Apart from the news that Jony Ive is leaving Apple, it’s language week at TidBITS! Apple has telegraphed a change in future versions of macOS that could affect Mac developers, admins, and users: the deprecation of open-source scripting languages. Curtis Wilcox joins us to explore the ramifications. If you’re a writer or just a lexical enthusiast, we recommend reading newcomer Timothy Buck’s review of the iOS word exploration app Terminology. Finally, for Pages users creating long documents, TidBITS regular Michael Cohen explains how to make and use tables of contents now that Apple has significantly enhanced the feature. Notable Mac app releases this week include Pages 8.1, Numbers 6.1, and Keynote 9.1, Scrivener 3.1.3, Mellel 4.2, EagleFiler 1.8.8, Nisus Writer Pro 3.0.2, Web Confidential 5.0, BBEdit 12.6.5, and 1Password 7.3.1.
Design legend Jony Ive is leaving Apple later this year to start a new company. Apple says it will remain a client.
Apple says future versions of macOS won’t include a number of open-source scripting languages. The impact of this change will vary depending on the audience, but it will affect more people than you might think.
Do you ever hear a word you don’t know or struggle to find the perfect synonym? If so, the Terminology iOS app might be for you. It’s a great place to start a word search and, with its extensible actions, you’re likely to find what you need.
The latest versions of Apple’s Pages all offer easy table-of-contents creation. Here’s how to make them and why you might want to, even if you’re not publishing a book.
Watchlist
Maintenance updates bring new features to the recently upgraded iWork app suite. (Free, various sizes)
Maintenance update brings a couple of new features and stability improvements to the long-form writing tool. ($45 new, free update, 106 MB)
Major update introduces a new table feature that includes headers and footers, styles, and formulas. ($49 new, free update, 82.2 MB)
Brings a variety of improvements and bug fixes for the document organization and archiving app, including preliminary support for macOS 10.15 Catalina. ($40 new, free update, 25.7 MB)
Brings a lengthy list of improvements and bug fixes to the powerful word processor. ($65 new, free update from version 3, $45 upgrade, 244 MB)
Major upgrade for the venerable password manager gets updated to 64-bit and gains support for AppleScript. ($25 new, $20 upgrade, 6.2 MB)
Maintenance update welcomes back the old crash reporter and makes a couple of additions to the Character Inspector. ($49.99 new, free update, 13.7 MB)
Reintroduces tagging capabilities to 1Password mini. ($64.99 new, free update, 51 MB)
