I've been in the cycle of "I'm going to release Flippy Flap as soon as I finish X" for about a month now.  So to push forward, I'm going to go ahead and release the first version today.  You can download and use Flippy Flap 0.3.1 is now available to download.

Flippy Flap is my take on split flap boards.  I love Split Flap boards, but gosh -- they are expensive.  I've built a couple digital ones in the past, but they've always cobbled together jquery libraries and what-not to make them work.  Flippy Flap is the first application I have built from the ground up to work the way I want.  And it's using Dragon Ruby, as Ruby is my favorite language.

The version I released today has the basic components.  You can create different "boards" that are cycled through on a regular basis.  This comes with a few board types:

• Text:  For basic text messages.
• Text file:  You can link the board to a text file.
• CSV:  You can type in a CSV, and it will try to render it well.
• CSV File:  You can link the board to a CSV file.
• Clock:  The date and time will be rendered.
• Image:  You can display an image.  Why, why would a split flap board show an image?  Because it's digital, and we can.

This application also has an API that allows for remote control of what is being shown.  The details are available on http://localhost:9001 if you enable the "Web Server" in Options.

There are a lot of improvements I'll be making soon.  My current plan is:

• Allow the image to be changed (it's a static one for now)
• Write up the API documentation for the /boards endpoint in the API.
• Implement a multi-line text box, as single-line messages aren't that important.

I'll be working towards a 1.0 release, where I consider everything that is there to be "done" and functioning.  Then I'll work on new board types and other types of features. 

I'm open to any feedback, what do you think?