Getting ForgetMeNot 4.0 to work with Safari 3.0.4

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Update: Don't do any of the hackery in this entry! Jim Fowler has released ForgetMeNot 4.1 to support Safari 3.0.4. Just go download it!

Because I never finish any project, I'm in love with a little plugin for Safari* called ForgetMeNot -- it remembers what windows and tabs were open when you quit Safari and reopens them when you start back up**. I've got a ton of windows open as To-Do reminders.

Well, Apple just released Safari 3 for Mac OS X 10.4*** (it comes with the 10.4.11 update) and ForgetMeNot doesn't want to load. There's a version of ForgetMeNot just for Safari 3, but it was only tested with the Safari 3 beta and SIMBL (the plugin framework that ForgetMeNot runs under) doesn't want to load it. Further, the developer of ForgetMeNot is a grad student (go U of C!) and hasn't updated his personal blog since May, so who knows when he'll get around to updating it.

(Oliver kindly points out in the comments that Safari 3 has a "Reopen all windows from last session" command in the History menu. The only downside to that command is that it's not automatic on startup. I've only used Safari 3 for about 10 minutes, but I think I need that automatic-ness. Hence, this quest...)

But there is a way you can get ForgetMeNot 4.0 working with Safari 3.0.4. HOWEVER this technique just by-passes SIMBL's sanity check — there might be big giant bugs waiting to destroy your browser. You're probably much better off waiting for Mr. Fowler to update the software.

But if, like me, you simply must use ForgetMeNot and are not willing to wait, go to /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins, right-click on ForgetMeNot.bundle and choose "Show Package Contents". Open Contents and then open Info.plist with the text or plist editor of your choice. You want to change the values for MaxBundleVersion and MinBundleVersion from 522 to 523. Save the file (you'll likely have to authenticate with admin rights to overwrite the existing file).

Again, let me emphasize that all this does is tell SIMBL that ForgetMeNot is compatible with Safari 3.0.4. It doesn't make it so, if there are bugs. There might be bugs. They might wipe your harddrive. Don't come crying to me if that happens.

I've been running this way for… oh, ten minutes now with Safari 3.0.4 on Mac OS X 10.4.11. No problems yet!

* Yes, there are similar plugins for Firefox, I just like Safari.
** Unfortunately, it does its "remembering" when you quit Safari, so it can't help you if the application crashes.
*** And Safari 3 is the browser in Leopard (10.5) but I'm not sure when I'll be upgrading. ActiveDirectory is, basically, broken.