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Kevin Walzer, software developer.

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Resurrection: NameFind 3.0

I've resurrected a program I discontinued two years ago: NameFind. NameFind is a file-search tool for Mac OS X, using acting as a front end for the Unix "find" command that is installed on every version of Mac OS X.

I chose to discontinue NameFind because it sold very slowly, and I saw little opportunity for improvement. File search is a crowded software category on OS X, with both commercial and freeware alternatives, and NameFind at the time had serious limitations, most particularly a non-native GUI and limited feature set. A modified version of NameFind, released as open-source freeware but otherwise little altered from the version I discontinued, has had very few downloads.

So why revive NameFind now? There are a couple of reasons for this.

First and foremost, I've vastly improved my development skills over the past two years. Not only do my programs fit in far better with OS X in terms of their UI design, I am now able to integrate Cocoa technology into my Tk applications. The result is that my programs can do things like change their icon during a long-running process, display a dock badge, and display native icons. System hooks into QuickLook and Growl also make NameFind feel more native. All of these factors make NameFind 3.0 a vastly more polished program than it was two years ago.

Second, I'm more patient than I was two years ago. When I discontinued NameFind, I was looking for a "home-run" program such as Daniel Jalkut's MarsEdit or Gus Muller's VoodooPad--programs that are big, big sellers, big enough to provide a living and then some. Now, I understand how hard that is, and I also understand that modest sales can add up. So if NameFind doesn't become the best seller in its category, that's OK. Given proper marketing, I'm confident it will find at least some users, and it will provide some revenue.

So, if you're dissatisfied with how Spotlight and related search tools on OS X work, give NameFind a try. For finding specific files by name in specific directories, it can't be beat.

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