The L&L Blog
Creating TIF files with multiple images
So, in overhauling Scrivener's toolbar graphics and other graphic elements for 2.0, I noticed that a lot of OS X apps handle toolbar images a little more elegantly than Scrivener 1.x. Scrivener's toolbar looks fine when the icon size is set to normal, but if you set the it to use the small image size, the images get rescaled and don't look so hot. A lot of apps - look at Pages for instance - look great at both sizes, because they provide custom images for each rather than just allowing the toolbar to scale the larger images down when the small size option is selected. with Scrivener 1.x, though, I only created images for the larger size.
I was waiting on overhauling images such as these to see if Snow Leopard introduced resolution independence - when that comes just about every image in every OS X app is going to need recreating at a much larger scale by professional artists. But seeing as that doesn't seem to be on the agenda for 10.6 (which makes me sigh with relief as a developer even if the end-user part of me would like to see it), I have started in on overhauling the icon set.
The way OS X toolbars handle selecting the small or large image for a particular toolbar icon is to look in the one image file for both images; that is, it expects both images to be bundled into the same .tif or .icns file (the larger one at 32x32 pixels and the smaller one at 24x24). OS X comes with a tool that will create .icns files easily enough, but being obtuse I decided I wanted to keep the toolbar icons as .tif files (which is how most Apple apps do it). The trouble is, Photoshop doesn't support .tif files containing multiple images. So I Googled around to find a tool which would, but either my search terms were rubbish or the only tools that really do this sort of thing are paid-for, fully-featured apps, and I realised I could write my own tool to do this much more quickly than I could find one from searching through Google results - after all, all it needs to do is take two image files already created in Photoshop, one for the small size and one for the larger size, and bundle them both into the one .tif file.
So, here is my ten-minute app that does exactly this:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/freestuff/MultiTIFF.zip
It's pretty self-explanatory - you just drag a 32x32 image into the 32x32 image well and a 24x24 image into the 24x24 well, and then hit Save to create a .tif file that combines the two, suitable for use in toolbars.
EDIT: I've updated it so that you can open existing multi-page .tif files and export the small or large icons out as separate files.
Who knows, maybe it will come in useful for somebody else putting their toolbar images together. Probably not; given that a lot of developers do this already, presumably there is already an abundance of tools out there that do this that I just missed, but it was a diverting ten-minute break from the intense coding I'm doing on Scrivener 2.0 at the moment. Which rocks, by the way.
Apple: friendlier
A couple of years ago I got all huffy about how Apple had withheld the Leopard beta released at WWDC '07 from developers who had paid for access to Leopard betas but could not attend WWDC, only finally releasing it to other Apple Developer Connection Select and Premier members about a month later - meaning a lot of developers who had paid up for early access to Leopard were unnecessarily left a month behind WWDC attendees in getting their apps Leopard-ready.
I was not a happy bunny, as many panicked Scrivener users noted in their e-mails to me asking if my beta-rage meant I was likely to abandon Scrivener and the Mac platform (which was never in question). I like to think I have grown and calmed with age in the past couple of years (although my shouting at an ancient Cornish driver the other day may provide evidence to the contrary), so this year, with the coming of WWDC and the announcement that there would be a "near final" build of Snow Leopard available to attendees, I just accepted that I would have to wait another month or so to get access once more. (Despite my vow never to pay for ADC again, it would be a little irresponsible not to do so, as I have to ensure that Scrivener is Snow Leopard-ready for the day of its release... so I reluctantly handed over the cash again this year for the Snow Leopard betas.) Indeed, unlike two years ago, the Apple developer website didn't even claim that ADC Premier and Select members would get the "latest builds", so the signs weren’t exactly auspicious.
So imagine my surprise when I logged into my ADC account the other day to find that the latest, WWDC, build of Snow Leopard was there, ready and waiting for download - and had been there since the 8th June, the very day it was made available to WWDC attendees. I nearly fell out of my chair. Or at least I swivelled in it a bit. I don’t know if there were a glut of other developers such as myself who complained bitterly at Apple two years ago - I certainly didn’t see much complaining about it anywhere else online - or if Apple just decided they should give all paid-up developers equal opportunity to get their apps Snow Leopard-ready, but whatever the reason, given the loudness of my lamentations and weilaways two years ago, I figured I should at least give credit where credit’s due this time around. Okay, it should have been like this in the first place, but at least Apple have got it together now and that makes me (for once) a happy bunny. So, thank you Apple for sorting this out.
So Snow Leopard is now ready on my other system and waiting for me to make sure Scrivener works fine on it (early tests are good), which I will be doing in earnest very shortly, in the midst of the full-on development on 2.0 in which I’m currently immersed. (And to those waiting for news on 2.0... Sorry, but I’m holding back on further announcements or feature peeks until nearer the time. 2.0 is still slated for an end-of-2009 release, and suffice to say that I think a lot of Scrivener users are going to be very happy...)
On Separating Rants From a "Professional" Blog
Since a couple of readers have taken umbrage at my using this blog to express my opinion on a beloved television show, I have removed the previous blog post on Battlestar Galactica. I guess the misunderstanding arose because some (possibly new) users expect this to be a development blog whereas I, being a one-man development team, have always seen it as a developer's blog. As I wrote in the first post on this blog four years ago:
Scrivener - alive and kicking
I've been receiving an increasing number of e-mails asking me if Scrivener is still in active development, which seems to be a result of people checking this blog and noting that my last post here was some time ago... So, yet again, I thought I'd best post a quick update to say that Scrivener is indeed alive, well, and in active development. (I've always said that the forums are a better indicator of the state of development, because I post on the forums nearly every day, but I do understand that some users, or potential users, don't really like forums much and therefore don't check them.) Of course, as I say on the About page of the main site, Scrivener isn't really about whizz-bang new features. I have always maintained that you should take it for what it is, and that my only real commitment is to bug-fixes and making it the best writing software for my needs. And indeed, I stand by that.
Spooks + Scrivener
I just have to boast about this.* I've been enjoying the excellent sixth series of Spooks on BBC1 (Tuesdays - MI5 in the US) - I've been a big fan of the show since the second series, and would get around to renting the first season on DVD were it not for the thought of seeing Lisa Faulkner getting her face burned off with boiling oil. It's a great spy show with interesting characters (though Adam has got to be the most obvious spy ever - his "disguises" as a gardener, builder, phone company man or whatever tend to be somewhat undermined by his perfect hair, cut-glass accent and the giant microphone protruding from his collar), a healthy dose of cynicism, 24-style split-screen shots and more tension than the Humber bridge.
All in all, Spooks has consistently been one of the best home-grown BBC programmes over the past few years, and you never know who they're going to kill off next.
But I've been getting an extra thrill from series 6 because the over-arching story was drafted in Scrivener and some of the episodes were scripted in Scrivener, too, by author Neil Cross (whose new novel, Natural History - which was also mostly composed in Scrivener! - has been getting some great reviews).
Now, if Neil has used Scrivener to kill of Zaf, I am going to be most upset - talk about turning your tools against you...
Scrivener + Leopard
I've been getting a number of concerned e-mails recently from Scrivener users who fear that I may have abandoned development of Scrivener because my last blog post here is rather old and was slagging off Apple, and because there is no mention of Leopard on the Scrivener product page...
I would just like to make it very clear that Scrivener is very much alive and in active development. Scrivener 1.1 is Leopard-ready, with a more "Leopard-esque" interface and a large number of tweaks for Leopard. As a paid-up member of the Apple developer program, I have been building Scrivener on Leopard for the past six months or so. I had hoped to get Scrivener 1.1 out yesterday, to coincide with Leopard's release, but there are a couple of things that have caused a delay (not the least of which being that my partner had to go in for an operation on her jaw yesterday; oh, and Tomb Raider Anniversary came out for the Xbox 360, too...). For a start, the release change list is so long that I need to simplify it, and I also need to update the project templates that come with Scrivener 1.1. Scrivener itself is ready and has gone through extensive beta-testing over the past few months.
If you are concerned or need the Leopard-ready version right now (although 1.03 should work fine on Leopard for now anyway), please go to the Beta Testing section of the forum. There you can download the latest Scrivener 1.1 beta (1.095), which runs fine on Leopard (note that there is a minor bug related to script editing and Edit Scrivenings that has been fixed for 1.1). Note that you will be prompted to update your project, and you must get rid of older versions of Scrivener.
At the same time as 1.1 is released as an official (and free) update, the website will also be updated. I have been working hard on that over the past week, as the old product page does not reflect the new look of Scrivener. I've also created a webcast for the page. Also note that as of 1.1, Scrivener's price will be increasing from $34.99 to $39.95 (except for students). The update will, of course, be free to registered users, though.
I'll post again soon about Leopard. Leopard is a great update, and Scrivener 1.1 looks and works great on it. Please be patient as I get the release version ready. It will be with you very soon, and I apologise for the fact that it was not out on time for Leopard. I just wanted to make sure it was perfect...
Oh, and Tiger users, rest assured that Scrivener will continue to work beautifully on both Leopard and Tiger for the foreseeable future.
Apple is not your friend
Well, if you've been reading my previous posts about Apple's tardiness in posting the 9a466 (or whatever it is) Leopard beta to developers who paid for ADC Select or Premiere membership, you'll know I'm not a happy bunny. WWDC attendees received that beta nearly three weeks ago now. And you know what? That beta is now available on torrent sites. Meaning that pirates out there are running a version of Leopard for which they have not paid, whilst legitimate law-abiding ADC Select members such as myself still have no access to that version of Leopard despite having paid Apple for the "latest" Leopard releases - in other words, we have paid for exactly that copy.
Do Apple care?
No, they do not.
I have written to them several times, with no reply. All developers received a general "you will receive the WWDC beta soon via ADC download" e-mail a few days ago. And when I e-mailed them to remind them that they had not replied to my earlier e-mails, they repeated the "soon" message to me.
Well, you know what? I've lost interest. I won't pay for a Select ADC membership again, and I strongly advise other indie developers to think seriously before wasting money on it. Yes, you get hardware discounts, but the main impetus for coughing up for a paid ADC account is pre-release OS X versions. Given that Apple don't honour what you pay for, I strongly recommend not buying into this scam. Sadly, it will mean that users of my software lose out a little in future, in that if I do not pay for pre-release versions of the OS, then I can't guarantee that my software will run on the first release of any new OS upgrade. But if Apple don't make available the new releases of their OS to those of us who have paid for exactly that, then what is the point? The really sad thing in all of this is that I have got so p***ed off at Apple that I have not touched Scrivener development for three weeks now. When I finally get access to the new beta I will hopefully get my enthusiasm back, but as an indie developer, with Apple treating me as though I am worthless, it makes it really hard for me to get enthusiastic about updating a help file or adding a small tweak here or there.
There really are times when I wish I had chosen to develop for Windows. Surely Microsoft cannot treat developers as poorly as Apple do? Apple is not your friend. They make lovely machines and a great OS, but they care very little for users or developers, it seems.
In fact, it seems that the Apple developer model works something like this: 1) Pay hundreds of dollars for ADC membership and an "Early Start Kit" that gives access to latest OS versions; 2) Once you've paid, the latest versions will actually be withheld unless you pay thousands of dollars for a WWDC ticket and travel across the world to attend.
Oh, and if you can't attend, it's not just the beta that is held back, but also any knowledge shared by engineers.
I don't why I'm so surprised - I guess it's just years of Macheads telling me that Microsoft were evil and Apple were Good. When you finally switch to a Mac and develop for the platform for a few years, you soon realise that Apple are just as bad as MS - they just happen to be much smaller and less popular.
So: really, really poor. Please do think twice before paying for ADC membership.
Are Apple taking the proverbial?
No, but really, are they?
A couple of days ago I posted moaning about how Apple have not bothered to seed the latest beta of Leopard to paying ADC Select and Premier members who did not attend WWDC (despite the advertising on the Leopard Early Start Kit web page making it very clear that paying for membership entitles you to the latest versions of Leopard).
I am a very conscientious developer, I like to think. Whenever I come across a bug in the OS, I post it over at bugreport.apple.com. I have posted a number of bugs related to developer seeds of Leopard. Well, today I received an e-mail from the Apple bug reporting team telling me that they believe that in the latest - WWDC - seed of Leopard they have fixed one of the bugs I reported. They asked me to test it and get back to them on whether it is, indeed, fixed.
So I repeat my question: are they taking the ****? Because they haven't released the WWDC beta of Leopard to anyone who did not attend WWDC, so how on earth can I test this? I replied with a very terse e-mail asking them to keep the bug report open given that there was no way I could test until I received what I had already paid for - namely, the latest developer seed.
What really worries me more than anything in all of this is that I can find no evidence of other developers getting really riled by what I see as seriously questionable behaviour on the part of Apple. Surely there must be other developers out there who feel that Apple are behaving immorally in all of this? Apparently not. At most, other developers are sighing, "Oh, I've been through the release cycle before, it always takes them a month or two to get this sort of thing up on ADC," as though that makes it all okay. Oh well. I guess I just have an overdeveloped sense of justice / desire for Leopard / desire to receive from a company what I have rightfully paid for (delete as appropriate, I just don't know any more).
Leopard beta for the rest of us?
As you may or may not know (and whether you care is a different matter entirely), today is the last day of Apple's WWDC (World Wide Developers' Conference) in San Francisco. If you're an Apple buff, you've probably seen the keynote, showing off Leopard. Yes, the keynote was a little underwhelming. Leopard looks fantastic, but it does seem odd that after being told that it has 300 new features, of the ten that His Jobsness previewed, 8 had already been revealed at last year's conference. Still, it looks like the biggest release for a while, and unifying the interface is a Good Thing.