We believe we’ve finally ironed out the bug that has prevented us from committing to a solid date for MailForge 3′s release date. As we previously stated, this bug was due to a poorly documented Apple API that relates to how we display HTML emails.

Now that we have this worked out, we will be release MailForge 3 on Monday, April 2.

Thank you for your patience.

Where We’ve Been
When the MailForge project (then Odysseus) first started, we felt an unnecessary need to get MailForge out ASAP. As a result, some poor decisions were made early on that have caused us a great deal of grief throughout the project. As one example, we licensed closed-source code from third-parties (yes, we realize this is the same mistake Qualcomm made) that ended up being a hinderance to us for a long time.

In addition, we have struggled with performance elements that have had profound impacts on widespread features. For example, performance limitations with SQLite have created a slew of problems with sorting. These performance issues were only recently overcome.

Where We Are
Over the last year or two we have been working on rewriting all of the affected portions of MailForge. Unfortunately, integrating these rewritten and improved features into the original codebase has presented all new challenges. This has led to the “two steps forward, one step backward” syndrome that has plagued MailForge for some time.

Where We’re Headed
As announced in other sections of the forums, we have already embarked on a complete rewrite. This will represent a 93 – 95% rewrite of the original codebase. As stated, we have some modules and portions of the programs rewritten already, waiting to be plugged into an improved framework.

In the course of this rewrite, our main focus will be to make sure that each and every feature works perfectly … before we move onto the next. To ensure this level of performance we will be releasing incremental Alpha and Beta releases to get user feedback.

Timeframe
While we absolutely will not commit to an exact date, we can say that the rewrite will be in the “months” range. We are working as fast as possible, and will shortly provide a detailed Roadmap. We will also start releasing the early builds in the very near future.

In conclusion, we want to thank everyone for their patience. As we stated at the beginning of this project, we are in this for the long haul. We rely on MailForge for our internal email and look forward to many years of development.