Yep, it’s that time again. I could do with a handful of people to try out the latest version of Base. The main changes in this version are large updates to SQL and CSV importing, so I’m looking for people who can put these areas though their paces.
Anyone who wants to try it should mail me (info@menial.co.uk) and I’ll be in touch with directions for downloading the app.
Base 1.3.4 has been released today. It only has one change over 1.3.3 which fixes a bug causing the app to crash on quit (very annoying!).
As usual you can download the update from it’s product page or by checking for updates within the app.
A year ago today, Base was introduced to the world as a shiny new 1.0.
Well, perhaps not that shiny.
A bit of a rookie error meant that anyone buying the app couldn’t actually use the license file they’d just bought until 1.0.1 a few hours later. Version 1.0.2 followed the next day after someone found noticed another bug. Both of these were things that should have been found during testing, and served to show how thoroughly you should test an app before releasing it. That mad scramble had a chastening effect and all releases since have been much more comprehensively tested!
Since then there have been 3 feature releases, each introducing quite large changes - from syntax highlighting to a custom table editor - and the user base has continued to grow at a steady pace each month. The emails of suggestions, encouragement and complaint sent by both existing and potential users have helped shape the apps development and show it’s future direction.
There is still a lot of work to be done on Base, and a long list of features to add. The trick will be adding them without adding clutter. I use Base in my other development projects and want it to be an app that you can use without thinking too much. Something that you can dive in and out of without distracting you from the greater task at hand.
So, after this minor reminiscence I’d like to say thank you to all the users of Base. It’s been fun making it, and you enable me to keep at it. Please continue to get in touch with your comments, requests and complaints. They all help to make Base a better app.
I’m very pleased to annouce the release of Statistics for WordPress, our latest app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Statistics for WordPress lets you track visitor numbers across your WordPress-powered sites using a clean and easy to use interface with multi-touch graphs.
For more information (including requirements and screenshots) you can check out it’s product page or see it on the iTunes Store.
Unfortunately, yesterday the graphics card on my mac died (apparently it’s a recognised problem) and so I’ve been unable to do much in the way of coding or support. Thankfully, Apple have been good about this breakage and have agreed to fix it even though the machine in question is out of warranty. The downside is that while I’m trying to find a machine to work on while that mac is being repaired, email support will be quite a bit slower than normal.
If you need assistance with anything from here, please do still send an email. Just don’t be surprised/offended if it takes a little while for you to get a reply.
Base 1.3.3 has been released today. Among it’s changes are two highly requested features: Inclusion of full-text searching (the FTS3 module) and improved handling of SQLite internal tables (those with a name starting “sqlite_”). You can now enable/disable visibility of internal tables in the app preferences.
FTS3 does come with a minor caveat. It seems that there is not a reliable way to identify tables that are part of an FTS3 index. Because of this, I have disabled the modification of virtual tables from the user interface. You (the user) will be responsible for not modifying or dropping the *_content, *_segdir and *_segments tables generated by the FTS module. I do hope to improve this in the future.
You can download Base 1.3.3 from it’s product page or view a full list of changes.
Edit 2009-10-08: There was a bug causing a crash which slipped through my testing. This crash would occur when you tried to alter any table. I have updated the download of Base, but not changed the version number as it was a very minor fix. If you are affected by this problem, you can download the fixed version by checking for updates within the app. I apologise for the annoyance this has caused.
As I don’t have one of those (expensive) subscriptions to Apple’s Dev Centre, today has been the first chance to test Base on Snow Leopard (10.6). So far everything seems to work ok, but if anyone comes across any new oddities since upgrading, please let me know. You can either add a comment below or send an email.
A notice for anyone using BatteryInfo on Mac OS 1.5.8 or higher. With the 10.5.8 release, Apple made a change which broke the way this widget gathers data causing it to look empty while actually fully charged:
You can download a fixed version (v1.5.1) from the BatteryInfo page. It also includes a Japanese translation by Takeshi Sagara.
Just a quick note regarding Base and using non-English characters in SQL queries. Base defaults to using the font Courier in the custom SQL and log views. This font doesn’t seem to support a very wide range of international glyphs, so text like ‘Αθήνα’ 1 simply doesn’t appear in the text fields!
To fix this problem, open Base preferences to the Logging tab, and pick a different font. In the next release the default font will be Courier New, which has better support for international text.
Base 1.3.2 has just been released. This is only a small bugfix update, so no new features. The changes are as follows: