diy-layout-creator/Project History.md

Brief project history

• Version 4 is the latest and greatest version that maintains backwards compatibility with version 3 files. It started from version 3.x codebase that was upgraded to Java 8 in early 2020. It has better support for installation - in addition to the windows installer, universal ZIP package and universal installer, DIYLC now has a native application package for OSX available for download and is also regularly published to Flathub as a Flatpak distribution.
• Version 3 is a relatively modern version that was re-written from scratch starting early 2010, but this time as an open source Java 5 project. It incorporates all the ideas that were accumulated over years and also better code architecture. That should provide better user experience, less bugs and code that's easier to maintain and extend.

• Version 2 was re-written from scratch in Java mid 2007 and is platform independent. The big idea behind this version was flexibility - components were defined through XML files that explain what a component is and how it's rendered on the screen. Unfortunately, it was not very fast and was not backward compatible with version 1 which means that it cannot open files created with version 1. It was my first ever Java project, so code quality was not so great, which is why I gave it up at some point.

• Version 1 started its life in May 2005 and was written in Delphi. As such, it only works on Windows machines (or through emulators). There's a large collection of layouts submitted by users for this version which is why it's still kept around. It was created primarily for guitar pedal circuits and has a limited set of components and functionalities.