It has taken a while (I'd hoped to have this out last year), but Code Collector Pro 1.5 is now out. The main focus of 1.5 has been improving existing features rather than adding new ones. The two big improvements are to syntax colouring and to import/export.

The syntax colouring was actually added in CCP 1.4.4 as a hidden feature, but it is now enabled by default. You can find out about the improvements here.

The import and export functionality is a massive improvement. Previously you could import or export snippets or export your library as plain text. You can still do these but there are some major improvements. For starters, you can now import your library from Coda, Snippet, Snippets or TextExpander if you have been using one of those apps. You can also export your library to XML, which unlike the plain text format can be re-imported, making it highly useful for backups.

Universal Snippet Format

When importing and exporting snippets, Code Collector Pro 1.5 uses a new format. It has the same .snippet extension as previous versions of Code Collector Pro, but it is designed to be a universal format for transferring snippets. The format has been developed with the developers of both Snippets and CodeBox. Code Collector Pro is the first to implement the format, but hopefully over the coming months you'll also see support in both Snippets and CodeBox.

We really want to push this as a universal format, and to help with that I've published the source for the parsing framework to Github so that others can easily add it to their Cocoa apps. The format is simply XML so could also potentially be used by web APIs for sending snippet data. I'll be posting full information about the spec online as and when I find the time.

Extra Goodies

There are also some extra improvements that have been added. The first is that the line number size now grows and shrinks with the text size. It is a minor improvement, but one that has been requested by quite a few people.

The other improvement is one that has been asked for by a lot of people, but it isn't recommended so is a bit hidden. You can now change the location CCP looks for your library file. By using the following command in the terminal you can change it to anywhere on your system (change the path at the end as appropriate):

defaults write com.mcubedsw.codecollectorpro M3DatabasePath -string /path/to/database.sql

CCP won't transfer the library file to the new location, and only loads the path on launch, so if you want to move an existing library I recommend quitting CCP, moving the file using the finder, running the above command and then launching CCP again.

App Store Availability

Lastly, Code Collector Pro 1.5 will be the first M Cubed app in the App Store. It hasn't yet been submitted as I wanted to get 1.5 finalised out to existing customers before focusing on readying it for the App Store. I'm hoping I can get it submitted sometime next week, after which it is in Apple's hands as to when it will be approved.

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511 days. That is how long it has been between Code Collector Pro 1.3's release and the release of 1.4 (the geek inside of me now makes me wish I'd waited until tomorrow for a nice round 512 days). Yet despite this large amount of time, CCP 1.4 is admittedly lacking in new features. It has a lot of user interface re-design and bug fixes but in terms of new features, the most significant is probably being able to see the dates a snippet was added and last modified.

So why has it been so long between the two releases, and why has there seemingly been so little changed? This blog post is to answer those two questions.

Why so long?

Put simply, finishing my Computer Science degree got in the way. I release CCP 1.3 in November 2008. At this point my first dissertation deadline was approaching fast and so after I released 1.3 I had to focus on that (my dissertation contributing to over a third of the marks for my entire degree). My final deadline for my dissertation was late-April 2009 and from then until the end of May I had exams to revise for and take. Finally, come the 28th of May 2009, I was free and able to go full time with M Cubed.

But wait? That was 9 months ago, what have I been doing in the intervening time? Well first off I joined up with Fabio to start the design side of M Cubed which required management. And also I had to work on Minim 2.0 which was a complete re-write. Both of these required more time than I was expecting at first and so it was January before I could start work on CCP 1.4, which then took longer than I was expecting itself.

Why so little?

So why is there so little new feature wise in CCP 1.4? Well, put bluntly the code in 1.3 sucked. I have talked about why in a previous post, but in a nutshell it had a lot of 10.4 era code and was designed by someone much less experienced in software than me: me circa 2 years ago.

After hardly touching the code for over a year, when I came back to it I found I needed to re-write lots of it. In fact about 60% of the code in CCP has either been re-written or moved around between 1.3.6 and 1.4. A lot of old code was deleted with more modern alternatives put in its place. Essentially this re-write will make it easier to add newer features in 1.5 and 2.0. So while it doesn't add much now, it will allow me to add better features in the future at a faster pace with hopefully fewer bugs.

So make sure you checkout Code Collector Pro 1.4. While there isn't much new, there is a lot of stuff that has been massively improved. There's also a screencast showing some features that have been around for quite a while, but many people don't seem to know about.

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Welcome to M Diced, the M Cubed blog. I’ve been using my personal blog partly as an M Cubed blog for quite a while now but I think the time has come for a bit of separation. This blog will feature lots of news, tips and useful insights into our software and our company. So if you like our software then be sure to add this to your bookmarks, if not then add it anyway.

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