O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: Cocoa

  • Unofficial, open-source Notepad++ code editor build arrives for macOS

    Unofficial, open-source Notepad++ code editor build arrives for macOS

    You can’t argue with a good text editor.

    After more than 20 years on the Microsoft Windows platform, the nifty Notepad++ coding editor is now available as a native macOS app, following an unofficial open-source community port of the original Windows codebase. The Notepad replacement runs as a universal binary, so it works on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

    Prior to this, Mac users who’d wanted to run it had to go through either a Wine or CrossOver compatibiity layer.

    The editing experience is identical to the Windows version, including the Scintilla engine, tabbed editing, syntax highlighting for 80+ languages, search and replace, macro recording, and plugin support. The only difference is that the menus, dialogs, file pickers, keyboard shortcuts, and windowing all use native macOS Cocoa APIs.

    The Notepad++ app for macOS is maintained by Andrey Letov, who coded the Objective-C++ Cocoa UI that replaces Notepad++’s Win32 front-end. The unofficial app is available for free from the Notepad++ website and has been released under the GNU General Public License, so there are no ads, subs, or hidden costs.

    If you’ve had a chance to try the Notepad++ app on your Mac, please let us know about your experience in the comments.

    Via MacRumors and notepad-plus-plus-mac.org

  • Swifty app helps teach Swift programming basics on your iOS device

    swifty

    This qualifies as both useful and cool.

    Last summer, Apple surprised almost everyone at WWDC with the announcement of Swift, a new programming language for iOS and Mac development.

    The language feels like something Apple would invent. Like several of the languages currently popular in web development, it has a concise, readable syntax that’s easier to pick up than Apple’s older language, Objective-C. It was engineered by Apple’s compiler experts, so in addition to being compatible with existing code and Cocoa libraries, it’s also faster by some metrics.

    But even though Apple’s tagline for the language is that it “lets everyone build amazing apps,” no novice is going to pick up Swift and get to coding full-on iOS or Mac apps without some guidance. For those beginning to work with Swift, the Swifty App provides an interactive set of tutorials that gradually guide you through the basics of Swift on your iOS device.

    (more…)

  • Apple releases 11th OS X 10.8.3 build to developer community, pins down file bug

    The betas, they just keep rolling in…

    Per The Mac Observer, Apple continued to extensively test the next maintenance update to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion with the release of the tenth prerelease build of 10.8.3 to developers Wednesday. The build, 12D65, arrives one week after the previous build, 12D61.

    The latest build of 10.8.3 lists no known issues and asks developers to focus on AirPlay, Airport, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari.

    Notably, the build fixes a file bug revealed over the weekend that caused nearly every Mountain Lion app to crash by entering a specific set of characters. It was eventually determined that the bug was due to a Cocoa programming error in Mountain Lion’s data detectors. That Apple has now fixed the bug in the latest prerelease of 10.8.3 is a good sign, as it was potentially a serious security vulnerability.

    OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion was first released on July 25, 2012. The 10.8.1 update arrived on August 23, 2012 and 10.8.2 on September 19, 2012. Prerelease builds of 10.8.3 have been seeded by Apple since November.

    If you’ve gotten your mitts on the latest beta and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

  • Roxio releases revised Toast Titanium 11.1 update

    This is a little awkward, but people make mistakes and that’s why pencils have erasers.

    On Friday, Roxio released a revised version of the Toast Titanium 11.1 update.

    Per the release notes, the new build (1067) fixed bugs that the previous build (1063) had introduced.

    The new build, a 92.8 megabyte download, offers the following fixes and changes:

    – Resolved digital signing issue which occured on some OS versions.

    – Resolved issue where updating would generate invalid signature message.

    – Customers still encountering this error will need to download a full version of Toast 11.1 from our software update page or install a previous version and then update.

    – Toast has been fully Cocoa-ized – Hundreds of changes and fixes .

    – Added OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion compatibility.

    – Added support for recording to 100GB and 128GB BDXL media.

    – Implemented Gatekeeper Support.

    – Web-Video feature improvements.

    – Requires using Safari to capture web-video.

    – YouTube users may need to OPT OUT of HTML5 Trial.

    – Mountain Lion users will need to update to 10.8.1 or later to publish video to YouTube.

    Toast Titanium 11.1 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later to install and run and retails for US$99.99.

    If you’ve tried the new update and noticed any changes, please let us know in the comments.

  • Forthcoming Microsoft Office 2011 update to add support for Mac OS X 10.7 feature base

    microsoftlogo.jpg

    The good news: Mac OS X 10.7 (“Lion”) is out.

    The bad news: Not all of Microsoft’s products support all of the Mac OS X 10.7 feature base.

    Still, there may be hope on the horizon.

    Per the Office for Mac blog, Microsoft has revealed that a forthcoming update for Office for Mac 2011 will add support for new features in Mac OS X 10.7, including versions, auto-save and full-screen.

    Pat Fox of the Office for Mac team wrote on the company’s official blog this week that inquiries about those features have been the “most common question” for users of late. The Microsoft team is said to be “working hard with Apple” to enable the features.

    “I know your next question will be ‘when?’, and unfortunately I can’t answer that — but it’s likely measured in months not days — just to set expectations,” the post reads.

    The news came alongside the release of an update to Communicator for Mac, which addresses an issue related to crashing in Lion. The download is available through Microsoft AutoUpdate.

    The company also reiterated that Office for Mac 2004 will not ever work on Lion, because the software was a PowerPC-based product, and Lion no longer includes Rosetta.

    “Now would be a great time to upgrade to Office for Mac 2011 if you’re upgrading to Lion!” Fox said.

    Office for Mac 2011, the industry’s most popular productivity suite, was released last October, delivering better compatibility with the Windows version of Office and corporate server products. It also features a revised user interface that’s similar to the “ribbon” interface used in Windows.

    Those user interface elements are built on Cocoa, the development layer of Mac OS X. And the all-new version of Outlook that shipped with Office for Mac 2011 was also built from the ground-up with Cocoa for the Mac.

    File versions, auto-save and full-screen are major features touted as part of the newly released Mac OS X 10.7 Lion operating system. With support for Lion, documents are automatically saved, and multiple versions of the file are stored allowing for Time Machine-like recovery of previous iterations of a file.

    The new full-screen support in Lion will bring an iPad-like feel to the operating system, allowing users to concentrate on one task at a time and quickly swipe between full-screen applications with a multi-touch gesture.

    Apple’s own competing productivity suite, iLife, was already updated for Lion earlier this month. iWork Update 6 adds support for full-screen mode, resume, auto-save and versions to Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.