Articles by Richard Myers
Richard Myers is an amateur programmer from southern New Jersey. His interests include programming, playing ping-pong, and writing about himself in the third person. He is married and has two old dogs.
Automatically Download TV Shows to Your Mac
June 8, 2012
So you’ve read the Perl programming language articles here on Macinstruct, and you’re feeling more comfortable with Perl in general. (If you missed them, see Getting Started with Perl and Using CPAN to Extend Perl.) Now you’re wondering how to use this information to do something cool. How about building a solution that automatically downloads TV shows to your Mac? That’s right. With some free tools, a little configuration, and a few hundred lines of Perl, you can automatically download new episodes of TV shows to your Mac.
Using CPAN to Extend Perl on Mac OS X
June 6, 2012
So you read Getting Started with Perl on Mac OS X and you’re starting to write little Perl scripts to get things done. You learned a few things along the way, and even though you’ve surely hit some speed bumps, you’re still rearing to go. Today, let’s talk about extending your abilities by installing some modules from CPAN. What is CPAN? CPAN is the “Comprehensive Perl Archive Network” - a collection of over one hundred thousand Perl modules ready to be installed and used by you to extend your Perl chops.
Getting Started with Perl on Mac OS X
April 25, 2012
Perl is a widely used programming language developed by Larry Wall in the late 1980’s. Since being originally written as a scripting language to assist in system administration tasks, it has taken off as a popular language for doing everything from low-level systems programming to website scripting. If you have ever thought about getting into programming on your Mac, Perl is a great place to start! Preparing for Perl All you will need for this primer is a text editor, the terminal, and Perl (of course!
Reposition Windows for Multiple Monitors with AppleScript
December 19, 2011
If you frequently switch between different displays, you know organizing your windows when switching displays can be a real pain. I use my MacBook Pro frequently by itself, and I also have a 20" external display on my desk at home. Additionally, I have a weird affliction of window placement OCD. Admiring Stay, but not prepared to spend $15, I wrote the following AppleScript that will resize and organize my windows when I switch my display configuration.