OS X split screen

The first time since Apple introduced the split screen mode in OS X that it really comes in handy for me. Here I have Parallels running, on the left side with Windows 10 in the standard and on the right in HiDPI mode. This way, while programming, I can test how Task Till Dawn gets rendered in the particular display mode. Pretty neat!

Apart from that I find the split screen implementation rather quirky. I have to admit that Windows is one step ahead of OS X here. Apple only allows to have two windows side by side. Additionally, if one deactivates the system preference "Displays have separate spaces", the split screen mode is no longer usable. Completely illogical and inefficient – because if I am working with multiple monitors I want all monitors to synchronously switch spaces. But unfortunately, on OS X one can either use the split screen mode or the synchronous space switching. Not both at the same time.

OS X Split Screen
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Guest contribution: PHP AutoMapper

During software development it's often tedious to map properties from one object to another. For example, if you have objects for your view on one side, and database objects on the other, and you have to get the values out of the database objects into the view objects.

This article shows you how you can simplify this task by using my self-written free and open source PHP AutoMapper library.

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Simple template parser for PHP

During the development of sourceXchange I wrote a small template parser, named Temply, which is able to handle single (closed) tags as well as nested block tags. Also, custom attributes can be assigned to tags to control their behaviour.

The parser is pretty easy to use and can be freely extended using a simple interface. The whole thing consists of just three relatively small PHP classes. It is not a full blown template engine like – for example – Smarty. It has no caching mechanisms (yet) and there are no predefined tag libs included. But I think this might as well be an advantage in some cases.

Today, I'm releasing the package in the downloads-section under the LGPL. Coding examples are included within the downloadable archive, to help you get started.

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