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Zavala 4.2 is out. The big feature in this release is Outline Locking (like in Apple’s Notes). You can read more about it in the Zavala Help. zavala.vincode.io/help/Lock…
Maurice Parker
Latest posts
Zavala 4.1
Another Zavala release is here. This time there is a lot going on with Markdown capabilities. Markdown Import You can now directly import Markdown documents into Zavala. Markdown documents are very unstructured and Zavala is a very structured outliner, so this was something of a challenge. In the end it worked out rather well. Markdown headings become Zavala rows. Markdown paragraphs became Zavala…
Zavala & AI
Notemap Notemap is a newer mind mapping application that I was recently made aware of. It looks pretty cool. Mind mapping tools always struck me as very close to an outliner in functionality. They both use hierarchical relationships (and links) to relate information with each other. Outliners are more text based and mind mappers are more graphical. What really fascinated me was how hard the maker…
Bespoke Personal Software
Anthology So… I wrote an RSS Reader. Why not? Everyone else seems to be doing it lately. I actually did it for the same reasons that I see other’s had written theirs. There wasn’t an RSS Reader out there that fit me perfectly. In my case I wanted something like Tapestry with its plugin connectors. What I didn’t want was the almost infinite timeline. I wanted a traditional 3 column RSS Reader like…
Building Zavala 4.0
I’ve been working on Zavala 4.0 off and on for the last 6 months. It isn’t a huge release or change in Zavala’s features. I think that is a good thing. I think Zavala is fairly mature as an outliner application. While there are things I would like to add in the future, there aren’t any really big outliner features that I think are currently missing and need to be added ASAP. That said, there were…
Zavala 4.0 Beta Testing
Zavala 4.0 is now in Beta Testing. You can find out more about it in this post .
Zavala Will Always Be Free
My promise to you. I have every intention of maintaining and updating Zavala for as long as I am able. I’m also committed to keeping it free. I have no intention of getting you hooked on using it and then starting to charge a subscription. To show I am serious about this, Zavala is Open Source software released under the MIT license. This means that any other developer can take the years of work…
Zavala 3.0
It’s Live! Zavala 3.0 is now live in the App Stores. There are only a couple of new major features in Zavala 3.0, but I put a lot of under the hood for this release. Lots of code was changed to modernize the code base and support new operating system features. For example, Zavala will support the Apple Intelligence Writing Tools when they become available in macOS 15.1 and iOS/iPadOS 18.1…
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I updated a couple of my minor apps today so that they look correct on the latest macOS releases. The first, Feed Compass which is an app to help you find, preview, and subscribe to blogs. I also updated Feed Curator which is an OPML feed list editor. I also added multiple select for a Reddit user who was needing it. It felt good to help someone out and to finally update the appearance of these…
Drag Boat Race in Parker, AZ
About a month ago Nic and I went to drag boat races in Parker, AZ. The start of them is right outside the bar at Pirates Den . It was pretty fun. We got to drink beer all day and watch the races, then crawl to van at the end of the night to sleep it off. Mike Finnegan from Roadkill was there to race his new boat. That was pretty great for me. I’m a huge Roadkill fan. Finnegan basically made…
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If someone has to tell you how good they are at something, their work doesn’t stand on its own. If someone won’t explain why they made a decision, it is because they know that it was a bad one. If someone tells you that you aren’t worth listening to, its because they are afraid of what you will say.
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The main project I work on, @NetNewsWire got a shout out in the Atlantic today. How to Take Back Control of What You Read on the Internet
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I messed up a @NetNewsWire merge recently. I left some Git merge conflict markers in a couple files. @danielpunkass suggested that a pre-commit Git Hook could prevent this in the future. So I made one. . Daniel has added this to his global Git templates . You should too.
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Just another day at the office.
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I got new wheels and tires on the van. They look great, but the larger size puts more strain on my little 4.6 V8. I completely blew a spark plug out of the engine from pushing it to hard coming up a mountain pass. Life on the road…
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Christmas dinner this year is Ramen on Sunset Blvd.
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I really like Dan Rather’s Substack newsletter, Steady. It has some great social commentary on it. Dan Rather is a journalist from a time when news wasn’t entertainment. steady.substack.com
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It would be great if Substack had RSS feeds for its Inbox and Discover timelines. I understand why they don’t. They really need to get users into paid subscriptions to keep the site going. I guess we should be glad that they at least have RSS feeds for individual newsletters.
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Yeah. It’s one of those days.
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I’d love to have Universal Links on the Micro.blog Apple apps. Since they are Open Source, I’d implement myself. I can’t see how it can be done. @manton rightly encourages everyone have a domain. That makes it impossible to do consistently.
Ventura’s System Settings
I have to admit, when I saw screenshots of Ventura’s new System Settings stuff, I was very unimpressed. It looked too much like you would see on Windows or Linux for me.  Now that I’ve actually used it, I appreciate the design decision that was made. I know a lot of people were critical, myself included, about basing the design of the System Settings on the iOS ones. But making it like the iOS…
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I wrote a blog post about how I blog to Micro.blog using Zavala and Humboldt . Blogging this way probably isn’t for you unless you are big into outliners. Still it is neat to see how these two computer systems that weren’t designed to work together could be made to.
Software Development And Vanlife
Part of the year I live out of my self-converted E-250 Campervan. My wife and our 2 cats are also traveling with me. That doesn’t leave a lot of space for an office to do software development. This is how I do it. My Portable Office Wouldn’t it be great if you had a full office with full-size keyboard, monitor, printer, and the works while living in a van? No chance. Desk I wish I had a desk. My…
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Zavala is a modern outliner for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Version 2.0 has just been release with a refined user interface and support for Shortcuts. Read all about the 2.0 release.
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This is awesome: blog.iconfactory.com/2021/12/n…