cipher: Radio

Fri, 22 Aug 2003 21:12:05 GMT

system.verbs.builtins.radio.html.editTextFile changed on Thu, 21 Aug 2003 23:58:52 GMT: Added support for the Mozilla rich text editor. [Radio.root Updates]

Now that's really cool!

Sat, 14 Jun 2003 14:31:01 GMT

Should I restart? Irak is still a major mess! Lies, lies, lies!

Tue, 29 Apr 2003 20:37:07 GMT

Won OS X Innovators Contest. NetNewsWire and Spring took first and second place in O’Reilly’s Mac OS X Innovators contest. So cool!

Thanks to O’Reilly for the recognition—it’s much appreciated. And it was great to win along with Robb Beal.

But the main thanks as always go to the people who use NetNewsWire. All your bug reports, feature requests, and support are what make the difference between a so-so app and something better.

The next step is just to continue—fix bugs, add new features. Lots of exciting things are to come. [inessential.com]

Mon, 17 Mar 2003 19:20:11 GMT

XML-RPC and OS X 10.2.5. I’ve received email from people this morning telling me that OS X 10.2.5 will contain fixes to Apple’s XML-RPC code. Which I think is great. I had no doubt they would fix the bugs.

Now, I don’t get pre-release copies of the system, so I can’t confirm this. But, assuming it’s true, the obvious question for me is: why not switch back to the system-supplied XML-RPC code?

Here’s why I do not plan to switch back:

1. My philosophy is to always use system-supplied code whenever possible. My time can be much better spent in ways other than re-inventing the wheel. However, I already have re-invented the wheel in this case. There’s a value to being in control of the source code. If I want to or need to add features, I can.

2. My XML-RPC code runs on systems previous to 10.2.5. I don’t want to require that NetNewsWire users run 10.2.5.

3. The code is designed to be forgiving of things like unencoded ampersands and characters outside of the XML-RPC spec. It has to be forgiving, because not all of the various weblog publishing systems return perfectly valid responses all of the time. (That’s just a fact of life. It’s not my job to be an XML cop. I’d rather just have things work.)

4. My code is in the form of a set of Cocoa classes. Apple’s code is procedural. I prefer using Cocoa, since NetNewsWire is a Cocoa app. It fits better.

5. My code uses CURLHandle, which is what NetNewsWire uses to read feeds and so on. There’s a value to using the same HTTP client software throughout the app. For instance, once I fix the bug with authenticating proxies in the news reader, I can fix it in the XML-RPC code at the same time, since the fix will be the same. [inessential.com]

Sat, 15 Mar 2003 07:54:15 GMT

NetNewsWire 1.0.1 Ships. NetNewsWire 1.0.1 has been released! Here’s the What’s New in NetNewsWire 1.0.1 page. The biggest changes since 1.0 are crashing bug fixes.

But there are some other nice things too—the news reader, for instance, is more forgiving of feeds with errors, so parsing failures will happen less often.

Today I’m starting work on 1.0.2, which will include more bug fixes but also some new features. Based on the feedback I’ve been getting, it sounds like what’s most wanted are new features for the weblog editor—specifically, support for more Radio and Movable Type options. [inessential.com]

Sat, 15 Mar 2003 07:33:31 GMT

NetNewsWire 1.0.1. NetNewsWire is an easy-to-use Web news reader. [Mac OS X Hot Downloads]

Just in case you did not yet upgrade!

Thu, 13 Mar 2003 19:53:01 GMT

Short-term NetNewsWire road map. Here’s the short-term road map for NetNewsWire...

NetNewsWire 1.0.1 will probably be released Friday. This release is mainly about fixing crashing bugs—but it also fixes some weblog editor bugs and makes some other improvements here and there.

The big change in 1.0.1 is under-the-hood—it’s the brand-new XML-RPC client code that’s used by the weblog editor. It replaces the system’s built-in code that was a source of crashes in the weblog editor. (It’s available under the open source BSD license, so other Cocoa developers can use it too—and help improve it if they want to.)

Another change—less major in terms of code, but still nice—is that the RSS parser is more forgiving of unencoded ampersands, which is the most common cause of feed-reading failures.

(I’ll do a what’s-new-in-1.0.1 page that explains more of this in friendlier terms.)

So—what’s next? What’s coming in 1.0.2?

1.0.2 will have more under-the-hood changes: I plan to make frameworks out of some of the underlying code that doesn’t change much. For instance, the XML-RPC code will be in a framework, the RSS parser will be in a framework, the OPML parser will be in a framework, and so on.

For non-developers... frameworks are like separate modules. They’re hidden from view unless you do a Show Package Contents on the app. As a user you wouldn’t notice the difference if code is in a framework or not. But it means two good things:

1. It’s easier to maintain and test code that’s in frameworks. I can write test apps that are specific to a framework, and I can work on a framework separately from working on NetNewsWire, and only incorporate the updated framework when it’s ready.

2. Some of these frameworks will be released as open source (BSD license) so that other developers can use them. Frameworks are easier to use and integrate than just raw source files.

Okay, that’s pretty boring to most of you... So what else is coming in 1.0.2?

More bug fixes. More small enhancements. And, finally, some new features.

I haven’t decided yet which features yet are going into 1.0.2, but they’ll most likely be weblog editor features, such as:

1. Allowing Radio users to specify that a post should not go on the home page.

2. Supporting more Movable Type options.

3. At least some minimal AppleScript support for the weblog editor—the ability to get and set the contents of the Title, URL, and Body fields. Lots of people want this so they can write scripts that initiate a new post in NetNewsWire.

4. Support for uploading media objects (pictures, movies, etc.) to sites that support it. (I think Radio and Movable Type support this.)

5. Some kind of Feedster integration. I don’t know what, yet, just that I like the idea. (Okay, this isn’t a weblog editor thing.)

Note: The above list is just my preliminary thoughts: the list of new features in 1.0.2 may change.

Also—a question—what new features would you most like to see? If you had to pick just one, what would it be? [inessential.com]

Thu, 13 Mar 2003 05:48:45 GMT

NetNewsWire 1.0.1fc1. This final candidate release fixes a weblog editor bug with saving drafts and includes a couple other minor changes. (See the change notes.)

If there are no deal-stopper bugs, this will be released as NetNewsWire 1.0.1.

And then we’ll go back to fixing more bugs and adding new features. [ranchero.com]

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 06:11:21 GMT

Interview: Ranchero's Brent Simmons [MacSlash: A daily dose of Macintosh News and Discussion]

Blogging goes mobile

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 07:09:40 GMT

Weblogs could soon be updated from mobile phones, creating a new generation of bloggers. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

MailEdit: cool Radio tool for advanced posting via eMail!

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 06:57:29 GMT

If you wish to be able to update your weblog from anywhere, MailEdit is your tool.

It is available from http://radio.weblogs.com/0100039/gems/mailEdit/mailEdit.root

As with all tools, download it to Radio's Tools folder, and wait for Radio to notice it. If you wish, restarting Radio should pick it up immediately.

All necessary configuration can be done from the MailEdit prefs page, available at http://127.0.0.1:5335/mailEdit/

In fact this is a MailEdit post!

Sat, 22 Feb 2003 16:14:31 GMT

Why Did Google Want Blogger?. Google's recent purchase of Pyra Labs, maker of a weblogging tool called Blogger, has generated much speculation about why the popular search engine did the deal. One man who worked closely with Pyra thinks he knows the answer. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]

Wed, 19 Feb 2003 07:40:58 GMT

Wow. It's amazing how many private weblog communities that are in development. Excellent. Soon, every site, organization, school, and company will have weblogs running on their servers and desktops. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] [lawrence's notebook]

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 20:15:12 GMT

Safari+NNW.

An article about how NetNewsWire and Safari complement one another can be found at O'Reilly here.

I agree, although Safari really needs to be able to reuse windows for URLs sent from applications like NetNewsWire rather than always opening a new window every time.

[Surfin' Safari]

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 20:10:53 GMT

NetNewsWire 1.0.1b1. This first post-1.0 beta version includes brand-new XML-RPC code. NetNewsWire no longer uses the system-supplied code, which was a source of crashes and bugs. For more details, see the change notes. [ranchero.com]

Who dares wins?

Mon, 17 Feb 2003 21:33:05 GMT

NetNewsWire 1.0. NetNewsWire is an easy-to-use Web news reader. [Mac OS X Hot Downloads]

That's the place for CoolTool to be listed!

Mon, 17 Feb 2003 21:31:58 GMT

Radio: How to backup and restore.... Radio: How to backup and restore your weblog. [Scripting News]

Yesss! [Paolo Valdemarin: Paolo's Weblog]

Yesss!

Sun, 16 Feb 2003 15:58:15 GMT

Welcome Google, seriously.. Ok, you've heard the news by now: Weblogs are going Googling.

Since part of my business is related to Radio UserLand, the first reaction has of course been "God... now what?".

But then, I must say I'm optimistic (somebody once said that all entrepreneurs are optimistic, otherwise they would be doing something else).

Having such a big player in the game is probably going to be good for this market, adding new energy and money to the general effort. A growing market is good for all its players and since, at least so far, Google has not been leveraging on its de facto monopoly on the search engine business, so I don't see why they should do it on the weblogging tools business.

To the contrary, just like Google is today providing a vital infrastructure for the web, they will probably be able to boost the development of new (open!) standards that are definitely needed and that will help making the blogosphere a better integrated environment. I'm talking about RSS, track back, better commenting system, IM integration and other applications that still have to be dreamed.

With its Google APIs, they have shown that they understand this new era much better than other large companies and I believe that if they will keep an open approach they will be able to make this whole market a better environment.

So, again, welcome Google, seriously. [Paolo Valdemarin: Paolo's Weblog]

Sun, 16 Feb 2003 15:54:58 GMT

Google buys Pyra Labs. Argyle writes "SiliconValley.com reports that Google has bought Pyra Labs. Pyra Labs is the creator of the Blogger software and runs the blogger.com and ... [Slashdot]

Sun, 16 Feb 2003 15:53:42 GMT

NetNewsWire Tips. I posted a number of NetNewsWire tips on inessential.com recently: some keyboard tips, a Dock menu tip, more keyboard tips, and easy subscribing from within Safari or Chimera and so on using the Services menu. [ranchero.com]

Sat, 15 Feb 2003 06:38:39 GMT

NetNewsWire Dock Menu Tip. If you click-and-hold, ctrl-click, or right-click (if you have a two-button mouse) on NetNewsWire’s icon in the Dock, the menu displays unread messages.

You probably knew that already.

But—you may not have known that if you hold down the option key, then, instead of opening the headline in the browser, you go to that headline in NetNewsWire. [inessential.com]

Sat, 15 Feb 2003 06:38:12 GMT

NetNewsWire Keyboard Tips. Here are a few more keyboard shortcuts for NetNewsWire that aren’t obvious:

When the headlines pane in the news reader has focus, you can...

1. Type U to mark a headline as unread.

2. Type R to mark a headline as read.

3. Type M to mark a headline as unread and go to the next unread headline.

In the weblog editor, the buttons for Bold, Italic, and Add Link have keystrokes...

1. Cmd-B encloses the selection with <strong> tags.

2. Cmd-I encloses the selection with <em> tags.

3. Option-Cmd-A allows you to enclose the selection with link tags. (I wanted this to be Ctrl-Cmd-A, as in BBEdit, but Interface Builder wouldn’t let me do that. I still plan to make this button respond to Ctrl-Cmd-A in the future.) [inessential.com]

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 06:35:00 GMT

NetNewsWire Press Release Draft. One of the things about releasing software is you have to write a press release. Nuts!

Well, maybe you don’t have to write a press release, but it’s probably a good idea, at least for major milestones.

I’m no MBA or marketing type, so I sure wouldn’t mind a little help. I’ve posted a draft here, and I’d appreciate feedback, either as comments on this site or via email to brent at ranchero dot com. Thanks! [inessential.com]

Where's that Safari update?

Tue, 11 Feb 2003 21:44:09 GMT

I want an update for Safari!

It's a month now, so gimme another build!

X11 had an update, so gimme another build!

There's been rumors, so gimme another build!

Tue, 11 Feb 2003 21:41:04 GMT

NetNewsWire 1.0 ships!.

NetNewsWire 1.0 is shipping!

Many thanks go to all the beta testers and people who helped with their ideas and encouragement. Thank you! [inessential.com]