About the new LittleSnapper Menu Item
With yesterday's release of LittleSnapper 1.5.2 we totally re-worked how the LittleSnapper menu-item works. Sure, it looks the same and works in almost the same way as the last release of LittleSnapper. But it's not! The new menu item in version 1.5.2 is an entirely separate mini-application (known at Realmac HQ as NanoSnapper) that is able to run all the time, capture snaps and save them to your library without the main application itself running!
To set up the menu item to launch at login, make sure you're running LittleSnapper 1.5.2 (and that you don't have more than one copy on your system!). Simply open the LittleSnapper General Preferences (shown above) and ensure that you check the Status Item: Launch at Login option. If you previously added LittleSnapper to your startup items in the System Preferences -> User Accounts pane, you can now remove LittleSnapper from the list - though be sure to leave NanoSnapper if it's listed.
As you're probably aware, it's simply not possible for us to include a true dockless mode for LittleSnapper. However, feedback from users showed that most wanted to hide the dock icon and simply have the capture tools available - which this shiny-new menu item offers. Enjoy!
LittleSnapper 1.5.2 is now available!
We've been busy at work on updates to LittleSnapper and RapidWeaver, and today we're making LittleSnapper 1.5.2 available! There's plenty of small tweaks and improvements - as well as an all-new menu item that allows you to use LittleSnapper's capture tools (and keyboard shortcuts) without the main application being open.
The 1.5.2 update is available now through LittleSnapper's software update system, as well as via the Realmac Software downloads page.
Between a rock and a hard place
Ever since LittleSnapper 1.5 arrived earlier in the summer, we've been hard at work looking into reports about the application not remembering FTP passwords. We spent considerable amounts of time resolving a few bugs for v1.5.1 - however some users continue to experience issues when using LittleSnapper in dockless mode. Whilst we've looked into numerous ways to fix this issue, we've had to take a long hard look at the dockless mode and come to a hard decision for the feature.
As of LittleSnapper 1.5.2 we will be removing Dockless mode, and whilst that will cause consternation amongst some users, we wanted to ensure you're aware of the reasons for us pulling the feature - something we really didn't want to do.
The Backstory
Hiding the dock icon for an OS X application, whilst far from rare, is not actually supported by Apple. As such, it requires a little black magic to get an application running without a dock icon, and developers have to modify a setting contained within the application itself in order to achieve the hiding. In earlier releases of Mac OS X, this wasn't such a problem - however in Leopard and more notably Snow Leopard, developers are encouraged to code sign each release of their applications and this is where modifying the internals of an application can become an issue.
When a developer code signs an application, a signature is generated that is only valid for the application when we build it, and should the application's internals be modified (say, by toggling dockless mode on or off) the code signature is marked invalid by the operating system. This means that the OS doesn't allow the application access to any previously-authorised system resources - in LittleSnapper's case, the Keychain that stores your FTP and SFTP passwords becomes off-limits.
"So why not simply avoid code signing entirely?" I hear you cry. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Apple's push for Code Signing on the desktop is continuing, and on the whole that's a good thing. It means that data such as the passwords in your Keychain remain safe, yet at the same time they're accessible to unmodified code-signed applications that you've authorised to use Keychain data. Given that we expect Apple to continue pushing code-signing, removing code-signing is simply not an option - particularly in the longer term.
We know that some users will be highly critical about the removal of the dockless option - and rest assured we've looked into a number of different options to try and avoid dropping the feature. However, alternative routes to re-enable this functionality are both hacky in nature and by no means guaranteed to work in future updates to OS X.
Should Apple offer us a supported way to enable dockless mode in the future, rest assured that we'll do everything we can to get this feature back into a future release of LittleSnapper.
Further Reading
If you're looking for a little more discussion on the topic, then we'd recommend that you read the following post for some background - and for any developers reading this, we've filed rdar://7253116 which you're welcome to duplicate via Apple's Bug Reporter.