02 - Expectations for the future and progression

The scope of the software is huge. And it is not possible to achieve that in one go (no matter how well you define “one go”). So we will do it in phases, the way real software gets shipped anyway. So let’s chalk out a small plan of features, without timelines. The last time I tried something, it was with a not-so-concrete plan with fixed timelines, I could not deliver. So this time, I am doing two things - I am making a better plan and I am letting the timelines a bit loose. The focus therefore is on the result, not on the timelines; although the timelines are still in the view.

The following is going to be the plan for making Chamber, in stages.

The first final release

When we began, the plan was a little different and the focus was on getting the core done. However, once the first alpha was released, and I released the YouTube video demoing it, the viewer data (whatever little there was) suggested that people did not want to learn more Chamber once they knew that whatever they were watching was a CLI application.

This was an eye opener for me. It meant that people would be more interested in the graphical interface rather than the core functionality. This made me work on the web-server and the HTML part. This pivot from the original plan meant that the priorities for features changed. For example, the work related to web server took priority, which means that authentication took front-foot, the web UI took precedence, which meant that I had to think from the GUI perspective. At the same time, the features that I really wanted also needed to be completed at the same time.

Somewhere I started focussing on the core feeling of Chamber - solving my (my very own) problem of having a self-hostable, zero-peek, cross-platform, easy-to-use encrypted file vault tool. So I zeroed in on that. The path was zig-zag but the result is there. Chamber is stable and it is working. The feature set, out of the Original Inspiration that is already working is the following:

• CLI: A CLI to do the basic operations on the files inside the vault is there. You can use the CLI to put in, take out and delete files from within the vault.
• Cross Platform: Chamber already works on all the practical platforms that people use and we have tested it on all of them. This includes Windows on Intel, macOS on ARM (Apple Silicon), Linux on both Intel and ARM64 platforms.
• Supports Vault Expansion and Shrink: Chamberfile (the vault file created by Chamber) expands on adding new files and can shrink (if requested) after you delete the files.
• Ease of use: Chamber as of now is a single file download. It does not even require an installation. Download, run and done - that’s the mantra!
• Supports large files: As long as your file system has enough space and can accommodate the resulting enlargement of the Chamberfile, you can store a file of any size. Chamberfile can comfortably expand till 2 TB in size.
• GUI: Chamber’s UI is not an application window. It actually launches a web server and tries to open your browser for the server. The GUI, thus, is presented inside a web browser.
• Hostable: Since Chamber starts a web server, you can host it on a remote server and access it over the internet. If you are unsure about this, please get in touch.

Future promises and features

It does not support, yet, the following features but they are nonetheless planned and shall be available in the future versions:

• Mounting: Chamber cannot mount the Chamberfile to a filesystem directory
• Splittability: Chamberfile cannot be split into smaller parts.
• Support for CoW: Copy-on-Write is not yet supported.
• Change in key or password: Chamber does not support changing your password or encryption key.

As things progress, we will be making these changes and pushing the envelop further.