FastScripts 3.2.3 is now available on the FastScripts home page, or by selecting “Check for Update” from the FastScripts menu.

This update improves performance when invoking scripts that use AppleScriptObjC to import functionality from Foundation or AppKit. Several advanced FastScripts users reported issues after upgrading from FastScripts 2 to FastScripts 3, that such scripts had degraded in performance. It turned out to be rooted in the fact that FastScripts 3 initializes a whole new script runner for each script invocation, and the cost of initializing Foundation and AppKit when the script runs caused a slight delay. With this update, each script runner is pre-initialized with such support to avoid the delay when a script runs.

Complete list of changes for this release:

FastScripts 3.2.3

• Improve invocation time for scripts that use AppleScriptObjC
• Fix a crash that occurred when pressing Command-Delete in the search field
• Changed the AppleScript command name for running scripts back to ‘invoke’ to avoid ambiguity
• Fix an issue that could cause keyboard shortcuts to be lost after restarting computer

If you enjoy FastScripts, please consider spreading the word on Facebook or Twitter! Thanks for your support.

Recently, Mac automation legend Bill Cheeseman retired, and left his highly regarded UI Browser, a utility for interrogating the Mac’s accessibility and GUI scripting facilities, in the hands of Mark Alldritt, who develops Script Debugger. The app is no longer for sale but remains available to download as a free trial, and as a fully functioning product for folks who had already purchased the app.

Today Mark Alldritt announced that UI Browser 4, a Swift rewrite of the app, had also been in development. The great news is that the unfinished product has now been published as open source. There are caveats about the incompleteness of the app, but it’s great to know that there might be a future for this very niche, very useful app. I’ll certainly give the source code a look and see if there are any modest contributions I can make.

Today is the official release date of macOS 13 Ventura, Apple’s latest update to the Mac operating system.

We’re happy to share the news that all Red Sweater apps are 100% compatible with the update. Enjoy!

MarsEdit 4.6.3 is now available on the MarsEdit site and has been submitted to the Mac App Store.

This update is a quick follow-up to address a crash that was introduced with 4.6.2. In some scenarios, particularly for blogs that have a long history of media, MarsEdit could crash while refreshing the blog because of missing data on some media items.

If you enjoy MarsEdit, please consider writing a review or rating the app on the Mac App Store, spreading the word on Facebook or Twitter, and of course, writing about the app on your own blog! Thanks for your support.