The just released FaceSpan 5.0d70 build will continue to run and has no expiry dates built in. The projects you build with it should continue to execute.

My reasons for suspending FaceSpan development are many. Chief among them are that I keep missing every deadline I have set for myself. I am now over 2 years into this project and I cannot clearly see how to wrap development up so that I have a product to sell. I also am feeling that in the time it has taken me to do this work, the world has moved on and AppleScript-based UIs are not going to be relevant in the marketplace. The Web, Flash and other technologies are moving much faster than AppleScript or I can match. Additionally, there many technical limitations in AppleScript and Cocoa Scripting that I keep having to hack around in order to make FaceSpan usable.

All of this has left me feeling burnt out and I need some perspective. So I’m going to down-tools on FaceSpan for an indefinite period of time. I’m hoping that I can find a way to revive or reuse the work I’ve done at some point in the future, but I have no specific plans at this time.

Now that I’ve had 24 hours and a little bit of perspective has set it, its clear that the iPhone is very cool but that are so many unanswered questions.

The biggest question for me is will I be able to install Mac OS X applications onto the iPhone? When I watched the Keynote and I saw Cocoa listed among the OS technologies I thought that the iPhone would be a perfect place for FaceSpan-developed applications to be deployed.

Just like Apple’s DashCode, FaceSpan-built applets would be perfect for this kind of device. Just think of all the stuff you could do with AppleScript on a device with the kind of networking and web capabilities the iPhone possesses! I imagined adding iPhone widgets to the FaceSpan palette and extending the FaceSpan scripting interface with iPhone/synching tools.

The sobering part of this of course is that, while the device may have the full Cocoa toolset, it may not be possible to install anything on the device. I’ll just have to wait and see (And, living in Canada, it will take extra time for the iPhone to be available here).

This still leaves me with the pressing problem that I need to replace my broken iPod now.

As we begin another year I think its time to layout my plan for the coming year.

Script Debugger 4.0

In 2007 I’ll continue releasing maintenance updates for Script Debugger 4. I have Script Debugger 4.0.6 waiting in the wings which will ship in the next month or so, and when Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) ships I’m sure I’ll have to tweak the software some more.

FaceSpan 5.0

As some of you may recall, last year I acquired FaceSpan (an AppleScript-based User Interface builder) from Digital Technologies International. I went on to release FaceSpan 4.3 which addressed the most pressing bugs in the product.

In the time since the release of FaceSpan 4.3 I have been working on FaceSpan 5. There have been some setbacks along the way and its taking more time than I planned. However, FaceSpan 5 is progressing and I think the results are going to be worth all the effort.

FaceSpan 5, Script Debugger 5 and Affrus 2 all share the same script editing code. This means that editor improvements in one product (e.g. Regular Expression search and replace) are now quickly shared with the others. Also, FaceSpan 5 and Script Debugger 5 share the same dictionary viewing and AppleScript debugger code. I believe that this will make all the products progress much more quickly in the future. Since I work largely alone, this kind of code sharing is critical to making it possible to maintain so much software.

Here’s a teaser showing the new FaceSpan 5.0 project window and some of its inspectors:

The script editing areas you see have all of Script Debugger 4’s editing capabilities (snippets, paste tell, etc.), and when you run a project, you have all of Script Debugger’s debugging capabilities integrated directly into the FaceSpan IDE.

Affrus 2.0

Affrus 2.0 is a re-write of Affrus 1.0 (a Perl editor and Debugger) using Apple’s Cocoa Frameworks. This is similar to the work I undertook to re-write Script Debugger as a Cocoa application.

Here’s a little teaser. This screen shot shows just two Affrus 2 features: projects and tabbed editing. Other key features for Affrus 2 are Ruby and Python debugging.

Script Debugger 4.5

Once FaceSpan 5.0 and Affrus 2.0 have shipped (and all the code has been debugged), I will release Script Debugger 4.5. This update for Script Debugger 4.0 owners will deliver on my promise to provide scripting support and split-pane editing.

Script Debugger 5.0 will have to wait for 2008, but I have big plans. Oh, and JavaScript OSA will get some TLC along the way as well.

So thats the plan for 2007. It should be a great year with lots of new toys for everyone to play with.