Well, this is my page, just for reference:
http://homepage.mac.com/mdouma46/fcache/fcache.html
Actually, I think I may have overreacted a bit.
I realize now that my intentions about what Font Cache Cleaner is have changed dramatically from when I released that first version back in March.
Originally, probably over a period of the last 2 years, I noticed some places on the web (MacOSXHints, possibly) that mentioned these cache files, and various Terminal commands you could use to delete them.
Having a fairly strong understanding of OS X, and of the relative power of the command line, I felt that it was rather dangerous to have Average Joe's first lesson in Terminal be using commands like "sudo", "rm", and "-rf" in the same line. The slightest mistake--an extra space here, or an extra slash there, could result in a rather severe data loss. So, I figured I'd look and come up with a combination of commands that would be sure to cover all the files, and that ended up with what I have posted on my web page.
Because I'm not too thrilled with the other "cache cleaning" utilities out there, that will blindly delete your cache files for you without any details on the consequences, etc., I decided that I'd do it differently. I think the user has a right to know what files are being deleted, and what the purpose of those files are. Back in March, about the best I could do, based on my limited ability to create an application using AppleScript Studio, was to provide in the documentation a list of the files that were being deleted, and what their purposes were.
So, my intent then, was simply to keep these potential users safe by wrapping the necessary Terminal commands (which I carefully created, having an understanding of how the shell works), and wrap a GUI around them.
At that time, I saw this AppleScript Studio as primarily a hobby. I had actually only started playing around with AppleScript last fall at about this time. Over the last year though, I quickly moved from AppleScript to AppleScript Studio, and in the last few months, full -blown Objective C and C. Gradually, I began to realize that this is really want I want to do, in other words, write software aimed at the graphic design market, to help you guys out (rather than getting a job in graphic design quite yet).
I've studied the various font management applications out there, and have not been too impressed. It makes me wonder if places like MacWorld, etc. actually try to use these applications on a daily basis before they give them a 4 or 5 star rating. While they each seem to have their strengths, they're all basically the same: here's a window, here's all your fonts, click to activate. Anyway, basically, I've come up with numerous ideas that I hope to implement in a font management app of my own. At the base of this will be the Font Cache Cleaner tool, and I plan on adding features to that over time, such as opening font suitcases (like OS 9 did, not like Font/DA Mover), and -- actually, I better not mention the other parts yet :wink:.
So, my plans for this new version is that it will no longer be freeware, but rather, $10 shareware, with volume discounts available.
From what I hear, Extensis has been specifically recommending Font Cache Cleaner to customers having trouble with Suitcase. Well, their free-loading is gonna have to stop, as I'm no longer going to work for free. I dunno, Extensis has known about this issue for years, and regardless of whose "fault" it is, the fact is, you have to deal with it on a daily basis. Apparently, Extensis is not too concerned with their customer's needs. They could easily have whipped something up in a week or so, but they just delve it off on someone else. (Before, they recommended several general cache cleaning applications.) Well, after 8 months, I've managed to learn how to program and take care of some of your/(our?) needs. And I think while I'm at it, I might as well keep going.
Anyhow, I guess my view of Font Cache Cleaner has changed from being a mere hobby, to being the core of my future livelihood, so I think that was behind my "seeing it as a threat" by them coming up with that feature.
I think, for right now, I'll just let it go, and focus on getting Font Finagler (the new name) out, and worry about that stuff later, should the need arise. I mean, there's no way I can prove they did copy it from my webpage. Heck, for all I know, maybe they didn't. But the chances that they'd happen to come up with the same exact combination of scripts that I did are pretty slim. (But anyhow, between you and me, it still doesn't change the fact that Font Doctor is an abomination of a Macintosh application (okay, maybe that's a bit harsh, but...)).
The fact is, those scripts do have limitations, and I've come up with some new methods to work with those limitations, and make the Font Cache Cleaner feature available in a wide array of possible environments. So in that respect, they're still 6 mos. behind.
Okay, I should get back to coding...
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Linear Mode
