Rainmaker Research Inc. and Spell Catcher News

The latest news about Spell Catcher—updates, upgrades, special offers, reviews, and more.

Spell Catcher X 10.3.6 is Available!

Spell Catcher X 10.3.6 is a free update to Spell Catcher X 10.3, and recommended for all Spell Catcher X 10.3.x users. Spell Catcher X version 10.3.6 fixes the Look Up window crash when Safari 5.0 is installed, and fixes the problem introduced in Spell Catcher X 10.3.5 where function keys without modifiers could not be used as keyboard shortcuts.

See what’s new in Spell Catcher X 10.3.6.

Get it from our Downloads page, or by downloading it via Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages.

And yes, go ahead and install Safari 5 if you haven’t done so already.

Status Update on the Safari 5.0/WebKit-related Look Up Crash

For those that only care about the current state of affairs – this problem has been addressed from both ends. It was classified as WebKit bug, fixed by an Apple engineer, and landed in WebKit Open Source the day after I reported it. I worked around the problem by writing my own version of WebKit’s WebBackForwardList class, and using it instead.

Neither fix has been officially released at this moment in time. I’ve posted a 10.3.6f1 build for my beta testers to pound on. I am not privy to information regarding when WebKit Open Source fixes actually get rolled into a Mac OS X software update. I’m guessing that my fix will be out the door first.

The longer, probably only of interest to developers version:

Shortly after hearing about this problem and reproducing it myself, I needed to find out what was really going on. This meant building the latest WebKit from source, and then reproducing the crash in the debugger. The problem was pretty obvious at that point, and that it would be a pretty easy fix for the WebKit folks to make – should they decide to. I could also see there was no good work around for me, at least if I wanted to continue to use the same WebKit’s APIs.

Armed with the actual facts, I filed my bug report with Apple, and posted the “Don’t install Safari 5.0″ warnings here and in our forums. Soon afterwards, I got an email from an Apple engineer (the one that ended up fixing it) telling me he knew why the crash was occurring (I knew at that point as well). We discussed possible work arounds. A couple hours later, I get the standard “We’re looking into this” courtesy email from Apple Developer Support. Gotta be the fastest response to any radar I’ve filed?

But by then it was really a no-brainer. Just write the code I need and fix it myself. I mean, pretty basic stuff – a couple hours work maybe. Waiting was not an option.

Thanks to Apple for getting to this so quickly! Bummer it happened in the first place, but that’s life.

Anyway folks, hang in there a couple more days while the beta testers do their thing.

Do Not Install Safari 5.0!

There’s a nasty bug in the version of WebKit that Safari 5.0 installs. I’ve filed a report, but there is no work around. This bug causes Spell Catcher’s Look Up feature to crash.

If you’ve already installed Safari 5.0, please report this problem to Apple. Send the crash report to them. Use the “Report bugs..” command in the Safari application as well. I have filed a bug report, including a small Xcode project that reproduces their bug with ease.

Details: Look Up uses WebKit’s WebBackForwardList to keep track of your Look Up history. Adding a new item (via -addItem:) to a WebBackForwardList now crashes. Any application that does the same thing (with a WebBackForwardList that is has created). Spell Catcher X has been using these same APIs in the same way for years. This is not related to the Spell Catcher X 10.3.5 update we released last week. All versions of Spell Catcher X are affected by this.

Spell Catcher X 10.3.5 is Available!

Spell Catcher X 10.3.5 is a free update to Spell Catcher X 10.3, and recommended for all Spell Catcher X 10.3.x users. Spell Catcher X version 10.3.5 adds a few new features, improves compatibility of its input methods in specific applications, enhances performance in certain areas, fixes bugs, and improves reliability.

See what’s new in Spell Catcher X 10.3.5.

Get it from our Downloads page, or by downloading it via Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages.

MacUpdate Bundle Customers Please Read This!

We’re becoming aware that some of you are having trouble licensing your copy of Spell Catcher X. The problem seems to be related to the licensing-related information you get from MacUpdate. The Spell Catcher X license details aren’t appearing properly (formatting, encoding) in some email clients and web browsers. As well, instructions are not included in the email, and hard to locate in the receipt on their website.

If you’re having problems, do this:

1. Look for an email from our licensing (at) rainmakerinc.com address. Check any caught junk mail if it’s not in your inbox. If you can’t find it, send your license info to yourself from our Lost Licenses page.
2. In that email, there is a “Click here” link. Click it. Press return twice, and you’re done! One click, no typing—so no typos.

Sorry for any inconvenience. We’re working on it!

Spell Catcher X Input Method Tuner 10.3.4 (Build 3)

Is available from our pre-release downloads page. The following problems are addressed:

• Added a reasonably effective work around for a WebKit bug (Mail, Safari) that can cause hangs when Check Spelling While Typing is turned on, and an expansion or correction is made using Spell Catcher’s input method application.
  
  Applies to:
  • Apple Mail
  • Safari
  • OmniWeb 5
  • Mailplane 2.x
• Better compatibility with Spell Catcher’s input methods in Dreamweaver 9.
• Better compatibility with Spell Catcher’s input methods in NeoOffice 3.x.
• Better compatibility with Spell Catcher’s input method application in Mailsmith.
• Better compatibility with Spell Catcher’s input methods in Apple’s Numbers (iWork).

Recommended for Spell Catcher X 10.3.4 users that also use Apple Mail, Safari, Dreamweaver 9, NeoOffice 3.x, Mailsmith, Apple’s Numbers (iWork), OmniWeb 5, or Mailplane.

Spell Catcher X Input Method Tuner 10.3.4 (Build 2)

Is available from our pre-release downloads page. The following problems are addressed:

• Added a reasonably effective work around for a WebKit bug (Mail, Safari) that can cause hangs when Check Spelling While Typing is turned on, and an expansion or correction is made using Spell Catcher’s input method application.
• Better compatibility with Spell Catcher’s input methods in Dreamweaver 9.
• Better compatibility with Spell Catcher’s input methods in NeoOffice 3.x.
• Better compatibility with Spell Catcher’s input method application in Mailsmith.
• Better compatibility with Spell Catcher’s input methods in Apple’s Numbers (iWork).

Recommended for Spell Catcher X 10.3.4 users that also use Apple Mail, Safari, Dreamweaver 9, NeoOffice 3.x, Mailsmith, or Apple’s Numbers (iWork).

Welcome MacUpdate Bundle Customers!

We at Rainmaker Research Inc. would like to thank you for purchasing the MacUpdate Bundle, and for stopping by to find out more about Spell Catcher X! Day one revealed a couple of problems related to Spell Catcher X for some customers, and we’ve been working hard to solve them.

Licensing Issues

Most of the licensing-related problems affected customers with accented characters in the name used to purchase the bundle. We’ve seen two different issues:

1. The license information returned from our server to MacUpdate’s got mangled (encoding mismatch of some sort), and appeared incorrect in the email you received from MacUpdate after purchasing the bundle.

   In most cases, the name that was actually added to our database was fine. In a very few cases, it was equally mangled.

   We’ve fixed some of these, but please get in touch if something’s not right in your MacUpdate receipt.

2. A bug in the version of PHP on our server causes incorrect generation of license keys, when the licensee’s name contains accented characters. So even if your license information was correctly generated and displayed in your MacUpdate receipt, trying to license your copy of Spell Catcher X (either by download or e-mail) would fail with an “invalid key” error.

   We’re pleased to report that we’ve found a way to work around this bug in most cases—only those with apostrophe or quote characters in their names will still encounter this problem. Please get in touch if that describes you, and we’ll take care of it.

   So if you ran into this licensing problem, and your license info appears to be OK, just try downloading or emailing yourself your license key again. To determine if your license was created properly, please email it to yourself from our Lost Licenses page.

Very Busy Website!

The activity level at MacUpdate was definitely up there! As of this writing, over 10,000 bundles have been sold. Of course, some of that traffic spilled over to our website. At times we ran into limits imposed by our hosting provider—limits we weren’t aware of because we didn’t read all the fine print.

Problems generally of the “Resource limit exceeded” variety, and luckily, would clear up when the activity level dropped. Apparently there’s a limit on the number of connections we’re allowed—whether it’s a web browser, license key request, or MacUpdate’s server asking us to generate a license when a purchase is made. There’s not a whole lot we can do about this (besides upgrading our hosting plan to a dedicated one), but I suspect today was the busiest that we’ll see over the next two weeks. So if you encounter this, just try again.

We know of one case where this resulted in a failed license generation, indicated as such on the actual MacUpdate receipt. We’re not sure how to proceed quite yet—generally the MacUpdate folks will run the purchase info through their scripts again. This is so the proper license info will actually appear when you log into your customer page on their site. Hang in there, we’ll find out more soon.

Language Purchases

We’ve been trying to keep up with these as best we can, updating licenses in our database quickly. Please be patient if we can’t get to it right away. Remember we’re not necessarily in the same time zone you are, and it’s possible I’m at the park with my dogs, or grocery shopping, or maybe even trying to get some rest.

Remember, updating licenses for purchased languages is a manual procedure. We have to find your license in our database, modify it, and send you an email with a note that you’re good to go. Since your Spell Catcher license was purchased separately from MacUpdate, it helps greatly if you use the same email address when purchasing a language from our online store at Kagi. The only info we have to hunt down your license is the name and email address you used when you bought the bundle. If you use different names and email address for each, it’s going to take longer. We’ll have to fire off an email asking you for more info.

Getting Started

If you’re not familiar with Spell Catcher, it’s been around for a long time. Here’s our best advice for getting started:

• Watch our Video Tutorials.
• In the Spell Catcher application, choose Help > Spell Catcher Help, read the welcome, intro, and follow the Crash Course Tutorial.
• Read the Spell Checking chapter in the Help Book.
• If you have a question or problem, search our FAQs, our support forums, and our entire website.
• Read the rest of the Help Book.
• Fire off an email to us if you’re still stuck. Realize we’re mega-massively busy right now, please be patient if we can’t get back to your instantaneously.

Spell Catcher X 10.3.4 is Available!

Spell Catcher X 10.3.4 fixes a couple of truly annoying bugs discovered in version 10.3.3. I hate doing this sort of quick turn-around update, but nobody should have to live with bugs like these.

See what’s new in Spell Catcher X 10.3.4.

Get it from our Downloads page, or by downloading it via Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages.

Spell Catcher X MacUpdate Weekend Promo

For the weekend of Jan 16/17, 2010 – Spell Catcher X is only $19.95!

If you already own Spell Catcher X, the MacUpdate folks tell me that sales are usually directly related to the number of comments that are posted. So we’d appreciate comments (not here, over on MacUpdate) from existing customers telling everyone that they’re getting a great deal on a similarly great product!

Spell Catcher X 10.3.3 is Available!

Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) users, thanks for being patient—your wait is now over! Spell Catcher X 10.3.3 is available for download. This is a free (and rather significant) update to Spell Catcher X 10.3, and recommended for all Spell Catcher X 10.3, 10.3.1 and 10.3.2 users.

Spell Catcher X 10.3.3 includes a new input method, supporting applications running in both 64-bit and 32-bit mode, on 64-bit capable Macs running Snow Leopard. No setup is required, as was the case with Spell Catcher X 10.3.2.

For those that followed our Spell Catcher X 10.3.2 on Snow Leopard Quick Start Guide, please read our How to reset your applications to open in 64-bit mode FAQ for information on undoing the steps you might have followed in that guide.

Spell Catcher X 10.3.3 isn’t only for Snow Leopard users, there‘s plenty that’s new—for everyone.

See what’s new in Spell Catcher X 10.3.3.

Get it from our Downloads page, or by downloading it via Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages.

Spell Catcher X on Snow Leopard Quick Start Guide

We’ve posted a new, simplified, 2 minute guide to get you started using Spell Catcher X 10.3.2 on Snow Leopard. Please read it and follow the steps!

Spell Catcher X 10.3.2 on Snow Leopard Quick Start Guide

Spell Catcher X 10.3.2 is Compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)!

Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) is here, and Spell Catcher X was ready! Now that we know the developer seed we’ve been working with is the actual GM build (10A432), we can say for certain. The answer is YES, Spell Catcher X 10.3.2 (the current version) is compatible with Snow Leopard!

We have posted some new FAQs for using Spell Catcher X on Mac OS X 10.6 with the information you need to know. Please give them a read!

Spell Catcher X plus eight great apps only $49.95 at TheMacBundles.com!

Visit TheMacBundles.com, and get Spell Catcher X and eight other great apps for 80% off the regular retail price. Just $49.95 for all of this:

Trust me folks – this is a great deal! In fact, I’ve used a bunch of these apps for almost as long as my own (we’re talking Thunder era here). The quality, usefulness, and maturity’s there. Pretty much impossible to go wrong with this one…

This bundle of goodness is only going to be around for 14 21 days. Grab it while you can! And unlike most bundles, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. That’s because we’re using the folks at Kagi for ecommerce, and that’s their policy. Like I said – you really can’t go wrong.

Go get it now.

Spell Catcher X 1/2 Price at macZOT!

For the day of May 11, 2009 – Spell Catcher X is only $19.95 at macZOT!

If you already own Spell Catcher X, we’d appreciate comments (not here, over on macZOT!) from existing customers, telling everyone that they’re getting a great deal on a similarly great product!

When the promo starts, at 12:00am EST, comments will be open (as will sales!).

Comprehensive Medical Terms Add-On Reference Now Available

Courtesy of the folks at e-MedTools, we’ve created a Spell Catcher format Learned Words file that includes medical terminology from the MedSpel project. This reference contains over 35,000 medical terms not available in the U.S. English Medical Additional Spellings database. Use this file in conjunction with the standard U.S. English Medical Spellings for a grand total of nearly 60,000 medical terms!

Available for all Spell Catcher products, download the one you need from the appropriate Add-Ons page:

Spell Catcher X
Spell Catcher Plus
Spell Catcher 8

It’s also available on from the Downloads page for each product, and our Languages page.

And best of all, it’s free!

Danish and Norwegian Bokmål Languages for Spell Catcher Plus Now Available

Danish and Norwegian Bokmål languages for Spell Catcher Plus are now available.

More information is available on the Spell Catcher Plus languages page (word counts and all that good stuff). Scroll to the bottom of the page…

These languages can now be purchased at our online store for $10.

Norwegian Bokmål Language for Spell Catcher X Now Available

We’ve added a new add-on language to our line-up, Norwegian Bokmål (spelling and thesaurus). It’s available now for Spell Catcher X, and we’ll have it ready shortly for Spell Catcher Plus.

More information is available on the Spell Catcher X languages page (word counts and all that good stuff). Scroll to the bottom of the page…

Those of you that were waiting, you can buy it at our online store for a mere $10.

Spell Catcher on sale at Kagi’s Hot Deals Store

Hot off the heels of our MacUpdate Promo (a single day event), we’re selling Spell Catcher X and Spell Catcher Plus (both full and “Lite” licenses) at a 20% discount, for the entire month of February, 2009.

To get the discount, you have to visit our Hot Deals page on Kagi’s site.

To purchase other items, such as upgrades and languages, visit our Online Store as usual.

Spell Catcher X MacUpdate Promo

For the day of Feb 2, 2009 – Spell Catcher X is only $19.95!

If you already own Spell Catcher X, the MacUpdate folks tell me that sales are usually directly related to the number of comments that are posted. So we’d appreciate comments (not here, over on MacUpdate) from existing customers telling everyone that they’re getting a great deal on a similarly great product!

When the promo starts, at 12:00am EST, comments will be open (as will sales!).

Follow this MacUpdate Promo link to get there!