Toluu : MacResearch - Online Community and Resource for Mac OS X in Science

MacResearch - Online Community and Resource for Mac OS X in Science

A couple of months ago Gigwiz updated their flagship data analysis and graphing application Aabel I've recently had a chance to spend a little time using it and I thought I'd post my impressions.
There are an increasing number of high quality data analysis tools now available under Mac OS X, these range from simple spreadsheet applications to powerful 3D data and statistcal analysis tools. One thing that you are quickly aware of is that Aabel produces absolutlely stunning graphs, but it is much more than a pretty face, it also has powerful statistical and data exploration tools. Aabel comes with an impressive 1000 page manual that describes the application in great detail with plenty of screenshots to aid understanding.

Showcase: TouchPlot for iPhone and iPod touchJanuary 7

In 'Showcase' reviews, the reviewer is the developer. No claim of objectivity is made, but it’s a chance for the developer to show off his/her app. Here, software developer Pierre-Henri Jondot talks about his plotting/graphing application TouchPlot for iPhone and iPod touch.

TouchPlot is a grapher application for the iPhone and iPod touch, which can be bought at the appstore since late july. As the developer of TouchPlot, my intention in this review is to give an idea of what can be done with TouchPlot, as well as to explain some of the design decisions I've made while developing this application.

Apple Adds Support for MathType and EndNote to PagesJanuary 6

Tucked away in Apple’s MacWorld keynote presentation was a little tidbit of particular interest to scientists. After years of waiting, our voices have finally been heard — Pages ‘09 includes support for MathType and EndNote.
From Apple’s site:

In Pages ’09, you can now create sophisticated equations for research papers, lab reports, and journal articles using MathType 6.1 Compose your equations with the MathType point-and-click equation editor and instantly add them to your Pages document. Pages also works with EndNote X2.1 Choose from over 3800 bibliographic styles supported by EndNote X2 and easily insert citations into your Pages document.

This is certainly a welcome addition, and will make Pages a much more attractive prospect for writing scientific literature. Hopefully Apple will also open the app to other third party developers, but I am not holding my breath.

Interacting with SOAP based web services from Cocoa, part 1.January 6

Author: Alexander Griekspoor
Web Site: www.mekentosj.com

SOAP based web services and Cocoa have never been good friends, and although REST based webservices are fortunately today's standard there are still tons of SOAP-based ones out there. What has always been missing in Cocoa is high level support for interacting with SOAP-based webservices. Here I describe one way in which you can build such frameworks yourself, starting by analysing the webservice calls in detail in this part 1 and generating the necessary Cocoa classes for use in a Mac or iPhone application next time.

The Realities of Writing Technical BooksJanuary 5

Author: Drew McCormack
Web Site: macanics.net, maccoremac.com

Around 3 years ago, I co-authored the book Beginning Mac OS X Programming with Mike Trent. It takes a broad look at developing software on the Mac, covering as much ground as possible, from Carbon to Cocoa, and even AppleScript. As far as I know, it is the only book for the Mac that has taken this approach. As with any computer book, shelf life is relatively short, and you can now find it for free on Google Books.

When I first decided I wanted to write a book, I was very green, and didn’t know what was