Steve,
As always, thanks for your input. I am also aware of the Quit issue, and will work to have the OSX Studio polished up in the next release. Rewriting in XCode is not really a viable option. That said, I am excited to see what happens with Java 7. There is, for example, an OSX porting project for Java 7 that is supposed to bring complete parity with the Java spec and be fully compatible with the OSX GUI. If Java 7, once Oracle and projects like this get up to speed, meet its expectations, it could give the studio a significant boost. I agree with your assessment regarding the App Store’s importance and will take that under advisement. We have other similar considerations as well, such as deploying into the cloud, and how OSX users, without a true server hardware platform would want to deploy their applications. Maintaining Witango on 3 platforms is frustrating (to say the least) and Java has helped quite a bit there. As a follow up question to you: What features would you remove from the standard version to make a ‘Lite’ version? Robert From: Steve Smith [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 8:17 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Witango-Talk: Dev Studio on OSX Changing the "open with..." does not resolve the problem. It does launch the new Studio if it is not already running, but the file doesn't open. Also Command+Q doesn't work, neither does the menu selection for "Quit WitangoDevelopmentStudio" (should there not be spaces between those words?). Closing the window does quit the application which goes against standard Mac user interface development. Quite often I want to close a window but leave the application running to open a new file. Surprisingly Command+H does hide the app which is correct behaviour. Apple no longer supporting Java in the future shouldn't be an issue, as it should continue to be supported by other companies (i.e. Oracle). My understanding is that Apple supporting Java on their own caused problems as they were never in sync with Oracle's Java releases. I do agree with CNET's Erica Ogg who said "As for why Apple is going this route, we know CEO Steve Jobs prefers native applications for his devices. Java, like Flash, is inherently cross platform. To Jobs, that means they're coded for the lowest common denominator interface, which for him, means they're terrible. (Full <http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20020338-260.html#ixzz1BU4NeIjR%20> Article) I have to agree. Java apps tend to be terrible look and feel apps. You're not going get a lot of new users with an app written for the Mac market in Java, regardless of how good the functionality of the app is, simply because most users won't be able to get past the user interface. One important thing to remember about Java Apps is that they will not be accepted by the new App Store. This is incredibly important. Anyone walking into an Apple Store in recent months might have noticed that the software section seems to have shrunk. Makes sense if they are going to promote the App Store. I realize that Witango is not something you'd expect to see on a shelf in a retail store (although I do have some old Tango 2000 boxes for souvenirs). However I believe that a software developer would be foolish not to have their apps listed on the App Store and have them up there as soon as possible. Apple shipped 4.13 million Macs in the most recent quarter. Eventually all of those machines are going to have the App Store icon sitting on their docks. Combine that with all of the existing machines already running Snow Leopard and you've got hundreds of millions of potential users who at some point will browse the App Store's listings. Having your app up there, even if it is just a 'lite' version, will be a very easy (and inexpensive) way to market your application to the largest single source of potential customers you'll ever find. I believe that over time, Mac users will stop searching for software anyplace other than the App Store. While I was at EveryWare, I was one of the biggest criticizers of the Tango for FileMaker product. By far, we took in more support calls for it than all of the other products combined and yet it was our cheapest product. It was explained to me that it was primarily a marketing tool (or loss leader) that was being used to get the product in the hands of as many people as possible, so that we'd get our foot in the door in as many places as possible. It worked. I don't recall the exact details but I believe that we got into places like Disney, Sony, and many of the universities after they first tried Tango for FileMaker. The majority of these led to sales of the other products, usually the Mac Studio combined with the Unix Server which was the highest ticket item. (BTW, the majority of users who were Unix Server users were using the Mac Studio, not the Windows one). So my best advice would be to find a way in the not too distant future to recode the application using xCode and get at least a 'lite' version of teh Studio up on the App Store in front of the eyeballs of the Mac user base. Even if it is just used to draw attention to the fact that Witango exists and drives traffic to the web site where they can learn about the server and everything else. I'm not a developer at that level but I thought I read somewhere that if you use one of the traditional Mac tools (was it xCode, or Cocoa or ???) for your development, it makes it very easy to port to Windows? Steve Smith Oakbridge Information Solutions Oakville Office: (416) 628-0793 Cambridge Office: (519) 489-0142 Email: [email protected] Web: <http://www.oakbridge.ca/> www.oakbridge.ca Certified <http://www.oakbridge.ca/daylite.tml> DayLite Master Partner Certified <http://www.oakbridge.ca/daylite.tml> DayLite Trainer Billings <http://www.billingsapp.com/> Consultant FileMaker Business Alliance <http://www.filemaker.com/> Member MoneyWorks <http://www.moneyworks.ca/> Consultant LightSpeed <http://www.xsilva.com/> Authorized Reseller On 2011-01-19, at 1:29 AM, Christian Platt wrote: Hi Wayne, you are completely right. To open with studo, take the .taf file and get information of that file. There is an area "open with...". There you should select Studio. Below is a "change all" button, which you should use, so all taf's are opened with Studio later on. (Can be named different, i translated that from german) That should work, if Studio accepts .taf files. Seems that that is a pure Java APP with all there Pronlems, so even Apple no more supporting Java in the future... Christian Am 19.01.2011 um 06:37 schrieb Wayne Irvine: I realise this is still pre-release, and that it is a JAVA application (correct me if I'm wrong) but some of the non-Mac-like things are a bit annoying. I'm wondering how many of them will be changed in the release version and how many are the nature of the beast of a JAVA application. If I create a new V6 TAF and save it to the desktop and then quit, at present double clicking on the TAF won't start up the Dev Studio and open the document. Something I am very used to from V5.5 and other applications across all platforms. Also, when in the studio, opening a file uses an abnormal dialog box for navigating the hard drive and volumes. There are no shortcuts on the left and my favourite tool (DefaultFolder) is not active. I have to confess I am not a fan of the way the elements of the Dev Studio all live within a rectangular space on the screen and don't share screen space with other applications. I am used to having Witango, BBEdit, Photoshop etc all open at once and sharing screen space. Are these just restrictions I am going to have to get used to or will some of them change in the release version? Wayne Irvine ---------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [email protected] with "unsubscribe witango-talk" in the body. ---------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [email protected] with "unsubscribe witango-talk" in the body. _____ To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [email protected] with "unsubscribe witango-talk" in the body. ---------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [email protected] with "unsubscribe witango-talk" in the body.
