It occurred to me that I’m using this blog to spew updates about FlexTime, and that some of you might not give the slightest damn about updates to that particular product :)

On the other side of the spectrum, I’m sure some FlexTime users would like to subscribe to news about the application without being subjected to my lengthy diatribes about gdb debugging or Cocoa programming.

I’m going to try to start making better use of categories, including the hierarchical feature in WordPress, which allows for high-level subscription to only a specific category or to a whole class that live under the same parent.

For starters I’ve moved all the existing tags/categories into two high-level groups: “Red Sweater News” and, for lack of a better name, “Articles.” Basically, “Articles” is everything of general interest to the world, with occasional announcements of major software releases. “Red Sweater News” is for my customers, or anybody interested in following all the announcements about my products. If you’re just here to see what I have to say about various topics, stick with “Articles.” I will probably further refine the Articles category in the future so you can, for instance, ignore my technical pieces and only get the opinion, or whatever. The default feed will continue to carry everything.

In summary and for future reference, here is a list of the various pages and feeds you might be interested in:

Everything – View | Subscribe

Articles Only – View | Subscribe

Red Sweater Product News – View | Subscribe

FlexTime News – View | Subscribe

FastScripts News – View | Subscribe

Clarion News – View | Subscribe

Hopefully this isn’t complicating things too much!

It had to happen – especially after yesterday’s proud moment of not having found any critical bugs! A user pointed out a major flaw in FlexTime’s scripting support, which would cause the simplest of all commands, “open,” from working correctly in many instances.

If you’re doing any scripting at all with FlexTime, you’ll want to grab the latest version.

It’s been two days now since I released FlexTime 1.0, and lots of people have contacted me to share their ideas and impressions about the software. The great news is that nobody has contacted me to report a crash or other instability. The biggest fear when releasing software is that, in spite of extensive testing, some surprise bug is lurking. Fortunately I think most of the bugs were washed out in the beta cycles. People are reporting ideas to make it even better, not ideas to simply make it work. While there’s no great shame in a quick-turnaround to release a 1.0.1 version of a product, I admit to taking some pride in the fact that so far, this product lives up to the promises of “release quality software.”

It’s been exciting for me to watch as the world reacts. While many people are contacting me privately to share their thoughts, others are writing publicly on their blogs about their experience.

Luis de la Rosa of Happy Apps was an early adopter of FlexTime. He started using the application to help treat his repetitive strain injuries with a relatively primitive beta version a few months back. Now he’s written a blog entry describing the benefits of using FlexTime during his work day. His decision to use it for this purpose helped in guiding some of the core features such as the “show text” cues. Thanks, Luis!

Luis’s use of FlexTime as an RSI helper is just one of the many “surprising uses” that have come up over the months since I’ve shared FlexTime with the public. Now that I’ve released it to a wider audience, more ideas are rolling in. It’s a real treat to see what people come up with, and I often laugh out loud – not because the ideas are funny – but because they’re deliciously surprising.

I’m excited to share more examples in greater detail over the coming months. People are using FlexTime to “enhance” the activities that already fill their days, be it desk work, cooking, or music-making.

I put FlexTime in the “cold-storage locker” one week ago yesterday and it’s been resting up for its official 1.0 debut.

FlexTime 1.0 is available starting today for $18.95. A free 30 day trial is available and automatically applies to the fully-featured download available here. If you decide to buy it, you may purchase from directly within the application, or online through the Red Sweater Store.

What is the cold-storage locker? It’s my off-the-cuff name for the process of leaving source code unmodified while continuing to test the product. Many smaller businesses fall into the trap of releasing software “hot off the presses,” which often means some bug was fixed mere hours before release, inadvertently introducing five undiagnosed problems for the public to uncover.

The cold-storage locker is a good idea, but this is the first time I’ve diligently employed it. In the past I’ve just succeeded (or to be honest, sometimes failed) on the basis of my relatively careful coding practices. But after hearing enthusiastic endorsements of the policy from friends at Bare Bones and Flying Meat, I’ve decided that I should also adopt this policy going forward. Not only does it give you time to think of the “oh crap” mistakes that you might have made, but it (ideally) gives you have a little pre-launch vacation time to relax and prepare for the (hopefully) large influx of new customers.

It feels good to have FlexTime 1.0 officially under the bridge, so I can get to work on updated versions of it, and some other products I have twinkling in my eyes.