Europa is the code name for OS X native Helix RADE. Introduced in the June 10, 2011 edition of The Latest Word, the Europa Pioneer Plan is our way of providing you with the latest progress in Helix RADE. For a $200 USD annual* or $20 USD monthly subscription, you get:
- Europa Preliminary Releases: Updated approximately once a month, Europa Pioneers have access to each new part of RADE as soon as it is ready.
- Europa Interim Builds: See the very latest code from our engineers. These builds may not be as stable or safe as the regular releases, but you can see what we are working on as it unfolds. Provide feedback before features become ‘set in stone’ and report bugs before they reach a wider audience.
- Europa Discussions: Provide feedback on the latest developments, report bugs, and share insights with other Europa Pioneers.
- Helix Product Discounts: Need to add a seat to your Helix Server license? Europa Pioneers get a discount off the regular price.*
*Not all products are eligible for discount. - Guaranteed Lowest Upgrade Price: We have not yet set an upgrade price for Helix RADE 6.2 when it is complete, but Europa Pioneers will get the lowest of all upgrade prices.
* The current annual plan covers all releases from June 10, 2011 through June 9, 2012.
The Europa Pioneer Plan ends when Helix RADE for OS X is completed. We can’t know for certain how long that will take; much work still lies ahead of us, but at last the goal is in sight. By subscribing to the Europa Pioneer Plan now, you assure us of a steady stream of income, allowing us to keep our engineers working a optimum levels.
We have a prioritized schedule of what needs to be done to bring Helix RADE fully to OS X, but schedules are often disrupted. Instead of publishing a potentially misleading schedule, we are publishing “what’s next” through The Latest Word, our main communication channel. Every new Preliminary Release is accompanied by a new edition of The Latest Word telling you what was just accomplished and what is coming next. You can track our progress by reading the latest editions of The Latest Word beginning with the June 10, 2011 issue.
To those of you who are already Europa Pioneer Plan subscribers — thank you for supporting our efforts.
Although Europa products are labeled as “Preliminary Releases” we are far enough along that we are confident that there are no major issues that should prevent your using Europa with your collections. Even so, it is a wise precaution to make a backup copy of your collections before opening them in Europa.
Helix User Mode is completely functional, so those who have been using Helix Engine to access your collections in OS X can now use Helix RADE. Europa (Helix 6.2) represents the latest in our code work and includes bug fixes and performance enhancements that are not available in earlier products.
The first major phase of Europa was to make Design Mode of Helix fully scriptable. That phase is now complete, giving you a full AppleScript interface to the design icons used to create a Helix collection. Helix users who are comfortable with AppleScript are able to make changes to Helix without resorting to a Classic-capable Mac and Helix RADE 6.1. Those who do not want to learn AppleScript can download free scripts and external applications that automate tasks that were time-consuming and tedious in Classic RADE.
We are keeping Europa backwards compatible with Classic RADE for as long as possible, but at some point we will have to introduce structural changes to the underlying Helix database, ending backwards compatibility. At that point, Classic will no longer be an option. We encourage all Helix users to join the Europa Pioneer Plan and start working in OS X Helix so you aren’t scrambling to catch up when Classic is no longer available.
Of course, Europa releases contain bugs — all software does! To streamline the reporting process, we have created a complete bug reporting database in our online Helix database: techdb. For those who have never used techdb before: accessing techdb means using Helix Client to log into our own Helix Server from anywhere in the world. This is a great demonstration of the capabilities of Helix Client/Server. You can get your free copy of Helix Client on our download page.
Reporting bugs through techdb has many advantages:
- Report Discussions — communicate with our staff and other users. Help us identify the root issue behind the bugs.
- Search Capabilities — find out if others are experiencing the same issues.
- Feature Votes — indicate how important a fix is to you. More votes = higher priority.
- Document Exchange — submit collections, scripts, diagnostic logs, etc. Helix’s document management capabilities make it easy.
For more on using techdb, please visit this page.
Before you enter a new report, please look at the existing reports to see if the bug you have found has already been reported. We have added a Europa Reports item to the Reports menu, so you can quickly find just the reports that pertain to Europa. This form also has options to filter the list only to show the reports in which you are personally involved.
Because we are trying to get the most visible and productive work done in the shortest possible period, we reserve the right to “condense” reports. If a report you entered seems to have disappeared, rest assured it isn’t a Helix bug. We have already removed a few duplicate problems reported in slightly different words. Please don't take it personally if your wording was passed over in favor of someone else's. We appreciate the effort.
Sample scripts, showing how to accomplish specific tasks in AppleScript, are being developed. Some of those scripts are available on this page, while others are being made available exclusively to customers who have signed up for the Learning AppleScript with Helix self-paced training course.
Another perq of the Europa Pioneer Plan is access to interim builds. These are untested, but they represent the very latest ‘state of the code.’ Europa Pioneers who really want to be on the cutting edge of product development can download new code as soon as it is built using the link at the top of this page. This area is restricted — only Europa Pioneers may request access. The RADE builds are in ‘.zip’ files, and the engineering notes are in the accompanying ‘.txt’ file.
Predicting the pace of software development is difficult even for the largest of companies, and we are small, with a limited budget with which to hire engineers. We are not sure how long it will take to complete the Europa phase and release a feature-complete OS X-native Helix RADE. But we do know that the more people who join the Europa Pioneer Plan, the more we have in our monthly engineering budget, and the faster we can make progress.
The Europa Pioneer Plan was introduced as an annual plan and, based on our current rate of progress, that was a good decision. We expect the entire process — begun on June 10, 2011 — to take at least a year.
We’ll probably say it a dozen times or more before we are done, but let us say it right up front: thank you for becoming a Europa Pioneer! We know that your contribution will make Helix RADE for OS X a better product.