Besides writing software for Mac OS X MMISoftware also develops websites for companies.

Over the past few months MMI has been working with Quartz Finances Ltd to develop their new website. Part of the project was to develop an online financial calculator called CheckLease. This turned out to be an interesting problem….

When Quartz described the calculator it sounded fairly simple. The first working model in Excel was simple, however, the calculator grew in to a very complicated project.

The calculator has been written in php, it works for three different currencies and includes a series of data checks on the inputs and online help. The results are then e-mailed to the person using the calculator.

What does the calculator do? Well, as it says on the Quartz site:

“CheckLease provides a free online evaluation of financing proposals, primarily for public sector organisations such as schools, NHS trusts, local authorities and other government agencies.”

So now you know…..

Well, the blog is looking and feeling a little neglected of late. Several reasons for this but the main one is I have been very busy on a number of projects.

1. Work for Quartz

Quartz (http://www.qrtz.co.uk) is a company founded in the UK about a year ago. They provide highly specialised financing to industry (I won’t even beginning to explain how what they do as I don’t understand it – have a look at their website). Anyway, for the past 10 months or so (see an earlier blog entry) I have been designing and coding their website. The website has been through three or four different designs and I think they are now happy with the final version. With luck the site should go live in a week or so.

In addition, I have been doing some php work for Quartz. At this stage I can’t say what, exactly, as it is still not ready to go live. However, I can say that I have had to learn some rather interesting financial calculation methods. Some of these may appear in future MMISoftware products (see note on ‘widgets’ below).

2. MMISoftware program updates

iCalMaker: Work is still continuing on version 2 of iCalMaker. However, because of the ongoing work for Quartz and some of the work below, progress has slowed. Mind you, this has not prevented the list of suggestions and requests from users growing – thanks for the input, it should make version 2 a great release. Version 1.8 iCalMaker download.

It is anticipated that there will be one or two more releases of iCalMaker before version 2. One of the releases will address any ‘late issues’ with Tiger (see below) and add a new esellerate engine, the other will be a general maintenance release to address a couple of known, but rare, bugs I am currently working on.

Web Photos: Version 2 of Web Photos has been on hold for some time. This was mainly because of a bug/problem that could not be solved. It now looks as though I have a solution to the problem, although it may mean the program requires 10.4 or greater. Also, the addition of the esellerate sales engine still needs to be completed.

‘The new program’: There is a new program in the works. The original release date was planned for March. However, due to the work for Quartz, and impending release of Tiger, work has slowed.

3. Tiger, tiger, burning bright….

As you may be aware (!) version 10.4 of Mac OS X is due for release on 29th April 2005. At present all of MMISoftware programs (iCalMaker,Web Photos, Power on X, mailMaker, Tunes Menu, BMI Calculator, quickWebAlbum, JPEGCleaner and webSiteCleaner) function with Tiger. However, until 10.4 hits the stores, and some final testing is carried out, the new versions will not be released.

Four interesting things are in Tiger, from a developers point of view:

• Widgets – not sure what to make of these. They look useful although I haven’t spent enough time with them to be sure. MMISoftware will certainly be developing a few Widgets which will complement existing products
• ‘Core graphics/image‘ – This will have some profound effects on the development of Web Photos, JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum. Time will tell….
• WebKit.framework – This framework is used in a number of MMISoftware programs and basically provides ‘web browser like’ properties to the programs. The recent changes introduced by Apple, as part of the new Safari in 10.4, may have some interesting ‘knock-on’ effects for MMISoftware development. Watch this space!
• xcode version 2 – All programs produced by MMISoftware are written in cocoa using xcode. The new version of xcode in 10.4 will make life a lot easier.

Yep, no post to the blog for some time!

Reason? Well, I have been busy coding for a new project (more on that in later posts), developing version 2 of iCalMaker, and working on a website for Quartz. The main Quartz site has been up for awhile, but I have been working with Quartz to develop a new online calculator. The calculator should be up and running in a few weeks. It has been a major project! All produced in php.

Also, I have been away on holiday.

A week long break to St Anton in Austria for skiing. Had a fantastic time. Conditions were great, but the weather was awful! We only had 1.5 days of sunshine, the rest of the time it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. I have posted a few pictures online and they can be found here. I also had my usual post-ski cold, which turned in to something really nasty this time!

Long – time – no – post!

It has been a long time since I last made a post to the weblog…. Why have things been so quiet?

Well, I have been busy. There was a trip to the US to do a spot of product research and to meet up with some friends. Took some great picts with a Sony DSV1 (and soon discovered that I needed additional memory and a spare battery)!

The main reason things have been quiet is there has been a mad push on to complete a new program. As usual the program has come about from the examination of my general computer use. That is, the realisation that I was repeatedly performing a task that could (and should) be automated. Yep, it is another ‘One Trick Pony‘….. And this one (in my opinion) is very useful….. It has already saved me many key-strokes and mouse clicks! (And, cost me money – check the program out and you will see why (the next post will give a download link).)

What is it? Well, it was due for release last Thursday, however, the final round of beta testing revealed a problem with certain firewall setups and the dreaded ‘## Component Manager: attempting to find symbols in a component alias of type (regR/carP/x!bt)’ bug which is caused by the pre-version 6 Toast plugin ‘Toast Video CD Support.qtx’ (found in /Library/QuickTime/Toast Video CD Support.qtx). The firewall bug has been fixed. Unfortunately there is no fix for the ‘regR/carP/x!bt’ problem other than getting users to remove the plugin or upgrade to Toast 6.

The program is now scheduled to be released on Monday (subject to the last round of tests).

Other news: I have been working on a website for ‘Quartz‘ and I am in the process of updating ‘The Face of Henley‘ website.