programming

Nice round-up of the new features in AppleScript for Lion. Looks like Cocoa/ObjC is more exposed to AppleScript than ever. That includes a new template for Cocoa-AppleScript applets. I'm going to have some fun with this.

In case you thought software development was all fun and games, read the story of the Therac-25. I have participated in software validation for FDA regulated equipment. This kind of event is unlikely to be discovered during normal testing. I would guess that medical equipment has a much more detailed and lengthy testing protocol than what I have written.

I’m really digging into the new features in Keyboard Maestro 5. In particular, there are some great new options for getting and setting variables. I figured that KM is now mature enough to return to some problems I never found an elegant solution for. And by elegant, I mean a solution that did not involve a huge AppleScript. The first thing I focused on was a system wide function to take a url from the clipboard and post it to Pinboard.

I love this stuff. Another OmniFocus CLI. Typical amazing and clever work by Brett Terpestra. This is the second OmniFocus CLI in the past month. Something tells me the Omni Group should be working on a blessed version.

I stumbled across Veritrope while researching some OmniFocus AppleScript-ing. It has a number of generally useful scripts. It's chock full of examples, tips and resources of all kinds.  

Most applications on the Mac allow you to hide all other applications. That’s a nice way to pretend that your workspace is clean, but it’s an illusion. I was thinking the other day that what I really want is something like a “Quit All Others” global hot key. But, wait… What I really want is a “Quit All Except for the Applications I Use All Of The Time” hot key.

Marco Arment summarises the primary reasons to develop for a platform: Developers themselves use and love the platform’s products. The platform has a large installed base. Developers can make decent money on the platform. I think I only care about #1, but then again I have a day job.

I really loved the OmniFocus CLI posted over on dirtdon.com. I loved it so much that I decided to build my own, but instead of a shell script, I wanted to explore a solution in Python. I solve quite a bit of my own little problems using Python. I’m no expert, but I like this scripting language for small solutions. I also wanted an excuse to learn more about Python’s Natural Language Processing (NLP).

You can bet I will be hacking around with this awesome work. Some clever little tricks. I love when people make awesome tools to solve their own problems. By way of Simplicity Is Bliss