When I got my PowerMac with OS X, I immediately wanted to know: How do you develop for a Mac? Where's the cool IDE? What language do you use?
Near as I could tell, you can use Apple's free XCode application studio with something called the Interface Builder, and you use C++. After I downloaded it from Apple, I was immediately appalled at how incredibly bad it was. It always puzzled me that anyone could get this thing to actually make good software. Well, now I understand why it's soo poor. Drunkenbatman once again points out the hypocracy of Apple.
StarManta writes: I was looking at a friend's NeXTSTEP computer, and when I found interface builder, i laughed out loud - it hasn't changed a bit in 12 years! I thought you might be interested.
For those of you that don't know, back in the early 90's Steve Jobs was CEO of two company's: Pixar and... NeXTSTEP. From what I recall NeXTSTEP started out as an OS/HW company, turned into a developer tool company, and then finally went bankrupt at the hands of Mr. Jobs. Even then when he spoke he made it all seem cool. At the time I was little more than an HTML jocky working as a mainframe operator (and later on a helpdesk) who had done some dBase work in the Navy. What I didn't know was that the Interface Builder application in XCode came from NeXTSTEP. Even more damning is... so did Pages (the word processor that comes with iWork).
While Steve Jobs continues to claim innovation, he is simply copying others (remember Watson? remember Konfabulator?). Granted, there is some really cool stuff coming out of Cupertino (like iPod and iTunes)... but a lot of it is simply someone else's idea (if occasionally done better). Searchlight is an example. At PDC 2003, Microsoft unveiled their concept of a desktop search with WinFS (a next generation file system that would be easier to search). Then in 2004 Apple came up with the idea of Searchlight... and Steve claimed at MacWorld that it would be released long before Longhorn (the successor to XP). I'm not sure, but I think Google Desktop came out in beta before MacWorld. I don't remember when I first heard about OS X 10.4 (Tiger), but one thing I do know: Microsoft and Google have both released beta's of their desktop search products already.
I have an idea. What if Microsoft just bought Apple? They could then position it as their open-source alternative to Linux. They could fix the UI, fix the development platform by hiring Miguel de Icaza (Don Box, this is your chance to hire Miguel) and building VS.NET for OS X. Wouldn't that be cool? Just imagine, building targeted apps to OS X using C# in Visual Studio 2006 for OS X. No Java, no unmanaged language, and the added bonus of a real IDE. Sweet. Applesoft could then dump the crappy old copy-cat products like Interface Builder and Pages. Even Mail would die a horrible death; and Safari could be supercharged to compete against FireFox. Ohh... and what if they then released OS X for x86? Applesoft could then market OS X for the home, and Longhorn for work. Of course, Safari would be renamed Internet Explorer, but I'm OK with that - definitely better than if it was called Netscape. Remember them? ;)
posted @ Saturday, February 05, 2005 12:29 AM