A little more than two years ago, Brent Simmons came to me with an intriguing proposition. Would I be willing to talk with NewsGator about the possibility of taking over MarsEdit, the desktop blog editing software Brent had developed as an adjunct to his RSS feed reader, NetNewsWire.

My answer was about as close to “hell, yes!” as one can get in a business context without appearing completely cavalier and freewheeling. I got in touch with the folks at NewsGator, who were as forthcoming and friendly as anybody could hope for. Within a few short weeks we had ironed out a deal and agreed that MarsEdit would become a property of Red Sweater Software.

We announced the deal two years ago today. Just looking back to the screenshot of MarsEdit from that announcement reminds me of how much things have changed since then:

• Added Flickr integration.
• Overhauled the post editor and main window UI.
• Enhanced markup macros for extremely powerful editing.
• Improved the speed and accuracy of the HTML preview.
• Support for saving drafts on blog server.
• Support for systems based on new AtomPub technology.
• Support for adding categories directly from MarsEdit.

I’m currently working on a bunch of new stuff. MarsEdit 2.3 is coming soon, and includes the previously promised support for Tumblr, which I know many folks are looking forward to. In my not so humble opinion, the Tumblr support is turning out quite well.

I tend not to share specifics of my future plans, because things are always in flux and subject to change. But I can assure you I will not be resting on my laurels. Lots of awesome features are high on my list. 2009 will be an exciting year for MarsEdit, if an exhausting one for me. I hope you’ll continue to check in on our progress as we find our way into the future.

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 3 months since the last update to MarsEdit, our popular desktop blog publishing application.

I’ve been hard at work on innumerable new features, and even, dare I speculate, some new apps. Some of these lofty plans have turned out to take a bit more thought and effort than I had originally planned, but good things are on the horizon.

In the mean time, I have collected the most critical bug fixes made over the past few months, into a new update which I’m releasing today.

Download MarsEdit 2.2.3 to be sure you are running with “the best I have to offer” as of now.

This update will be a particular relief to users who have noticed an occasional glitch in the preview window, causing it to “freeze up” and stop responding to changes as you type or paste in your blog posts.

Summary of changes:

• Improve networking compatibility by always encoding XML “>” literals
• Fix a bug in the preview window that could cause it to stop updating
• Fix a possible crash when closing the enclosure sheet before URL finishes loading
• Fix a bug that caused media manager upload choice to be out of sync with post
• Fix a bug that prevented some 10.4 users from toggling table column visibility
• Improved accessibility of the check for updates dialog

Enjoy, and look forward to more earth-shattering, or at least earth-cracking updates in the near future!

If you’re a software developer or web-savvy businessperson, you’ve probably heard of 37 Signals’s famous book, Getting Real, which aims to pass on some of the company’s wisdom about how to build and market relatively simple end-user applications. The book is aimed primarily at developers of web applications, expected considering the web is 37 Signals’s forte, but I think it contains pearls of wisdom that anybody working in the software industry could benefit from reading and considering.

I have read bits and pieces of the book, but I doubt I have read the whole thing. The short essays are perfect for a quick browse here and there. Often, I’ll navigate to the site in order to read just a few tidbits, before moving on with my day’s work.

But I haven’t read much of the book in a long time. When I was recently reminded of it by Manton Reece’s reference in his blog, I thought to myself, yes! I should read some more Getting Real! But again, the struggle of being faced with all those bite-sized morsels, and having to choose which to delve in to.

My solution? The Random Reality bookmarklet.

Just drag the link above directly to your bookmark toolbar. Now when you are in the mood to “get real,” you can jump to a random essay from the book at the click of a button. If you feel like reading more of the book, just click the bookmark again.

Of course, if you love browsing the book, it might make even more sense to buy a copy in PDF or paper format. But even if you own a copy and have read through it, you might enjoy the occasional dose of random reality in your life.

It’s not often that software grabs my eyes and heart the way Stunt Software’s updated time tracking and invoicing software, On The Job 3.0, does. Wow, this is the kind of application other developers should look to when they’re wondering whether they’re really giving enough attention to detail in their own applications.

The interface is clean and somewhat traditional, based on a familiar 3-pane layout that is common to applications such as Apple’s Mail and my own MarsEdit. But Stunt Software also takes some innovative leaps, adopting a “HUD style” interface for the in-window attributes editor, a style which Apple typically reserves for full-screen media editing palettes.

I’m a bit of a luddite when it comes to taking these kinds of UI risks, but on the whole they do not strike me as offensive in On The Job. Some aspects, such as the iPhone-inspired odometer-style numeral editors, strike me as questionable for the desktop. They can’t be pushed or pulled and don’t have momentum like their iPhone counterparts, but they do look pretty nice.

One way to justify the gratuitousness of these elements would be to support spinning of the elements with a direct click and drag, or even better with a push of the mouse’s scroll wheel.

Overall, I think it’s fair to say that pushing the limits of UI design is justified and encouraged if a designer is also keeping a careful watch on the finer points of the end result. It’s hard to challenge many of the choices made for On The Job, because it is bursting with clear points of consideration for the user. Consider the default names for clients and jobs. Instead of using the typical “Untitled,” they start with the inspirational “First”. After that, the default language changes to “New.” These are the adjectives we use in everyday life. Nobody starts business with an “Untitled Client.”

Which isn’t to say everything is perfect. I gave the application my patented “scrunch test.” This involves simply sizing a window to the absolute smallest it will go, and observing how the UI reacts. I do it almost by instinct with every new application I try, and On The Job doesn’t exactly shine in this regard:

Notice in particular how the HUD-style elements in the lower right have become a disgusting mess of overlapping words and buttons. I have a litmus test for these kinds of design decisions, where a user’s actions can put my application into a state of embarrassing ugliness or dysfunction. My rule is pretty simple:

Give a user as much freedom as you can without empowering them to make your application look ilke ass.

To this end, I usually restrict the sizes of my windows to the smallest size that can reasonably accommodate the UI in most cases. Obviously, when it comes to uesr-provided data it can be hard to prevent 100% of the ugly scenes, but a situation like this, where buttons simply don’t have room to live, is a clear case for limiting the window’s width.

But in spite of little quibbles, On The Job is a fantastic piece of design and engineering. I would recommend it without hesitation to consultants who bill even one client on a regular basis. I’ve given up consulting myself, but this application is almost enough to make me consider resuming. Perhaps I’ll start tracking my time, and issue myself invoices at the end of the month. Ouch, this blog post is costing me $175!