The Blugs List Management Engine is an open-source replacement for the Mac OS Data Browser. Current work on the project is halted, so this will be my final Carbon release of Blugs. It is possible that I may resume development of a 2.0 version, but it will be Cocoa-only. I no longer use Carbon if I can avoid it. Arios Software has taken over the codebase and will be continuing development under the name Litany. At this time he has not released any files, but from the much-modified demo application I can verify that he has cleaned up a lot of the graphics bugs folks encountered when running under OS 9.

I have retroactively open-sourced all releases. I will try to make available every version I have ever released!

New in d4:

• No more GWorlds in Mach-O = no more triple-buffering.
• New drawing model for all versions: "dirty region" code tries to redraw only when necessary.
• Widgets are now drawn offscreen, in (pre-Mach-O) versions that still double-buffer.
• 'LiSt' resource format is going away.
• Lots of nifty new accessor routines.
• Cell properties (Carbon only).
• Overlapping cells (title rows are gone, blCellOverlapsNext flag is more powerful).
• Tons of stuff I am either forgetting or embarassed of.
• Be careful: this distro is known to work poorly under OS 9.

Features:

• Open-source under the very liberal ZLib License.
• Mach-O compatible source code; preliminary support for CoreGraphics in some low-level drawing routines (row/column borders, marquee selection, and more to come later...).
• The amount of data that can be stored in a Blugs list is limited only by available memory.
• Appearance Manager, OS 8.5 Control Manager, Quartz graphics, etc. used only when available.
• Vertical and horizontal title bars.
• You can load lists entirely from resources. This includes cell and title data.
• Up to 65535 rows and columns.
• Inline editing.
• Fast built-in sorting and searching. In many cases sorting is automatic, requiring no intervention from your application. Blugs can draw a sort button (pre-X) or list header arrow (X) to display and modify sort status.
• Blugs calls on Appearance Manager to draw UI primitives and set up an appropriate drawing state. When Appearance is not available, Blugs' graphics routines mimic Apple's Platinum appearance. Additional Appearance-savvy drawing source code is provided.
• Drag Manager support. Rows and columns can be rearranged by dragging. Automatic drag-marquee-selection.
• No reliance on code resources. All content is handled by application-supplied callbacks. The Blugs distribution includes a variety of content handler source code.
• Hierarchical lists.
• Rows and columns are always resizable, either by user manipulation or by the host application; your application can allow or disallow user changes.
• Live scrolling option with or without Appearance.
• With one function call you can turn a list into an Appearance user pane control.
• No reliance on other large static libraries (like the Standard Library).
• ToolsPlus-savvy. (Specifically, Blugs sets the high bit in the refCon field of any control it creates.)
• Appearance/Kaleidoscope/Aqua cooperation.
• Support for moving rows and columns; special facility for moving noncontiguous rows.
• Column-level ControlFontStyleRec settings.

Downloads:

Note: I do not use Aladdin/Stuffit products to archive files because of their proprietary file format and mediocre-at-best quality. (If you have ever tried to use that piece of shit called Stuffit for Linux you will understand what I mean.) I now use Tar-Gzip format.

Note: The user manual is not included in any source/binary distribution. You can read it online or download it via its own link.

Download Blugs Open-Source 1.2d4 (Developer Seed: not yet feature-frozen)

Download Blugs 1.2 "What's New" Technote (Preliminary draft)

Blugs user manual 1.1 (PDF 464K, horribly outdated)

Older Stuff:

Blugs Open-Source 1.2d3

Blugs Open-Source 1.2d2