Introducing Diving Log 6.0

I wish you all a Happy New Year! Today I want to give you a first look at the upcoming Diving Log 6.0, which will be available later this year. Major updates in Diving Log and usually changes of the development technology. Diving Log 4.0 was built with Visual Basic 6, Diving Log 5.0 was a major rewrite in VB.NET. As user interface (UI) technology I choose “Windows Forms”, which had at that time already a successor called WPF. But it was still the right decision to go first from VB6 to .NET Windows Forms, because WPF would have made the port from VB6 a lot more complicated and time consuming. But I knew I would have to redo the UI again when switching to WPF.

Diving Log 6.0 main window

Diving Log 6.0 main window

And that’s what I’m doing in Diving Log 6.0. This time I can reuse all the code behind, but I have to recreate every single window again in WPF. But it is worth the effort, because Windows Forms didn’t get any major update since 2005 and it’s just a matter of time when the first problems/missing features surface. WPF is the current .NET UI technology for Windows, so this should be a lot more future proof.

WPF has also some other advantages: it scales a lot better for high resolution screens, which are more common today than a few years ago. It also allows me to do basically anything UI-wise without being dependent from 3rd party controls. I’ll demonstrate you some of the advantages in a separate blog post in the near future. Here are some more screenshots:

You can change the accent color in the settings

You can change the accent color in the settings

Icons in dropdowns were very difficult in Windows Forms, but not in WPF

Icons in dropdowns were very difficult in Windows Forms, but not in WPF

The main window background was always an unused space. In Diving Log 6.0 you can add several widgets to create some kind of personal dashboard with local and online data. Right now there is only a weather widget, but this will be extended in the future. You can configure the weather either by country and city name or simply by selecting one of your favorite dive sites with GPS coordinates.

Add and remove widgets in the settings dialog. For configuration, just click the gear icon in every widget.

Add and remove widgets in the settings dialog. For configuration, just click the gear icon in every widget.

This is just a small overview what’s coming in Diving Log 6.0. There is still a lot to do until I can release the first beta version. But I’ll show you more completed features throughout January. Please keep in mind that this is work in progress, so some icons are not updated yet and other things may change, too.

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12 Responses to “Introducing Diving Log 6.0”

  1. Hans Verhijden says:

    Hello,

    Is Diving log 6.0 ready for download. I just want to try it.

  2. divinglog says:

    Hello Hans, right now it is not ready to download. A beta version still takes some more work to be done.

  3. Rainer says:

    Great! Looking forward to version 6! Screenshots look very promising! 🙂
    Keep up the great work!
    Rainer

  4. Rich Hopkins says:

    Can’t wait! Love Diving Log!

  5. -marko Rogulja says:

    will log 6 be free upgrade for log 5 users ?

  6. divinglog says:

    Thank you!

    @Marko: I haven’t thought about that yet, I first want to get it completed.

  7. Don Born says:

    Looks very modern! Can’t wait to see it!

  8. Brian Ules says:

    Fantastic I can’t. I have truly enjoyed Divelog 5 and it works tremendously with all my computers. I would love to be a beta tester if possible. thanks again for a great product!

  9. Brian Paules says:

    I have used 5.0 for the past 2 years and have truly enjoyed it. I recommend this to all my students. It has also worked great with all my dive computers. I would be happy to be a beta tester if needed. thanks for a great product!

  10. divinglog says:

    Thank you, I’m glad you like it!

  11. Kim says:

    quick question,
    does this program have freedive modes? or is it just for scubadive logs?

  12. divinglog says:

    Hi Kim, you can log any kind of dives in Diving Log. The only limitation for free dives is the minimum sample rate of one second for the dive profile. Less than one second is currently not possible.