Angus Thinks

Author: AngusThinks

  • Cross Platform Applications

    With the announcement of Dashboard in Mac OS X 10.4 Apple, like many other companies, seems to have gone for a standards based approach. Dashboard is said to be based on HTML, CSS and javascript. A webpage in all but location. Microsoft tried something similar of course back with windows 98. You could display bits of webpages or activeX controls or java applets on the desktop. It didn’t prove all that popular then, but those pagelets were slow and clumsy. I very much imagine that dashboard is neither slow nor clumsy.

    More importantly though, dashboard objects have two interesting features. The first is that they use interpreted, not compiled, languages. The second is that they are essentially cross platform. I know that there doesn’t seem to be any particular other platform that can they can actually be moved to at the moment, but I feel fairly confident that before next year’s release of Mac OS X 10.4 someone will develop a suitable runtime for linux and quite likely windows as well.

    The dashboard concept seems to fall very much into the current fashion for application development. You write the interface in html, xml or something like it; then write the code in javascript or some kind of interpreted language. Then you provide libraries written in C or Java that provide the core functionality to the system. Mozilla’s XUL and Microsoft Avalon (windows xp next generation user interface) both use this approach. The Apple iTunes store also uses xml to describe the interface.

    It’s easy to see why this approach is popular. Building user interfaces from xml makes it much quicker to produce interesting results than having to change C++ code and rebuild. Multiple tools can be written to access the format and the result can be modified without rebuilding the main application. (Given modern build times always an advantage).

    One possibility is that dashboard may be something more than just a widget system. I have no inside knowledge whatsoever, but what if in future you could write whole applications using the dashboard system. What if you could create windows that were written in html/css/javascript and then tied to cocoa applications, much as we currently tie interface builder nib files to cocoa applications?

    Alternatively there is this mysterious business with Mozilla, Apple and Opera. The three have decided to work together to improve plugins, but what if they are actually considering a future application development and deployment system to compete against Microsoft’s .net? Combine the open .net implementations with something like dashboard and you have a cross platform development system that might offer developers a good incentive to develop for.

    I have no knowledge of the future though, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see

  • Definitions in spellchecker?

    There have been lots of articles today in newspapers because the Oxford English Dictionary publishers have claimed that people are confused and choosing words incorrectly. For example “pouring” instead of “poring”. The problem being that people are basing the word choice on the sound and thus homonyms (or homophones if you prefer) are confused. There are quite a lot of words that sound the same but different meaning, for example caret (a typographical mark and the blinking insertion point in a text editor) and carrot (vegetable).

    However I offer a simple solution: Have a brief definition of the word in the spell checker. Visual Studio already does this for programming languages so adding it to word processors is hardly difficult. The only issue really is likely to be disk space. If this is really a concern maybe some kind of online system? But I really don’t think it’s much of an issue given the current size of word processor installations anyway.

    It would allow writers to check whether the word that they selected had the correct meaning. Multiple meanings could also be listed, either in a list or with some kind of rotating display.

    Possibly it might even improve the quality of written english online? Of course it may be that there is a word processor that already does this. In which case the idea isn’t as original as I thought… but I would definitely like this feature in my word processor and even more so in system wide spell checking. 🙂

    [Edited: Because I suggested that Caret and Carrot were spelt the same.]

  • SQLEditor (Java) Final Candidate

    I’ve decided to release a new version of SQLEditor (Java). The FC1 version is a final candidate version that hopefully incorporates fixes for the bugs that people have reported. There have been problems with users running Mac OS X 10.3 because of crashes in the Java Virtual Machine. These are problems that Apple has to deal with and hopefully any remaining crashes will be fixed in revisions to the Apple JVM.

    SQLEditorFC1.dmg

  • No Chopsticks?

    Despite being absolutely huge the Sainsbury’s at Cameron Toll in Edinburgh doesn’t sell Chopsticks. I even went so far as to ask! Not one chopstick to be found (although presumably I would need at least two to actually get anywhere with eating)

    I wonder that they don’t have a little stack of chopsticks next to the Chinese ready meal section. Buy meal, chopsticks and plate altogether.

    Perhaps it is no wonder that Sainsbury’s non-foods aren’t selling very well? I really liked the old layout more than the new layout. Especially the cookery section; I never seem to be able to find what I want now. The food section was improved though and I think it’s currently my favourite supermarket in absolute terms. In practice I probably shop most often at Safeway in Mordun because it is slightly closer than Sainsbury and it’s a downhill walk on the homeward journey (Sainsbury is uphill on the way back).

    I’m definitely curious to see how Morrisons is going to change it. The refurbishment date is thought to be in August.

    I wonder if Safeway sell chopsticks? I didn’t look last time I was there.

    I’ll probably go to one of the Chinese supermarkets as recommended by David to buy new chopsticks, or Edinburgh Bargain Stores which seems to sell almost everything (although probably not chopsticks)

  • Apple iMac EOL

    The Apple – iMac page has a really odd announcement on it (right, middle) stating that stocks of the old iMac have pretty much run out and the whole line will be replaced in September. The message also apologises to customers for not having a replacement ready.

    It’s a weird message. The assorted mac sites have jumped on the message and rumors are flying in all directions: processor shortages, new materials, late redesigns or manufacturing disasters have all been suggested.

    The real oddity with the whole thing is the fact that there has been no public announcement of the unit. It wasn’t introduced at the WWDC last week. Why not simply announce it and then explain that it won’t be ready until the end of August? Lots of stories about this too, however it does suggest that the Paris Apple Expo is the most likely candidate for the launch. However I make no prediction on this.

    The timescale is odd as well. What exactly can be achieved in 2 months? (or actually about a month and a bit. According to manufacturing sources about 3 weeks are needed to actually get the stuff to retailers). Major redesigns are probably out, processor shortages are hardly unexpected given the situation with IBM at their East Fishkill processor plant. (Is it just me or is there something ironic about a processor plant that uses lots of exotic chemicals having the word Fishkill in it’s title?)
    Is there some odd technology or design that can’t be announced until September? Who knows?

    It’s unfortunate that this happened now. I was very interested in buying a new iMac to run 10.3 on, but now I have to wait until September. Almost two months away. 🙁

    This means that the cocoa version of SQLEditor has been delayed again. Sorry to anyone looking forward to this. I may release a technology demo for anyone still running 10.2.8, but 10.3 will have to wait.

  • Do I think enough?

    I’ve been wondering today if I actually think enough to call this weblog “Angus Thinks”?

    Is there a requirement to think a certain amount to be able claim that I do think and does the subject matter actually matter?

    I can see I’m going to have think about this a bit more…

  • Apple WWDC announcements

    Well by now everybody probably knows about this, but I thought to follow up my previous post.

    Apple launched the most amazingly large flat panel screens on Monday. The largest is a 30″ lcd panel.

    There was also a demonstration about Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) which is looking quite promising. It is promising to be a 64 bit operating system offering full contextual search facility and a new widget/desktop accessory thing with shades of Konfabulator.

    There was no indication of a new iMac at that presentation though. Which is odd given the story about the supply chain.

    Perhaps the following days will bring more rumors (false of course) which I can think about.

  • Added a few new links

    I just got finished adding a few new links. It’s getting to be this sort of six-degrees of weblog kind of thing. How can I get from here to any other page on the internet via only the links on this page? I don’t think that can be done from my blog yet but there are weblogs that it probably will work from.

    Yet the odd thing about weblogs is that they’re moving away from the main web at speed. The design and technology powering them is diverging quite rapidly. RSS seems to be the preferred way to read web logs and the styling is becoming quite unlike traditional web pages. Content is typically not even on a unique page.

  • Keypads disappearing from mobile phones?

    What purpose does the keypad actually serve on a mobile phone? Most people these days are not typing numbers on it. Numbers are usually stored in the address book. People type sms messages on it, but is that efficient? T9 predictive text input is ok but it really isn’t as efficient as a proper keyboard.

    I wonder if it’s faster or slower than graffiti like pen based input systems? Would a screen based keyboard be better? Maybe some kind of thumb-board?

    Mobile users have been carefully trained to type at speed on a very poor keyboard. Could they become used to a different and more efficient arrangement or are we permanently stuck with the legacy of the 12 key number pad?

  • Nokia 6600

    Dhruba posted a review of the Nokia 6600 a while back. He also let me borrow it for a few minutes to play a game on it and it is beautiful to use. Smart phones definitely seem to taking the place of the PDA.

    I definitely want one 🙂