Growl
Encyclopedia
Growl is a global notification system
for the Mac OS X
and Windows operating system
s. Applications can use Growl to display small notifications about events which the user deems important, in a consistent manner. This allows users to fully control their notifications, application developers to spend little time creating notifications, and Growl developers to concentrate on the usability of notifications.
Growl installs itself as a preference pane
added to the Mac OS X System Preferences. This pane enables and disables Growl's notifications for certain applications entirely, or selects specific notifications for each application.
Applications register a "ticket" with Growl, then send arbitrary notifications which Growl receives and displays. Each notification provides some information, such as: "Download finished," or the name of the current iTunes
track. Users can customize the display and turn notifications on and off.
Growl includes bindings
for developers who use the Objective-C
, C
, Perl
, Python
, Tcl
, AppleScript
, Java
, and Ruby
programming languages, and comes with multiple "display plugins," providing different styles for presenting the notifications. Display plugins include visual styles as well as the ability to send notifications via email, SMS, or push notifications.
The Growl Project website has a list of applications that support Growl, either inherently or through add-ons.
Plugins or scripts exist to add Growl notifications to iChat
, Mail
, Thunderbird
, Safari
, and iTunes
(GrowlTunes).
The Growl website lists applications that install Growl without the user's permission.
Adobe
Creative Suite
5 is one of them. Adobe has published a blog post apologizing for installing Growl on users' systems without permission, and says that they are “actively working to mitigate the problem”. Adobe has an article in their knowledge base explaining what notifications CS5 sends and how to remove Growl.
As of Growl 1.3, Growl is available for purchase in the App Store and is no longer a free download. Previous versions remain available at no charge. The source code for all versions of Growl, including 1.3 and later versions, is available as well.
Notification system
A modern notification system is a combination of software and hardware that provides a means of delivering a message to a set of recipients. For example, notification systems can send an e-mail when a new topic has been added to Wikipedia. The complexity of the notification system is often...
for the Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
and Windows operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s. Applications can use Growl to display small notifications about events which the user deems important, in a consistent manner. This allows users to fully control their notifications, application developers to spend little time creating notifications, and Growl developers to concentrate on the usability of notifications.
Growl installs itself as a preference pane
Preference Pane
A Preference Pane is a special dynamically loaded plugin in Mac OS X. Introduced in Mac OS X v10.0, the purpose of a Preference Pane is to allow the user to set preferences for a specific application or the system by means of a graphical user interface. Preference Panes are the OS X replacement to...
added to the Mac OS X System Preferences. This pane enables and disables Growl's notifications for certain applications entirely, or selects specific notifications for each application.
Applications register a "ticket" with Growl, then send arbitrary notifications which Growl receives and displays. Each notification provides some information, such as: "Download finished," or the name of the current iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
track. Users can customize the display and turn notifications on and off.
Growl includes bindings
Language binding
In computing, a binding from a programming language to a library or OS service is an API providing that service in the language.Many software libraries are written in systems programming languages such as C or C++...
for developers who use the Objective-C
Objective-C
Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language.Today, it is used primarily on Apple's Mac OS X and iOS: two environments derived from the OpenStep standard, though not compliant with it...
, C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
, Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, Tcl
Tcl
Tcl is a scripting language created by John Ousterhout. Originally "born out of frustration", according to the author, with programmers devising their own languages intended to be embedded into applications, Tcl gained acceptance on its own...
, AppleScript
AppleScript
AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. and built into Macintosh operating systems since System 7. The term "AppleScript" may refer to the scripting system itself, or to particular scripts that are written in the AppleScript language....
, Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, and Ruby
Ruby (programming language)
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
programming languages, and comes with multiple "display plugins," providing different styles for presenting the notifications. Display plugins include visual styles as well as the ability to send notifications via email, SMS, or push notifications.
The Growl Project website has a list of applications that support Growl, either inherently or through add-ons.
Plugins or scripts exist to add Growl notifications to iChat
IChat
iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging...
Mail (application)
Mail is an email program included with Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system. Originally developed by NeXT as NeXTMail, a part of their NeXTSTEP operating system, it was adapted, following Apple's acquisition of NeXT, to become OS X's Mail application.Mail uses the SMTP, POP3, and IMAP protocols,...
, Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...
, Safari
Safari (web browser)
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included with the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Safari is also the...
, and iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
(GrowlTunes).
The Growl website lists applications that install Growl without the user's permission.
Adobe
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
Creative Suite
Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe Creative Suite is a collection of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications made by Adobe Systems. The collection consists of Adobe's applications , that are based on various technologies...
5 is one of them. Adobe has published a blog post apologizing for installing Growl on users' systems without permission, and says that they are “actively working to mitigate the problem”. Adobe has an article in their knowledge base explaining what notifications CS5 sends and how to remove Growl.
As of Growl 1.3, Growl is available for purchase in the App Store and is no longer a free download. Previous versions remain available at no charge. The source code for all versions of Growl, including 1.3 and later versions, is available as well.
External links
- Growl homepage
- Chris Forsythe and Growl, CocoaRadio, 5 June 2006
- Interview with Chris Forsythe of Adium and Growl, OSNews, 9 August 2006
- Mumbles Project – a Growl-inspired notification-application for Linux