señor taco’s travels

Flying Meat makes a great, and simple, image editor called Acorn. Acorn has a plug-in architecture that allows one to develop in python. I had begun work on a Flickr export plugin but got side tracked because I didn’t know Objective-C (you can write obj-c interface code in python) or Interface Builder all that well. Now that I’ve learned them I was going to go back into it and see about finishing up with a dialog box.

Happily, the gang at Coding Robots just beat me to it with Flicker Export Plugin for Acorn. I won’t complain because they’ve done a great job and with the source available I can learn more from it. Interestingly enough, except for the dialog I hadn’t yet done my implementation is very similar to theirs.

(via Gus Mueller)

Well, thanks to a pointer I found out that my git-chdiff script is a bit overblown. You see, a person can just use the built in functionality of git, namely setting the GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF environment variable to point to something that can take the seven command line arguments git will pass on to whatever you’ve set as your external command. It’s beautiful in its simplicity:


#!/bin/sh
[ $# -eq 7 ] && /usr/bin/env chdiff –wait “$2″ “$5″


Just stick that in a script file, make it executable, set the GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF environment variable to point at it and away you go. I’ve also documented it in the Changes.app wiki. I feel so silly for not finding this before, but the exercise in a scripted solution was good for me.

I got a MacBook recently and since I have a pretty big messenger bag so I can lug stuff when I ride my bike to and from work I figured a sleeve would be a good idea to protect it. I asked at work and got a recommendation for the WaterField SleeveCase. I am so happy with it I can’t recommend it enough.

I got the case with a flap to keep things out of the sleeve when in my bag. This case looks good, is super durable, and will be a great addition to my MacBook for the time I’m using it. If you’re in the market for a laptop sleeve I recommend you check out WaterField Designs.

Earlier this week I mentioned that Changes 1.0 shipped. I had already updated the wiki SCM integration page with instructions on how to use Perforce with the chdiff utility.

Last night I was messing around at home and trying to use the contributed script for diffing a project with Git¹ but it just wasn’t working the way I wanted. I generally like to work by being in the code tree and diffing a file against what was the last checkin (Or alternately a tagged checkin). The script that was there would do a comparison of the whole tree. I do find that valuable and I’ll keep it around for when I need that, but for my day to day work I want to just quickly view what changed from what I have on disk and what is in the repository at some point.

With that in mind I went and wrote up a quick python script that basically does what I want. I’m sure there is room for improvement and I might not have gotten everything right, but that’s why I put it up on the wiki. You can access the code directly from me if you like.

git-chdiff.py

Enjoy.

UPDATE - this only works in the root of the git project. I’ll post an update that works in subdirs when I have it.

UPDATE 2 - fixed now and uploaded.

1. I’ll have another post soon detailing why I decided to go with Git.↩

Today Ian Baird of Skorpiostech has released an awesome comparison tool, Changes. Besides doing text diffs you can also do directory diffs and see what files are new, removed, or changed.

It features great integration with TextMate, BBEdit and Xcode. There is also a wiki with tips for SCM integration. The addition of a great command line utility chdiff is a boon to us developers too.

I loved it so much I bought a license before the beta was over.¹ Now if only I had Leopard (required) at work to use it there. Some day.

1. I even contributed to the wiki where there was an offer of free licenses, but I turned that down, choosing instead to support an indie dev with my dollars.↩

So, I’m learning how to program on OS X. As mentioned previously mentioned I’m using Aaron Hillegass’ Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X. I’m using the 2nd edition and Aaron has a 3rd edition coming out soon. I’m looking forward to it as I’ve been having to work through and figure out what changed from Tiger¹ to Leopard². It’s been good and challenging, but nothing unbearable. Today I ran across documentation on the changes to Leopard one needs to know to use the book. Sweet!

1. OS X 10.4↩
2. OS X 10.5↩

I’ve been learning on my own time how to develop applications for Mac OS X. I actually tried to pick it up a couple of years ago, but I think I was just not in the right mind set to pick up the knowledge I needed. My work situation wasn’t ideal and deep down the last thing I really wanted to do was come home and work on a computer more.

Now I’ve switched jobs and I’m much happier with work and I think it’s bled over into the after work hours. I’m actually picking up the lessons¹ really well and the great part is I’m completing the non-instructional challenges at the end of the chapters with out any problems.

I’ll post more bits and bobs as I come across them. This is pretty exciting because I now fully understand the power of Cocoa and its frameworks.

1. I’m using Aaron Hillegass’ Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X.↩

I use MarsEdit to post to this blog and to an internal blog at work. I love it even though I haven’t been posting a lot lately. It really gets out of my way and lets me do what I need to do. Today Daniel Jalkut released a new version of MarsEdit, 2.1.

Of the new features these two are what makes MarsEdit so great:

• Enhanced Tags Support
• Save Drafts To Server

Thanks for the hard work Daniel, I can’t wait to use MarsEdit more now.

(Via Red Sweater Blog.)

Irony: They’re filming a Microsoft ad at Zoka¹ today. Double irony: The entire crew is using Macs. Only PC is in front of the model.

(via Twitter)

1. For a little background, Wil’s company — Delicious Monster — doesn’t have an office, they just work on laptops out of University Zoka coffe shop. I’m going to make sure to visit Zoka when I make my way up to Seattle.↩

Images are a big part of my life. There’s work for sure. At home I don’t craft as much, but I take a fair number of photos. As a result there are two major things one does with photos, view them and modify them.

Let’s start with the latter first. Recently Gus Mueller of Flying Meat¹ released a new image editing app, Acorn. Acorn is fast, lightweight, and uncluttered. Sure, there will probably be times when the big grand-daddy of image editing will be needed, but as it stands I’m going to stick with Acorn whenever I can because it does most everything I want. I need to learn how to write plug-ins for Acorn and then I think it will be what I use almost exclusively.

As for the former, viewing images, OS X comes with a nice built-in tool in Preview. Possibly Quick Look in Leopard will be better, but I’m not there yet so I can’t say. For now I prefer all of my images to be previewed and opened with Xee. Xee is fast, lightweight, free, and supports more image formats than you can shake a stick at.²

While the icon for Xee is inspired a designer named Adam Betts has developed a replacement icon set for Xee that is quite beautiful. I’ve switched my home install of Xee over to it and I’ll hit my work install next week.

1. Yes, that is the company name, and he makes fantastic software↩
2. If you’re using The Unarchiver from the same person, Dag Ågren, then it can even look inside archives like Zip, Rar, and StuffIt. Trust me, even if you don’t use Xee you should use The Unarchiver. It’s simply brilliant↩