PFiddlesoftSoftware for pfiddling with Mac OS X |
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To place an order for UI Browser or UI Actions, visit our Web Store or purchase from within the trial version. Send sales questions to sales@pfiddlesoft.com. |
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About PFiddlesoft™ |
PFiddles™ are PFun! |
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PFiddlesoft™ is the name under which PreForm Assistive Technologies, LLC distributes software for Macintosh computers with an emphasis on assistive technologies. These are the same products that were formerly distributed by PreFab Software, Inc. PFiddlesoft has unmatched experience controlling the graphical user interface of applications running on Apple computers using AppleScript and other technologies. Our products carry on the tradition of PreFab Player, a seminal product released in 1994 for the classic Mac OS. Now, PFiddlesoft brings our expertise to you on Mac OS X with several established products and the frameworks on which they are based. UI Browser was first released in 2003 to support Apple's GUI Scripting and Accessibility technologies. UI Actions followed in 2004, implementing "universal attachability" for AppleScript. Read about them and download fully functional 30-day free trial versions by clicking the products above. Event Taps Testbench was released in 2007 and is available to you for free. The PFiddlesoft Frameworks product page provides full documentation, download, and licensing information for our PFAssistive and PFEventTaps Frameworks. All of PFiddlesoft's products are written and maintained by Bill Cheeseman of Quechee Software. He has been well known for many years in the AppleScript community as originator in 1996 and long-time Webmaster of The AppleScript Sourcebook website. He is the co-author with Sal Soghoian, Apple's product manager for automation technologies, of a popular book about AppleScript, Apple Training Series: AppleScript 1-2-3 (Peachpit Press, 2009). In 1999, he pioneered the original Vermont Recipes website where many current Cocoa developers learned their craft with the Developer Preview version of Mac OS X, and he has since written the 2003 first edition and the recent second edition of a follow-on book about writing Cocoa applications for Mac OS X, Cocoa Recipes for Mac OS X: The Vermont Recipes (Peachpit Press, 2010). |
To "fiddle" is to act idly or frivolously, and a "fiddle" is a lighthearted trifle. The silent "p" was inspired by the folksy beer hall songs of Bob "Fiddler" Beers and his record, Fiddler Beers Sings Psalty Psongs with Psaltery and Pfiddle, released in 1961. This is not to suggest that writing assistive software is an idle or frivolous task. Far from it. Our UI Browser, Event Taps Testbench, and PFiddlesoft Frameworks are seriously powerful tools to help you write seriously useful assistive applications, and UI Actions adds enormous power to AppleScript. But there is no reason why it shouldn't be pfun, too. In that spirit, we will release a number of clever little Macintosh applications over the next few months, all based on the Accessibility or Event Taps API. We call them pfiddles. I am almost finished with the first two pfiddles. One of them, Wheel of Access™, is a game based on Apple's Accessibility API. You fill in the blanks on the game board by moving the mouse pointer over text elements on the screen containing the missing letters in your user name. It's suprisingly hard, and pfun, too—really! The other upcoming pfiddle, Applidude™, reminds you which application is currently active every time you switch and when you hit a hot key. With Applidude, you'll never again forget what you're doing on your Mac. There are many more pfiddles to come. Stay tuned! — Bill Cheeseman, May 2010 |
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This page was first published by PFiddlesoft on May 25, 2010. Last updated July 31, 2010.
Copyright © 2003-2010 Bill Cheeseman. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.
PFiddlesoft, PFiddle Software, pfiddle, pfiddles, the PFiddlesoft logo, Wheel of Access, and Applidude are trademarks of PreForm Assistive Technologies, LLC.