Dear Harry,
I wanted to wait and give some of the other developers that read this
list a chance to go first...
Apple is pushing a couple of things that after they mature a bit more
are supposed to be "good things". And you hit on them in your messages.
1) Address Book. This is something that Windows and Linux users have
clamored for (but not by this name).
Address Book is a database manager. In the other platforms, they have
had this type of technology for some time. Make a new entry in their
address books and it was available to every other application, that is
you could insert that entry into word processor documents without
retyping it. And of course you could use it in your PIM (Personal
Information Manager). The same thing is going on here, as more
applications become "aware" of the info that is in address book, they
will begin using it.
2) Spell checker. This is one of the OS services that are available to
all of the apps that want to make use of it. Another one-stop-shopping
service. Of course you have use Apple's basic dictionaries and train
them over time to use the correct spellings of words that you have
added to the ones you used in OS-9 for so long. But once trained....
The service is available to all apps that want to use it, instead of
each program having their own custom dictionary, where you have to
train each one.
Both of these are up to app developers to make use of.
3) There has been some very serious speculation about the future of
AppleWorks, but I don't think that any thing would be served by tossing
out new and stale rumors this close to MWSF (MacWorld - San Francisco).
Maybe it will see that serious upgrade that will put it as the Office
killer that it certainly could be. Or maybe Apple will keep waiting to
see how relations with Microsoft go....
Scanner drivers in general suck (Across The Board). So many companies
have refused to write drivers for OS-X, saying "well it can't be done
for the older ones, buy a brand new one -- we'll give you OS-X drivers
with it" which is sheer nonsense as VueScan has shown. If nothing else,
they could license it from Hamrick.
On to the speed of releasing new software for OS-X. I do think that if
S. Jobs had not said "nor more OS-9" the pace would be even slower from
the commercial companies than the glacial pace we see now. Usually
after a product is released, most of the development team "moves onto
new projects", leaving a few maintainers for bug fixing. The companies
would have to re-hire (uh, move them back from the other projects) to
do in essence what amounts to porting the application to the new OS.
Before a company is going to commit those resources ($) they want to be
assured that they will sell enough copies to make money. So we have had
a chicken and egg problem with this one.
On the other hand, you may notice that software from the shareware
developers comes in batches, almost in waves. These folks give us the
stuff as they overcome obstacles... that sounds weird, so I' ll re-
phrase it like this:
Small developers want to be sure that if they do something, it won't
end up as part of the next OS upgrade from Apple. Apple has had to do a
lot of damage control on this front (ala Watson and a few others).
Another concern is that Apple gives them access to the "innards". This
is a problem that PR alone is not fixing (for example, Apple and the
GNU organization is arguing over this issue of making source code to
Aqua -- Aqua is the graphics part -- available, Apple says no.
Small Developers also need tools to work with in the "new" environment.
Not everyone has the latest greatest version of the Developers tools
and even if they do, the tools to quickly move an application over
haven't been available. For example, many developers in UNIX use what
is called X-Windows -- it's not the Windows from M$--. One of the tools
they routinely use to create the graphic buttons etc. is called GTK.
using this allows them to concentrate on the idea, not how to make a
window appear on the desktop. Until just very recently, this tool was
not available for OS-X. So to make the program run under OS-X, the
developer had to learn the Aqua interface instead of concentrating on
the program idea. A bit of a daunting task, given that they could just
stay in their old platform.
Now many of these things are being worked out and we will see the
batches of software released come faster and be bigger.
Apple is beginning to give more support to the small developers than
they did at first (this is a very good thing!), but there is still a
ways to go....
Jerry
p.s. How's that for a start, Harry?
On Saturday, January 4, 2003, at 05:54 PM, Harry Jacobson-Beyer wrote:
> A few days ago Jerry Yeager asked for people to send him email off
> list so
> he could test something (I don't remember what).
>
> I sent him an email and made a comment which led him to reply and we
> began a
> conversation.
>
> Jerry (and I, too) thought the group would be interested in the
> conversation. So, scroll down and read from the beginning and Jerry
> will add
> to the discussion in the near future.
>
> Harry
> ----------
> From: Jerry Yeager <jerry at browseryshop.com>
> Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 16:06:38 -0500
> To: Harry Jacobson-Beyer <harryjb at bellsouth.net>
> Subject: Re: I use outlook express but....
>
> Any time Harry,
>
> I agree with many of your observations (especially the one about how
> long it takes to port something).
> If you like, I can explain a few of the whys and wherefores about the
> "view form the other side" in your observations.
>
> Jerry
>
> p.s I think though that maybe others might be interested enough that we
> should take that back to the group e-mails. If you want, post a note
> there and we can chat about it.
>
> On Saturday, January 4, 2003, at 11:55 AM, Harry Jacobson-Beyer wrote:
>
>> Jerry,
>>
>> In response to an earlier message from you regarding Mail and
>> Eudora....
>>
>> I don't care for the way Eudora displays items in the mailbox. And I
>> don't
>> like that Mail utilizes the address book. I want an integrated
>> program-
>> there's less to learn.
>>
>> Apple creates its OS for the lowest common denominator and the new
>> user. I
>> am a few steps above that level and there is some stuff included with
>> X that
>> I would probably use if I were a first time user (Address Book, for
>> example)
>> but since I've been using a mac for a lot of years I just want to use
>> the
>> new system, port my apps over to it, and go about my business without
>> having
>> to learn a lot of new stuff.
>>
>> I like X a lot but frankly developers are too slow in moving stuff to
>> X. I
>> MISS Spellcatcher and I know C&G plan to release it for X at the end
>> of this
>> month but I shouldn't have had to wait so long for it.
>>
>> I'm an Appleworks user and I think AW 6 sucks in two areas that I used
>> a lot
>> in version 5: Button Bar and macros (macros are non-existent in AW 6).
>> So
>> while X has much to offer I feel I've given up a lot, too.
>>
>> And where are the Epson drivers for my scanner? I downloaded VUESCAN
>> but it
>> takes forever to print (at least 10 minutes) to my HP laserprinter.
>>
>> I know these issues will eventually work out but not quickly enough
>> for me.
>>
>>
>> Thanks for listening to my rant.
>>
>> Harry
>>
>> on 1/3/03 10:50 AM, Jerry Yeager at jerry at browseryshop.com wrote:
>>
>>> Which one were you thinking of changing to?
>>> Mail works pretty well, but some still swear by Eudora.
>>>
>>> Jerry
>>>
>>> On Friday, January 3, 2003, at 08:14 AM, Harry Jacobson-Beyer wrote:
>>>
>>>> I use OE but will be changing to an OSX mail application in the
>>>> near future.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Harry,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Harry Jacobson-Beyer
>>>> Surveyor of the Passing Scene!
>>>>
>>>> http://bellsouthpwp.net/h/a/harryjb/
>>>> What a strange, long, trip it is!
>>>>
>>>> remember: it's not how fast you climb the hill that matters, it's
>>>> how
>>>> fast
>>>> you go coming down!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>> Harry,
>>
>>
>> Harry Jacobson-Beyer
>> Surveyor of the Passing Scene!
>>
>> http://bellsouthpwp.net/h/a/harryjb/
>> What a strange, long, trip it is!
>>
>> remember: it's not how fast you climb the hill that matters, it's how
>> fast
>> you go coming down!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
> | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will
> | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
>
>
>
| The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will
| be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
