TextMate 2 Basics
I have been using TextMate for years as my primary programmer’s editor, but it turns out that I only use a subset of its amazing features. I’ve been speaking with users of other awesome programmer’s editors and they wanted to know what it is in TextMate that I love so much and keeps me using it. So here are the basic parts of TextMate 2 that I use regularly. Maybe you can divine some tips from it.
Merge Asana Projects into OmniFocus
Note: Updated the script, see Merge Asana Projects Into OmniFocus Updated. I use OmniFocus to manage my personal tasks and activities, but my company uses Asana to manage Project tasks and activities amongst the team. I am so used to using OmniFocus that I often forget to check or update Asana, and thus miss tasks assigned to me or progress by the team. Wouldn’t it be nice if the projects and tasks in Asana also appeared in OmniFocus?
Apples and Rotten Oranges
So Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Communications at Microsoft wrote a thing called Apples and Oranges in response to the Apple Laptop, iPad, iWork, iLife and Mac Pro event yesterday, and sadly, it got a lot of coverage. So I put my snark hat on and decided to throw darts at his piece (almost completely reproduced here). The text in grey are his words, the rest is me attempting to be humorous, ridiculous or just plain snarky.
Sanity Saver: Detox expands t.co links
If you use Twitter and click on t.co links, or use Google search and follow their links, chances are your browser history is a mess of t.co/C*R@A%P& or google.com/S$H@I*T#. Which means there is no way to use your browser history to find that page you just saw (or saw a few days ago) and accidentally closed. And autocomplete does not work either. Shaun Inman (of Mint and The Last Rocket fame) created a Safari extension called Detox a while ago that automatically expands those pesky t.
Rails Tricks - Sharing the Model
I am building a series of Rails applications for different users and use cases, but they all hang off the same database schema. Using canonical Rails, that means a single, massive rails app with a bunch of controllers, a heap of views and a complex security model. I prefer small, focussed apps, so I decided to share the model instead. Here’s how it works. Sharing the model Lets call the the first rails project Master.
Why Microsoft Word must Die
Charles Stross, yes, that Charles Stross writes in Why Microsoft Word must Die: The .doc file format was also obfuscated, deliberately or intentionally: rather than a parseable document containing formatting and macro metadata, it was effectively a dump of the in-memory data structures used by word, with pointers to the subroutines that provided formatting or macro support. He focuses on the usability issues, the compatibility issues, the inconstancies and the forced need to upgrade just to read other people’s documents - and the idiocy of using this incomprehensible, short lived format in publishing.
Using Mac Navigation Keys in Visual Studio
As a developer, sometimes I am forced to use Visual Studio to code for Windows. Just like a lot of Mac developers, I therefore run Visual Studio in a VMWare Fusion VM. And it works great. Except it drives me nuts that keyboard navigation in the Visual Studio editor does not use the same keys as on the Mac. Which means I am constantly seeing the window move around when I am trying to get to a line end.
Homebrew Happiness
If you are expecting an article about beer, this is not it. This is about the best product that helps install and manage the Open Source software on the Macintosh computer that Apple decided not to include in OS X. In short, I use a lot of Open Source products for work, like postgresql, redis, mongo, node, boost libraries and rbenv. Installing and managing them natively on a Mac was a pain.
User Experience Shmecsperience
We designers of software spend a lot of our time thinking about user experience. We try to eliminate complexity, simplify interactions and to create delightful experiences. Reality: Most users don’t care about experience. We, who make and live in software, value such software, value our time and seek out such experiences. We understand how hard it is to make them. We take the time to learn products and find ways to integrate them into our lives.
SonicWall NetExtender for OS X Mavericks
UPDATE: 10.9 or above users, use the Sonicwall Mobile Connect app on the Mac App Store (or learn more at Sonicwall Mobile Connect for OS X Mavericks). TL;DR: Download from https://sslvpn.demo.sonicwall.com/cgi-bin/welcome. Follow the admin login instructions, then look for NetExtender / Client Downloads. UPDATE: Saved a copy of the DMG at https://hiltmon.com/files/NetExtender-7.5.757.dmg as the normal login seems to be disabled. (WARNING: Link will eventually get stale). UPDATE 2: Your company can also register and get the latest versions from MySonicwall.