This post is one in a series demonstrating a very intriguing application for creating screencasts, ScreenFlow. If you are currently creating screencasts on a Mac, or have considered doing so, you definitely need to give this a look.

In this post I will create three short screencasts, all created using ScreenFlow. The first will be a simple demonstration of a coding trick which is handy when working with column blocks in TextMate. The second will show how to make various modifications to the first video from within ScreenFlow, and the final will show the end result.

When watching the first video, understand that we haven’t done any editing as of yet, so the code/text is rather hard to read. This is even more pronounced in the second video where I demonstrate ScreenFlow to capture a video showing various editing features of ScreenFlow (it’s not as confusing as it sounds). Stick with me on this and I’ll make it right (click the image below to watch the first video)..

Now that we’ve captured the demonstration of the TextMate trick, we need to dive into some of the editing features of ScreenFlow to make the text more readable (click the image below to watch the video):

And with the changes complete, we can now see the final result (you know the drill):

Join me in the next post where I’ll demonstrate some additional features of ScreenFlow including how to record video separately from audio. If you’ve ever created a screencast, you’ll truly appreciate this feature!

Technorati Tags: screencast, screenflow, TextMate

…NetBeans TV, that is. The short screencast I created on using NetBeans, Ruby and rb-appscript to control scriptable applications on a Mac can now be seen on NetBeans.tv! If you aren’t familiar with NetBeans.tv, it is a popular extension of the NetBeans.org site, focused on connecting the people, projects and technologies surrounding NetBeans.

Rob Demmer from the NetBeans team contacted me about posting the video on NetBeans.tv. I’m all for spreading the word in the developer community and if the video I created can play even a small part in helping to reach a few more developers or otherwise introduce a new technology to this audience, count me in.

As far as NeBeans.tv, there are several sections to the site: Interviews, Community, News, Screencasts and On the Road. The last section is quite interesting as it is a video diary of sorts that chronicles the days and nights of two guys traveling around the world meeting NetBeans developers (which sounds like a great job, if you can get it). It’s an interesting website, definitely worth a look.

If you would like to watch the video, as it appears on the NetBeans.tv site, click the image below:

Technorati Tags: netbeans, screencast

What do NetBeans, Ruby and AppleScript have in common? There’s a circular definition of sorts to explain…to start, all are tools available to developers working on Mac. Next, NetBeans has full support for creating, debugging and packaging Ruby code. And finally, Ruby (with the right tools in place) can be used within NetBeans to control scriptable applications on a Mac, something which is typically accomplished using AppleScript.

In this post I’ll describe more about how all these tools come together to provide an interesting approach for using Ruby as an alternative to AppleScript, and working with NetBeans as the development environment for writing and building those same applications.

The screencast that follows will walk you through all the steps to download the tools you’ll need, build from source a scripting bridge (rb-appscript) for Ruby to AppleScript, and finally, create several short examples to demonstrate how you can use Ruby, from within NetBeans to control scriptable applications.

For more information, follow these links:

• NetBeans
• rb-appscript
• AppleScript

If you are interested to learn more about using Ruby as an alternative to AppleScript, I’ve written as series of posts you can find here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

If you write an interesting application in NetBeans, using Ruby and rb-appscript, drop me a note, as I’d like to post several good examples showing the interaction of all these tools.

As an aside, NetBeans is sponsoring a blogging contest for the 6.1 Beta. If you are interested in learning more, visit the NetBeans Blogging Contest. And who knows, you could walk away with one of ten $500 American Express gift certificates!

Technorati Tags: AppleScript, netbeans, rb-appscript, Ruby, screencast