Peter Maurer's Blog

Still Moving

2007-02-04T20:25:00+02:00

Although Many Tricks, the new home of all the Mac software that was previously available from this site, has been up for a few weeks, most of our applications were still hosted on my private web server. That's no longer the case, and we 're quite happy to have completed our relocation.

There's a technical implication to this, too. If you were still monitoring this web log (i.e., the respective RSS feed) for software updates, there's no point in doing so any longer. You'll want to switch to this one, instead.

As far as this log's future is concerned, I do plan on keeping it around for occasions where I'd like to express my personal opinion. I expect these occasions to be extremely rare, though, so don't hold your breath.

Introducing Clip Show

2006-10-09T10:50:00+02:00

I initially created Clip Show for viewing our personal vacation videos. But Clip Show has turned out to completely replace QuickTime Player as a movie player for me. Have a look at the first public beta.

Butler 4.1.2

2006-05-30T16:30:00+02:00

Butler 4.1.2 fixes some smaller issues, including my all-time favorite, the "Hägar" bug. Moreover, Butler should start up noticeably faster on typical setups.

Butler 4.1.1, Service Scrubber 1.1.3

2006-05-18T11:00:00+02:00

Butler 4.1.1 fixes an issue with its bookmarks importer.

Service Scrubber 1.1.3 no longer lists service providers that are located in the current user's trash. And there is a Japanese localization by Akira Ikeda now.

Textpander + SmileOnMyMac = TextExpander

2006-05-08T21:45:00+02:00

Some of you may have already read about it, and here's my confirmation: SmileOnMyMac has acquired Textpander (press release).

An updated version, renamed "TextExpander", will be available shortly. TextExpander will also include several new, unique features that yours truly had been working on for a while. And it will, of course, be free for users who have donated for the original Textpander.

The current version of Textpander will be available for download until TextExpander's initial release.

Butler 4.1

2006-05-03T09:31:00+02:00

If you're using David Kocher's excellent Cyberduck FTP client, here's good news for you: Butler 4.1 lets you access Cyberduck's bookmarks via abbreviation as well as from Butler's menus.

The Universal Butler

2006-01-30T10:20:00+02:00

For all Intel-Mac early adopters, here's Butler 4.0.1, the "universal" version of Butler. In contrast to what I wrote earlier, this version still runs on Mac OS X 10.2.8. Turns out I hadn't read the universal binary specifications closely enough ;-)

Butler is getting somewhat more universal in another respect as well, by the way — this version includes French and Japanese localizations.

Hell Freezes Over (Butler 4.0, Service Scrubber 1.1.2)

2006-01-24T17:32:00+02:00

After almost two years of beta testing, the final Butler 4.0 has arrived. Sometimes, I thought I wouldn't live to see the day.

And if you happen to speak Danish, French, or Chinese, go ahead and download Service Scrubber 1.1.2, too.

Butler vs. Intel

2006-01-19T12:11:00+02:00

Here's a little note for all those who are waiting for a "universal" Butler that will run natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based macs:

Up to now, Butler has used nested functions quite extensively. While I still think that these are one of the most elegant instruments in programming, they are no longer supported by the compiler that's required for creating universal binaries. Rewriting these portions of Butler will take some more time. If you happen to have access to an Intel-based mac, please try running Butler on it (via Rosetta) and let me know if it works.

The final Butler 4.0 will remain PowerPC-only. Expect a beta version of Butler 4.1 during the next few weeks. The latter will run natively on Intel macs, but it will require Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later — as opposed to Butler 4.0, which is supposed to run on OS X versions as early as 10.2.8.

Butler 4.0b30, Service Scrubber 1.1.1, Textpander 1.2.2, Witch 1.0.2

2006-01-19T11:10:00+02:00

Butler 4.0b30 supports dialing phone numbers (via AppleScript), can do things when starting up/quitting, plus some minor improvements. This might be the last beta version of Butler 4.0…

Service Scrubber 1.1.1 works with StickyBrain's quite unusual way of specifying its services now. Also fixes some cosmetical issues.

Textpander 1.2.2 and Witch 1.0.2 are universal binaries, so both of them can run on the new Intel macs now.

Service Scrubber 1.1

2005-12-22T11:55:00+02:00

Service Scrubber 1.1 is for all those who couldn't deacticate ChineseTextConverter with Service Scrubber 1.0.

Introducing Service Scrubber

2005-12-21T14:50:00+02:00

Wouldn't the services menu be much more useful if it weren't overcrowded by services you never even thought of using? Service Scrubber is a small utility that lets you restructure the services menu, change service keyboard shortcuts, and disable superfluous services.

Textpander 1.2.1

2005-12-09T10:17:00+02:00

Textpander 1.2.1 lets you create snippets by pasting to the snippets list. Copying from the snippets list populates your clipboard with a list of the selected snippets and their respective abbreviations. Paste that into a text file and apply your formatting to create a snippets cheat sheet.

Also fixes an issue with iTerm.

Butler 4.0b29

2005-11-28T17:10:00+02:00

Regressions are a developer's best fiend… It seems I've broken some things by accident in Butler 4.0b28. So here's the fix, along with some improvements.

Butler 4.0b28

2005-11-24T14:00:00+02:00

A new version of Butler is available, sporting a vastly improved abbreviations window and a way to circumvent Spotlight's search-as-you-type behavior.

Butler 4.0b27, Textpander 1.2

2005-10-28T12:21:00+02:00

As mentioned before, Butler 4.0b26 was a huge step forward. Making such a huge step almost always causes a few regressions. So here's Butler 4.0b27, fixing most of these.

Textpander 1.2 fixes a nasty bug that could cause quite different kinds of symptoms. And you can have the current pasteboard inserted in your snippets on expansion.

Butler 4.0b26, Textpander 1.1

2005-08-29T15:08:00+02:00

Butler 4.0b26 is the largest step in Butler's development since the transition from Another Launcher to Butler. In addition to a restructured interface, the internal data structure of Butler has been completely rewritten. This makes Butler work more efficiently; and it makes updating Butler easier for me ;-)

Textpander 1.1 includes some features that were requested by users. Most importantly, you now have the choice between keeping or abandoning delimiter characters that trigger an expansion.

Introducing Textpander

2005-08-22T19:29:00+02:00

Textpander is a utility that helps you type more efficiently and more accurately. Textpander listens to what you type and inserts predefined text snippets on the fly whenever you enter their corresponding abbreviations.

Three Updates

2005-08-22T19:26:00+02:00

File List 1.2, Key Codes 1.0.1, and Witch 1.0.1 are now available.

One Less Beta

2005-08-09T14:37:00+02:00

It's time to leave the beta stage and release the official Witch 1.0. And BTW, there is also minor update to File List, which is now at version 1.1.