LaunchBar

Infobox Software
name = LaunchBar



caption =
developer = Objective Development
released = 1996
latest_release_version = 4.3
latest_release_date = July 30, 2007
latest_preview_version =
latest_preview_date =
operating_system = Mac OS X
platform =
genre = Application launcher
license = shareware
website = http://www.obdev.at/launchbar/index.html

LaunchBar is a launch application for Mac OS X. It provides access to user's applications and files, by entering short abbreviations of the searched item's name. It uses an adaptive algorithm that 'learns' a user's preferred abbreviations for a particular application. For example, Adobe Photoshop may be launched by simply typing 'pho' after training and Interface Builder can be opened by typing 'ib' even though that sequence of characters does not appear anywhere in the name of the application.

History

LaunchBar began as a series of shell scripts for the NeXTSTEP platform, then migrated to OPENSTEP where it was developed into a full-fledged application. It was ported to Mac OS X in 2001 as LaunchBar 3.

ee also

*Comparison of application launchers

External links

[http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html Official site]

[http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/developer/2003/09/25/innovators.html Interview with Norbert Heger, LaunchBar's developer]

[http://www.obdev.at/products/next-stuff/index.html LaunchBar for NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP]