Helium Foot Software

MercuryMover v2.0 Beta

As of two days ago, MercuryMover v2.0 (Everyone's favorite app to move and resize the windows on their Mac with the keyboard) is in beta. Currently, we have a small private beta group and will open it up a little more next week. Barring any nasty, as-of-yet undiscovered bugs, then we'll start the public beta by the end of the month.

Of the features in v2.0, i knew that shortcuts would be the favorite, but i had no idea how much fun they would be to use! When i fling my iChat windows to just the right spot on my second monitor, and wave that email to just where i like to read documents (on the left edge of the screen, full hight) it feels like nothing short of a magic trick. It's fun being the magician.

Want to be a window magician? Contact us about getting into the private beta.

Off of the Bus

Throughout this entire week i've blogged every day as much to keep myself focused (with the constant threat of public humiliation) as i have to keep my loyal reader up to date on the latest comings, goings and what have yous here at Helium Foot central. As a one person shop who's trying to ship an update, it can be tough to cobble together enough time to run a business (even when working full time) so i've had to be creative in order to keep the blog posts flowing. My secret? Every morning after dropping my son off at camp, i board the CTA, take out my trusty 6.5 year old powerbook and blog away. This morning, my wife had camp drop off duty, which leaves my loyal reader with an abbreviated update. Suffice it to say, that i should have the entire list finished today which will have the private beta out next week. If you're interested in joining our beta program, please contact us via our support system.

For those of you keeping score at home, here's where we stand in our run up to the v2.0 beta:

• New pop-in/pop-out animations
• cool display when shortcut is saved
• Add shortcut editor to preference pane
• fix window along the left or bottom edge +/= key unexpected behavior
• change demo so that it is based on a number of uses, not a number of days
• give pref pane a once over
• change "Advanced" tab to "Keys" and list undo, redo, center and maximize
• set the copyright year automatically at build time
• Give EULA a once over
• run through clang

Up today: Finishing touches on the shortcut editor, update the EULA and run the code through clang's static analyzer.

Short(cut) time

Yesterday and the day before i had planned to cross MercuryMover's new shortcut editor off of my todo list. As man plans, software laughs. Fear not loyal reader, for yesterday i solved the major technical problem. Before i give you the slightly technical answer, let me provide an introduction for those of you new to the Helium Foot blog. Here at Helium Foot Software, we're working on v2.0 of our flagship (and for now, only) product called MercuryMover. MercuryMover enables you to move and resize the windows on your Mac from your keyboard.

For the last few years hooking up a user interface to your Mac app's preferences has been pretty trivial thanks to Cocoa Bindings. In short, bindings provide the glue between your interface and your data (whether that data is in some persistent store such as your preferences or is just your applications's model). Unfortunately, my case is not exactly textbook since MercuryMover ships as a Preference Pane that is hosted by System Preferences. Thus, when i try to bind to my preferences, i'm bound to the preferences for System Preferences (would you prefer that i write about something else??). The solution was to create a proxy object that hosts an array of all of the Shortcuts. This array is both backed by MercuryMover's preferences and also bound to the Preference Pane. This lets the Preference Pane display the shortcut information as stored in the preferences file, and also persist changes to the same. Eagle eyed (kv) observers will note that this will keep information in sync only in one direction (from the Preference Pane to the preferences file) but not vice versa. Since the MercuryMover agent that actually moves and resizes the windows can also create shortcuts, i have said agent posting a notification via the NSDistributedNotificationCenter which the Preference Pane listens for and updates itself accordingly.

For those of you keeping score at home, here's where we stand in our run up to the v2.0 beta:

• New pop-in/pop-out animations
• cool display when shortcut is saved
• Add shortcut editor to preference pane
• fix window along the left or bottom edge +/= key unexpected behavior
• change demo so that it is based on a number of uses, not a number of days
• give pref pane a once over
• change "Advanced" tab to "Keys" and list undo, redo, center and maximize
• set the copyright year automatically at build time
• Give EULA a once over
• run through clang

Up today: Finish the shortcut editor and fix the maximize/center bugs.

Shortcuts and Setbacks

The problem with creating a task list like the one i have for this week is that software, like so many things in life, doesn't always cooperate (see my 2.5 year old at the dinner table). The technique that i had planned to use to write the shortcut editor was a total bust. I ended up putting out a call for help and moving on. Like i always say, if at first you don't succeed, work on something else until you have a better idea. If no help comes through, then i'll just have to roll up my sleeves and write a lot more code this afternoon.

For those of you keeping score at home, here's where we stand in our run up to the v2.0 beta:

• New pop-in/pop-out animations
• cool display when shortcut is saved
• Add shortcut editor to preference pane
• fix window along the left or bottom edge +/= key unexpected behavior
• change demo so that it is based on a number of uses, not a number of days
• give pref pane a once over
• change "Advanced" tab to "Keys" and list undo, redo, center and maximize
• set the copyright year automatically at build time
• Give EULA a once over
• run through clang

Up today: new demo mode, and the shortcut editor (take 2).

Short(cut) update

MercuryMover v2.0 is starting to shape up! For those not yet in the know, MercuryMover is our program that lets you move and resize the windows on your Mac via the keyboard. If you're a keyboard lovin', Launchbar/Quicksilver usin' power user, then MercuryMover is definitely for you. Yesterday, i more or less got the animations down, although i reserve the right to revisit them today to try and make them a little more, er, better.

The animations in question are used to transition between MercuryMover's main heads up display that denotes which mode you are in (move, resize rightwards/downwards or resize leftwards/upwards) and the display used to save a shortcut.

What's in a Shortcut

Shortcuts is one of the main features of this release. When using MercuryMover, you'll be able to hit cmd-d to create a shortcut (the key combination might look familiar since it's the time honored key combo used to bookmark web pages in Safari, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape and probably that one from the folks in Washington state.) Each shortcut can be the current window's size, position (it's top left corner relative to the top left corner of the main screen) or both. Even better, MM now display's the size and position in a floating heads up display so you'll know exactly what your shortcut is.

For those of you keeping score at home, here's where we stand in our run up to the v2.0 beta:

• New pop-in/pop-out animations
• cool display when shortcut is saved
• Add shortcut editor to preference pane
• fix window along the left or bottom edge +/= key unexpected behavior
• change demo so that it is based on a number of uses, not a number of days
• give pref pane a once over
• change "Advanced" tab to "Keys" and list undo, redo, center and maximize
• set the copyright year automatically at build time
• Give EULA a once over
• run through clang

Up today: The shortcut editor.

Week[0]

Now that i'm spending some quality time with Helium Foot, the first order of business is to get the long overdue MercuryMover v2.0 beta release out. Barring anything unforeseen, i should have a private beta out by the beginning of next week (if you're interested in joining the beta program, definitely contact us via our support system.) Of course, to get that beta out, i have my work cut out for me. But before i regale my loyal reader with the todo list, let me welcome those of you who are not yet familiar with us. Helium Foot Software is the maker of MercuryMover which lets you move and resize the windows on your Mac via the keyboard.

Here's what's on tap for the week. I'll post an update every day reviewing our progress. If i don't check everything off by the end of the week, then let the public humiliation begin!

• New pop-in/pop-out animations
• cool display when shortcut is saved
• Add shortcut editor to preference pane
• fix window along the left or bottom edge +/= key unexpected behavior
• change demo so that it is based on a number of uses, not a number of days
• give pref pane a once over
• change "Advanced" tab to "Keys" and list undo, redo, center and maximize
• set the copyright year automatically at build time
• Give EULA a once over
• run through clang

Up today: Animations, and shortcut saving.

Episode Two: Attack of the Podcast

Episode two of Mac Software Business: Year One, just hit the wires. Like last time we're a little pressed for time here at Helium Foot central, so we'll just hit you with the description taken from the Mac Developer Network:

In this four part spin-off series, Mac Software Business: Year One, we'll cover the life of three new Mac indie startups, with one seasoned veteran provided for good measure. Our second episode covers how our audacious Micro Mac outfits operate their operations. Our panel include:

• Keith Alperin: Helium Foot Software, your moderator
• Steve "Scotty" Scott: mamooba and the Mac Developer Network
• Kevin Hoctor: No Thirst Software
• Gus Mueller: Flying Meat, your seasoned veteran

There's a lot of great stuff to learn from these guys, and they have all been incredibly generous by spending the time to record these shows with me. If you are a recent or soon to be startup, then you should definitely give a listen. A special shout out goes to Scotty who not only joined us on the call, but also distributes the show via his excellent Mac Developer Network.

While there were no disasters (natural or otherwise) that took place during the recording of this show, there's plenty of laughs and you might even learn something before you're through.