Ashmead Software & Consulting, Inc./mpsig

The Macintosh Programmers Special Interest Group (MPSIG) is meeting as usual the first Saturday of the month, February 4th, from 10:30am to 12:30 am at McMobile in Upper Darby (directions: www.macsensei.com/html/map_to_store.html).

I will be talking on "How to get started with MySQL".

MySQL is the most popular open source (and free!) database in the world. It comes with the Mac. It is fast, powerful, and has all the features required for professional work. It has been beating out major (& $100,000+) databases for years now.

MySQL is extremely popular for supporting websites & wikis!

I'm going to talk about how to:

2) setup your first database

4) populate tables with data

5) do necessary administrative stuff like backups & logins

I'm going to focus on your questions so if you have ideas for a database please bring them in & we will discuss!

MySQL is a great way to get started with databases!

The MPSIG web site is currently http://www.dicas.com/mpsig/index.html (I keep a page up for MPSIG as well, www.ashmeadsoftware.com/mpsig.htm). Our new website is www.phillymacprog.org. We're populating it now.

The Macintosh Programmers Special Interest Group (MPSIG) is meeting as usual the first Saturday of the month, January 7th, from 10:30am to 12:30 am at McMobile in Upper Darby (directions: www.macsensei.com/html/map_to_store.html).

Our own Sam Leidy will be doing "My First Automater", how to get started with Automater. This is a really powerful tool for building complex scripts to make your life simpler. It is meant to be easy enough for non-programmers to use.

Sam & I encourage you to bring any sample Automater scripts you have to the meeting. If I know Sam, he will be bringing lots of useful scripts of his own to show us!

There are a lot of Automater references on the web. You can download scripts from http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/. I've been reading Ben Waldie's book: "Mac OS X Technology Guide to Automater", available from www.spiderworks.com. Very helpful! (Ben gave a great talk on Automater to MPSIG this last November. He runs the local Applescript group: http://homepage.mac.com/paasug/.)

We are looking forward to hearing him January 7th!

We have Mike Zornik on "Ruby on Rails".

Ruby is a language that is getting an enormous amount of good press as a rapid web development tool: part of the whole Web 2.0 thing, if you've heard of that. Mike has just taken it up & is full of insight. Per Mike is his talk is:

Introduction to Ruby

Interpreted languages are all the rage these days, and Ruby is amongst the fastest gaining mindshare. At this month's meeting we'll do an introduction to the Ruby language, showing off some of it's more unique approaches to solving problems. We'll also do a brief overview of Rails, a full-stack, open-source web framework that has been a big part of Ruby's momentum.

http://ruby-lang.org
http://www.rubyonrails.com

Mike knows whereof he speaks. He is a freelance consultant who helps build custom web software for small to medium sized businesses. And he provides user experience reviews that help people get the most from their web sites. In his spare time Mike enjoys hacking together OS X applications with Cocoa as well as blogging his thoughts about the tech industry on his blog at MikeZornek.com

We are looking forward to hearing him December 3rd!

The Macintosh Programming Special Interest Group (MPSIG) had a lively meeting November 5th, running from 10:30am to about 12:30pm.

Ben Waldie did a great job discussing how to get started with Applescript. He did a very interactive presentation: questions were answered by the "let's just see" method!

Ben's August MacTECH article, which covers building an Automator action with AppleScript, has been posted online at . Per Ben, this article walks through the creation of the same "Choose from List" action that he created during his presentation. And it also includes a link to download the code for the action.

The release of Mac OS X Tiger introduced the world to Automator, the latest and greatest personal automation assistant on the Mac. Its slick interface and ease of use allow Automator to bring the true power of workflow automation to the user level. With hundreds of default actions, and more available from third-party developers, Automator is quickly becoming the tool of choice for automating those time consuming and repetitive tasks. As a developer, you can help to expand Automator's reach even further. During this session, we will discuss what it takes to begin building custom Automator actions with AppleScript Studio. With a little practice, you extend Automator's capabilities, making not only your own workflow more efficient, but perhaps even the workflows of many others.

Ben has his own company & heads up the local Applescript user group. Bio:

Ben Waldie is president of Automated Workflows, LLC, a company offering AppleScript, Automator, and workflow automation consulting to Mac-based businesses. Ben has developed custom automated solutions for businesses across the globe, including Adobe Systems, Apple Computer, NASA, PC World, and TV Guide Magazine.

Ben is a regular AppleScript columnist for MacTech Magazine and X-Ray Magazine, and is the author of "AppleScripting the Finder" and "Mac OS X Technology Guide to Automator", which are both available from SpiderWorks, LLC. Ben is a frequent presenter at Macworld Expo and other events, and presents to many Mac user groups on topics including AppleScript and Automator. He is a contributing editor on MacScripter.net, and president of The Philadelphia Area AppleScript Users Group. Ben has also taught custom AppleScript training classes, and has authored an introductory AppleScript training CD for The Virtual Training Company.

The Macintosh Programming SIG [MPSIG] meets regularly on the first Saturday of each month, from 10:30am to 12:30am at MacMobile in Upper Darby (directions: www.macsensei.com/html/map_to_store.html). Note that MacMobile has a new location!

Thanks to Stan Horwitz, we now have a list of our own. If you are not already subscribed, send an email to:

Nothing else. Except if you have multiple email accounts, use the one that you want to subscribe to or signoff from.

Many, many thanks for MacMobile & Yukio for hosting us!

The group leaders are John Ashmead and Deivy Petrescu.

Deivy maintains the official MPSIG web site.

With OS X, the Macintosh has become an exciting platform to program for. The combination of the Mac front end and the UNIX platform make it in some ways the best thing on the market today!

MPSIG exists to help people program the Mac, whether they are experienced programmers or newbies.

MPSIG is a special interest group within the Main Line Macintosh User's Group (MLMUG). MLMUG meets every second Saturday.

Other local area Mac groups which might interest you, if you are interested in Macintosh programming are: