Todd Ditchendorf’s Blog.

XML Nanny is now an open source project (BSD) on Google Code

If you’re looking for examples of how to do XML processing on OS X libxml or NSXML, you could do a lot worse than to look at the XML Nanny code base.

XML Nanny also includes code for XML Schema and RELAX NG schema validation using libxml, and NSXML XSLT processing (for Schematron).

Fluid 0.6 is out with RSS/Atom feed detection, draggable favicons, download support and more.

Fluid 0.3 is out… Big new feature: Custom App Icons!

Now you can select any image or .icns file on your system to be used as a custom app icon for an SSB created by Fluid. For now this has to be done on creation. Eventually I’ll add the ability to change the icon later. Release early, release often, right?

And, how cool is this… Fluid user Benjamin Stein had the brilliant idea of starting a Flickr group for shared Fluid SSB icons!

Fluid 0.3 is available from the website or via “Check for Updates…” in the Fluid application menu.

Good News and Bad News!

:0[ Bad News: Fluid 0.2 had a bug where certain interactions with the 'Create Site Specific Browser' window would cause an error message and fail to create your desired SSB.

:0] Good News: Fluid 0.2 also included the totally-rad Sparkle Update framework for super-simple software updates… and now we get to try it out!!!

Fire up Fluid 0.2 and you should see an alert about a new version (0.2.1) that fixes this issue and an option to download and install. Go Sparkle!

Alternatively, if you’ve disabled auto-checking for updates, you can go to the menu: Fluid -> Check for Updates…

Fluid 0.2 is out with two major improvements:

1. You can now specify a custom app install path.
2. The excellent Sparkle Update framework has been added for ultra-convenient software updates.

The first item is important because the previous version of Fluid forced you to install SSBs in the /Applications folder… that’s not possible for non-admin accounts. :0[

The second item (Sparkle Update support) is especially important for Fluid. Normal apps benefit greatly from Sparkle's super-simple 'Install and relaunch update' feature. But with SSBs created by Fluid, you'd have to delete and recreate multiple applications each time a new version of Fluid is released. So for Fluid, it's extra-important to have Sparkle Updates for both Fluid.app itself and the SSBs it creates.

The bad news is that version 0.1 (the previous version) didn't have Sparkle built-in. So this time around, Fluid users will need to delete all of the old SSBs they created with Fluid 0.1. The good news is that from here on out, updates will be painless... any time you launch Fluid.app or a Fluid-generated SSB, you'll get a notification if there's a newer version available. At that time you can download, install and restart with a single click! :0]

Thanks to Andy Matuschak who created the Sparkle Update framework.

Get Fluid 0.2

Fluid Changelog

Imagine my surprise as I stumbled home drunkenly last night from a Holiday party in soma to find Fluid featured on TechCrunch! w00t!

• TechCrunch: Fluid Is Great For People Who Are More Comfortable With Desktop Apps
• TUAW: Fluid makes site specific browsers easy
• LifeHacker: Add Webapps to Your Dock with Fluid
• Wired: Fluid Brings Web Applications to Your Mac Desktop
• Web Worker Daily: Do You Need a Site-Specific Browser?

And I love how the comments on the TechCrunch article are a collection of vitriolic bile/hate mail claiming Fluid is crap/useless/a Prism ripoff. Nice… I must be onto something then! ;0]

Yesterday I made my first Apple Retail Store purchase as an ex-Apple employee (more on that soon) at the Market St store in San Francisco.

I was pleasantly surprised that:

1. Apple allows you to choose to receive an email receipt only, thus saving paper waste.
2. Apple allows you to exit with your merchandise without forcing a plastic bag on you… instead they attach little tiny red ‘Lucky You’ stickers to your purchased items.

See?