Happy New Year!

Happy new year, dear friends of wikiloops!

I do hope this message finds you well, and you have lots of reasons to look forward to 2022!
[img]https://wloops2.r.worldssl.net/blog/blog1-22_fullsize.png[/img]
As I sit here at my working desk in Germany on this new years day, trying to come up with some positive words for this address, I can't help but find that a little difficult -
the past two years have taught us to better not make too many plans, especially as far as live events, gatherings and traveling plans are concerned.
So, I sincerely hope all of us will get our fix of live music back in 2022, and things will become a little easier when it comes to traveling internationally.

Honestly, as much as I'd like to, I'm not going to risk scheduling a big wikiloops meeting at some public venue as for now, but I do hope we'll be able to do some smaller things on short notice this year... so keep your fingers crossed for that, please :)

There is something else I feel might be worth announcing today, just to give some signal of "look, there's something happening!" :
[img]https://wloops2.r.worldssl.net/blog/newapp_2022.png[/img]

Yes, I have been working on a new app for wikiloops for some months now, and I'm really looking forward to sharing a first version with you soon.
If all goes well, we'll be able to launch a wikiloops app for both android and iOS devices before summer comes, and I'd be happy if some of you offered to help beta-test them - please do let me know if you'd like to be invited to Beta-Testing!

The whole app-creation process has been an interesting and challenging project, so let me try to sum up some of that for you - without going too far into technical details.
Quite like the initial wikiloops creation process, the start of coding the app also involved learning a new coding-language. Ten years ago I started out with php, now it is a language called Dart I'm working with, which to my knowledge didn't even exist ten years ago.

Switching languages has the effect that one cannot really use a single line of code taken from the existing wikiloops project in the new context, so I literally have to translate every single function that needs to be available in the app from one language into the other.
So, every tiny thing has to cross my desk once more to either be integrated, postponed or dropped for good, which is a really interesting process.
While I am encountering parts of proven well-working wikiloops code which I'd have to classify as awkwardly coded today, I have also come across some quite tricky functionalities (especially around the jamtrack search engine on the loops) which aren't that easy to replicate.
So, looking at all of that code once more has renewed my view on where the wikiloops project stands, technology wise.
There are a hand full of wikiloops functionalities which I'm not all convinced will make it into the app, but that is one of the things that still need to be discussed in detail as soon as some of you have taken a first look, and I'm absolutely open to listen what you guys feel is important to have, too.
I'm really looking forward to having some lively feedback sessions on that some time soon!

But there's a second, a little less techy aspect about creating the app, and that's dealing with the limited screen space of handheld devices. wikiloops started out as a clearly desktop-oriented website, and improvements to make it work half-ways decently on a mobile device have been made along the way.
I'd still say that todays wikiloops works quite OK on a mobile device, but that is probably only true if you happen to know wikiloops well and don't really notice the parts which aren't really self-explaining.
As I am porting every little bit of interface content to the small screen of the app, I am trying to use the opportunity to prioritize things in a new way, and to change the needed navigation steps one needs to perform to reach some function in a way that is more self explanatory.
To give you just one example: If you look at the wikiloops any-single-track-page on a desktop monitor and start counting the buttons you see at first sight, offering a quite huge variety of things at first sight (from "Mute"-ing musicians, browsing alternative tracks via lists or remix tree, interacting with comments, view chords, share on social networks... and so on)
then there is no way you can cram all of this onto some small screen and expect some new visitor to find the interesting stuff.
As I am discovering recently, if you let go of what you have seen in the 13 wikiloops versions and re-organize the navigation paths a little, that may look quite clean on a small screen and feel easy to navigate, even for a first time visitor who may not be familiar with all the remix-hopping options of wikiloops. It does come down to offering slightly different interfaces to people who are purely listening and discovering, and people who are looking for a track to jam to - a task that has always been handled by our single track-view-page so far.
I am really curious to find out what you folks - the real wikiloops experts - will say to these changes, and if you'll agree this is going into an interesting direction.

Now, back down from my app-is-coming-excitement,
let me wish you and your families & loved ones a great entry to 2022!
[img]https://www.wikiloops.com/forum/images/dick_n_count.JPG[/img]
Keep the fire burning, and keep the music happening on wikiloops.
As always, thanks to those who support the wikiloops project - it wouldn't be what it is without you <3

all the best from wikiloops engine room, germany

Richard