James Montgomerie’s World Wide Web Log

Webmoco Go!

A couple of the guys I worked with via Missing Ink Studios on the first apps to use the Eucalyptus reading engine (including the Hitchhikers’s Guide To The Galaxy and Peter James apps) have started up their own web and mobile development company, “Webmoco”.

I found them great to work with, so if you’re looking for a development team, check out their site, which includes a showcase of the great apps they’ve been involved with in the past.


Using the Mac or iPhone’s Built in Regex Routines

In which a convenient method of using POSIX regular expressions from Objective-C is presented.

It’s a common complaint that the Mac and iPhone platforms don’t have native support for regular expressions, but that’s not entirely true. If you drop down to the UNIX core, there’s an implementation of the old (and only partially busted) POSIX regular expression interfaces. Here, I’ll show a simple Objective-C wrapper class for them that lets you use them conveniently in Mac or iPhone apps.

Before I start, some preemptive remarks: There’s a lot wrong with POSIX regexes to modern eyes. Firstly, and most glaringly, the work …


On “Abolishing the Proposed Law” on Copyright Infringement

I usually shy away from discussing politics online, and but it looks like I opened a can of worms on myself on Twitter this morning after I said “A worthy petition, but I wish it were better worded” in response to this petition. Here, I set out my thoughts in more than 140 characters.

For those not familiar with the background, Charles Arthur of The Guardian has a good article about the current proposed changes to British copyright law.

The petition I’m talking about is about the concrete changes themselves, not the idea that the business secretary be allowed …


The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Just a quick pointer to this post by my alter-ego on the Other Things blog. The first apps using the reader from Eucalyptus are out now, they’re, insanely greatly, the full Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy trilogy (yes, all five books!), and I’m delighted with them. It’s also been a pleasure working with everyone involved.

You really should buy them - I’m heartily enjoying rereading the books. And I swear I’d say that even if I wasn’t involved in their release :-). “More enhanced” editions with additional “extras,” - which will be free upgrades - are also coming soon.

More details …


Getting Married!

Em and I are getting married! With our somewhat unusual circumstances, it’s hard to say when and where yet (although we do plan to do it within the next couple of years!), but we’ve set up http://wedding.montgomerie.net/ for people to follow along.

We’re both very excited!