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Quelea

So, I've started a new project on the side. It's something I've had on my mind for a while but something that I've never really had the incentive to start. Until now that is!

The project is essentially a lyrics projection system designed for use in churches, much like OpenLP, Opensong and Easyworship. All of the preceding are decent packages and I've used them all, but there's various things in each of them I like and don't like. The aim? To bring all the features I do like together into one neat, easy to use package that's comprehensive, reliable and open source. When I say "I" I actually mean a few people I've spoken to as well as myself - I'm definitely getting other input before ploughing ahead! :-)

The site's www.quelea.org - there's not much there at the moment but things are definitely on the way. (You may notice a few interesting things on there, I don't like to take everything quite 100% seriously!) I'm hoping by Christmas this year I'll have a bare bones working release to ship as an early alpha, and perhaps a few partially complete demos before then.

Technical details? It's written in Java, uses hsqldb for its song database and uses substance for its look and feel (might as well have something that looks nice when you get it for free! Definitely better than the default look and feel...) Swing can look pretty. Honest :-) Beyond that there's not an awful lot decided yet, though the schedule file format will probably be a zip file stuffed with XML files and resources required (vaguely like the new MS Office formats.)

Watch this space!

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