Category: TaskCard

I have had 3 users now contact me and claim TaskCard has deleted their sheets or stopped saving automatically but this was not actually the case after talking with them further.

The problem was that TaskCard since adding DropBox support in 1.5 filters out names that contain – ( or ) characters to avoid conflicts with some DropBox copies which can be made by conflicting file dates.

I should have made the filter more strict as it was a stupid decision to just omit those files without warning (as if users don’t ever use them).

Sorry for the confusion and I will fix this in the next minor update!

There is a new “mini” version of TaskCard available only on the Mac App Store prompted by Apples policy on not allowing trials which I think is unfair to the customers. Apples policy on the store seems to be giving the users little information then pressuring them into buying with a one-click system which can go 2 ways: #1 developers (and Apple) make sales by users who are just curious, and the user in the end loses after they realize the app is not what they want (a trial would have avoided this loss for them). #2 users who may have really wanted to buy won’t, because they don’t feel assured they’re getting what they want due to a no-trial system. Apple is certainly smarter than I am when it comes to marketing so maybe offering a trial/free version is just shooting myself in the foot?

About the app. TaskCard Mini limits the amount of cards to 4 and removed most of TaskCard’s “extra” features like sheets and attachments plus various preferences. I didn’t want to give away too much obviously since TaskCard is already very cheap and honestly the whole project is still an experiment I may pull from the store if it starts to cannibalize TaskCard sales. The iPhone app store seems to have plenty of apps offering “lite” versions as well and the theory is this will attract users to the paid version as free apps tend to get more exposure although I don’t see too many developers doing this on the Mac App Store. I’ll let you know how it goes in the coming week!

The trial version of TaskCard offered on the official web site is fully featured (with card/sheet limits) but is not allowed on the Mac App Store because of the watermark in the lower right hand corner of the screen requesting you to purchase. If you want a more complete tour of TaskCard because you’re interested in purchasing please download the trial but if you’re just wanting to have a simple TaskCard manager for free that gives you TaskCards core feature – bullet lists in sticky note format, than please try TaskCard Mini.

Visit TaskCard Mini on the Mac App Store

There have been some crashing recently in the Sparkle framework which I use for updates when choosing the “Check for Update” item in the TaskCard menu. It doesn’t occur every time with 100% predicability but it’s pretty annoying and could be happening at other checking intervals at startup for some users (possible, but I haven’t had reports). I’m filing a bug report with the developer and hopefully it will be fixed soon.

If you ever get a crash please review the crash report (the window that will pop up stating there was a crash) and check for the lines below which will indicate the crash is related to the Sparkle framework.

Thread 0 Crashed: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x946b5f30 misaligned_stack_error_ + 0
1 com.alchemistguild.TaskCard 0x00021213 SYSTEM_DO_WRITE$LONGINT$POINTER$LONGINT$$LONGINT + 51
2 com.alchemistguild.TaskCard 0x000215d0 SYSTEM_FILEWRITEFUNC$TEXTREC + 48
3 com.alchemistguild.TaskCard 0x0001c8dd SYSTEM_DOUNHANDLEDEXCEPTION + 93
4 com.alchemistguild.TaskCard 0x0001c988 FPC_RAISEEXCEPTION + 88
5 com.alchemistguild.TaskCard 0x00038be7 SYSUTILS_RUNERRORTOEXCEPT$LONGINT$POINTER$POINTER + 1799
6 com.alchemistguild.TaskCard 0x0001e338 FPC_BREAK_ERROR + 72
7 org.andymatuschak.Sparkle 0x001aa506 load_dsa_key + 22972
8 org.andymatuschak.Sparkle 0x001ab97e load_dsa_key + 28212
9 org.andymatuschak.Sparkle 0x001ac5da load_dsa_key + 31376
10 org.andymatuschak.Sparkle 0x001ac533 load_dsa_key + 31209
11 org.andymatuschak.Sparkle 0x001a24ca 0x19e000 + 17610
12 com.apple.Foundation 0x93e7e56b -[NSURLConnection(NSURLConnectionReallyInternal) sendDidFinishLoading] + 84
13 com.apple.Foundation 0x93e7e4dc _NSURLConnectionDidFinishLoading + 133
14 com.apple.CFNetwork 0x93993453 URLConnectionClient::_clientDidFinishLoading(URLConnectionClient::ClientConnectionEventQueue*) + 197
15 com.apple.CFNetwork 0x93a0ab88 URLConnectionClient::ClientConnectionEventQueue::processAllEventsAndConsumePayload(XConnectionEventInfo<XClientEvent, XClientEventParams>*, long) + 306
16 com.apple.CFNetwork 0x93985ab8 URLConnectionClient::processEvents() + 94

Firstly, I really must apologize recently for all these bug fixes and problems, I must need a break from work. 😉

1.5.2 is once again another bug fix update which I consider critical as it fixes the evil freeze when changing sheets that I thought I fixed in 1.5.1.2 but that seems to not be the case! I don’t know how I missed that as it causes freezing constantly after using undo/redo.

Since DropBox support was added officially TaskCard now needs to keep better track of changes so DropBox doesn’t over-transfer sheet files and as of the last version deleting tasks and undo/redo didn’t trigger the updating which could have lead to data lose! Sorry guys, it’s fixed now.

Also worth noting is moving cards to empty sheets no longer crashes which was annoying for new users.

Hopefully TaskCard is getting stable now for the Mac App Store and I can focus on new features, which there are LOTS of. I badly want to get the iCal sync ready for release but it keeps getting pushed aside for bug fixes and adding smaller features that most users need. Not to mention an iPhone version which is gravely important as users have actually stopped using TaskCard because they have no way to take notes when they’re not at their Mac!

I’ll make another post and let you all know where the interesting development is going once I get settled and bugs go away. 😉

Finally after many users complaining about freezing I believe I have found the problem and was able to fix it. The issue was related to the new undo-support and changing sheets which caused a freeze very predictably. Needless to say all users are highly encouraged to download this new version! If you bought TaskCard via the Mac App Store you will have to wait a good week before Apple approves the update (ugh) or you can contact me and I’ll send you a fixed via directly via email.

Also worth mentioning is a significant number of users since the opening of the Mac App Store have been reporting random crashes and general total-melt downs of TaskCard. Since I have not been able to reproduce any crashes on my system I’m starting to believe these news users are confused by TaskCards “Hide/Show like Dashboard” feature which causes TaskCard to fade if clicked in the background. The feeling is new users are accidentally clicking in the background  and shocked to see TaskCard vanish before their eyes!

I will therefore be disabling the feature  by default (for the Mac App Store version only) as before the release into the store I never got any complaints. From what I’m learning about the Mac App Store many users are very new Mac users and that feature is not normal (except for Dashboard) so I can understand why they’re are confused.

Thank you everyone for reporting – I really appreciate your time and input!

I forgot to mention a change I made to the naming rules of sheet files (introduced in version 1.5.1) for DropBox support which may cause problems for some users.

The rule: Sheet files are not allowed to contain parenthesis ( and ) or dashes – in their file name or they will not be shown in the sheet browser.

The reason: To work around a feature of DropBox which will suffix files with extra information to protect against synching conflicts. While these files are often good to keep for reference they will make a mess of your Sheet Browser so I had to protect against adding them.

I understand sometimes you’ll want to add those characters in your sheet file names so I will try to find another solution that works better. Until then please don’t alarmed if a sheet file doesn’t appear. Just renaming in the Finder to not include the aforementioned characters and it will reappear.

Just letting you know that I broke the Multiple Displays window in 1.5.1 which caused it to crash upon launching if you were using French, German or Japanese language on your Mac.

I released a small 1.5.1.1 update to correct the problem which you’re free to ignore if you’re not using one of the mentioned languages.

Thanks to the French user who pointed this out!

TaskCard 1.5.1 is the first release to feature well tested DropBox support which users have been reporting has worked in the past but not without bugs. As of 1.5.1 TaskCard will watch for changes in the sheet folder/files and update the contents of sheets in real time within TaskCard if changes are detected.

It was alway possible in prior versions to change sheet files in the sheet folder but changes to open sheets weren’t reflected nor were changes to sheet files that were modified outside of a running version of TaskCard. Worse yet you could lose/overwrite data if sheets were open while their files were being replaced in the Finder.

There are some instructions in the manual now but the basic idea is that after you install DropBox is to create/move a sheet folder into the DropBox folder (located at ~/DropBox)  and any changes made to sheet files will be transferred automatically (to any other Macs who have installed DropBox). Then any versions of TaskCard that have set their sheet folder location (in the preferences) will be updated in real time as changes are made to the sheet files from other Macs.

This is only the first step to TaskCard offering complete synching/collaboration features as sheets files still don’t merge changes as they are updated which means if 2 versions of the sheet were edited the sheet file with the newest date will overwrite the older file and any unique changes that were made would be lost. When the sheet files are merged instead of replaced a tool like DropBox could be used to allow users to collaboratively edit sheets simultaneously on multiple Macs without loosing any changes. Pretty sweet!

Finally please note that DropBox is not the only tool you could use and that any folder synching/backup tool could be used, for example Warehouse which is another I developed.

I just wanted to let all my non-USA users know that TaskCard will crash if you attempt to set the activation key in the preferences if you are using anything other than an USA English keyboard layout. Thanks to a user who reported the bug and identified the problem himself.

I will get this fixed soon and release a bug fix update but for users of on the Mac App Store this may take some time as Apple is slow to approve updates (one reason to buy direct from developers instead of the App Store). Until then change the keyboard layout before typing anything in the field and you’ll be fine.

Sorry for the hassle!

Sorry if there have been no updates recently but I have been busy getting TaskCard submitted to the app store and I didn’t want to do any active development until I knew it was accepted (Apple’s policy was very strict for submission).

Honestly there was every reason that TaskCard should have been rejected a few times causing me to miss the deadline so I’m quite surprised I made it. TaskCard is developed 100% using non-Apple tools and languages like TextMate (using all custom build scripts and custom HTML interfaces, before I used PascalGladiator my own IDE) for the editing/building and Objective-Pascal compiled using the Free Pascal Compiler. Not to mention TaskCard doesn’t use any standard OS X controls which all seemed to be against Apples strict policy they set.

I won’t write about it just now until I see the outcome unfold further but I’m really disappointed with this store and Apples level of control they’re trying to impose over their platform. The 30% they take for simply putting my apps icon and brief description into a database is totally over the top and just a scheme for Apple share holders to make billions of dollars off their developers. Not to mention the store is a pointless repeat of sites like MacUpdate.com which have existed for many years already…

Until later tell your friends to buy direct from the developers where they can get free trials, faster updates and all the proceeds go strait to the developer so we can continue to make software at fair prices.