Solipsism Gradient

Quay 1.1.5 (357) is now out. This is compatible with the upcoming OS X 10.9.x (Mavericks). As before, be sure to update Quay to this new version before installing 10.9.

This will probably be the last version of Quay that comes out. Now that I’ve figured out how to get this type of application working under 10.9 it’s time to begin working on a new one…

So, a long-delayed update.

A few days ago, and exactly 365 days after the last version (1.0.2, I dimly recall), I submitted RB App Checker Lite 1.0.3 to the Mac App Store. It should be out before the end of the week, I hope; watch this space for news. As soon as it’s on the store the developer ID-signed version will also be available for direct download.

There are a few new features and some bug fixes – the exact list will be out with the update. There are, also, many new features not directly visible by the user. In particular, RB App Checker (non-Lite) is now being built on almost exactly the same codebase. This will be a paid application, probably around US$16, with a new UI and explanations for the non-technical user – but the very detailed geeky stuff will still be visible with a click, don’t worry. It will also be able to scan the user’s Application folder.

Both versions of the App Checker build on a generic application framework that will make it easy for me publish more file-twiddling utilities. Two of them – one to count and scan folder contents, one to generate various types of aliases and file links – are already in alpha and should be available before the end of the year.

In parallel, I hope to, very soon, restart work on my next-generation System Preferences panel – the one that will obsolete and subsume my previous apps like Quay and (perhaps) Klicko. If all works out as I hope, this panel will be able to leverage the RB Utilities  to get extra funcionality not allowed by the Mac App Store, and centralize preferences and auto-updating for my non-App Store utilities.

In a day we’ll leave for a short vacation in Ireland, followed by a visit to lovely Köln and the Objective-Cologne conference, where I’ll present a short talk on (ahem) “Coding Secrets of the Ancients”. Well, the subject is a little misleading – there will be a section about history and reminiscences about early computing, but there’ll be a very practical and up-to-date section about protecting applications in the Mac App Store; tricky stuff like receipt and certificate checking. More details should be up soon at the ObjCgn website.

We’ll also seize the opportunity to visit friends, relatives and developers in Germany, and should be back early in October. I’ll post updates here whenever possible.

If you’re using Quay, please check out the release notes and install this new version as soon as possible.

Note that older versions of Quay will break on Mountain Lion, giving you a persistent error message. Sorry about that, but the installation should be painless. Quay is now signed with my Developer ID for Gatekeeper compliance. And with RB App Checker Lite this is easy to verify. 😉

That said, I’m hard at work to get new stuff out in time for Mountain Lion (rumors say that will be sometime between July 19 and 31). Details are still fluid but I’ll post them here as soon as I get the basic functions working reliably.

My main concern is keeping my promise of upgrading paid users of Quay and XRay to the new stuff. This is unfortunately impossible with the Mac App Store, but not all utilities will be there, so i still think it’s going to work out.

Update: while this runs fine on 10.8 in my tests here, it may not behave well on the new Retina display (remember this was originally coded for 10.5!). I’ll try to do some tests tomorrow.

Update 2: OK, tests show it’s not Retina-compatible, so I’ve uploaded a new build with the “Open in Low Resolution” option checked. My apologies for the oversight. It’s not at all clear – looking at the source – how I could make it compatible both with high-resolution and 10.6.8 on short notice. And it’s still a 32-bit application, too.

Summing up: Quay is getting elderly and this update is, really, only for current users who like it. Don’t expect it to be updated again. But, as I said above, cool new stuff will soon be out. Suggestions welcome!

…at the usual download page. Please post support questions and bug reports on the support page, not here.

It’s essential to update to this version before upgrading your system to Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion).

A couple of users have been reporting that they get a message when clicking on a Dock folder, saying “QuayMenu cannot open files in the QuayMenu Document format”. If this is your case, please go to the folder /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports; inside that there should be a crash report with a name like “QuayMenu_2011-07-18-220419_localhost.crash”. Please email it to me (rainer AT brockerhoff DOT net) as an attachment. (If there are several, send them all!)

While I’m busy finding the very last bug in the forthcoming Quay for Lion update…

…here’s a new vocabulary test. Here’s my result:

With the new apartment mostly ready (though the external/common areas are still unfinished), a return to blogging and coding may now be possible.

While I’ve pondered about the general direction that I wish to take my software, details are still a little unclear. Yes, the Mac App Store does figure in my plans for updating/replacing XRay, but System Preference panels are not accepted – so Quay and Klicko will continue being distributed over this website.

The developer preview release of Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” was a surprise to me. My expectation was that it would be released at (or just after) next June’s WWDC, which I hadn’t planned to attend. I’ve just installed the Lion preview and had a fast look; it’s farther along than such previews usually are, and there are sufficient new UI details and API changes that I decided to study those first, before commiting to design details on my own software.

A surprising amount of detail about Lion has already been published, NDAs notwithstanding, with only token sallies from Apple Legal. I’ve been somewhat out of touch with the developer community, so I can only speculate. Reducing the price of developer access to $99 – 20% of what it cost the last time around – may be a factor.

One aspect which will impact me immediately is that PowerPC support over Rosetta will no longer be available. There are some PowerPC apps I still use a lot: among them are Resorcerer, DMG Maker, Plain Clip, my own XRay, and – the one that’s open all the time – Eudora; as well as a bunch of utilities and games that I open very rarely. I suppose I’ll have to relegate them to my old Mac mini Core Solo, which – being a 32-bit machine – will also not be supported by Lion.

The exception is Eudora; I’ve used it since 1.0b5 or thereabouts. I suppose I’ll finally have to try out the Eudora OSE version; some fellow oldsters tell me it’s not too bad. None of the other email clients seem attractive, especially Apple’s Mail, which I actually tried out last year and didn’t like.

I just found out that an errant script is messing up the automatic version checker in Quay and Klicko – a consequence of the server migration which happened several days ago. Please hold on while our trained server gnomes return from their burrows and fix it (it might be one or two more days, I’m really stretched thin here). My apologies.

Update: fixed. Again, sorry about the delay.

I just pushed out a new build of Quay: version 1.1.2 (297). All users should update.

This fixes the bug where it stopped responding after a certain combination of clicks on the Dock. I’m still puzzled why the event tap timeout responsible for that began happening on Snow Leopard, though; it never did on 10.5 to my knowledge.