Hi,
just wanted to know if there will be a Leopard update or an other way to enable HotService 2.3 to work on Leopard?
Thanks in advance
I have moved HotService to /Library/InputManagers/ and changed everything according to the infos provided but it seems that it won’t work with HotService.
Do you know if I have to do something special to get it to work or is it just broken?
I don’t think that InputManagers are doomed, there are quite a bunch of them which already work in Leopard:
1Password, Chax, iGlasses, Inquisitor, Plaxo, Saft, SIMBL…
Thanks in advance
Well, this is Apple’s statement:
Sounds like doomed stuff, at least for me 
tfp, if you put that list of utilities using input manager plugins onto your computer the odds are high that errors will exist in operating code (from the ‘point of view’ of applications that make calls to the OS) and/or in memory. The operating system has been hacked multiple times, and the potential for interactions among the areas of hacked code makes for interesting complexities.
And that’s the problem. Apple provides support to Mac users for software problems related to the operating system and Apple’s own programs. Apple spends a lot of resources on development, testing and quality assurance.
Apple Support has all too often had to tell customers that their flaky computers, crashes and lost data resulted from the existence of hacks on their computers. In some cases their advice to customers is to either remove the hacks, or seek support from the developers of the hacks. That’s not satisfying to many customers, and it’s certainly not satisfying to Apple. DEVONtechnologies all too often has to tell customers that the presence of some hacks – I will certainly mention ShapeShifter – will impair the reliability of DEVONthink applications.
Input Manager plugins represent a back door to the operating system to introduce code that changes behavior. This was provided to make it possible for third party developers to add features. But that was back in the days of a smaller and simpler operating system. Tiger and Leopard are much more complex, and the ramifications of modifying a chunk of OS code become more and more difficult to predict or control.
Christian is right. With Leopard, Apple has fired a warning shot to developers. If the marketplace continues to produce hacks that threaten the stability of Macs, Apple will firmly close the back doors to the OS. That would be a shame, but I’m afraid it may become necessary.
I can understand that Apple is trying to reduce the amount of support which wouldn’t be necessary if those “hacks” weren’t installed but in my opinion they then should provide developers with a comparable API that they could use.
E.g. I don’t always want to use the mouse to use a service. Why doesn’t Apple provide the items in the service menu in their new “help search” or via Spotlight? That would solve the problem and nobody has to install any “nasty” hacks to get the service menu directly onto the menu bar. Most of the mac users I know don’t even know that there’s a service menu and what they can do with it.
On Mac OS X Tiger I used Quicksilver to invoke items in the service menu but it seems broken because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
I can clearly see that InputManagers can be evil and cause system instabilities but on the other hand I don’t think that inexperienced users will go out there and install dozens of InputManagers. When you install a software and all of a sudden your system feels flaky, you won’t blame Apple for that. Maybe you write a support mail to the developers asking for help or browsing the forum, if one exists.
To cut a long story short I have to say that I’m sad that HotService won’t work on Leopard and that DevonTechnologies isn’t providing an updated version but I can understand that supporting a freeware app which could cause problems due to the underlying framework is not very profitably.
Greetings
I devoutly wish the world were that way.
Inexperienced uses are the ones most likely to load up with gadget software and a hundred or so active Widgets. Then they blame Apple.