Regarding open-source, I understand your concerns. This may be open source some day, but at least not during this initial early development. I promise there is no intentional malicious code, but I _do not_ promise that there aren't any bugs that could lose your bitcoins at this point!
As a counterpoint, how many of us download, review, then compile the open source software we run, or do we just assume there's nothing slipped into the binary or any of its dependencies? Just making a point here - I agree that security-sensitive software (or all software for that matter) should be open source, but even so, it would be trivial for any wallet author to swipe your coins.
I appreciate Jim's argument for more accountability, which I will address later in development. For now, just consider this a preview for experienced users (not quite ready for the end-user market).
Regarding the file locations, my initial design was to create a $HOME/.vanillawallet/ directory to store the chain and wallets. The reason I changed my mind was that I considered it to be simpler for users to see the files alongside VanillaWallet.jar. However, the whole notion of the current working directory is fraught with pitfalls. I'm considering file placement for the future (and even a command-line switch for the path, for better script support). I could also check both a default HOME path plus the current path to look for the files. I'm considering some other ideas, as well, so thanks for your input.
Regarding the block chain, I'm not piggybacking the Satoshi blockchain file, because (a) I want VanillaWallet to be independent of any other client, (b) VanillaWallet is based on BitCoinJ, which uses its own format (and only stores the headers it needs for the local wallet, making the chain file somewhat bound to the wallet). I'm considering including a blockchain checkpoint in the software (but the software does _not_ include any blocks at this time). At this point, functionality wins out over optimization.
Ultimately, if you're the type of Bitcoin user who will not download a client that you cannot compile yourself, or includes a blockchain snapshot, then VanillaWallet probably isn't for you! I'm _not_ (by design) attempting to make a wallet that caters to everyone. There are plenty general-purpose clients for that. I want to focus on very tight design constraints, centered on simplicity.
Thanks for catching my typographical error, John! I'm glad you like my text, Jim (and a big thank you to those who actually read the instructions).
Regarding the user interface, making it physically bigger is counter to my intended design. I want it to be small and compact. That said, I could allow you to resize the window, but that just leads to a bunch of dead space in the UI.
Regarding Jim's suggestion to use the Font Metrics... I simply hate how Java handles fonts. In all my years developing Java applications, I've never ever had a good experience dealing with fonts. Here's what I do for VanillaWallet: Create main frame with the wallet GUI elements and pack(). Then, I set the (single and only) pop-up info dialog to the width of that frame, and make the initial position look pretty. Notice that the Transactions are actually in the same dialog, which I do not resize. I'm probably trying to be too compact. I should probably separate the Transactions into their own independent dialog. Thanks for your input.
For simplicity, I turned off logging in this release build. If it encounters an uncaught exception, it should cleanly save/close (with a friendly but useless error message in the GUI), and dump the exception to standard err. This doesn't help end-users much, but then again, neither do stack traces. For these initial releases, I should definitely improve logging so the experts here can report if anything goes wrong. (BTW, I once had a NullPointerException after initial block chain download, but it was fine after restarting. Not sure what actually caused it... due to lack of logging!)
I'm pleased to have so many comments already. Here are some potential future features/enhancements:
- Encrypted wallet file (see Encrypted Wallet caveat in Instructions)
- Better command-line options (and document them)
- Blockchain snapshot (to speed up first init)
- Better logging
- Various UI visual and behavioral improvements
- Task tray integration
On a final note (for today), Jim mentioned monetization. I'm not looking to get rich, but I'm currently not in the position to spend much (any) time on this unless I can earn some coin. Suggestions? Sell copies? Require payment to unlock features? Stick with donations? Your support is greatly appreciated. (For that matter, is anyone looking to hire a Bitcoin-savvy Java developer??)
