Noodlings

This past month I’ve finally gotten some time focus on development and it’s paid off. Hazel 2.2 beta is out. Go to the forums (signup required) for details on how to get it.

The big feature is pattern based matching and substitution. It’s regular expressions for regular people. I still consider it somewhat of a power-user feature but I think I’ve managed to make it accessible to non-programmers. I know some of the programmer-types out there wanted regexes but, really, life is too short for people to have to decipher something like ^(.*)\(\p{N}+\)\.(?:\p{L}|\p{N})+$.

Other features include being able to edit/include AppleScripts and shell scripts inline. This will allow for self-contained rule sets that you can distribute. More date matching operators especially geared towards GTD-like workflows. A couple other more subtle things here and there.

But most of all, this is a momentous occasion because I have finally done it. I have fixed bug #1 in my bug database. Entered almost two years ago, it kept getting carried over to each release’s bug list time and time again. What is bug #1, you may ask? Why, it’s none other than “multiple selection in the rule list”. It’s been one of those rarely requested (maybe 2 or 3 people since Hazel’s original release), low-priority bugs that kept getting overlooked. Well, no longer. I went in and fixed it once and for all (hopefully). Now it looks like bug #4 is the next oldest bug, which, at this rate, I should have closed out in a couple years.

So, if you are fine with running unstable pre-release software that then I invite you to kick the tires. All I ask that you keep all details of the beta to the forums or in emails to me.