Evolutionary Development

Evolution was developed in stages. This was the first time any of the team had produced anything of note using C++, being as we were brought up on Pascal, Visual Basic and Java. An evolutionary development strategy was chosen as it allowed us to minimise the risks associated with adopting a new development language.

EPhase1

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EPhase1 was our first test program. Its sole meaning in life was as a proof to ourselves and others that our basic theories were valid. It proved that we could access wave files, modify them and save the output. It also allowed Graham to try out a few simple ideas on the user interface front.

Evolution Release 1

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This was our first main release. It moved on from EPhase1 by allowing the user to create a chain of effects and hear the result. The user interface advanced a lot between EPhase1 and Release 1, but the feedback we received told us that maybe we needed to calm things down a bit. The results of this calming down can be found in...

Evolution Release 2

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This is the second and final release that was developed for submission at the university. The user can now create a network of effects and the user interface is a lot neater (people rarely look at it and pull funny faces this time around). The effects are slightly more advanced with more friendly settings procedures, and the underlying system is much more efficient - in testing Release 1 took about 25 minutes to process a 40Mb file; release 2 took just 3 minutes.

Any more?

Probably, but not yet. Each member of the team has expressed a desire to continue development of Evolution, adding features such as plug-innable effects, even better file access and a more intuitive UI. However, we're all a bit busy at the moment with the small matter of final exams. We'll continue work on Evolution after the inevitable post-exam party.

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