It would seem that just as I am spending time with film again, I am also leaving ExIfDSC alone a little longer and working on ExIf35, even if I don’t really understand why. I keep adding features and finding little things that ExIf35 needs, when I don’t even have a clue what ExIfDSC is. I have done some work on ExIfDSC and certainly proposed theoretical functionality, but as of yet, its mission isn’t completely clear. I want to do things a certain way, but I am not sure how they will work out when they are put into practice, and I in general don’t have a background for which to build ExIfDSC. ExIf35 is a niche tool, which makes it easy. I don’t have to compete. My happy little tool does what it is supposed to do, and the world is a happy place. I decide on features based on what needs to be done to be additionally useful to the end-user. Since I am for the most part unrivaled in a utility that writes a complete metadata set for files, and specializing in record keeping for film. There are a few other tools, but none with my level of detail. I am very scientific and I must have information stored a certain way for a hobby to be useful to me, so hence it exists. ExIfDSC is harder. Tools exist to do what I am trying to do, at least in part. I don’t like that the tools are usually linked to huge clunky image viewers. I want a quick way to add information to images, but somehow my goal seems trivial.

[WARNING: Switching to SoC mode] 
Maybe its because I don’t feel like I can begin working on something while writing code and then just go back to it. There’s a thought. Maybe that’s where I should start. I keep everything written for ExIf35 from the time that the roll is “declared”, but with DSC the application enters the picture much later in the process. The files exist and as a result, I don’t think of storing their information, since it already exists. Is the answer to my problem with DSC to simply allow the storage of a temporary or “active” file for the purpose of being able to close the app and return to work later without having to save it to the images? Maybe even as a long-term option of saving a “project”? I think I like it. Its annoying as hell, but at the same time it could be really cool.
[end SoC]

The primary purpose of ExIfDSC is to add tagging and to apply rotations. It’s a pretty simple app, and I am beginning to feel a little bit like I might be trying to do too much to it at once. The other day I added ExIf reading ability to it, and I couldn’t figure out which fields I wanted to read, since I decided I didn’t really care. I am worried that a third application will develop, a general reader for the applications to share, but I suppose if it could be called from inside the other apps with arguments it might not be so bad (but I am teetering on the edge of having to write a library class for my apps). It would be really cool if next time I need to tag something huge for Flickr to be able to just go down the list and add the tags, or better yet, be able to use checkboxes to select from an existing list of tags (perhaps for the project, if not the overall app). Its a functionality I would love to use, but I just have to figure out how to write it. I’m not familiar with how to make an array of checkboxes in C#, so I will have much research to do.

Still, ExIf35 is more special, and it gets my attention, but eventually ExIfDSC has to move out of its infancy (which would include its own web presence).