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Author: mikebianco

What Does NSString’s Length Method Really Return?

You would think that it returns the number of characters in the NSString, but it doesn’t. Instead, it returns the number of unichars (1 or 2 byte characters). So as far as -[NSString length] is concerned every 4 byte unicode character (the double flat, for instance) counts as 2 characters even though it’ll only be displayed as one character on screen. This isn’t a bug per-say in -[NSString length], but it’s not the behavior I was expecting…

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Splitting & Merging Binary Files

Yesterday I had to upload a huge file (1.4GB tar.gz file) to my web-server and uncompress it once it was uploaded. Even my new fiber optic (FIOS) internet connection couldn’t handle a file that big (it dropped out at around 900mb). So I figured I would split the file up into manageable chunks, upload the split files to server, join them together, then uncompress them. Since I’m no unix shell guru I googled “splitting and merging binary files unix”; nothing useful came up, I tried changing the search terms a little bit to get different results, still nothing. Using ManOpen I found the split utility. Looked like exactly what I was looking for…

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Disabling NSTableView Sorting While Using Bindings

Cocoa is very nice in that it gives you alot of functionality “for free”; spell checking, table sorting, text searching, font selection, etc, etc. Unfortunately it can be hard to disable the “for free” functionality; for instance, table sorting. To disable table sorting in a NSTableView using Cocoa bindings (via NSArrayController) isn’t as simple as clicking a “isSortable” checkbox in interface builder, or calling -[table setIsSortable:NO];; the solution is less straightforward than you would expect. Apple hasn’t documented how to disable sorting in table views using bindings, so it was up to a clever programmer to figure it out…

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Prosit Software: iDictionary 1.0

I’ve finally unveiled what has been keeping me busy over the last few months: iDictionary 1.0; my first shareware application. iDictionary enables you to put a dictionary or thesaurus on your iPod, check out the product page for more information. Now that I have released that, I’ll have some more time to put into this site. I have a couple of new open-source things I’ve been wanting to put up for download, so hopefully I’ll be able to put that up soon.

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XHTML 1.0 Transitional Compliant

This isn’t any big news for any of you non-web people, but I just finished making this site fully XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant. In the process I’ve added some new content on some pages, and tweaked the style of some. On previous sites I’ve created I really didn’t care that much about compliancy but with the last couple sites I’ve made I found that keeping the site complaint made the development process alot easier. If you really don’t know much about XHTML I recommend reading this article; I found it very informative.

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XASH 1.2

XASH 1.2 has just been released. This release has the following enhancements. Fixed a nil URL bug Added live (itunes-like) searching Some code cleanup/reorganization Added drag n’ drop for adding additional search paths Added the sparkle update framework Enjoy! If your a Cocoa developer you may want to check out XASH’s source code, it has a nice implementation of enabling a NSTableView to have a drag n’ drop capabilities while still using NSArrayController to populate the table.

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XTrace: Flash Debugging Without The Flash IDE

XTrace 1.0, a replacement for the horrible trace window in the Flash IDE, was released a few days ago. Take a look at the product page for more information on how it works and how to integrate it into your flash application. This is one of the pieces to the puzzle, I’ll release the BASH script I’ve written that allows better MTASC Xcode integration as soon as possible. I need more beta testers for the new application I’m going to be releasing, email me if your interested!

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TextMate: Most Advanced Editor. Ever.

If you haven’t tried out TextMate I command you to download it right now. Its the most powerful and flexible editor I have ever used, I’m having trouble understanding how everything works its complicated. The syntax coloring is amazing, its so incredibly customizable. This is the only Cocoa text-editor I’m aware of that has code-folding, which is a very cool feature. The documentation is awesome and the wiki and mailing list are awesome resources too. It has amazing integration with the command line, allowing almost endless customization!

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