ReceiptWallet 1.6.0 b2 Ready to Go

I'm extremely pleased to say that ReceiptWallet 1.6.0 b2 (and DocumentWallet 1.2.0 b2) are now ready for testing (b1 had 2 bugs in it). This version brings a huge change to the product in that you now can have more than 1 library. For users that don't want more than 1 library, there will be few changes.

While the changes on the surface may look minor, I think it will bring a huge amount of flexibility to the products. People have been asking for the ability to start fresh with the new year. The multiple libraries feature will make that a reality. Each Library is actually a file package that contains the main database as well as folders for the receipts and thumbnails. Furthermore, you can copy the libraries onto a read only volume or burn to a CD and then be able to open up the library simply by double clicking.

I have gone to great lengths to ensure that everything works, but I'm sure I missed stuff. I've done most of my testing on Leopard, but done basic testing on Tiger.

If you want to give it a whirl, make sure you have the latest released version of the product, go into Preferences and change the Look for popup (in the lower right) to be Beta versions and Releases and then do a Check for Updates. When it says that there is an update, read the text CAREFULLY. You'll have to click a link to download the beta; clicking Installing Update will fail as I want people to read. So far, the 2 people that I have had try the new version, failed to read the text which says to backup, so I think this is wise for now; a bit inconvenient, but better than losing data.

Feel free to send me feedback. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve, but they'll wait for the next release.

UI Feedback needed

I've spent a significant amount of time working on the new version of ReceiptWallet. One of the changes is that information about a Library is now in a floating panel. However, I'm not happy with the buttons/look of the panel. I'm looking for ideas that people may have. Please feel free to post comments on send me email with ideas. Thanks!

Here's what it looks like:

Love/hate relationship with Cocoa Bindings

I have a love/hate relationship with Cocoa Bindings. On the surface, bindings look really cool. Write less code and get a program running faster. This is great in theory, but in reality, it can be tricky. Bindings in Interface Builder work OK (however, there seems to be annoying Interface Builder bugs that change the focus when you try to bind an object). The problem arises when you remove an object from a nib, run the app and find out that your get an exception that the object is not key/value compliant. So, you have to search through the nib looking for the bindings that are no longer relevant. If you have a lot of objects, this can be time consuming and problematic.

On the love side, I can more easily bring up a user interface and then have things update automatically when something else changes.

In order to help troubleshoot these loose bindings, I found a cool debugging technique. First, in your app's initialize method, add the following:

+ (void) initialize
{
	[BindingDebugObject poseAsClass:[NSObject class]];
}

then add the debugging object:

@implementation BindingDebugObject
- (void)bind:(NSString *)binding toObject:(id)observable
	withKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath options:(NSDictionary *)options
{
	NSLog(@"Binding: %@ %@ %@ %@", binding, observable, keyPath, self);
	[super bind:binding toObject:observable withKeyPath:keyPath options:options];
}

Paying to watch ads

My wife and I have now managed to get out of the house to watch a few movies without our son (we left him with a babysitter) and while it is good to get out, it reminds me of how annoyed I get at movies. We pay our money (we've gone to matinees so the cost is reasonable) and then have to sit through about 20 minutes of ads. It's worse if we get there early as they have the "20 before the movie". My wife calls it, the "20 before the 20 before the movie". Why should we have to pay money to see all the ads? The cost of movies has gone up so much in the last few years it is unbelievable. So the cost has gone up, the ads have increased, and the industry makes more money. We have to put up with it if we want to goto movies. I guess renting movies on my AppleTV is looking better and better.