Mac

02
Apr
2013

‘env: node: No such file or directory’ Error in IntelliJ IDEA File Watcher

I was getting the following error when using the File Watcher feature in IntelliJ Idea to compile Typescript files:

/usr/local/bin/tsc –verbose –sourcemap test.ts
env: node: No such file or directory

The solution is relatively simple, you need to manually set the PATH environment variable in the File Watcher like so:

PATH variable in Idea File Watcher

 

You can get your environment’s PATH variable from ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist if you’re rocking a Mac. Alternatively you can probably use this one (again for a Mac):

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/opt/local/bin

Posted by Dan in Guides, Mac, 8 comments
18
Jan
2013

Setting the PATH in OSX Leopard or above

Apple added a very handy .d (daemon?) directory in Leopard+ for appending to the global PATH variable. You can add to the path easily using the terminal:

sudo sh -c 'echo "[newpath]" >> /etc/paths.d/[pathname]'

For example to add the Android SDK to your path, you can enter the following command in the terminal:

sudo sh -c 'echo "/Developer/android-sdk-mac_x86" >> /etc/paths.d/AndroidPath'

OSX goes through each file in that directory, appending what it finds to the PATH. Makes installing / uninstalling utterly trivial.

All credit to dhaveconfig.

Posted by Dan in Mac, 0 comments
18
Jan
2013

Nslookup and /etc/hosts

Having trouble checking your /etc/hosts records with nslookup on your Mac/Linux PC? Use traceroute instead, nslookup purposely bypasses any local config. Traceroute acts like a ‘normal’ application and will pick up your /etc/hosts records.

Posted by Dan in Mac, 0 comments
17
Jan
2013

Aquiss Broadband Usage Checker for Mac OSX

I’ve been sitting on this for far too long – it’s about time I released it into the wild! After blowing through my usage, my ISP (Aquiss) told me of an undocumented webservice I could use to fetch usage information. Since I was in the middle of a lot of iOS development, I knocked together a Mac app using MonoMac so I could keep track of the usage easily. I really wanted to add some additional functionality, such as logging of usage over time and a little graphing – unfortunately I haven’t been able to find the time to implement these features. Hopefully some time in the future!

Aquiss Usage Checker - Usage Screen

The app is relatively simple, you run it, provide it with your unique hashcode and the app will do the rest. The icon in the menu bar starts out green, and gradually turns red as you approach your limit. It also notifies you at 75% and 95% usage with a popup message box.

Aquiss Usage Checker - Menu Bar Icon

I’ve released the app as a complete opensource project under the GPL license, you can grab the source over at GitHub. When I get a high-res logo from Aquiss I’ll be able to release a binary, as well as a version to the AppStore. I don’t know how many Mac customers Aquiss have, but I hope all 1-10 of them find the app useful.

Posted by Dan in C#, Mac, Mac, 0 comments
27
Sep
2012

CIFilters with MonoMac

In a recent project I found I needed to colourise (colorize to you Americans!) a greyscale image. Fortunately Apple have built-in support for various colour filters, including the multiply filter I needed. Unfortunately CoreImage only works on CoreImage images, not NSImages – and there’s no easy way to convert between the two.

Original ImageRed TintGreen TintBlue Tint

Converting from CIImage to NSImage

Fortunately with Extension Methods, converting a CIImage to an NSImage isn’t too hard:

public static NSImage ToNSImage(this CIImage image)
{
	return ToNSImage(image, image.Extent.Size);
}

public static NSImage ToNSImage(this CIImage image, SizeF size)
{
	var imageRep = NSCIImageRep.FromCIImage(image);
	var nsImage = new NSImage(size);
	nsImage.AddRepresentation(imageRep);

	return nsImage;
}

First we get an NSCIImageRep instance from the CIImage – NSCIImageRep is a class that can render a CIImage. Next we create our new NSImage and use the AddRepresentation method to populate the NSImage with the CIImage. Internally the NSCIImageRep instance will render the CIImage to memory in a bitmap format, NSImage will then populate itself with this bitmap.

Tinting the Greyscale image with CoreImage

Now we don’t need to worry about using CIImages with abandon we can focus on the actual tinting. We need to load in our image, then we need to create a tint image, finally we need to multiply the two together just like in Photoshop. Let’s load in our graphics first:

var mainImage = CIImage.FromUrl(NSUrl.FromFilename(NSBundle.MainBundle.PathForResource(
	Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(ImagePath), Path.GetExtension(ImagePath))));
var tintImage = CIImage.ImageWithColor(CIColor.FromRgb(1f, 0f, 0f));

We load in the image using FromUrl here since it’s the most efficient manner. If we loaded in via an NSImage, we would be wasting memory in both the load and conversion process – better to load from the file system directly. If you need to use the same image repeatedly, load in the image as a byte array and create an instance of CIImage using the data.  Next we create our filter:

var filter = CIFilter.FromName("CIMultiplyCompositing");

Unfortunately MonoMac doesn’t contain strongly typed bindings for any CoreImage filters, so we need to populate the input parameters using Key-Value Coding:

filter.SetValueForKey(tintImage, (NSString)"inputImage");
filter.SetValueForKey(mainImage, (NSString)"inputBackgroundImage");

We need to cast here because Key-Value coding requires NSString instances. NSString has an implicit conversion operator for string, allowing us to cast string directly to NSString. Note the key names, these must match exactly, each filter has different parameters – a reference for all filter types and their parameters is available here. Now we can perform the tint and display the result:

var processedImage = (CIImage)filter.ValueForKey((NSString)"outputImage");
var outputImage = processedImage.ToNSImage();

ImageView.Image = outputImage;

And that’s it! If the filter fails for any reason ValueForKey will return NULL. The code above will apply a red tint and you should get something like:

Red Tint

Posted by Dan in C#, Guides, Mac, Mac, 0 comments
01
Sep
2012

Getting Forward / Backward mouse buttons working in Parallels Desktop For Mac

This is a follow-on post from my earlier blog post ‘Getting Back / Forward mouse buttons working in Mac OS X‘.

The big problem now is getting forward / backward working in Parallels (and VMware Fusion if it doesn’t work on that either). The reason for the problem is that Parallels emulates the mouse so you can easily move the mouse into and out of the VM window. Additionally the emulator lets you use gestures from the touch pad in Windows (very cool). The problem is, the emulator doesn’t support more than 3 buttons.

The Easy Fix

The easiest fix is to turn off SmartMouse:

This will give Windows direct access to the mouse, and you’ll be able to use the MS driver directly. Unfortunately if you do this, you’ll have to give / take the mouse from the VM manually using CMD+OPT.

The Real Fix

The real fix is to use my favourite HID tool – ControllerMate. I won’t go over how to configure rules that only apply to VMs, etc. that’s all covered in my previous blog post. Instead, let’s jump right to the rule itself:

Drag on mouse buttons #4 and #5 as inputs, and then link them up to keystrokes building blocks. For the back building block you need to use ALT + Left Arrow, and for the forward block you need ALT + Right arrow, like so:

Once set up, back & forward will be fully functional in Windows programs that support the keyboard shortcut.

Make sure these rules are only executed for the VM – these shortcuts won’t work for Mac!

Posted by Dan in Guides, Mac, 1 comment
18
Aug
2012

Running multiple instances of MonoDevelop on Mac

By default OS X will only let you run a single instance of any app, which is OK if the app is designed with multiple windows & a single instance in mind. MonoDevelop is a different beast, and sooner or later you’re going to want to run at least 2 instances of it, here’s how:

First run the AppleScript editor, and enter the following code:

do shell script "open -n /Applications/MonoDevelop.app/"

Now save the script somewhere easily accessible, make sure to set the ‘File Format’ to ‘Application’. I chose the name ‘MonoDevelop Launcher’:

Now the only problem left is the icon, it’s most likely the AppleScript icon, rather than the MonoDevelop one:

Use ‘Get Info’ to get the info for both your new launcher, and MonoDevelop. Click on the icon for MonoDevelop and press CMD+C. Now click on the icon for your script, and press CMD+V. The icon should now be correct:

References: Based on answer by ‘Subfuzion’ as StackOverflow

Posted by Dan in Guides, Mac, Programming, 0 comments
05
Aug
2012

Getting Back / Forward mouse buttons working in Mac OS X

If you want to use mouse buttons #4 and #5 to go forward / backward in Mac OS X out of the box you’re going to be disappointed, and end up with just a scroll icon appearing.

There’s a few utilities you can use to fix this:

  • Microsoft IntelliPoint – Only works with MS mice, doesn’t seem to work in Mountain Lion
  • Logitech Control Centre – Only works with Logitech mice, apparently quite buggy now
  • Razer software – not tested, will only work with Razer mice anyway
  • Steermouse – Getting increasingly flakey with new OS X versions
  • USB Overdrive – Not been in development since Snow Leopard, doesn’t seem to work 100% of the time anymore
  • ControllerMate – Works!

ControllerMate to the rescue!

ControllerMate is actively developed & maintained, and offers an incredible amount of customisation for all HID peripherals. So not only will it sort out your back / forward issue, it’ll also solve the mouse acceleration issue – if that’s a problem for you. This guide will cover back / forward only, though.

1. First download and install ControllerMate.

2. Reboot and launch ControllerMate.

You’ll now be presented with a scary as hell screen that looks like you’re laying out circuit boards, rather than fixing a major limitation in OS X.

The diagrams in place on first launch are a kind of mini tutorial, telling you how you can do a few things. You can either leave them in place for future reference, or delete them to clean up the view.

The first step is to create a new Programming Group:

3. To do this, right-click in the sidebar and select ‘Create Programming Group”.

4. Afterwards, right-click on the new group, and select ‘Create Programming Page’.

5. Now right-click on the new group again, point to ‘Create Driver Configuration’, then select your mouse.

You can name your new items in the ‘Inspector’ window to the right.

6. Click on your programming page to display an empty grid.

7. In the ‘Palette’ to the right, select ‘Controllers’ from the drop down list. Find your mouse, then drag button #4, and button #5 to the grid.

8. Now select ‘Output’ from the drop down list in the Palette. Drag an instance of ‘Keystrokes Building Block’ underneath each of your mouse button instances.

You should now have something like this (without the green lines):

9. Link the blocks, by dragging from the button’s green hotspot, to the action’s green hotspot. Just as in the screenshot above.

10. Click on the keystroke block for button #4. In the Inspector window, click on the ‘Keys’ tab, then click on ‘Capture’. Enter they key combination for ‘Back’ (Command + [), then press stop.

If the command doesn’t appear correctly, click on ‘Open Keystrokes Palette’, and drag the buttons from the virtual keyboard to the window, as seen above.

11. Do the same for button #5’s keystroke block, but this time use the command for forward (Command + ]).

12. Click on the driver configuration item in the sidebar, and set buttons #4 and #5 to ‘None’.

You’re now done! Backward / Forward should work immediately in all apps.

But now my VM / Other App doesn’t respond to buttons #4 and #5!

This is a problem as a result of disabling the buttons and remapping them to forward / back. Fortunately there is a solution!

  1. Click on the group in the sidebar
  2. In the ‘Inspector’ window, check ‘Activate items when these applications are:’, select ‘running’
  3. Add all of the apps that you want to add back / forward support to the list.

Now the mouse will work in all applications. If an app supports backward / forward, remember to add it to the list above.

More VM

Not all VMs support the extra mouse buttons, even if they’re receiving them. If you’re having trouble, try following my follow-up guide for Parallels.

Posted by Dan in Guides, Mac, 22 comments