I am relatively new to TextMate, having been converted from Emacs less than a year ago. Emacs (pictured below) has extensive support for coding in VHDL. I was quite surprised, then, when I learned that there is no VHDL bundle available for TextMate. It turns out that both VHDL and Verilog (the two most popular hardware description languages) are on the bundle request list.
When I think about this more, it makes sense. The Macintosh is not the platform of choice for hardware designers, who are probably using UNIX or Linux. The VHDL simulation software that we use in school only runs on Windows, but there are some command-line simulation tools such as GHDL that have been ported to run on Mac OS X.
I’m considering writing my own bundle, which would be a good excuse to buy that new TextMate book that I’ve been wanting. Syntax highlighting and commonly used snippets/declarations would be the main priority, followed in the future by GHDL integration. Of course, I would add the bundle to the Macromates SVN repository once it was in a useful state.
If you got here from Google, what functionality would you like to see in a TextMate VHDL bundle?
iTunesVolume (download link below) is an awesome little program that I found a few days ago via macosxhints. It has a number of features – the ability to start and stop iTunes, change the volume, rate the current track, and display the current track’s info and lyrics – all conveniently accessed from the desktop! My favorite feature, however, is that it displays the current track’s album artwork on the desktop (fully resizable). I love being able to see the album artwork of the track I’m playing, and I think that the desktop is a perfect place to put it, but few programs offer this option.
I’ve been using iTunesVolume for a few days now and it works well, always changing the artwork within seconds of changing tracks on iTunes. The display preferences are numerous – the three components can made transparent and not all of them need to be shown. I only have the volume controller and the artwork running, as seen in the screen capture below:
One caveat: activity monitor shows that this program seems to utilize the CPU more than it should. I didn’t notice any significant speed issues while I was using it, but bear that in mind if your Mac seems slower after installing it.
The author’s website is currently down due to overusage of bandwidth, but the program can be downloaded at this mirror until the site is fixed.
P.S. Jokes relating to Coldplay and The 40-Year Old Virgin will not be appreciated 
While I was playing with iPhoto over the vacation, I discovered a neat way to quickly review all the cool things I had done last year. If you use iPhoto to manage your photo library, and you take a fair number of photos throughout the year (I have around 1200 shots from last year), then you may enjoy this little trick. It is by no means earth-shattering, but I thought it was a uniquely visual way to reminisce about the year.
Choose the year you want to review from the source list. The years are found under “Library” which should be the first item on the list. After adjusting the pictures to an appropriate size using the slider in the lower right hand corner, click on the scroll button and drag it at any speed down the scroll bar. As you do this, the months of the year will overlay the photos so that you can see everything that happened that month. You will only see the overlay if you are using iLife ‘06.
Last year brought me my 19th birthday, many track meets, my 5th Vermont City Marathon relay team, jaw surgery, my first lobster, a Dave Matthews Band roadtrip, a week of camping in Deering, New Hampshire, many visits to friends and family, a Ben Folds Concert, and a fine Christmas. I hope 2006 was good to you as well.
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