Envoy / News: Recent posts

Today was a landmark day for the project since I've sent my first few mails using Envoy! I've gotten the wxSMTP and wxRFC822Message (which also supports MIME-mails) classes up and running. The wxSMTP class (which I wrote myself, despite there being other classes out there with the same name) is optimized for the sending of large e-mails with attachments without blocking the user interface. The mails I've sent so far are only RFC822 format mails so the next step is to get MIME-mail support fully working. After that I will be writing a POP3 and a NNTP protocol classes.

I'm sorry to inform everyone that I won't make the release before the New Year. Although I'm working on Envoy almost every weekend and progress is substantial, I won't be able to finish the code before the Spring at the earliest. I'm working full-time as a freelance software engineer and so my time is limited.

But don't despair: good things come to those who wait ;) I'm going to make sure it will be worth the wait.

Although I haven't posted any code yet, I've already moved the code repository to Subversion (CVS was used previously).

All code posted will only be available through Subversion and you will need a Subversion client (such as TortoiseSVN) to build Envoy yourself.

I've transferred the project to Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition on the Windows platform (both the Mac OS X and Linux versions will use GCC) successfully.

I'm continuing finishing the Contacts code (which contains a lot of dialogs and logic). After that's wrapped up, I'll start putting in artwork and placeholder classes for the SMTP, POP and IMAP mail 'engines.'

I'm hereby declaring a new slogan for Envoy:

"One e-mail client to unite them all!"

Obviously inspired by LOTR (Lord of the Rings) and the fact that Envoy will run on all three major desktop platforms.

The 'core' slogan ('Envoy, THE e-mail client') will be used along side this new slogan.

People have been asking me why there isn't a screenshot of the main e-mail client window. This is because the artwork isn't finished and because I want to show the window with some e-mails in it. This implies I'll have to add the e-mail 'engine' too, since all screenshots are all of working parts of the program, not mockups.

I'm currently in the process of finishing up the Contacts (address book really; although the name is not final and could still change to 'Address Book') code. I'm using the SQLite database engine to store these (and the email as well). The code is very fast and I haven't even optimized it yet so this part looks very promising.

I'm looking for graphic artists who are willing to spice up my icons and bitmaps. I've already created an 'official' Envoy icon but I could certainly use professional help. If you think you're up to the job, and want to become world famous (believe me, when Envoy comes out, you will), contact me.

The way things are looking now, the official release of Envoy, the e-mail client, is slated for the second half of 2006. It will be released simultaneously for Windows and Linux and, with some luck, also for Mac OS X.

I added two teaser screenshots, of the Accounts dialog. I later added two more screenshots, one of the About dialog and one from the Options dialog.

Note the official Envoy program icon (which I made myself).