YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – Several days ago, I released an iOS app named Path Along. Here comes the desktop version called Path Along Desktop.

The Maps application that comes with macOS has an interesting, useful feature that lets you estimate travel time between two ends. But you can’t tell the application which street to take. More interestingly, if you drop a pin, you may get a street view around it.

Path Along Desktop takes a few steps further and lets you create, save and reuse a route on the map. Click anywhere on the map where there is a street, and the application will erect a number marker. Click on another point, and the application will connect it with the first marker to create a route path. You can continue to add more number markers to the current route. Or you can right-click to remove an existing one. The application will automatically give you the total distance and the estimate travel time along the route with a given speed. Furthermore, if the route is closed connecting the start and end points, it will also calculate the area in terms of km² or mi².

Señor Tomato

Señor Tomato

Connecting markers with a path isn’t the ultimate goal of Path Along Desktop. By having multiple markers between two ends, the application can create a slideshow by putting a street view picture at each marker together. You can save this slideshow as a QuickTime video, which you can open and view with QuickTime Player.

These are simple steps in using Path Along Desktop.

(1) Click on the green Start button to start a new route project.
(2) Click on a street over the map to erect a number marker.
(3) Continue to add more markers to connect markers with a path. If you have made a mistake tapping the map, just choose Undo under Edit. If you want to remove any of markers, right-click on one and then choose Remove Marker.
(4) Click on the gear toolbar button to open Settings to set your distance unit and a travel speed. You can also select a route path color and its width.
(5) When you are finished, click on the Save button. And name a route project so that you can reuse it at any time.
(6) If you want to create a slideshow to put street view pictures from each marker together, click on the video toolbar button. This process can take a while. So wait for the application to close the sheet and prompt you to name a video file.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – As I mentioned several days ago, I’m ready to announce a new desktop application release. This new software submission to Mac App Store is called GibHub.

Git is an essential tool for those who work as a software development team member. Even when you are a solo software developer, Git is an irreplaceable version control system that lets you give access to an old commit when necessary. Meanwhile, there are popular desktop applications such as GitHub Desktop and Sourcetree for the version control. If you compare GitHub Desktop with Atlassian’s Sourcetree, you may notice that there is one crucial feature that the former lacks. GitHub Desktop doesn’t let you give access to different versions of a file that you have committed.

Señor Tomato

Señor Tomato

GibHub is developed for Xcode users who use GitHub Desktop for the version control. GibHub gives you access to the commit history of the Xcode project you select so that you can get your hands on different versions of the selected commit. You can also select a particular file from the entire Xcode project and see its commit history. Once you find the version of the selected file from the selected commit, click on the Show in Find button and the Save toolbar butto to save the selected version to disk.

1. The following is a quick list of steps in using GibHub. Drag and drop a parent folder containing the Xcode project folder and the Xcode file (xcodeproj) onto the drop box.
2. Click on File or Commit History at the bottom.
3. If you want to see the commit history of your Xcode project, click on Commit History. And you will see a list of commits. Then click on the Show button for the corresponding commit to see the list of files.
4. Now that you have a list of files in the selected commit, click on the Show in Finder button for any of the files. Or click on the Save toolbar button to save the corresponding file to disk.
5. Returning to the Startup screen, click File History to list all files in your Xcode project.
6. If necessary, use the search field at the top-right corner to find a particular file to see its commit history. Select the row of a file name and then click on the corresponding Show button.
7. Now that you have a commit history of a particular file, select two versions and then click on the Compare toolbar button to compare two versions of the selected file.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – September was over last week. So was the unusual rainy season, finally. I can now go jogging every day. Wait, I have a new application to announce before I go outside. This new release is called Grabbo 2.

Grabbo 2 is a sequel to an 11-year-old desktop application that lets you reposition and resize the selected application window. It is something that I really needed to work on so that I can make desktop screenshots of applications that I develop more easily.

Señor Tomato

Señor Tomato

Grabbo 2 lists all application windows that are currently running on your Mac when you launch it. So select one and then click on the Move or Resize toolbar button. Then enter a new position (x, y) or window size value (width, height). Additionally, you can use the countdown timer so that Grabbo 2 will count down to 0, and then it will move or resize the selected application window.

When you have two or more windows from the same application, you may find it difficult to tell which window belongs to which frame record. In this case, you can select one in the list and click on the Overlay button to cover the selected window with a color frame.

Grabbo 2 is not so perfect as the previous version. Grabbo 2 doesn’t work with all applications. For example, it cannot change the window position and size of Calculator.app. Furthermore, every application that Grabbo deals with requires that it has an exception entitlement.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – The rainy September continues. It sucks. Could someone stop the rain so that I can go jogging? For now, it’s not raining. According to the weather forecast, we will have a sunny day tomorrow. Hopefully, that will be true.

Since I cannot go jogging, the best way of spending time at home is writing code, you know? Actually, I’m ready to introduce a new desktop application. This new release is called Ranking Optimas.

App Store Optimization (ASO) is an integral part of generating good revenue by selling software at Apple’s App Store and Mac App Store. It requires continuous effort in improving app’s visibility. Using a wrong list of keywords can make your app undiscoverable, which may lead to an undesirable flow of revenue.

Ranking Optimas is a desktop application that helps you make a good decision in choosing right words to use at the digital store. Ranking Optimas does NOT give you a list of keywords since it doesn’t know how your software title works. Rather, it tells you which group of keywords should be prioritized when you have plenty of them to choose from.

The following is how Ranking Optimas works. You create a keyword project at the Startup screen. You select it and then click on the Edit toolbar button with it so that you will navigate to the Keyword screen. This is where you create a list of keyword groups. After having five or more keyword groups in the list, click on the Run toolbar button, but select the target platform and the country with the drop-down menus at the top. When you click on the Run toolbar button, the application will access iTunes Connect get store data. It is allowed to access once every minute at most. If you have five keyword groups, it’ll take Ranking Optimas six minutes to finish getting store data. The application will automatically close the Progress sheet when it’s done. Ranking Optimas will give you access to the names of top-ranked software titles from iTunes Connect, So click on each View button to see if you find useful keywords from this list. Returning to the Startup screen, select the keyword project and then click on the Analyze button. And Ranking Optimas will show you a horizontal list of keyword groups with ranking numbers.   Continue reading →