Meet the new MarsEdit programmer

Here’s the situation we were in... We wanted to work more on MarsEdit, but we also wanted to work on NetNewsWire at the same time. So we thought of a bunch of different possibilities and decided to find another developer to help us with MarsEdit.

But how do you choose a developer for something like this? We had a few criteria: we wanted...

- Someone exceptionally talented at Cocoa development with a track record of shipping great apps.

- Someone who is well-acquainted with the space—that is, someone who’s written a desktop editor that connects to XML-based web services.

- Someone who is great at working with beta testers: communication and community skills a must.

- Bonus points for someone who lives near me, so we can meet as needed.

We thought about different people, but one name kept coming up as totally ideal: Gus Mueller of Flying Meat.

(Now, before anyone worries that Gus has given up his indie status, he hasn’t: he’s working on MarsEdit as a contractor. He’s still Gus of Flying Meat.)

(And, by the way, Gus does live near me. We just had a meeting at my office, in fact, and now he has the source code and is getting started.)

What’s the plan?

I worked on MarsEdit somewhat this past summer—as much time as I could muster, anyway. The goal was to handle the most common and pressing of bug reports and feature requests—and so there are new features (as well as bug fixes) coming in the next version. (It’s too soon to announce a list, in case any of them have to get postponed, but we’ll announce them when we can.)

This does mean that Gus isn’t starting from scratch: in fact, every new feature has at least been started, and some are near completion. While it’s too soon to announce a ship date, it’s good to know that the road to MarsEdit 1.1 isn’t as long as it would be had I not been able to work on it this summer.

And, as a 1.1 release, it will be a free upgrade for MarsEdit users.

Testing

Gus will be working with MarsEdit beta testers (and I’ll be there too) as soon as it gets to beta status. (It’s not beta yet.)

If you’re already a MarsEdit user, and you’re serious about wanting to help test, you can send me private email. I may not reply right away, but I’ll send you email when we start testing the beta. It won’t be today or tomorrow or next week, but it’s getting there.

Anyway... Welcome, Gus! I’m looking forward to working with him, and I think those of you who are beta testers will enjoy it too. (And all MarsEdit users will benefit from his mad Cocoa skills. ;)

P.S. I’ve been writing this in the current development build. I wonder if it will actually work when I click the Post button. Here goes... fingers crossed...