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Sat, 10 Jul 2010
QuickWho 3.0: When to rewrite an app
I've just released version 3.0 of QuickWho, my application for obtaining registration information for Internet domains. This new version is the most thorough rewrite of an application that I've ever done, so I wanted to discuss a bit about the new version and its changes. Earlier versions of QuickWho were basically GUI wrappers, or front-ends, for the command line "whois" tool that ships with Mac OS X. A user would type in a domain name in the search field, QuickWho would send the query to whois, and then display the text output in the main window. I tried, with the user interface, to add some features that were not directly present in the command-line tool, such as the ability to select a specific whois server to query; the ability to call QuickWho via AppleScript; and the ability to save and print the textual output for later review. However, despite these additional features, at its foundation QuickWho remained a simple wrapper for the whois program that offered little functionality not found in the command-line tool or in other GUI applications (such as Apple's own Network Utility, which ships for free with OS X). It simply didn't offer much value for the money I was charging for it, even after I lowered the price to $12.95. Reviews of the program, and its sales, reflected this lack of value. As a result, I decided to make the new version of QuickWho substantially different from the older ones. It would offer more information than a simple dump of whois output. It would be easier to use and better integrated into OS X so it could be incorporated into different workflows. After looking at a number of possible features and technologies to support these features, here is the core mix of the new QuickWho:
I've come to re-evaluate my long-standing belief that you should never rewrite an application from scratch, which Joel Spolsky eloquently articulated. If a program is at a dead end and cannot do what you want it to, you may have no choice but to rewrite large portions of it, even the entire thing. With QuickWho, I rewrote major portions of the user interface (removing the tree view, developing and customizing the rich text view, adding the image display) and completely re-implemented the whois query, as well as the alogorithms to print the data (since it now included an image as well as text). With these changes, I'm restoring the price of QuickWho to its previous level of $24.95. I believe the program now does far more than the simple command-line whois tool, and previous versions of QuickWho: it offers a richer array of information about specific domains, in an easier-to-read format. If you need to do frequent searches of domain information via "whois," then QuickWho 3.0 is a useful tool that can increase your productivity. It's definitely worth a look. Mon, 31 May 2010I've released version 1.0 of tclservices, a Tcl/Tk library that provides access to the Mac's Services menu, allowing Tcl/Tk applications built against the Cocoa frameworks (Tk-Cocoa) to function as both providers and consumers of services. (Tk-Carbon is not supported.) With tclservices, Tcl/Tk applications can send data to other applications via the Services menu, and can also provide functionality that can be accessed from the Services menu. This package adds yet another aspect of platform-native integration that can improve Tk applications on the Mac. Tue, 25 May 2010I've released version 3.3 of PacketStream, my network monitoring tool for OS X. This is a fairly major update. PacketStream now supports AppleScript and Services (both as a provider of a service, and able to access the Services menu); it also supports Keychain integration, which means that it's no longer necessary to type in your password each time you launch a new network scan. The other major new feature is a preference item to display the actual contents of packet data in the PacketStream data view. All in all, this release puts more monitoring power at your fingertips, and also greatly improves the application's ease-of-use and integration with OS X. I strongly recommend that you upgrade, and if you aren't currently a registered user, it's a great time to give PacketStream a try. Sat, 10 Apr 2010
Manpower, PacketStream, QuickWho
I've released minor updates to Manpower, PacketStream, and QuickWho. All of these updates incorporate the library bug fix that I outlined here. If you use any of these programs, this is a recommended update. Thu, 08 Apr 2010I've done another update of my windowlist package, which implements a Mac-standard "window" menu in Tcl/Tk applications. This version, 1.3, fixes some additional bugs in the package that cropped up when I attempted to integrate it with my macdrawer package. Because all of my applications make use of the windowlist package, look for another round of bug fix updates shortly. Sun, 14 Mar 2010I've just released a significant update to PacketStream, my network-monitoring GUI for OS X. The most significant new feature is that PacketStream now automatically queries the system for the active network interface, so manual configuration of this functionality is no longer necessary. (This had been a confusing point to some users.) The program also now includes more than 30 specific network filters to monitor specific types of network traffic; the documentation has been updated to reference the expanded network parts. The application also includes various other UI improvements and bug fixes. If you use PacketStream, the new version is a useful upgrade; if you haven't tried it, please do so. I think you'll be surprised at how easy it is to monitor network traffic over your Mac.
Updates for QuickWho, Manpower
I've released version 2.2 of QuickWho and version 3.2 of Manpower. These are mainly bugfix releases; they fix a potentially serious UI glitch with sheet windows, and also add some new support options to the help menu, including a link to the Code by Kevin user forum. If you use either program, please upgrade to the latest version.
Updates for windowlist and macsheet
I've released updates to my macsheet and windowlist open-source Tcl/Tk extension packages. The macsheet package implements "sheet"-style custom dialogs for Tk-Cocoa on OS X, while the windowlist package implements a Mac-standard "window" menu for window management. Version 1.1 of macsheet fixes a potentially serious UI glitch in which the sheet window may be incorrectly rendered depending on whether it was invoked from a menu or a button/keyboard shortcut. The main macsheet command now includes a "source" parameter to indicate how the command was invoked. Version 1.2 of windowlist now offers a complete implementation of the standard "window" menu on OS X. The package raises and minimizes windows, and also implements standard keyboard shortcuts for minimizing (Command-M), hiding (Command-W) and re-opening (click on Dock) the main window. Both packages are available under Tcl/Tk's standard BSD-style open-source license. Wed, 24 Feb 2010I've released version 3.1 of Manpower, the GUI for viewing man pages on OS X. Version 3.1 is a pretty big update, building on 3.0's transition to 64-bit capabilities and Cocoa. 3.1 includes support for AppleScript and Services; it also includes a long-requested feature, the ability to bookmark specific man pages. I've also added the ability to input and display a single man page, which is something that probably should have been part of the application from the beginning. With these new features, I strongly believe that Manpower is the most complete GUI tool for browsing and viewing man pages on OS X. As part of the new release, I've also lowered Manpower's price a bit, from $24.95 to $19.95. This is motivated by a couple of factors. First, most of Manpower's competitors are free. While I believe Manpower's feature set surpasses any of its competitors and is well worth paying for, I can't completely ignore the market, and $24.95 may be a bit high for this particular niche. I also have actual data to support this change: Manpower was originally priced at $19.95 when it was first released two years ago, and it sold better at that price point than at a higher price point. So, I'm hopeful that the lower price will prompt you to take a closer look. Wed, 10 Feb 2010I'm pleased to announce the release of the macdrawer package for Tk on Mac OS X. This package implements Mac-native "drawer" windows for Tk. "Drawer" windows are windows are attached to the side of a toplevel window, and whose visibility can be toggled with a button. Drawers contain frequently accessed controls that do not need to be visible at all times. The package is available at http://tk-components.sourceforge.net and is licensed under Tcl's BSD-style license. Both file releases and SVN downloads are available. In addition to source code, the packages include demo scripts and man pages. This extension requires Tk-Cocoa to run; it is not compatible with the older version of Tk based on the Mac's Carbon framework. Tk 8.6 for the Mac is based on Cocoa, and a backport of Tk-Cocoa to 8.5 is available at http://github.com/das/tcltk/tree/de-carbon-8-5. |
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