What's it all about, Alfie?

This morning I was reading the feeds, like I always do, and came across a reference to a piece of code done right. The author was talking about how the best software gets out of your way and does everything that's needed without you having to think about it. In this case, it was shared, remote filespace. The app/service was Dropbox.

What made this so useful to me was the fact that I had gone through the headache of setting up a WebDAV server at home for just this reason - a place to throw things that I could get at form other machines. The problem is, I was still limited by my home bandwidth, I wasn't being intelligent about sending diffs, and the clients for other operating systems were web browsers or FTP-like clients. It worked, but it wasn't what I wanted.

Dropbox is exactly what I wanted. It's a smart, version controlled, remote file repository. It's got clients for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Once you register for it, you simply have a directory that "hot syncs" to the repository in "the cloud", and sends the updates to your other registered machines.

I have a laptop and two desktops. I register them all. I see on each machine an identical set of files. Make a change in one, and it'll be mirrored to the others in a very efficient manner. Drag a new file into the folder on my laptop, and it'll automatically be sent to my two desktops. Simple.

I still have the file on my laptop - which makes this a ton better than WebDAV, and the syncing is done automatically, but clearly visible so that I know when something's happening. There are default folders for public content, photos, an easy way to make URLs for accessing the files... the list goes on and on.

Certainly one of the nicest features of this is the fact that it's really a file repository so you can go to the Dropbox web site and see the files you've deleted. And get them back! You can't beat that. It's like Time Machine built-in.

The first 2GB of storage is free, and for $9.99/mo or $99/yr you get 50GB. I'm sold. The version on the app is 0.6.402, and I'm guessing they do an automatic update, but we'll see. I feel so much better with the idea of installing this on my machines and then being able to really share files on the 'net. Incredible app.

This morning I saw that Xcode 3.1.2 is out and I had to get it. I'm not sure what all it's got, but there's no way I'm sitting out on an update to the very best developer environment the world has ever seen. (No really, I did the research...)

I'm sure there are changes for the iPhone/iPod Touch 2.2 firmware, and possibly updates to the compilers... all good things. I noticed that even the JDK tools seem to have gotten an update in this release. Can't ask for more.

Today I got the chance to work side-by-side with a user that was testing changes to this project I had been making over the last few days. Normally, they'd be testing and writing up a ton of trouble tickets and then I'd have to go through all the effort of finding the duplicates, thinning them down, filling out the paperwork... it's all a lot easier if they just ask me to sit with them and we can work though things so that they understand what's going on under the covers.

Thankfully, today I was able to do just that. A user asked me if I wanted to sit with him or have him file a bunch of tickets. I picked the former, in a heartbeat.

It was amazingly simple. Walk this user through a few screens, explaining the details of what's happening under the covers to him and all of a sudden, things became crystal clear. It's amazing what a little bit of good, honest communication will do to help a situation. In this project, it's been seriously lacking, and the project has suffered for it. I'd like to think that maybe things are changing - at least for me.

Sitting with users and explaining the same thing a dozen times is not wonderful but it sure beats the alternative - a user gets frustrated because they're convinced that the code isn't working right, and then you try to explain it to them, and they have a bias now to see the error as an error as opposed to just a misunderstanding.

I hope this continues... I'm going to do my best to make sure it continues. I think it's the only way to really save this project.

The guys at MacVim have fixed up the forking issue and updated the latest fixes from the Vim core code, and have packaged Snapshot 39. It's something I expected them to do, given the fact that they had discovered it right after creating Snapshot 38.

Just one of the best editors on the best platforms ever.

The guys working on MacVim have released an update to the project - Snapshot 38. There have been some annoying error messages related to the forking of the processes for tabs, and the guys have been hard at work getting to the bottom of them. Based on the comments in the mailing list, I think Snapshot 38 still has some issues, but the next snapshot will have them all cleared up. Excellent news for the coming days.

Still, it's nearly the perfect implementation of Vim. The only thing it's lacking is the beautiful temporary zoom on a find that Safari and SubEthaEdit do. BBEdit still doesn't and it's not strictly necessary, but it is beautiful to watch.

Today I was looking at a weblog and saw a pointer to Base 1.0.2 by a single indie Mac developer for dealing with SQLite3 databases. These are the databases of CoreData, and in that sense, very interesting to work with - when I get into the CoreData game more. Right now, I'm thinking that I need to get into it (CoreData) a little more. However, it's got a lot going for it and I want to support the indie Mac developers. They have a hard enough time, and they deserve the support when they make something good.

Once again, the MacVim team has released a new snapshot of one of the best Vim implementations I've ever seen. There are a few add-ins for this release, and a new way of communicating from the ObjC (Mac) side to the underlying C (Vim) side of the app. Hopefully, this is going to make the app more responsive on slower machines. I know I still love it and it's plenty fast on my MacBook Pro.

If you like Vim, get it.

I was doing a lot of thinking about the Marc Liyanage builds of PHP and PostgreSQL and looking for alternatives - specifically MySQL as it's supported by Apple. Seems like a reasonable alternative if that's what I want to do, but I'm convinced now, more than before, that I can wait on Marc and see if he bows out or decides to keep things rolling, and here's the reason: Building PostgreSQL is easy. In fact, I can get it from another site with an OS X Installer package. That's not the problem. PHP is.

Marc packages a lot of third-party libraries with his PHP, and those are a lot more valuable to me than the most current database support. The version of PostgreSQL I have is fine. It works great. I don't need more. PHP is fine. If I find that I need a new database, then I'll look at MySQL as well and see how things shape up. But until I need a new database, I'm going to leave it as-is for now.

The trick will be building PHP from scratch with all the add-ins he's got. There is a build script on his support forum, and I could certainly start with that, and will, if I have to, but for now, I'm one minor release point behind Apple, and that's not a big enough reason to do it all myself.

I know I can get another PostgreSQL. I can get MySQL for sure. I can get and build PHP based on his script. That's a plan, if I need it. There's no reason to build a database from scratch, and there's no great need to have a different one now. We'll just sit tight and see how things play out in the months to come.

I was blown away this morning to see that Coda 1.6 was released with a new plug-in system as well as a smart spell checker (it checks the code, not your words), and a few other new things, as well as a ton of bug fixes. It's all in the release notes.

Again, they stun me. I've always liked Coda, but it's the fact that they are really moving forward with it so consistently that impresses me. It'll take me a few days to get out from under what I'm doing and give it a good spin, but I'm really impressed. Nice job!

There are a few times that there's no way around it... you are given a Windows Help file and you have to read it. I've had to do this several times, and while I like keeping documentation on my Mac, it's a pain to try and read these files on a Mac without something like iChm.

It's clean, it works, and it's not a nasty hack. Other than that, it has the limitations of the Windows Help file, which aren't as useful as the help system on the Mac, but that's just a fact of life.

If you have Windows Help files, get this and thank the authors for making you life less miserable.