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| Description: |
Berry represents my attempt to expand the capabilities of mobile devices by leveraging the power of a personal computer. With Berry, your desktop applications and documents can be accessed as a (self-hosted) web service. While different mobile devices may use different protocols or networks, each can access the same desktop services using their available technologies.
Berry turned out to be several things: an exercise in software architecture, a taste of the frustrations and joys of Applescript Studio, a victim of feature creep, a lesson in interface design, perhaps a waste of time, but certainly a whole bunch of fun. The original purpose of this software was to let me run certain small scripts on my home computer from my very low-tech cell phone (circa 2002.) From here, Berry (originally Hackberry) eventually grew a full syntax for requests, a nice GUI, an SDK, a security model, and many new ways to connect. In addition to the original SMS communication channel, six more input channels and nine more output channels were later added (e.g. IM messaging, Skype, Quicksilver.) Talk about feature creep. |
| Screenshots: |
Here are a few screenshots:  A Receiver will listen (using the specified communication channel) for Berry-formatted requests, and will forward received requests to the Berry application for processing. In this window, installed Receivers can be enabled or disabled. Descriptions, settings, and requirements for each are displayed in the sidebar.  An Action describes a particular functionality, encompassed in a specially formatted Applescript. Since scripts can pass data between applications, Actions can draw on a combination (or sequence) of installed applications and documents to generate a response. Like Receivers, installed Actions can be enabled or disabled, and details for each are displayed in the sidebar.  An enabled Responder can be used to send the results of a Berry request back to the mobile device. A Responder may be specified explicitly in a request, otherwise the (Receiver-specific) default is used.  A quick view of the syntax for submitting Berry requests. A few simple examples are included in the demo menu.  General settings including the Text-to-Speech voice used are set in the application settings. Sparkle integration provides support for application auto-updating. |