Episode 523: A Secret Futurist

Daniel and Manton talk about plans for MarsEdit 5, requiring a later version of macOS, and even employing SwiftUI in the new version. When is it the right time to drop support for older OSes because of the lure of newer features? Then they talk about when a major upgrade is “paid upgrade-worthy” and which platforms Daniel should invest in for MarsEdit’s future.

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July 27, 2022 at 5:53 pm.

Episode 522: I’m Sure You’re Happy

Manton and Daniel talk about the latest stage of FogBugz’s corporate ownership, the reaction among its few remaining users, and how happy Daniel is to have gotten out when he did. They ponder how important it is for any company to continually update their apps, as long as they continue to fulfill their primary purpose, and Manton makes a discovery about a long-time service he’d assumed was not receiving regular updates.

No sponsor this week! OMG WTF BBQ. Please sponsor us. Thx.

Links:

  • Where Software Goes to Live – IgniteTech blog post about FogBugz’s transition from DevGraph to IgniteTech.
  • Trello – Project management software that started within Fog Creek Software.
  • Glitch – Another company that started within Fog Creek.
  • ZenDesk – The support desk software that Manton used to use.
  • HelpScout – The support desk software that both Manton and Daniel now use.
  • Rich Siegel – Developer of BBEdit and another FogBugz customer.
  • dumpbugz – Daniel’s open source scripts for archiving FogBugz content.
  • Blinksale – Web-based invoicing app that Manton uses.
  • 37signals – A famous web development company.

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July 23, 2022 at 3:15 am.

Episode 521: Some Dumb Mistake

Daniel and Manton react to Elon Musk’s attempt to back out of acquiring Twitter. They talk about whether Twitter should even try to force him to follow through, or whether that is ultimately worse for the company. Is Twitter still a diamond in the rough, and could a leader with vision and enthusiasm make the company more valuable than Musk’s offer?

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:

  • Musk Backs Out – Bloomberg article about Elon Musk’s announcement that he wants out of the deal.
  • This Whole Ugly Episode – Hot take on Twitter acquisition fiasco from ex-CEO Ev Williams.
  • Trash the Company – Article about Twitter’s lawsuit against, and condemnation of Musk.
  • Stratechery – Ben Thompson’s newsletter, which included a thoughtful piece about Musk backing out.
  • Twitter CEO Needs to Go – Om Malik’s article in April arguing that Parag Agarwal is the wrong choice for CEO.
  • New Decade, New Ideas – Ev Williams announces his resignation as CEO of Medium.

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July 15, 2022 at 8:51 pm.

Episode 520: Do Weird Things

Manton and Daniel talk about Panic’s Playdate game system, the audaciousness of building a novel hardware device, and whether or not “What Would Panic Do” should still apply to most of us. They celebrate the thrill and joy of pursuing “weird” ambitions when you want to. Finally, they talk about their own tendencies to work on multiple projects of personal interest, and how much they should strive to avoid spreading themselves too thin.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:

  • Playdate – Panic’s hand-held video game system.
  • What Would Panic Do? – Gus Mueller of Flying Meat’s article about becoming an indie developer.
  • Dave Hayden – Panic developer who is largely responsible for the hardware design of Playdate.
  • Pulp – Panic’s web-based development interface for Playdate.
  • The Story of Playdate – Christa Mrgan of Panic reveals the history of the device’s development.
  • Panic Goods – Resting place for Panic’s erstwhile t-shirt business.
  • Nova – Panic’s Mac app for developing web sites.
  • Transmit – Panic’s file transfer app for Mac.
  • First Crash – Manton’s blog post about testing @cheesemaker’s app on Playdate.
  • The Future of Unison – Panic’s 2014 post announcing the end of development for their Usenet newsreader app.

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July 8, 2022 at 3:09 am.

Episode 519: It’s A Gift

Daniel talks to Manton about his continuing work to transition MarsEdit away from legacy WebView, the difficulty of doing so, and the thrill of becoming a “tangential expert” in web development. They react to a small rift in the WordPress community involving Matt Mullenweg and Go Daddy, and compare thoughts on what obligations, if any, consumers of open source software have to the creators.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:

  • Paste and Match Style – Federico Viticci describes several approaches to remap the default behavior of the Paste command.
  • Clipboard API – W3C working draft for web-based clipboard/pasteboard access.
  • MDN – Mozilla site for web developers.
  • An Existential Threat – WP Tavern article about Matt Mullenweg’s deleted statements about Go Daddy.
  • Audrey – Matt Mullenweg’s personal venture investment company.
  • About WP Tavern – History of the site describing Matt Mullenweg’s investment in the site.

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June 26, 2022 at 2:52 am.

Episode 518: Rubbing Salt In The Wound

Manton asks Daniel about hints he’s dropped regarding an upcoming MarsEdit 5 release. Daniel talks about how another 5 years has crept up on him and that he now feels another update is overdue. They talk about embracing relatively old Apple frameworks that are nonetheless new to us, and focusing on shipping updates with features that add value, even if they don’t fulfill every “magical” nuance you hoped they might.

No sponsor this week! OMG WTF BBQ. Please sponsor us. Thx.

Links:

  • What’s new in WKWebView – WWDC session about changes in the main web-rendering view for iOS and Mac.
  • WebView Deprecation – Apple’s suspension of the previously promised restriction on legacy WebView apps.
  • NSTextFinder – Documentation for integrating with AppKit’s native find/replace functionality.
  • iA Writer – Popular writing app that has recently added support for cross-document linking.
  • VoodooPad – Venerable Mac app supporting notes with cross-referenced links.

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June 17, 2022 at 9:26 pm.

Episode 517: When You Have A Hammer

Daniel and Manton react to announcements at WWDC, and share pessimistic and optimistic takes about what the future of the in-person conference might be. Daniel celebrates the new WeatherKit API and its “generous” pricing, while Manton remains somewhat dismayed by Apple’s continued focus on earning money off of developers. Finally, they talk about Swift Charts as a possible blueprint for future SwiftUI frameworks, and Passkeys as the future of authentication on the web.

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June 9, 2022 at 3:14 pm.

Episode 516: On A More Positive Note

Daniel and Manton talk about expectations for next week’s WWDC, the way the Apple Design Awards have changed over the years, WWDC’s Digital Lounges, and hopes for Xcode debugging improvements.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

  • TextExpander: Communicate Smarter. Listeners get 20% off their first year.

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June 3, 2022 at 9:16 pm.

Episode 515: In The Actor’s Studio

Daniel talks to Manton about his experience debugging an AppKit issue in Micro.blog, and his satisfaction with AppKit’s debugging ease. They compare the relative debuggability of SwiftUI, AppKit and JavaScript web frameworks. Daniel talks about diving into a long-postponed effort to migrate away from legacy WebView framework to the newer WKWebView design.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:

  • AppKit – Apple’s preeminent Mac development framework.
  • menuForEvent: – The standard Cocoa method that supports contextual menu presentation.
  • Cocoa Bindings – Apple’s much beloved and much hated framework for AppKit UI/model synchronization.
  • WebKit – The open source project for the web engine that powers Safari.
  • SwiftUI – Apple’s Swift-based framework for UI develeopment.
  • Micro.blog for Mac – The native Mac app for Manton’s microblogging service.

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May 29, 2022 at 1:49 pm.

Episode 514: Feeling Less Enthusiastic

Manton and Daniel share the results of their applications to attend Apple’s live WWDC 22 event, and talk more about whether they will or won’t end up making the trip to California. They react to a recent 37signals podcast about selling the byproducts of one’s work, and wonder about the more abstract benefits of promoting one’s general philosophies about software as a kind of “byproduct.”

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Links:

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May 20, 2022 at 1:08 am.