I like Spell Catcher X a lot. Of all the apps I use, only Quicksilver saves me more time in Mail.app (and elsewhere).

So when I discovered some strange behaviour in Mail.app that throws Spell Catcher X off balance, I blogged the solution that I found on Betalogue . (If you use Mail.app and Spell Catcher X you should know about this).

Now Pierre Igot at Betalogue has posted a longer interesting explanation of why this problem occurs.

In a nutshell, Mail.app doesn’t support the new-fangled direct replacement of text. It has to backspace character by character when Spell Catcher X makes a correction or expands the abbreviation for a text snippet.

That takes time. If you type quickly, you outstrip Spell Catcher X’s valiant attempts to cope with the backspacing. Textual chaos ensues.

A fast typist can achieve this on almost any Mac. Only with all the grunt of a Quad G5 beneath his finger tips has Pierre overcome it.

@agenda: Discuss new Mac with wife > @action: Learn to type more slowly.

Tags: mail.app, Spell Catcher X, Textual chaos

So, you’re thinking about buying one of the new Intel Macs announced this week in San Francisco?

I am. There’s a shiny new MacBook Pro with my name on it out there somewhere. Or there will be.

The big question for me is not whether I’ll miss the FW800 port as much as I think I will (probably not), or whether I will kick myself for not waiting for the Rev B (probably), but whether Mail.app with all my favourite things bolted-on will run natively.

So I asked the developers of all the plugins and addons on the Top Ten things every Mail.app user should have list, how ready they were for the Intel Macs. Here’s the good news:

1. MailTags. Scott Morrison says that a universal binary will be available “hopefully” in two weeks. And as Version 1.2 with a killer new feature as well!
2. Mail Act-on. Two weeks will see a universal binary of this plug-in as well.
3. MailAppetizer. This has been a universal binary since July last year. Ready to go.
4. Mail Scripts. This has also been a universal binary since the middle of last year. Andeas Amann says that “the only potential problem might be the “Archive Messages” script since it packages some pre-complied Perl packages as well”. But if any problems exist, they’ll soon be ironed out.
5. Mail Stamps. Version 2.1 was compiled as a universal binary for Intels and PowerPCs. And it worked fine on his developer Intel Mac, Andrew Escobar says.
6. MailUnreadStatusBar. Masaru says that it’s not clear whether this utility will need a recompile or not, “because it isn’t supposed to depend on architecture”. It should work equally well on a PPC or an Intel.
7. JunkMatcher or SpamSieve. Michael Tsai says that at the moment SpamSieve runs in Rosetta with Mail.app and the SpamSieve plug-in running natively. But a recompiled version of SpamSieve is due out in two weeks and will be available as a free upgrade.

   JunkMatcher’s developer Benjamin Han wants to address some issues with his app before recompiling for Intel Macs. Due to time pressures, “it’ll probably be a while”, he says.

8. Take Control of Apple Mail in Tiger. It is my understanding that this excellent ebook will be just as helpful on an Intel Mac as it is now.
9. QuickSilver. Quicksilver and all its plug-ins were recompiled earlier this week.
10. Spell Catcher X. Evan Gross says he will post a recompiled beta of Spell Catcher X next week (when he gets back from MacWorld) that will also contain some new features and few minor bugfixes. The final release will be polished up and available long before most people get their hands on one of the new Macs.

Now there is no excuse for restraint.

You can find a longer list of all recompiled applications that are ready to run natively on VersionTracker’s MacIntel Resource Center.

Tags: addons, Intel Macs, MacBook Pro, mail act-on, Mail Scripts, mail stamps, mail.app, mailappetizer, mailtags, MailUnreadStatusBar, plugins, PowerPC, PPC, quicksilver, Rosetta, SpamSieve, Spell Catcher X, universal binary