Posted by Ben Jackson
Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:09:19 GMT
The short answer: don't use them. Ruby threads (at least before 1.9) are not OS native, and while there is a patch to the ruby interpreter included in Leopard's ruby to work around this issue, it's not 100%. It's all too easy for a thread to access memory after it's been garbage collected, and you, the developer, have to always remember to never call anything GUI-related from a separate thread, instead littering your code with calls to performSelectorOnMainThread:withObject:waitUntilDone anytime you need to update the user interface from a thread other than the main one.
So what's the best solution? Props to Eloy for tipping me off that it's better to rely on Cocoa's native asynchronous functions anytime you need to do something long-running like, say, detect a weblog's API. NSURLConnection and NSURLDownload are your best friends. They use native threads and are much more stable. Use them with respect and you'll be much further along on your way to a crash-free application.
One thing to note about NSURLConnection is that it encapsulates a single request only, and will not follow redirects, so make sure to check the response code in connection:didReceiveResponse.
Good luck and happy threading.
Posted in Development | Tags cocoa, gotchas, ruby, rubycocoa, threads | 2 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Ben Jackson
Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:39:00 GMT
By far one of the most frustrating things for me while developing Blogo was the fact that my old installation of typo would inexplicably throw 500 errors when posting new articles via the API. Needless to say, not being able to use my favorite blog editor on my own blog kept me from posting much during the last year.
After months of hemming and hawing, I finally sucked it up and upgraded to 5.0.2. For now the sidebar is stripped down (typo has abandoned the old sidebar engines and now uses plugins for better performance), but other than that my theme seems to have survived intact.
Stay tuned for a lot more posting, an upgrade to the theme (Deva, I'm looking in your direction) and a new version of Blogo coming out soon.
Posted in Development | Tags news, typo | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Ben Jackson
Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:17:00 GMT
Brainjuice is gearing up for the launch of Blogo 1.0 this Thursday.
We'd like to thank everyone who has downloaded Blogo thus far. I'd also like to take this opportunity to explain some of the stability issues we've been having since the release of the beta.
Blogo depends on RubyCocoa, a framework which was recently included in OS X 10.5 Leopard, but which is not installed in earlier versions. In order to avoid confusion at download time, we decided to build a single, universal binary for the two operating systems.
Unfortunately, building a single application which is stable on both Tiger and Leopard has proven impossible with the current version of RubyCocoa. RubyCocoa's maintainers have expressed that this is not a high priority for the project, and as we feel our time would be better spent improving Blogo, we have decided to split it into two separate builds. We will continue Tiger support until Blogo 1.2, after which further upgrades will be Leopard-only.
Most users should be able to update automatically to the new version by clicking "Check for updates" from Blogo's preferences. If you are unable to run the automatic update, please visit our site and download the correct version for your operating system.
On another note, we've decided to stop requiring names and email addresses to download Blogo through the Brainjuice site. After seeing the actual number of people who prefer not to give out their information, we decided to switch to a direct download. Our offer for $5 off the purchase price of Blogo for beta testers still stands, however, and any users who have not registered, but who are using Blogo, can email support@drinkbrainjuice.com before launch to make sure they receive their coupon. Please specify in your email if you'd like to opt out of receiving further emails from Brainjuice.
We apologize for any inconvenience which the stability problems may have caused, and we hope you'll continue to use Blogo and keep the feedback coming.
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Posted by Ben Jackson
Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:24:00 GMT
Yesterday Brainjuice launched the public beta of Blogo, our new desktop blog editor. You can download the application from the Brainjuice hotsite with a simple registration (we kindly request your name and email before downloading).
Blogo will cost $25, and we'll be offering a 15-day trial for all users effective after the launch date.
Many thanks go out to our fantastic group of private beta testers, who helped us catch a bunch of bugs before releasing Blogo to the public.
We're hoping to get as much feedback as possible during this public beta period so that Blogo will be as polished as possible for our launch on December 6. To that end, we'll be offering a coupon for $5 off the purchase of a license to everyone who registers to download a copy of Blogo before the 6th.
What's that? You're not satisfied? Ok, fine. Anyone who purchases two licenses for Blogo will pick up a third on the house. No, this is not a holiday promotion. This is for keeps. Install Blogo on your grandparents' spare computer, or give your extra license to that someone special who's been putting off starting a blog.
Below, Blogo's tech specs:
Application: Blogo (beta)
Developer: Brainjuice
Type: Shareware (15-day trial)
Price: $25
Requirements: Mac OS X version 10.4+ (Universal). Tested and working on Leopard ;)
Blogs Supported: Typepad, Blogger, Wordpress, Typo and MoveableType.
Also feel free to check out our first review on Technovia, and also a mention on Mackinando (in Spanish). Long live the nerdy rabbit!
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