Goodbye TextMate
Goodbye TextMate, you served me well.
I’m nearly sad to say that I have finally given up on TextMate. It was the announcement that TM2 was being open sourced that was the final straw for me.
As you likely know, I work extensively on open source code.
However I need a solid, commercially supported and maintained editing tool for Mac. That is insanely fast. That is up to date with latest O/S versions. That doesn’t kill my Mac when I try to find stuff in files. That exists, today.
How the development community killed quality for themselves
Businesses need great software libraries and components.
Businesses can get that stuff, free for the last ~10 years or so, but in reality the quality is very variable whether they know it or not. Also, because it is free people typically do not have the high bar they should apply to something they purchase.
Furthermore, it is hard to really feel that you value something if it cost you nothing.
Getting started with Arduino / Rainbowduino
I recently bought some Arduino microcontroller/prototyping boards and components. The plan is to rediscover my childhood interest in electronics and familiarise myself with these tools so that maybe in future I can help teach some of this at schools. This is because I believe that its the practical stuff that can integrate with other school lessons that can give young people the best start at programming.
The great thing is that actually, with only a little knowledge, doing this stuff is really easy. The Arduino board designs and software are open source, which is a good thing. However as usual this means the docs can be problematic.
Native will beat web apps on desktop too
It’s OK, I have two sets of flameproof clothing on.
Further to my contribution to the everlasting mobile web apps vs native debate I was discussing these issues again with good friend Richard (who is truly called a platform ninja), and again cropped up the “why is a tablet different from a desktop then? why is native better for tablets and not desktop?” question.
The web does not a mobile app make.
This is a rant about the Web vs. Native debate in mobile.
I’m very squarely on the “Native is best” side. Obviously if you don’t have the funds/expertise to make a native app then you’ll choose web – but I would wager this is only viable if you don’t actually want to make money out of the app. Unless you have some amazingly compelling content (like pictures of naked people) that can not be got at by native means.
