It seems that 2.6 finally has a release date! Sort of! Well, if you can call "next week" an exact release date. ☺ It looks like all of the pieces will come together early next week and then after some additional testing it will be ready to go out the door. I may do a kind of "final candidate" release for some select people just to make sure as well (mostly localizers to double-check integration). I may post the download link on here too, but I won't be putting it in the in-app update mechanism. I worry that too many updates close together will cause some people to miss the second (and more important) update.
Things have been going well in MacJournal-land. I haven't actually had to touch the code in a few days now. After a few issues with the new system for not saving back to disk when not necessary were worked out, things have been smooth. It's what I like to see leading up to a major release like this. I'll just be testing stuff over the weekend and exercise parts of the app that I haven't seen in a while to make sure they haven't been broken accidentally.
For the Romantic language speakers out there, there will be both French and Spanish localizations included (that was a point of concern noted here earlier).
And for fans of all of the hidden preferences in 2.6, I have one last trick up my sleeve for you, but I'll give more details when 2.6 actually comes out.
Onward and upward!
Friday, September 24, 2004
Friday, September 17, 2004
New Homepage Design
Preparing for the impending release of 2.6, I've also been working on the updated web page. You can check it out at <http://danschimpf.com/macjournal26.html>. The colors are a little different, but the layout is basically the same. The everything-on-one-page layout scheme isn't good, but I don't really have the time or the patience to make a nice-looking website. ☺
Sunday, September 12, 2004
MacJournal 2.6b5 Released
I know I said beta 4 was the last, but other factors compelled me to release this. I also wanted to test out a new improvement to the saving mechanism to hopefully clear up some problems. MacJournal will now only save to disk only when needed. This helps in a few areas:
- Quit time will be improved if there is nothing to save.
- Auto-save will no longer writing the file to disk each time. This will improve performance in the application and allow the system to sleep the hard drive if you leave it running over night.
Please let me know if you experience any problems related to this.
Here are some of the other changes:
- Performance of the Font Face and Size toolbar items has been greatly improved.
- Fixed printing sizing; output should match that of TextEdit now.
- Option-click the forward and backward Browse buttons to use them like Safari-like history buttons.
- Updated Spanish localization
- Fixed hang with changing data locations in the preferences.
- Fixed dragging pictures into the Finder.
- Shift-tab works in the text area to get back to the topic field.
Other enhancements are noted in the Version History.
As always, install and use developmental software at your own risk! Be sure to back up your data before each new build just in case. Just for fun, MacJournal itself will back up your data with each new build that you install as well.
Please let me know of any problems that you have with this build as soon as possible.
- Quit time will be improved if there is nothing to save.
- Auto-save will no longer writing the file to disk each time. This will improve performance in the application and allow the system to sleep the hard drive if you leave it running over night.
Please let me know if you experience any problems related to this.
Here are some of the other changes:
- Performance of the Font Face and Size toolbar items has been greatly improved.
- Fixed printing sizing; output should match that of TextEdit now.
- Option-click the forward and backward Browse buttons to use them like Safari-like history buttons.
- Updated Spanish localization
- Fixed hang with changing data locations in the preferences.
- Fixed dragging pictures into the Finder.
- Shift-tab works in the text area to get back to the topic field.
Other enhancements are noted in the Version History.
As always, install and use developmental software at your own risk! Be sure to back up your data before each new build just in case. Just for fun, MacJournal itself will back up your data with each new build that you install as well.
Please let me know of any problems that you have with this build as soon as possible.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Fighting with AppleScript
While I'm waiting for some external things to get finished up for the 2.6 release, I've been tinkering around with AppleScript support. It's been kind of a rocky road. AppleScript from the developer's side isn't always as easy to implement as they tell us. In a simple case it can be easy from what I hear, but what is a simple case anyway? Supposedly some apps can do it with zero extra code. MacJournal 2.6 is entirely MVC-friendly, but I've still encountered problems. I've been able to get some things working, but other things are broken inexplicably with little or no apparent reason why. AppleScript is hard to debug: Script Editor gives you no help when something goes wrong. You end up with an error name that isn't descriptive and an error number that isn't explained anywhere. I lost a lot of time to a problem that really shouldn't have been an issue in the first place. Apple is assuming something about how I set up my application that turns out to be wrong, and now I have to work around it by adding more extra code. It's always a little disappointing whenever that happens.
The heart of AppleScript-ability lies in two well-formatted text files. It seems weird that with all the fancy developer tools they give us, a simple graphical tool to create these files weren't include. At the very least something to validate the files would have been nice because small errors can be very hard to ferret out, especially when you don't know where the problem is. Maybe something like this will be coming in Tiger with the new release of Xcode. One can only hope.
But I am optimistic about MacJournal's AppleScript support. Admittedly this is my first AppleScript implementation that I have done, so I'm hitting a lot of the first-timer roadblocks that will no doubt get easier with experience. Hopefully a basic set of features can be available for the very next version, with more features coming after that.
The heart of AppleScript-ability lies in two well-formatted text files. It seems weird that with all the fancy developer tools they give us, a simple graphical tool to create these files weren't include. At the very least something to validate the files would have been nice because small errors can be very hard to ferret out, especially when you don't know where the problem is. Maybe something like this will be coming in Tiger with the new release of Xcode. One can only hope.
But I am optimistic about MacJournal's AppleScript support. Admittedly this is my first AppleScript implementation that I have done, so I'm hitting a lot of the first-timer roadblocks that will no doubt get easier with experience. Hopefully a basic set of features can be available for the very next version, with more features coming after that.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I put journals inside of other journals?
Not yet. This is a big change inside of MacJournal and it needed to happen slowly in order to protect your data. This will be coming in the very next version of MacJournal after 2.6. MacJournal 2.6 represents a lot of work behind the scenes that is not yet visible, but will pay off after 2.6 with a lot of features that will be able to come quickly.
Q: Can I drag entries around inside of journals to reorder them?
Not yet. Right now everything is assumed to be sorted; it's been this way from the start. A more level-headed developer probably would have made everything unsorted to begin with and then add sorting later, but such is life. So it's another big chunk of assumptions that will need to be removed before this will work. This should be coming in MacJournal 2.7 along with nested journals.
Q: It takes a really long time to launch and quit; what's up?
This is due to a very large data file that MacJournal has to encode and write out to disk. This is most likely because of a lot of pictures being stored in the data file; having a lot of entries and/or journals will not generally cause this by itself. So what are the solutions here? An option to store pictures outside of the big data file is forthcoming, but a better solution is to allow for multiple data files better coupled with a fancy new file format. This will probably be coming in something like MacJournal 3.0.
Q: Why is the data file stored in Application Support? Wouldn't my Documents folder be better?
This may seem arbitrary, but putting the data file where it is was actually thought out and it was decided to be the best place. In its current incarnation, MacJournal handles all of the data for you behind its back so you don't have to. So because the user does not have day-to-day interaction with the data file, it is not appropriate to put the data file in their Documents folder by default (you're free to change it yourself). It's the difference between Address Book and TextEdit: TextEdit documents are all distinct and need to be handled individually, whereas Address Book handles your data for you. It would be annoying if Address Book put its data in your Documents folder because you would never touch it and it would just take up space. Microsoft Word creates a "Microsoft User Data" folder in my Documents folder every time I open it and it annoys me more each time. In the future, if MacJournal becomes more document-based, changes would be made. But for now it remains in Application Support.
Q: It would be cool if I could resize pictures that I drag into MacJournal. Is that a possibility?
Yes, this is being considered for the future. This is one of those things that might be really easy for me to do, or really really hard. I have yet to sit down and attack it, but I have been thinking about it. I'm hoping for really easy. :-)
Q: Why do the MacJournal alphas/betas have an expiration date?
MacJournal 2.6 is the second time I've done public pre-releases. It worked fantastically for 2.5 and has been even better for 2.6. But one of the things I learned from the 2.5 process is that people won't always update to the latest pre-release build even if they understand it is pre-release software. I can understand it from their perspective (as the user who wants things running smoothly and if it isn't broken then don't fix it), but from my perspective (the developer who can't support pre-release builds forever) it's less than optimal. I can't support 2.5b4 18 months after 2.5b5 was released. I need people to stay as current as possible to ferret out any problems that they may have. If you tell me about it now, I can fix it for the final build. If you e-mail me a year later I can't help you. So it works to everyone's advantage to stay within a build or two of the most current release. I try to stage the 2.6 releases so at least 2 builds still work, so if the most recent one doesn't work you can still use the last one for a while until a fix is released. That way everyone is happy when the final product is released.
Q: I don't like thing 'X' that you added in 2.6! Can you take it out?
Most changes that have been made have been done in such a way to provide minimal interference with what is already there. Too many toolbar items available? Remove the ones you don't want or just hide the toolbar entirely. Through tweaking some interface elements and preferences, you can achieve a simpler UI than what is enabled by default. However, if that isn't enough for you, there are generally hidden preferences that you can enable to customize the appearance even more. I'm just one guy working in my spare time so I can't do everything, but I try to make people happy.
Q: Why are there so many hidden preferences in MacJournal 2.6?
There are two reasons for creating a hidden preference (a preference that does not show up in the actual user interface but must instead be activated via the Terminal):
1. Option or feature came too late in the process and could not be accounted for in all of the localizations that have already been updated
2. Option falls outside of the intended functionality of the program.
Number 1 is pretty easy to understand; I have to lock down the interface at some point to get the many localizations updated so things added after that either have to be delayed until the next release or only exposed from the Terminal and English-only. Number 2 is a little trickier. MacJournal 2.6 has a hidden preference to change the main window to be a metal window, a la Safari or iPhoto. There are many things wrong with this on a UI standpoint: text editors should never be in metal. But some people want it and it's kind of a fun like setting to tweak and see how it looks. So it's there, but will never be an option in the Preferences window. Some are in a little more gray territory: I don't think they'll ever be options, but they might if it becomes useful enough, so making it available from the Terminal is a good way to do that. In the next release I hope to have a better system of enabling hidden preferences though. Maybe there will be one switch you throw in the Terminal (or even in the UI) that shows a bunch of checkboxes for all the different hidden preferences with appropriate warnings everywhere about hidden preference support. But for now the Terminal is your friend.
Q: Can I create a link from one entry to another?
Indeed you can! You could actually do this in 2.5, but it wasn't very easy to figure out or even know that you could. However, MacJournal 2.6 makes it a lot more apparent. In the sheet for editing links there are two new buttons: one for linking to an entry and one for linking to a file. Clicking the latter will bring up an open panel to select a file on disk and clicking the former will bring up a different kind of open panel: it will show you all of your journals and entries and you can select the one to which you want to link. These are just assistants; you can still just type in the URL manually, or drag an entry from a drawer or a file from disk into the URL field to paste the URL.
Q: Can I send entries to Movable Type blogs?
Yes, this is possible via the Blogger sheet. See the Movable Type website for details about how to accept Blogger connections on the server side.
Q: What about TypePad? Weblog Service X?
Most services accept the Blogger protocol as a de facto standard. Check with your provider to see if they do and what the details are. In the future, MacJournal will use the Atom protocol (once it is finalized) as this will allow for a greater range of features and should allow you to send to any ol' arbitrary website. Atom is supposedly the protocol-to-end-all-other-protocols and all of the major sites have committed to supporting it. Some sites already do (including Blogger). This will mean that there would be just one Atom sheet, instead of a Blogger and LiveJournal sheet, that is powerful enough to send to any server. In theory, of course.
Q: Can I download entries off of my weblog into MacJournal?
Not at this time. MacJournal isn't an online blogging client per se, so features like this are mere conveniences. With the whole Atom thing (and a standard, singular sheet for interacting with a server) it may be a lot easier to grab a bunch of entries off of any server in the world, so I will definitely reevaluate things at that point. I'd like to do it if it could be integrated into the existing UI nicely and it was fairly reliable (dealing with the Internet is a pain and a half).
Q: Can I send you a million dollars?
Yes. Yes you can.
Not yet. This is a big change inside of MacJournal and it needed to happen slowly in order to protect your data. This will be coming in the very next version of MacJournal after 2.6. MacJournal 2.6 represents a lot of work behind the scenes that is not yet visible, but will pay off after 2.6 with a lot of features that will be able to come quickly.
Q: Can I drag entries around inside of journals to reorder them?
Not yet. Right now everything is assumed to be sorted; it's been this way from the start. A more level-headed developer probably would have made everything unsorted to begin with and then add sorting later, but such is life. So it's another big chunk of assumptions that will need to be removed before this will work. This should be coming in MacJournal 2.7 along with nested journals.
Q: It takes a really long time to launch and quit; what's up?
This is due to a very large data file that MacJournal has to encode and write out to disk. This is most likely because of a lot of pictures being stored in the data file; having a lot of entries and/or journals will not generally cause this by itself. So what are the solutions here? An option to store pictures outside of the big data file is forthcoming, but a better solution is to allow for multiple data files better coupled with a fancy new file format. This will probably be coming in something like MacJournal 3.0.
Q: Why is the data file stored in Application Support? Wouldn't my Documents folder be better?
This may seem arbitrary, but putting the data file where it is was actually thought out and it was decided to be the best place. In its current incarnation, MacJournal handles all of the data for you behind its back so you don't have to. So because the user does not have day-to-day interaction with the data file, it is not appropriate to put the data file in their Documents folder by default (you're free to change it yourself). It's the difference between Address Book and TextEdit: TextEdit documents are all distinct and need to be handled individually, whereas Address Book handles your data for you. It would be annoying if Address Book put its data in your Documents folder because you would never touch it and it would just take up space. Microsoft Word creates a "Microsoft User Data" folder in my Documents folder every time I open it and it annoys me more each time. In the future, if MacJournal becomes more document-based, changes would be made. But for now it remains in Application Support.
Q: It would be cool if I could resize pictures that I drag into MacJournal. Is that a possibility?
Yes, this is being considered for the future. This is one of those things that might be really easy for me to do, or really really hard. I have yet to sit down and attack it, but I have been thinking about it. I'm hoping for really easy. :-)
Q: Why do the MacJournal alphas/betas have an expiration date?
MacJournal 2.6 is the second time I've done public pre-releases. It worked fantastically for 2.5 and has been even better for 2.6. But one of the things I learned from the 2.5 process is that people won't always update to the latest pre-release build even if they understand it is pre-release software. I can understand it from their perspective (as the user who wants things running smoothly and if it isn't broken then don't fix it), but from my perspective (the developer who can't support pre-release builds forever) it's less than optimal. I can't support 2.5b4 18 months after 2.5b5 was released. I need people to stay as current as possible to ferret out any problems that they may have. If you tell me about it now, I can fix it for the final build. If you e-mail me a year later I can't help you. So it works to everyone's advantage to stay within a build or two of the most current release. I try to stage the 2.6 releases so at least 2 builds still work, so if the most recent one doesn't work you can still use the last one for a while until a fix is released. That way everyone is happy when the final product is released.
Q: I don't like thing 'X' that you added in 2.6! Can you take it out?
Most changes that have been made have been done in such a way to provide minimal interference with what is already there. Too many toolbar items available? Remove the ones you don't want or just hide the toolbar entirely. Through tweaking some interface elements and preferences, you can achieve a simpler UI than what is enabled by default. However, if that isn't enough for you, there are generally hidden preferences that you can enable to customize the appearance even more. I'm just one guy working in my spare time so I can't do everything, but I try to make people happy.
Q: Why are there so many hidden preferences in MacJournal 2.6?
There are two reasons for creating a hidden preference (a preference that does not show up in the actual user interface but must instead be activated via the Terminal):
1. Option or feature came too late in the process and could not be accounted for in all of the localizations that have already been updated
2. Option falls outside of the intended functionality of the program.
Number 1 is pretty easy to understand; I have to lock down the interface at some point to get the many localizations updated so things added after that either have to be delayed until the next release or only exposed from the Terminal and English-only. Number 2 is a little trickier. MacJournal 2.6 has a hidden preference to change the main window to be a metal window, a la Safari or iPhoto. There are many things wrong with this on a UI standpoint: text editors should never be in metal. But some people want it and it's kind of a fun like setting to tweak and see how it looks. So it's there, but will never be an option in the Preferences window. Some are in a little more gray territory: I don't think they'll ever be options, but they might if it becomes useful enough, so making it available from the Terminal is a good way to do that. In the next release I hope to have a better system of enabling hidden preferences though. Maybe there will be one switch you throw in the Terminal (or even in the UI) that shows a bunch of checkboxes for all the different hidden preferences with appropriate warnings everywhere about hidden preference support. But for now the Terminal is your friend.
Q: Can I create a link from one entry to another?
Indeed you can! You could actually do this in 2.5, but it wasn't very easy to figure out or even know that you could. However, MacJournal 2.6 makes it a lot more apparent. In the sheet for editing links there are two new buttons: one for linking to an entry and one for linking to a file. Clicking the latter will bring up an open panel to select a file on disk and clicking the former will bring up a different kind of open panel: it will show you all of your journals and entries and you can select the one to which you want to link. These are just assistants; you can still just type in the URL manually, or drag an entry from a drawer or a file from disk into the URL field to paste the URL.
Q: Can I send entries to Movable Type blogs?
Yes, this is possible via the Blogger sheet. See the Movable Type website for details about how to accept Blogger connections on the server side.
Q: What about TypePad? Weblog Service X?
Most services accept the Blogger protocol as a de facto standard. Check with your provider to see if they do and what the details are. In the future, MacJournal will use the Atom protocol (once it is finalized) as this will allow for a greater range of features and should allow you to send to any ol' arbitrary website. Atom is supposedly the protocol-to-end-all-other-protocols and all of the major sites have committed to supporting it. Some sites already do (including Blogger). This will mean that there would be just one Atom sheet, instead of a Blogger and LiveJournal sheet, that is powerful enough to send to any server. In theory, of course.
Q: Can I download entries off of my weblog into MacJournal?
Not at this time. MacJournal isn't an online blogging client per se, so features like this are mere conveniences. With the whole Atom thing (and a standard, singular sheet for interacting with a server) it may be a lot easier to grab a bunch of entries off of any server in the world, so I will definitely reevaluate things at that point. I'd like to do it if it could be integrated into the existing UI nicely and it was fairly reliable (dealing with the Internet is a pain and a half).
Q: Can I send you a million dollars?
Yes. Yes you can.
Friday, August 20, 2004
Setting the Data Path in 2.6b4
There is a bug in 2.6b4 where trying to change the data path in the Advanced preferences will lock up MacJournal. Here is a workaround for this until the next release comes out:
1. Quit MacJournal
2. Open Terminal
3. Type
4. Type
5. Open MacJournal
Replace the "~/Desktop" with wherever you want your data to be saved. When you open MacJournal again, that's where it will look for its data.
1. Quit MacJournal
2. Open Terminal
3. Type
defaults delete com.DanSchimpf.MacJournal StoragePathAlias and hit Return4. Type
defaults write com.DanSchimpf.MacJournal "Storage Directory" "~/Desktop" and hit return5. Open MacJournal
Replace the "~/Desktop" with wherever you want your data to be saved. When you open MacJournal again, that's where it will look for its data.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Last Call For Spanish
Pending a few external issues, MacJournal 2.6 is pretty much ready for a release. I have had a few small bug fixes in the days since beta 4 has been released and I'm confident that the release is ready. There's even a Taiwanese localization now. But we're still missing Spanish and French localizations. I've got a possible lead on French, but still nothing for Spanish. If you'd like to donate some of your time to translate 2.6 into Spanish please email me so we can work something out fast. Otherwise 2.6 will have to ship without Spanish.
Monday, August 09, 2004
MacJournal 2.6b4 Released
Welcome to the fourth and final beta of MacJournal 2.6. Download it from here. This release picks up the Serbian localization and a number of small changes. 2.6 is going to be a great release.
Here are some of the changes:
- Text sent to Blogger and LiveJournal will no longer be heavily stylized. I tried to cut out a lot of what they already do, like font and color. Bolds and italics will still be sent. Also, any changes in font size or text color from what the majority of your text looks like will also be picked up.
- Titles of entries may very well be sent to Blogger now.
- Copy and Paste support in the drawers for moving entries around
- You can now delete a locked journal if you have the system administrator password
- You can now drag attachments from entries into the Finder and elsewhere
- Other smaller, but important bug fixes.
Other enhancements are noted in the Version History (there are a lot of little items).
As always, install and use developmental software at your own risk! Be sure to back up your data before each new build just in case. Just for fun, MacJournal itself will back up your data with each new build that you install as well.
Please let me know of any problems that you have with this build as soon as possible.
Reporting Bugs
Please let me know about any bugs you find in this release as soon as possible. New in 2.6: use the "Report A Bug" menu item in the Help menu to see a list of known issues for your current build (as they arise). You can also automatically create a new e-mail.
If MacJournal crashes on you, look for a crash log in ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter and include that in your report. If there's some funny behavior, try looking in the Console (in /Applications/Utilities/) and include any output related to MacJournal in your report. Please be specific about things that you are doing that aren't working out, whether it's a crash or a behavior that you don't like. Also, include what release of MacJournal you are using in your e-mail. I appreciate your feedback!
Here are some of the changes:
- Text sent to Blogger and LiveJournal will no longer be heavily stylized. I tried to cut out a lot of what they already do, like font and color. Bolds and italics will still be sent. Also, any changes in font size or text color from what the majority of your text looks like will also be picked up.
- Titles of entries may very well be sent to Blogger now.
- Copy and Paste support in the drawers for moving entries around
- You can now delete a locked journal if you have the system administrator password
- You can now drag attachments from entries into the Finder and elsewhere
- Other smaller, but important bug fixes.
Other enhancements are noted in the Version History (there are a lot of little items).
As always, install and use developmental software at your own risk! Be sure to back up your data before each new build just in case. Just for fun, MacJournal itself will back up your data with each new build that you install as well.
Please let me know of any problems that you have with this build as soon as possible.
Reporting Bugs
Please let me know about any bugs you find in this release as soon as possible. New in 2.6: use the "Report A Bug" menu item in the Help menu to see a list of known issues for your current build (as they arise). You can also automatically create a new e-mail.
If MacJournal crashes on you, look for a crash log in ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter and include that in your report. If there's some funny behavior, try looking in the Console (in /Applications/Utilities/) and include any output related to MacJournal in your report. Please be specific about things that you are doing that aren't working out, whether it's a crash or a behavior that you don't like. Also, include what release of MacJournal you are using in your e-mail. I appreciate your feedback!
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
More Status Updates
Where is MacJournal nowadays? As I've said many times before (but this time I mean it), MacJournal 2.6 is very close to release. I'm waiting for one or two things now and then I will release 2.6b4 to everyone. Very soon after this will come the final 2.6 release. The reason for this is I want to give everyone a chance to see beta 4 and report any bugs that are found before the final release. I've been doing a lot of testing with the current daily builds and I think it's really solid. I know I said I wanted to get it out before August, but then I went on vacation. :-) As always you can check out the current build notes before beta 4 is released so you know what is coming.
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
MacJournal Status
What's going on with MacJournal right now? There are a few areas to cover here.
Localizations
This is the biggest block to ship right now. There are two critical localizations missing in action: Spanish and French. At this point it is looking like 2.6 will have to ship without them. They'll be picked up later on I guess. If you can help out localizing 2.6 into these two languages please contact me immediately.
Crashing
Depending on what you are doing, you may have experienced a crash seemingly at random. This is actually the background saving that is crashing. Unfortunately for everyone MacJournal isn't crashing in its own code (which would be fixable), but rather in code provided by the operating system (which is not fixable). For those that are interested: NSAttributedString + attachments + NSKeyedArchiver + NSThread = ☠. The options are either ship with this crasher (which seems to only attack a small amount of people), or change the data format to store the data in a different way that won't crash. I'm currently weighing these two options, but I'm leaning toward the latter: application and data stability is more important than being able to open your 2.6 data on 2.5. 2.6 carries the same requirements as 2.5, so everyone should use 2.6 after it comes out (or now really). Besides, I already kind of changed the format by changing how checkboxes are stored.
Schedule
I know I said it might not happen, but it looks like there will definitely be a beta 4. Technically it's probably Final Candidate 1, but I thought I'd keep things simple for this release. You can see what's on the plate for beta 4 in the usual place. I guess there's technically a new feature or two in it, but it's something that should have been there in the first place: you can now delete locked journals by providing an administrator password for the system. So if you don't want your kids deleting your important data, don't give them admin accounts!
Localizations notwithstanding, I'd like to ship 2.6 next week. There are a few things that need to be tied up, but I really want to get 2.6 in the hands of everyone out there.
Hidden Prefs
I've gotten a few e-mails about a posting I did earlier regarding hidden preferences in MacJournal 2.6. I have updated the post for 2.6b4 and put it at http://danschimpf.com/hiddenprefs.html for everyone to see. I'll try to keep it updated as things change. These aren't "hidden" preferences per se; just ones that don't have any UI or any guarantee of inclusion in a future version. I'd like to come up with a better way to handle this in the future. If you've seen Quicksilver before you'll know that its preferences window actually has a button to show "Beta" or "Unstable" features and controls. What I might do for the Advanced Preferences in MacJournal is move all the checkboxes into a table and provide an option to add all the currently hidden switches. This would make it very easy to add new preferences in the future as well.
Localizations
This is the biggest block to ship right now. There are two critical localizations missing in action: Spanish and French. At this point it is looking like 2.6 will have to ship without them. They'll be picked up later on I guess. If you can help out localizing 2.6 into these two languages please contact me immediately.
Crashing
Depending on what you are doing, you may have experienced a crash seemingly at random. This is actually the background saving that is crashing. Unfortunately for everyone MacJournal isn't crashing in its own code (which would be fixable), but rather in code provided by the operating system (which is not fixable). For those that are interested: NSAttributedString + attachments + NSKeyedArchiver + NSThread = ☠. The options are either ship with this crasher (which seems to only attack a small amount of people), or change the data format to store the data in a different way that won't crash. I'm currently weighing these two options, but I'm leaning toward the latter: application and data stability is more important than being able to open your 2.6 data on 2.5. 2.6 carries the same requirements as 2.5, so everyone should use 2.6 after it comes out (or now really). Besides, I already kind of changed the format by changing how checkboxes are stored.
Schedule
I know I said it might not happen, but it looks like there will definitely be a beta 4. Technically it's probably Final Candidate 1, but I thought I'd keep things simple for this release. You can see what's on the plate for beta 4 in the usual place. I guess there's technically a new feature or two in it, but it's something that should have been there in the first place: you can now delete locked journals by providing an administrator password for the system. So if you don't want your kids deleting your important data, don't give them admin accounts!
Localizations notwithstanding, I'd like to ship 2.6 next week. There are a few things that need to be tied up, but I really want to get 2.6 in the hands of everyone out there.
Hidden Prefs
I've gotten a few e-mails about a posting I did earlier regarding hidden preferences in MacJournal 2.6. I have updated the post for 2.6b4 and put it at http://danschimpf.com/hiddenprefs.html for everyone to see. I'll try to keep it updated as things change. These aren't "hidden" preferences per se; just ones that don't have any UI or any guarantee of inclusion in a future version. I'd like to come up with a better way to handle this in the future. If you've seen Quicksilver before you'll know that its preferences window actually has a button to show "Beta" or "Unstable" features and controls. What I might do for the Advanced Preferences in MacJournal is move all the checkboxes into a table and provide an option to add all the currently hidden switches. This would make it very easy to add new preferences in the future as well.
Monday, July 12, 2004
MacJournal 2.6b3 Released
This is potentially the last beta release of 2.6. This release is primarily to test out updated localizations. The following localizations have been updated:
- Korean
- Italian
- Norwegian
- Danish
- Catalan
- German
- Japanese
Here are some of the other changes:
- Fixed links to entries with forward slashes
- Greatly improved HTML exporting
- Lots of general interface improvements
- Edit the topic of the summary for the journal to change the name of that journal
Other enhancements are noted in the Version History (there are a lot of little items).
As always, install and use developmental software at your own risk! Be sure to back up your data before each new build just in case. Just for fun, MacJournal itself will back up your data with each new build that you install as well.
This is an alpha build, which means features are still in flux, as well as the interface. That means that no localization updates should take place. When the first beta comes out, the interface will be frozen for 2.6 with no exceptions this time!
Please let me know of any problems that you have with this build.
- Korean
- Italian
- Norwegian
- Danish
- Catalan
- German
- Japanese
Here are some of the other changes:
- Fixed links to entries with forward slashes
- Greatly improved HTML exporting
- Lots of general interface improvements
- Edit the topic of the summary for the journal to change the name of that journal
Other enhancements are noted in the Version History (there are a lot of little items).
As always, install and use developmental software at your own risk! Be sure to back up your data before each new build just in case. Just for fun, MacJournal itself will back up your data with each new build that you install as well.
This is an alpha build, which means features are still in flux, as well as the interface. That means that no localization updates should take place. When the first beta comes out, the interface will be frozen for 2.6 with no exceptions this time!
Please let me know of any problems that you have with this build.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Difficulties Posting to Blogger
About 10 days ago, Blogger seemed to change the nature of its response to 3rd party clients like MacJournal when it sends Blogger a new post. This new response is not understandable to MacJournal and throws up an error on your screen whenever you try and send a post. Sometimes it seems that the post actually makes it through, but you always get an error back. The error message is "Error receiving response" and if you open up Console you'll get a bunch of XML code with "The server did not return a 'text/xml' response." in there somewhere. Originally I thought this was MacJournal's problem, but it seems other Mac OS X blogging clients are experiencing the same difficulties. There is a post in ecto's forum that shows the same behavior. The maker of ecto responded with a link to a preview post about Atom support, but the original posting refers to the Blogger API, which is what MacJournal uses. So, long story short: it seems that Blogger has done something to make the Blogger 1.0 API incompatible with Mac OS X for now. I will be contacting their support channels to see if I can get any word on when this will be fixed.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Beta 3 is coming soon
Beta 3 will be out sometime this weekend. A lot of little things have been improved and I hope this will be the last beta before final ship. Many localizations have been updated, but we're still missing a few key ones that will potentially delay the final release. MacJournal 2.6 will be released this month though, localizations or not. We can pick up additionaly localizations after the final release as they don't require any change to the actual code. The other big improvement in beta 3 beside localizations is the HTML exporting, which I talked about in a previous post here. Further improvements have been made since then and it's looking even better. I've tried it out in a lot of situations and everything comes out looking good and validates with the World Wide Web standards group (W3C). Other than that, there have been a lot of small improvements to a lot of different places. Look for the release soon.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
WWDC Reactions
For those that haven't seen it, go see the preview of Mac OS X Tiger right now because that's what I'm talking about.
So I'm here at WWDC and I'm hearing all about Tiger. I've already gotten some questions about MacJournal's support for some of the new features. It's reasonable to assume that a lot of these features will be making it into MacJournal in the future. Tiger doesn't come out until next year, so I have some time to get up to speed on it. In particular, I'm looking at Spotlight to supplement MacJournal's searching abilities. I was looking at some Panther-only searching technology before WWDC, so I'll have to see how this fits in with that now. Another goodie is the Sync framework that is new in Tiger. I've gotten a lot of requests for iSync-like syncing of MacJournal data between multiple computers. Now, with this new technology it can be integrated into the same place that everything else is, which is huge. There's also Automator, which is a new kind of drag-and-drop scripting application. I'll have to see what kind of support MacJournal can offer for this new application. I never did get AppleScript worked in, but I'll see what I can do about both of them at the same time perhaps. There's also Core Image, but I don't think MacJournal needs a ripple transition run entirely in the graphics card in between entries. :-)
So I'm here at WWDC and I'm hearing all about Tiger. I've already gotten some questions about MacJournal's support for some of the new features. It's reasonable to assume that a lot of these features will be making it into MacJournal in the future. Tiger doesn't come out until next year, so I have some time to get up to speed on it. In particular, I'm looking at Spotlight to supplement MacJournal's searching abilities. I was looking at some Panther-only searching technology before WWDC, so I'll have to see how this fits in with that now. Another goodie is the Sync framework that is new in Tiger. I've gotten a lot of requests for iSync-like syncing of MacJournal data between multiple computers. Now, with this new technology it can be integrated into the same place that everything else is, which is huge. There's also Automator, which is a new kind of drag-and-drop scripting application. I'll have to see what kind of support MacJournal can offer for this new application. I never did get AppleScript worked in, but I'll see what I can do about both of them at the same time perhaps. There's also Core Image, but I don't think MacJournal needs a ripple transition run entirely in the graphics card in between entries. :-)
Saturday, June 26, 2004
HTML Exporting Improvements
I had some free time today and ended up cleaning up a lot of HTML exporting stuff and making it a lot more powerful. This also applies to Blogger and LiveJournal. The end result should be a lot more standards compliant as another benefit. I made a really complex entry, exported, and it came out as valid XHTML 1.1. Always nice.
So, here are some of the new text features that the HTML exporter supports:
- Fonts
- Subscript
- Superscript
- Underline
- Strikethrough
- Text Shadow
In addition to what was already there:
- Text color
- Background color
- Bold and Italics
- Links
So, here are some of the new text features that the HTML exporter supports:
- Fonts
- Subscript
- Superscript
- Underline
- Strikethrough
- Text Shadow
In addition to what was already there:
- Text color
- Background color
- Bold and Italics
- Links
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Localization Update
Localization efforts for MacJournal 2.6 are coming along. I have gotten updated localizations for Japanese and Korean back already. Also, a first for MacJournal: a complete Italian localization! We may not get all previous localizations updated for the 2.6 release, but hopefully more will fall into place for a 2.6.1 release. New help documentation is also along the way for 2.6. I will release beta 3 with the 3 new localizations and a few bug fixes next week at some point (probably later in the week or the weekend).
Sunday, June 20, 2004
How to activate hidden preferences (i.e. the Metal App)
MacJournal, like most apps, has a few hidden options that you can use. These are things that I think don't really fit into the overall design of the app, but might be useful for a limited few. The most notable (and newest) is the option to make MacJournal a metal application, like Safari or the Finder (in Panther). To activate this option, quit MacJournal and open Terminal. Type (or paste) this in:
To break the down,
Another good example that popped up in 2.6 is
Here are some others for 2.6:
Keep in mind that one of the reasons that these are only accessible via the command line is that I'm not guarantying that these will work after this version. Some of them (like the date format specifiers) will hopefully make it into UI in the future. Others are conveniences for this version and might be removed in the future if they conflict with something else.
I should also note before I get a lot of angry mail that MacJournal is not a metal application! Text editors do not belong on metal; it violates the rules for metal apps even by the loosest interpretation. So that's why it's a hidden option: for those that want it, they can try it out. However, it is not the official appearance for MacJournal.
defaults write com.DanSchimpf.MacJournal UseMetalWindow YES
To break the down,
defaults is the name of a tool that Apple provides for modifying an application's preferences from the command line. write is the operation you are performing; type man defaults on its own line for more details on what operations are available. com.DanSchimpf.MacJournal is MacJournal's domain. This is the unique identifier string for MacJournal in the OS. UseMetalWindow is the name of the preference itself, and YES is the value you are setting it to. You can substitue NO to reverse the effects. The next time you open MacJournal, it will magically be a metal application!
Another good example that popped up in 2.6 is
SimpleInterface. Try this one out if you pine for the simpler days of MacJournal 2.1.
Here are some others for 2.6:
DisableNumericCommandKeys(YESorNO) - Setting this disables the new behavior for Command-1 through -9. If you want to use those command keys for something else, you can set this so MacJournal won't grab them away.HideDrawerButtons(YESorNO) - A less drastic version ofSimpleInterface(YESorNO): this just hides the new buttons that rest at the bottom of both drawers in the application.UseShortDateFormat(YESorNO) - When set, this will always use the shorter date format, even in cases where the longer one would be used.AlwaysShowSummaryEntry(YESorNO) - Whether the journal is expanded or collapsed in the drawer, the summary entry will be shown (default is to only show it when the journal is expanded).StoreAttachmentsExternally(YESorNO) - This is a very experimental setting that stores the files you drag into the text view outside of the main data file. This has the benefits of decreasing save time by several orders of magnitude, the ability to play music and video files after you quit, and you can drag the files back out of the text view as well at any times. However, consider this very experimental at this time; you might want to wait for beta 3 as well: I'm looking over this code for the first time in a while tonight. This only applies to new files dragged in.InsertDateAndTimeFormat(e.g."%X %x") - replace the "%X %x" between the quotes (but leave the quotes) with a string made up specifiers from this page on formatting dates. This is the date and time format for the "Insert Date and Time" menu item.ShortDateFormatandLongDateFormat(e.g."%X %x") - Similar to the last item, this is the date formatting for the rest of the application, in both long and short modes (long mode is for exporting, short mode is for the drawers).
Keep in mind that one of the reasons that these are only accessible via the command line is that I'm not guarantying that these will work after this version. Some of them (like the date format specifiers) will hopefully make it into UI in the future. Others are conveniences for this version and might be removed in the future if they conflict with something else.
I should also note before I get a lot of angry mail that MacJournal is not a metal application! Text editors do not belong on metal; it violates the rules for metal apps even by the loosest interpretation. So that's why it's a hidden option: for those that want it, they can try it out. However, it is not the official appearance for MacJournal.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
MacJournal 2.6b2 has been released
Welcome to the second beta of MacJournal 2.6. There are a lot of fixes, but no real new features, so what's there should be very solid. All known issues have been fixed. Please let me know as soon as possible if you have any problems, but be sure to check the "Report a Bug" window for the Known Issues first. Here are some of the changes:
- Tweaks and improvements to the new toolbar items for font face and size
- Fixed crash when unencrypting journal with incorrect password
- Fixed drawers not remembering their open state between launches
- Fixed exporting to MacJournal format on Jaguar systems
- Changed the way topics are set for entries created via the "New Entry With Selection" service to include the application name and Safari URL (if appropriate) or Mail message subject (if appropriate)
- Release notes will now open in a new window instead of in your current journal
- Moved the command key equivalent that was errantly assigned to Customize Toolbar to its rightful home on "Show/Hide Toolbar"
- Added Undo support for the Find panel for Jaguar systems (it's already there on Panther)
- Added temporary menu item for reverting the checkbox format so you can open your data in 2.5.
- Fixed errors importing a text file and parsing it to discover entries therein.
- Improved file importing for most cases to not create an entry empty entry with new journals
- Hold the Option key when clicking on the Lock button to unlock all the journals with the same password (you could already option-click it to lock all journals; this is the logical converse).
Other enhancements are noted in the Version History.
As always, install and use developmental software at your own risk! Be sure to back up your data before each new build just in case. Just for fun, MacJournal itself will back up your data with each new build that you install as well.
This is an alpha build, which means features are still in flux, as well as the interface. That means that no localization updates should take place. When the first beta comes out, the interface will be frozen for 2.6 with no exceptions this time!
Please let me know of any problems that you have with this build. Visit danschimpf.com to download the beta.
- Tweaks and improvements to the new toolbar items for font face and size
- Fixed crash when unencrypting journal with incorrect password
- Fixed drawers not remembering their open state between launches
- Fixed exporting to MacJournal format on Jaguar systems
- Changed the way topics are set for entries created via the "New Entry With Selection" service to include the application name and Safari URL (if appropriate) or Mail message subject (if appropriate)
- Release notes will now open in a new window instead of in your current journal
- Moved the command key equivalent that was errantly assigned to Customize Toolbar to its rightful home on "Show/Hide Toolbar"
- Added Undo support for the Find panel for Jaguar systems (it's already there on Panther)
- Added temporary menu item for reverting the checkbox format so you can open your data in 2.5.
- Fixed errors importing a text file and parsing it to discover entries therein.
- Improved file importing for most cases to not create an entry empty entry with new journals
- Hold the Option key when clicking on the Lock button to unlock all the journals with the same password (you could already option-click it to lock all journals; this is the logical converse).
Other enhancements are noted in the Version History.
As always, install and use developmental software at your own risk! Be sure to back up your data before each new build just in case. Just for fun, MacJournal itself will back up your data with each new build that you install as well.
This is an alpha build, which means features are still in flux, as well as the interface. That means that no localization updates should take place. When the first beta comes out, the interface will be frozen for 2.6 with no exceptions this time!
Please let me know of any problems that you have with this build. Visit danschimpf.com to download the beta.
Beta 2 Out Tomorrow
No promises, but the second beta should be out tomorrow. You can get a sneak peak at the changes right now. Basically, a lot of fixes, no new features (but no new bugs hopefully). Localization kits will also be out with beta 2. I've tried to limit the number of nibs affected and I will provide a list of strings that have been changed and/or added to each localizer to aide them in their efforts. Hopefully the only major changes made after beta 2 is released will be adding localizations as they become available.
On a semi-related note, I'll be at WWDC this year. That is Apple's annual developer conference. I say semi-related because this means that the final release for 2.6 will probably have to wait until after the conference, however I will be contact the whole time and making any necessary fixes and updates. Hopefully by the time WWDC is over, I'll be ready to enter the Final Testing Phase of 2.6 where I basically do everything that I can think of to break the app. This is also known as the least enjoyable part of software development. :-)
So, more news tomorrow (if all goes well). It could be Friday though.
On a semi-related note, I'll be at WWDC this year. That is Apple's annual developer conference. I say semi-related because this means that the final release for 2.6 will probably have to wait until after the conference, however I will be contact the whole time and making any necessary fixes and updates. Hopefully by the time WWDC is over, I'll be ready to enter the Final Testing Phase of 2.6 where I basically do everything that I can think of to break the app. This is also known as the least enjoyable part of software development. :-)
So, more news tomorrow (if all goes well). It could be Friday though.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
MacJournal 2.6b1 Reactions
Beta 1 was posted (very) late Sunday night and reaction has been very positive overall. It's probably the most stable and problem-free build over all as well, which is good because a lot of people downloaded it and have started using it for the first time. The only major problem that was discovered is with unlocking an encrypted journal with an incorrect password causes a crash. For those developers out there, goto-ing past a variable declaration is bad! But this has been fixed for the next build. As soon as I can manage it, I'll have a localization kit out there and we'll start folding in updated localizations into new builds. Builds from this point will only have bug fixes and new localizations in them; any new features will have to wait for the as-yet-unnumbered next release. As always, you can use the "Report A Bug" menu item in the Help menu to get the most up-to-date listing of known issues in whatever build you have.
Another thing I started doing from the first alpha of 2.6 is expiration dates. Using old builds is a Bad Idea, so they have a hard expiration date of 60 days after release when they will refuse to launch. I have gotten e-mails from people using development builds of 2.5 more than a year after it was released, so this is a way to prevent this. In general, you always want to be on the latest build, but usually the releases are scheduled so a few builds can work at once just in case. I think alpha 5 is expired, but everything after that still works. Please let me know if there's a reason that you can't move to a newer build so it can be fixed before your build expires.
Another thing I started doing from the first alpha of 2.6 is expiration dates. Using old builds is a Bad Idea, so they have a hard expiration date of 60 days after release when they will refuse to launch. I have gotten e-mails from people using development builds of 2.5 more than a year after it was released, so this is a way to prevent this. In general, you always want to be on the latest build, but usually the releases are scheduled so a few builds can work at once just in case. I think alpha 5 is expired, but everything after that still works. Please let me know if there's a reason that you can't move to a newer build so it can be fixed before your build expires.
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