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BlogMate - blogging with TextMate on steroids
TextMate has a basic, built-in blogging bundle that provides some decent features. You can use a variety of syntaxes (HTML, Markdown, etc.) to pen your next digg-worthy post, and the bundle also has rudimentary support for retrieving posts from your blog to edit. It's not bad, but it isn't stellar either.Todd Ditchendorf's BlogMate plugin, however, is stellar.As a blogging interface for TextMate, the first thing you'll notice is that BlogMate isn't simply a bundle - it's a full-blown plugin, offering a palette with all sorts of control over your MetaWeblog-compatible blog (for now BlogMate has only been tested with WordPress, but in theory it should work with any of these blogging systems). As you can see, BlogMate can keep track of a configurable number of past posts, hook into your categories and even display previews with pictures of your posts. BlogMate can also handle multiple blogs for those who can't stop at just one (I'm looking at you, Scott McNulty).Setting up BlogMate is a breeze, though I should probably mention at this point that it is a beta product, so I echo Todd's sentiment of backing up your blog's database just in case. Creating a new post is as easy as opening a new TextMate document and typing away, but there's a major difference from the Blogging bundle here: you don't need to insert a post title; you do that when you actually finish the post and click BlogMate's 'Send Post' button. Managing posts is one area where BlogMate really shines, as editing a post is as easy as writing one - simply double-click any post in your list (and you can configure BlogMate to pull down more than the default 10 posts) to open it with all formatting preserved. Deleting a post involves nothing more than selecting a victim and pressing delete. While you don't get some of the finer features of other blogging clients, BlogMate is already a pretty powerful plugin for the rocking swiss army knife text editor that is TextMate. Todd has done a great job here, and I hope enough interest builds to help make BlogMate worth everyone's while. If you're done reading and you're itching to get blogging, you can grab a copy and peruse more instructions and details from Todd's site here.
Twitter from TextMate
I'm a big fan of Twitter, and not just because I am on the top 100 Twitter user list (though that doesn't hurt). It is just plain old fun. I also enjoy the heck out of TextMate, which is also fun to use, though in a different way. Twitter and TextMate are two great tastes that, one would imagine, taste great together. Enter Muffin Research Labs (I never thought I would be writing that) with a new Twitter bundle for TextMate.Bundles, you'll recall, are sets of files which extend TextMate's functionality. As you might have guessed the Twitter bundle allows one to Twitter from within TextMate. Once you have the Twitter bundle installed you simply select some text, hit ALT T, and off it posts to Twitter. Keep in mind that this bundle is a little rough around the edges, and it requires that you have PHP installed on your Mac.So, what are you doing?
TextMate AutoTag bundle for WordPress
In the market of Mac users who have text to edit, TextMate has become one of the household names that we turn to the most. Likewise for the blogging world, few - if any - services come to mind before WordPress. Brett Terpstra of Circle Six Design knows this, and that is why his AutoTag Bundle for TextMate seems to be such a match made in nerdy blogging heaven. Brett's AutoTag bundle works with WordPress 2.1 and its Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin to present a window (pictured) containing all the tags you've used on your WordPress blog; perfect for tagging your posts on the fly and helping you to keep your tag system tidy. But one might ask: what is an AutoTag plugin without some auto action, right? AutoTag can tag your post for you by scanning what you've written and comparing it against your tag database. Simply type 'auto' and press tab to watch the magic happen. And as if that wasn't enough, AutoTag even has a command for suggesting new tags, again based on a scan of your post's content or even Yahoo's Tag Suggestion feature. With all this clever 'auto' functionality going on, let's just hope Brett's next plugin isn't called 'AutoBlog,' or we might all be in trouble. To give your TextMate + WordPress workflow a tagging boost, you simply need to install a UTW-RPC plugin for WordPress (available with the AutoTag bundle) in order for TextMate to access your database of tags. Setup is really simple, but be sure to download the version of AutoTag that corresponds to the version of TextMate you're running, i.e. - Cutting-Edge or the regular version available from the Macromates site. The AutoTag bundle and UTW-RPC WordPress plugin are open source and available from Circle Six Design.
TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac
Some people balk at the idea of paying for a text editor. 'Doesn't OS X ship with a pretty good text editor called TextEdit,' they say. That is very true, but if you make your living creating text documents (whether they be code, blog posts, or content of some other kind) TextEdit just won't cut it.Enter TUAW favorite TextMate. This program is the swiss army knife of text processing. It includes a number of features that make coding and writing a breeze. It is a complex application, and as such the learning curve can be a little steep. The Pragmatic Programmers latest effort, 'TextMate Power Editing for the Mac,' hopes to turn you into a TextMate pro. Author James Edward Gray II shows the reader the ins and outs of TextMate, and teaches you how to get the most out of this great app.'TextMate Power Editing for the Mac' is available now. The physical book costs $29.95, the PDF version costs $20, and you can grab both for $37.45.
TextMate 2's upcoming features
I spoke with the folks at the TextMate booth for a bit about the upcoming version. Yea, it's going to be Leopard-only, and we've been discussing why more and more devs are sticking with Leopard for their apps, but there's some pretty cool stuff on the way for TextMate. Beefing up support for version control software like Subversion, better Xcode integration and support for FTP are all on the way, though we still don't get an ETA since Leopard, strangely, is MIA.
Some TextMate tips and tricks
I've previously mentioned my text editor of choice is TextMate. I'm the first to admit that I am not a power user of TextMate, since I'm a word slinger not a code monkey. Lots of TextMate's features don't really come into play for me, but even if one discards the many features that help developers there is still lots to sink your teeth into. This avalanche of features is sure to intimidate new users, luckily our good friends at Circle Six Design have taken it upon themselves to enlighten us to some of TextMate's features, as well as give us the low down on how to make TextMate sing (in a metaphorical sense that is).As if that weren't enough, Scott over at WishingLine whipped up a neat background image that features some of TextMate's keyboard shortcuts. What more can a prospective TextMate user want?
List of Leopard-only apps is growing
Cocoa Blogs has linked a blog post from Gus Mueller, developer of such apps as VoodooPad, that an upcoming FlySketch 2.0 update will be Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard-only. This adds to a growing list of upcoming app releases such as TextMate 2 and Delicious Library 2 which will only play with Apple's next big cat. So what does this tell us about 10.5 and its impact on the Mac, both for developers and users? Sounds to me like there are some pretty ground-breaking changes in Leopard since, from what I understand, developers typically try to keep theirs doors as open as possible by maintaining backwards compatibility with at least one previous version of the Mac OS. Of course, this can vary depending on how difficult it is to keep these doors open, as well as whether the developer works out of an office or a living room. Personally, this boosts my excitement for Leopard. If it changes things as much as developers keep hinting, 10.5 sounds like it'll be a fun ride.
On TextMate extras
Like me, there are probably a lot of fresh new TextMate users out there in the audience thanks at least in part to MacHeist, so I thought it would be pertinent to point out a few helpful resources Allan Odgaard (TM's developer) maintains at macromates.com. Of course the searchable mailing list and IRC channel are handy for getting your discussion on, over which TM user Brett Terpstra just shared a WordPress templating bundle he's created - quite possibly a good addition to that theming workflow we just blogged. Another powerful resource is the TextMate wiki, which houses a plethora of learning tools and resources such as a bundle repository if you're looking for some features or a language not included by default, as well as an RSS feed for bundle changes. Of course, what text app would be complete without user submitted themes? Last on my resource roundup (but by no means the end of what's available) are a few TextMate plugins, including a WebMate plugin that turns TM's Web Preview into a full-fledged WYSIWYG HTML editor based on WebKit. There's a lot more from where all this came from, so dive in or simply get your feet wet with this swiss army knife of text editors.
TeXMLMate
I am a fan of TextMate for many reasons. The biggest reason is the active developer community that surrounds it. Not only does Macromates continue to dream up new features, others are extending the program in a number of very cool ways.TeXMLMate is a very cool XML palette that enables you to do a number of things with XML documents in TextMate. You can validate XML right in TextMate with TeXMLMate, and you can even validate against a schema you have defined. If you find yourself editing XML often you should look into TeXMLMate.
Developers unleash exclusive offers for MacHeist participants
One of the appeals of MacHeist that a few participating developers cited for their participation is residual sales. Things like upgrade licenses, extra plugins and add-ons can all be big boosts to a 3rd party developer's revenue, and some of MacHeist's participating devs have certainly hit the ground running. Yesterday I received my confirmation emails and licenses from RealMac Software (RapidWeaver) and Dave Watanabe (NewsFire), both with exclusive offers for MacHeist customers. First, RealMac Software is offering a 10% discount on theme packs, and Dave is offering a 'lifetime upgrade' add-on for NewsFire for a mere $11. We've also known from early on that John Casasanta has had a version 4.0 upgrade just around the corner for iClip, and MacroMates had an offer on the table since day 1 of at least 60% off an upgrade license to an upcoming version 2 release of TextMate.It will be interesting to see how all this plays out for these 3rd party developers in the coming months. I know I'm already falling in love with TextMate, and even though I use WordPress, ecto and Dreamweaver for most of my website needs, RapidWeaver is tempting me with its sexy ease of use and purty themes. The 3rd party devs, it seems, have already made a revenue statistic out of me.
Five blogging apps I'm thankful for
We are a thankful bunch around TUAW today, in honor of Thanksgiving here in the states. Since I spend most of my waking hours blogging I thought I would give some praise to the five applications that make blogging a breeze on the Mac. This is not meant to be a 'Top Five blogging tools post,' if you're looking for something like that, check out Glenn Wolsey's post on ProBlogger (though I have some problems with his post that I won't go into at this moment). Read on to get the skinny on the five blogging applications I am most thankful for this holiday season.
TextMate 2.0 will likely be Leopard-only
In what would seem, on the surface, to be an odd move for a text editor, Macromates has stated that TextMate 2.0 will almost certainly be Leopard-only. Allan Odgaard gives some good reasons as to why, though. And it's not just because the Halloween icon will look better with Leopard's resolution independence!Rather than paraphrase him, I'll paste what he's already said quite well:First of all, 2.0 is a free upgrade, so I won't miss out on any upgrade fees from people that want to stay on Panther or Tiger. Secondly, roughly 90% of my users are early adopters and have in all likelihood upgraded to Leopard within a few months of its release, so by keeping compatibility with older operating systems I am catering to less than 10% of my users. Thirdly, it has a significant cost to stay backwards compatible, this price is paid in the form of: Time spent debugging (and sometimes making workarounds for) issues only present on the older OS version. Time spent implementing stuff that Apple offers for free on the new version of the OS. Not being able to make use of features only present on latest version of the OS when it's too impractical to conditionally make use of them. Code complexity, because it needs to do different things on different versions of the OS. Is eliminating those costs worth a 10% drop in sales? You bet they are! The reason why I have kept Panther compatibility for this long has nothing to do with additional sales and all to do with me just not liking to cut people off. I think Allan defends his decision quite well. Much better than Adobe does, in regard to Soundbooth's lack of PowerPC support. There's more to Allan's statement, but you should hop over to his blog to read the rest of it and let him know your thoughts on the issue. To balance any potential backlash, Macromates will surely win a few hearts and minds by the free TextMate 2.0 upgrade. Any other TextMate users out there have an opinion on this?
Applications get in on the spooky fun
We've shown you a Sad Mac O'lantern, regular Mac O'Lanterns, Halloween iTunes picks, and how to make a costume for your iPod, all in preparation for tomorrow's big holiday. Well, it looks like Textmate wants to get in on the Halloween fun. Today a small update was released, and the icon was updated to a spookier version.Quicksilver is also sporting some Halloween influenced touches. This is why I enjoy using software from Mac developers, they have a sense of humor. I don't imagine Microsoft will be updating Office with holiday themed icons any time soon.
ColdFusion bundle for TextMate
I spend a lot of time in a text editor. Sure, I don't code (much), but I write many, many things. Recently I have converted to the way of TextMate.Why the switch from my once beloved TextWrangler (which was free)? One word: Bundles. TextMate has this really cool feature called Bundles (duh) that allow you (or someone who knows what they are doing) to extend TextMate with new functionality.Textile is supported (which was the real reason for my switch) and today I learned of CFTextMate, a ColdFusion bundle for TextMate. Given the fact that if I am programming it is in ColdFusion this is great news to me (and a few others reading this blog I would wager).Check out the screencast or download the Bundle.[via Ben Forta]
Top ten supplemental blogging apps
Chances are if I am sitting at my Mac I am blogging (perhaps not for TUAW, but for some blog somewhere) and so this list of the top ten supplemental blogging apps for OS X caught my eye.The apps that make the cut are: Quicksilver (a TUAW favorite) Firefox (though Flock gets a mention) Pukka NewsFire Transmit Image Trick TextMate Voice Candy Dictionary.app Adium and Skype A fairly good list, though it doesn't cover some of the apps I use whilst blogging. After the jump you'll find my list of blogging apps I can't blog without.
Blogging with TextMate
There is a new screencast up at the TextMate blog showing off how you can blog right from TextMate. Watch the screencast and I think you'll agree with me that it is pretty darn cool. Now, I don't think I'll be giving up MarsEdit any time soon, but it is nice to know there are options out there.[via Daring Fireball]
MacDevCenter talks with TextMate developer
Text editors are programs that inspire great loyalty amongst Mac users. BBEdit's legions of users attribute everything from being more productive to happier familys to the software's non-suckiness. TextMate is the up and coming text editor that many people are switching to.MacDevCenter recently spoke with Allan Odgaard, the man behind the application. They cover many things from being an indie Mac developer, to whether or not we'll see a TextMate for Windows any time soon (we won't).
BBEdit vs. TextMate
Francois Joseph de Kermadec no only has a better name than I do, he is also a much braver man. How else to explain his willingness to pen a review pitting BBEdit vs. Textmate. Furthermore, he does the impossible and says that neither of them wins the battle!Shocking, indeed. However, at the end of the article he points out why he pays for text editors (he has a license for both BBEdit and Textmate), and I don't think the answer will surprise you.
TextMate 1.5 reviewed
BBEdit is the grand daddy of text editors on the Mac, though I prefer TextWrangler myself. However, TextMate, a relative new comer to the scene, is getting a lot of attention from the geekier Mac folks out there. MacSlash has posted a glowing review of the app, which is making me think I need to take a second look at TextMate.So, dear readers, what text editor do you find yourself banging away in for the most part?
