The first thing that was done was to ‘model’ the iCalendar data standard (rfc2445) into an Apple ‘xcdatamodel’.

Part of the iCalendar data standard modeled in ‘xcdatamodel’

This was surprisingly difficult and took a lot longer than anticipated. The model is now complete.

With a working model it now means that data-binding can be used between the main code of the program and the interface. This has the advantage of speeding up development and providing a consistency in the way the data is handled. Plus, it means less code has to be written.

Work on the fix for iCalMaker started back in November, and is still going on. It looks like it is going to be a long haul and that the code-base for iCalMaker needs a rewrite… there are a number reasons for this.

iCalMaker was written back in the days of Mac OS X 10.0, using the earliest xcode (the Apple programming environment) and contains a lot of old code that is no longer needed, plus it wasn’t written to make use of the latest Mac developments.

Hence, time for a rewrite to clear out the old code, bring in the new, migrate iCalMaker over to the latest version of xcode, use core-data and bindings, and objective-C version 2 with all the advantages that includes.

Why the name change? Well, it looks like the new iCalMaker will not work with Mac OS Xs earlier than 10.5. Hence, I feel a name change is needed…

When 10.4 was released Apple changed the way iCal worked. This caused problems with iCalMaker not exporting correctly to iCal. When this was fixed code was included so that iCalMaker would not export directly to iCal in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) (Amazon Link) until everything had been checked.

When 10.5 was released Apple changed the way iCal worked again. And this time it has caused real problems.

There is a fix for iCalMaker the works and I hope to get a beta out soon. However, it is proving to be difficult as iCal works in a very different way now.

Meanwhile, you can still use iCalMaker with iCal if you go via the file route. Export data from iCal as a file, and then import in to iCalMaker, export data from iCalMaker as an iCal file, and then import to iCal.

Work started on an update of iCalMaker back in November. It has proved to be an interesting challenge and things have moved much more slowly than hoped. However, there is now light at the end of the tunnel…

Over the next few weeks there will be a number of posts on this blog charting the progress of the work, so stay ‘tuned’.

If you would like to take part in beta testing of the new iCalMaker then please drop me a line beta_test@mmisoftware.co.uk. I already have a number of beta testers lined up, but as usual, I am looking for a few more. (If you are interested in beta testing please note that the new version of iCalMaker will only work under 10.5 (Amazon Link).

The upgrade from 10.5 to 10.5.1 (Amazon Link) fixed the crash on my home network, but I was still getting crashes on a clients networks (post4).

PubSubAgent just keeps on quitting…

The problem was also limited to a MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro at Amazon) and was not seen on a MacBook (MacBook at Amazon) – post2.

Well, good news. After upgrading to 10.5.2 the MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro at Amazon) is no longer giving PubSubAgent crashes when connected to the clients network which use a fairly strict firewall and a proxy… at last… no more annoying crash windows popping up…

Well, after recent events with a crashing MacBook (MacBook at Amazon), and the need to re-install Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) (Amazon Link) (read earlier post) I wondered how many Time Machine backups could be performed for one Mac?

I have a MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro at Amazon), which I use in the office and at home, and up until now I have only had a Time Machine backup running at home. But, what would happen if I spent a number of days working on my MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro at Amazon) in the office, and didn’t get around to doing a backup when at home? All the office work would be lost…

Therefore I have decided to try and run Time Machine backups to disks at home and in the office, and so far so good. The backup appears to be working to the disk in the office and the disk at home. There is, however, one minor problem, I have to remember to go in to the Time Machine System Preferences and change the target disk between office and home, and back again, as I change locations. A bit of a ‘drag’, but I can live with it! (May be in the future this sort of problem will be solved by Apple by adding Time Machine to the ‘Location’ system?)

So, what happened to the machine? Well, I have now idea. The client said they had been using iPhoto when the machine locked up and they forced a re-start. When the machine re-booted it would get as far as the Dock launching, the Dock would then hang and crash, and the machine would not complete the boot.

I tried the usual things. I booted from a Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) (Amazon Link) install disk, ran disk verification and repaired permissions. No joy. I then tried removing the Dock preferences. Again, the machine would not boot. Finally I concluded that the only solution would be to re-install the system.

When I set the client up with the upgraded MacBook (MacBook at Amazon) I also set up Time Machine and instructed them on how to use it. Luckily, they had been using it! But had not done so in the last day before the crash.

The re-install went great, no problems, and when it got to the point of asking if I wanted to ‘import’ system settings and files from another Mac or a Time Machine backup I used the backup. It worked like a charm! I just left it run, and the machine was back…. and as far as we can tell only one day of work was lost (well, a day and a half if you include the time for the ‘re-install’).

Update: One ‘weird’ side-effect of the ‘re-install’ and reset from the Time Machine backup was the next Time Machine back up took forever and some 60 GB of data was copied over. Odd.

One of the features I really like in Mac OS X 10.5 (Amazon Link) is ‘Quick Look’, which basically allows you to ‘peak’ inside a file without firing up the file’s program. Dead handy. However, there was, in my opinion, at least one big gap, ‘Quick Look’ couldn’t ‘peak’ inside zip archives, and now I have found another plugin (Folder Quick Look) there may be another gap I hadn’t spotted.

So, how does ‘Quick Look’ work. Easy, select a file in the Finder, click on it once, and then press the space-bar. A ‘mini-window’ then pops up showing the contents of the file, but, as I said above, it didn’t work for zip files or folder.

Zip – A quick look

I can see what is in a zip archive!

The ‘plugin’ for ‘Zip Quick Look’ can be found at this site, complete instructions on how to install the plugin in the Quick Look plugin folder.

Folder – A quick look

I can see what is in a folder!

The ‘plugin’ for ‘Folder Quick Look’ can be found at this site, again, complete instructions on how to install the plugin are on the site.

The first new bit of software to go on was Interarchy. I can’t believe I had forgotten to put it on… I don’t use Interarchy as an FTP client, but use it for monitoring network traffic on my MacBook Pro (MacBook at Amazon) when I developing web-based apps, and for mirroring ftp (and sftp servers) back to the office back-up system.

The other piece of software is the subject of the next post, and it has been a revelation! (Read the next post)…

Basically the ‘hints’ – I won’t list them here, go and look at the article ‘Terminal Commands for Hidden Settings in Leopard‘ – give the terminal commands for changing how a Mac application behaves/looks. These can be really handy – don’t like the new 3d dock? then change it… Stacks, the Finder, Spaces, Time Machine, iCal, and Menu Bar can also be ‘changed’ from their ‘default’ settings by following the instructions.

Well, I couldn’t resist testing the Hint and finding out what is going on with my back-ups.

I followed the instructions, and having changed the disk names etc. in the command, left it to run overnight (it does take a time to run…).

When I came back to my machine this morning I was HORRIFIED to find that there were 344 differences between the disk in the MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro at Amazon) and the Time Machine back-up. 344!!! That is not a back up….

Actually, it is a back-up. In the 344 files there were 174 that were not in the back-up but on the MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro at Amazon) hard-disk (HD), and the rest were in the back-up, but not on the HD(??).

When I actually looked at the files that were missing, i.e. I did a search through the list looking for the mention of my home directory (after all, what I am really concerned about is MY data, applications and the OS are ‘backed-up’ on the original install disks) I found 2 entries, and in both cases they were obscure files in caches for Xcode projects.

So, after the scare published in Mac OS X Hints I feel fairly happy with the back-up that Time Machine is keeping.