratitude. But if someone wants to pay a bit more and get some benefits in return, there are a three tiers to select from:

https://github.com/sponsors/Proektsoftbg

If you support one of these tiers you will get the benefits listed inside. Finally, everyone will get everything for free but after some more time. That is how it works. We already did it with vectors and matrices. And now everyone can use them. You are free to call it whatever you like but n fact this is what is called "donationware".

Without these tiers, you will get the new version later anyway. It is a huge work and requires a lot of time. Tiers are just a way to boost the project development for those who want. So, you loose nothing from having them available. To be honest, I also do not like them, but they are needed to satisfy all community requirements. Otherwise, it will take years before we get these nice things we put in the roadmap.

It does not make any sence to publish these tiers first and then provided the same benefits to all others.