Release 1.1

Is gonna happen soon… This is really filler tell I actually release it, but I want a link for my sparkle app cast so I do it right!

… so lazy…

I’m satisfied with my current version and only am going to add sparkle updating, all my goals other then fixing that bug have been taken care of (it’s not my bug, and I’d prefer to have a release out before I start hacking it which may or may not go quickly).   Sadly I just plain haven’t felt like it so you’re all gonna have to wait tell I get encouraged by something or other .  Assuming there is a “you”… cause It seems I’m talking to myself.

A small update to my goals

• I want a simple document based system with simple saving and loading! This will be my primary goal. DONE
• I want to fix all the known bugs from 1.0B. (basically the only one I know is that when you read a large portion of text the highlighter gets confused somewhere… I don’t know if that’s my bug or the TTS engines… either way I’ll find a solution… there is one more bug but that’s just that I screwed up some of my interface scaling in interface builder) I narrowed this down to a library bug I’m almost positive… the NSSpeachSenthasis Example has exactly the same problem… and theres not alot of my own code that could be causing it.  I may think of a bloody hack, but probably not for this version.
• I want to add vertical scrolling in some acceptable way so you don’t have to scroll manually. There was a really simple solution to this that is in my codebase already, I need to write a switch for it soon though… it ain’t done.
• I want to add persistence of  options so that JayReader starts where you left it last and how you left it last. Not even started…
• I want to keep all current functionality. All current functionality was added…
• NEW I’m really thinking of adding sparkle updating… not that I expect to update this frequently… it just seems like a nice little addition.

I’ve started work on JayReader1.1

I’m skipping the 1.0 release of jayreader to go straight for 1.1… after using jayreader quite a bit for all this time i’ve found that the single document interface is the codes downfall, therefore I’m going to design a new interface from scratch to use the multiple document views… here are my goals for 1.1 which with any luck I should complete fairly soon (though I’ve just started).

• I want a simple document based system with simple saving and loading! This will be my primary goal.
• I want to fix all the known bugs from 1.0B. (basically the only one I know is that when you read a large portion of text the highlighter gets confused somewhere… I don’t know if that’s my bug or the TTS engines… either way I’ll find a solution… there is one more bug but that’s just that I screwed up some of my interface scaling in interface builder)
• I want to add vertical scrolling in some acceptable way so you don’t have to scroll manually.
• I want to add persistence of  options so that JayReader starts where you left it last and how you left it last.
• I want to keep all current functionality.

You guys should give me some comments sometime… I’m seriously dieing for feedback… ah well, if its only useful for myself thats fine by me really, it just means that updates will only happen when I both feel like it and need them myself.

A note about the rather high version number of JayReader

Some may wonder why I picked 1.0B as my initial release of JayReader.  I chose this for one simple reason.  It meets every goal in my origional plan.  All new features and upgrades will be weighted against this version, if something can’t be done in a way that makes the initial feature set harder to use, it won’t be done at all.  Any of the internal development that preceded the 1.0 mark for JayReader simply wasn’t worth releasing, and thats why the initial release was the full release… plain and simple.

The next version I’m likely to release is likely going to be 1.1 as well, as theres not a good way to keep the current interface as is and add extra features (there is all of two planned at the moment, even those I don’t feel can be stuffed into the toolbar) without cluttering the interface.  1.1 is likely going to have a drawer on the side for speech options, with only the play and pause buttons staying in the toolbar.  I’m not currently working twords 1.1 as I’m going back into a research and design phase.  Time will only tell when I get that out.  Also I’m in a planning stage on a few more projects… so this place may get a tad more interesting sooner or later.

A change in workflows (Isolator)

Isolator - What it does is rather clear... or blurry, depending on your preferences.

I’ve always been a fan of the multiple desktops.  In KDE I’ve always had 4 desktops with multiple wallpapers, before spaces I did the same in OSX with VirtueDesktops.  I used a custom shortcut which was something like CTRL and one of the arrow keys which I assigned to each space.  Since spaces was released I started using that since it was more stable (though I lost my much loved multiple wallpapers, one of the reasons I couldn’t convince myself to fall back on the lighter XFCE instead of KDE… I found it somewhat useful for identifying at a glance exactly in which workspace I was in seeing as it becomes a hassle to assign apps to workspaces every time I want to try something new).  The main thing I gained with spaces was the ability to ditch the keyboard shortcuts and rely on the middle button to bring up a pane with all of my spaces.  This combined with a relatively clean shifting of spaces by using the dock worked rather well.  Since I just aquired a last gen MacBook Pro I don’t really feel like using a keyboard shortcut to bring up a mouse based interface… and I really don’t feel like forcefully assigning the 3 button scroll to a global spaces command.  Instead the current solution to my workspace needs is a little app called Isolator.

Isolator basically makes it so only one app is visable at a time by hiding/dimming all other applications.  In the current beta you have an option to disable isolator automatically when finder is the foreground so you can toy with your desktop (though if you don’t have it to autohide the windows and only blur them they’ll all still be infront of your desktop, I myself set it so it autohides the windows), though the show desktop expose command also shows behind the isolators dimming.  I myself am finding it quite useful to my workflow as it is kindof like having an automatic workspace for every single application  (this is pretty useful with applications that use a multiple window work flow like photoshop or xcode when you multitask alot to create a cluttered interface).   It does have some dissadvantages, like you have to disable the whole thing to get 2 applications side by side for drag and drop stuff, but overally thats not a major loss in my workflow.  Also if you just want application fading it makes you reliant on expose to ever see your desktop properly, though you often are anyway, but it certainly may be worth a try.

I must mention that the one app at a time is not exactly a new thing.  Early developer releases of OSX had a single window mode that allowed only one window to be visable at a time.  Theres also various apps that provide the same idea a bit differently like Think and Doodim.

Anyway, it would be hard for me to say whether any of this will be useful but I do feel its worth mentioning.  Anyway, give it a try maybe.  I’ll link you up again.

Isolator Home Page

Seriously… Hello fricken world!!

JayReader 1.0B, Everything I need, nothing else...

I hereby open up Jay Laboratories.  The current front for my developmental madness.  My personal wordpress server went down recently and I need a place to show off the things I’ve been working on.  And what do you know, I’ve been working on something.

I’ve made it a recent goal to learn Cocoa/ObjectiveC/XCode and present the project I created as the project to get me immersed in the language.  Without further ado I present my Hello World project JayReader.  JayReader is a simple Mac text reader that uses NSSpeechSynthesizer to speak whatever is in the text box using your systems default voice at a variable speed and highlight what it is reading.  I will probably release the beta of version 1.0 very soon to all you leopard users out there.

Here it is, JayReader 1.0Beta.  It is a universal binary (though I haven’t tested the latest build on a PPC system, if it doesn’t work tell me, earlier builds worked on my G5).  You must have 10.5 to run this due to a few revisions in the NSSpeechSynthesizer library that I felt neccicary to use.  (on a sidenote it also allows me to use properties, oh the joy my lazy self gets out of that)  Anyway, here it is…

Download JayReader

Oh, and to anyone who has tried it and has any comments whatsoever do leave them… I’m always interested.