Sorry for the long delay — I’d been planning to move the blog over to my web server (from Blogspot) and kept procrastinating it, but it’s finally done and there will be regular updates from here on out. The book that I’ve been working on has to go to press by mid-February, and once it’s done I’ll be focusing all my extracurricular energy on Beyond. Hopefully I’ll have some design sketches and notes up before then, though, if I can figure out how to manage my time better. :) Anyway, I’ve received the specs for the file formats for PAF 5.x, 4.0, and the old Family Records 2.3.1 (the last version of PAF for Mac), so we’re all set on that front. I’ll have to see if I can get file format specs for Legacy and Reunion and RootsMagic and other genealogy apps out there.

Last month I thought I would keep the design process under wraps, so as not to let the cat out of the bag prematurely, but after much more thought I’ve decided that it’s best to open it up — after all, my goal is to make genealogy software better on the Mac, and even if someone else “steals” some of my ideas, that ends up helping achieve that goal. :) So, here’s my current plan of attack, and of course it’s subject to change:

1. Sort through all the design notes I’ve been collecting these past two months and prioritize them.

2. Decide on the main goals for Beyond and the tasks users will need to accomplish and prioritize them.

3. Sketch out the UI and run some paper usability tests.

4. Finalize the UI (as much as possible) and the main user interactions.

5. Research the various XML specs for storing genealogical data.

6. Design the file format.

7. Figure out how to store the data internally.

8. Write a converter for PAF 5.x to the Beyond file format.

9. Come up with a list of the various modules to write (this will depend in large measure on the results of #1 and #2).

10. Set more goals.

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