Filed under: OS, Blogs, Developer
Scott Stevenson on why upcoming apps are going Leopard-only
Scott Stevenson, blogger of many things developer-related, has penned an in-depth explanation that answers my assumptions as to why developers would (or should) go Leopard-only with their apps.The explanation Scott provides is pretty thorough, offering brief examples of what is so new and fancy in Leopard that would appeal to a developer. To be more specific: Leopard offers some powerful tools and major changes in code that can really propel many apps to be all they can be, and as Scott puts it: "Forgoing Leopard APIs until some arbitrary point in the future can actually hold the app back from its full potential."
A lot of the points Scott makes seem to boil down to a couple of fundamentals, with one of them being the tried and true mantra of "know your audience." Scott is right on when he points out that Mac users are Mac users by choice, which means many of them who have a vested interest in 3rd party software (like TextMate and Delicious Library - both of which have announced future Leopard-only updates) are far more likely to be early adopters; i.e. - they're also likely to be first in line for Leopard.
Even though he can roll with the devs, Scott writes in a language everyone can understand. His post is a great read if you're interested in the dynamics of why a Mac OS X developer would release an app on the bleeding edge of an OS update.
[via The Apple Blog]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rolphus said 6:01PM on 1-03-2007
Thanks for linking this - I'm not likely find it on my own, and it's interesting to read what the new frameworks can do for people. Despite being a Mac user, I'm a Windows developer by day, and I don't get much exposure to the development side of Macs at all. Maybe I should sometime soon.
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David Chartier said 6:19PM on 1-03-2007
#1: Rolphus, Scott Stevenson also runs CocoaBlogs.com, which we mention here every once in a while. He does a good job of rounding up Cocoa-related development stuff from across the web, including blog posts from notable developers, code snippets, etc. Might be worth a look for you.
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Rolphus said 6:41PM on 1-03-2007
Many thanks for that, David - I've not come across the site before, despite hearing the name in the past.
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Barb said 6:52PM on 1-03-2007
thanks man! genius!
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jason mark said 8:28PM on 1-03-2007
I just have to say, I often have trouble using the links in TUAW posts. I've been reading TUAW for a couple of years now, and I obviously don't yet have the knack of clicking on the right link (I probably try a wrong one first every 3rd or 4th try)... I wonder if the other bloggers at TUAW are more in tune with each other, and have better ratios.
As a site of comparison, Slashdot manages to use about 1/4 of the words on their headlines, and I don't think I've ever mistaken which link goes where.
I guess one thing is I always assume the link to the MEAT of the story will be the first link, or one of the first links, but now that I'm looking closer it's often one of the last links. I wonder if there are "standards" out there for things like this yet, or if it's just sort of a "personal preference" thing. Personally if I read the first sentence and am interested in the post, I follow the link... so I guess having it near the end is one way to make me read all the way through the post.
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BobbyW said 5:30AM on 1-05-2007
One of the best things about Apple is that they retire an old OS on time. Windows wouldn't be so bloated if they weren't determined to be compatible with Quicken for DOS.
With the amount of time they took to make Longhorn-Vista - why didn't they develop a NON-backward compatible version in step with it? Start over? Doesn't anyone at MS know how to make an OS from the ground up anymore?
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