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Michael 122 days ago
There's a great post by Brent Simmons (he's had a few good ones lately actually) about the thought process and decision making that goes into adding even what, to the average user, would appear to be a simple feature: I recently added a pretty easy feature to NetNewsWire — a Send to Instapaper command. (It will appear in 3.2.) It really is just a quick http call to the Instapaper server to add a URL to the Read Later list. Piece of cake. But of course it’s not as simple as just writing a quick script. It’s tempting to think that adding a feature like this is just about adding the functionality — but there’s a bunch more to it than that... It’s not enough just to write the basic functionality and add a menu item that runs it. Even a feature as simple as this one requires some up-front thinking, some design. Anatomy of a feature There's a good follow-up post by Daniel over at Red Sweater too. Funny Brent should post about this very subject. I just finished going ...
Michael 135 days ago
Since the release of Leopard, there has been an "additional" selection rectangle that gets shown by default when you right click (or control-click) on a table. This second selection is in addition to the current selection. I've always found this behavior to be confusing. Not helping matters is that if you use Mail, or iTunes, this behavior isn't visible, but when you use the Finder, it is: So what's right? Well, in my opinion, there is one major problem with the "focus ring" displayed when the contextual menu pops up. When you don't click on the selection: the original selection remains and the row you clicked on to display the menu gets a focus ring. What is the actual selection that will be used when a command is chosen? Well, it's hard to say. I think a valid argument could be made for either the original, or the new one. Now, personally, I don't like the focus ring at all, and much prefer the way that iTunes and Mail handle this situation: no focus ring, and ...Michael 135 days ago
I've never gotten the cash for feature offer, but I couldn't agree with Brent more... But here’s the important thing: the developer you’re talking to has one thing in mind: to make great software that delights people. With that in mind, the developer may or may not want to do that feature. The $50 is nothing. If it’s the right feature and the right time to do it, the developer will do it. If it’s not, then it won’t get done. So many things go into how and why we add every new feature, the least of which is any kind of cash compensation. The wants and needs of users and heck, how much actual fun we'll have adding a new feature, are all much, much higher on the list than any cash offer would be. Don’t offer $50 for your favorite feature
Michael 142 days ago
So, here we are, one year into the iTunes App Store... Where are we, exactly? For some, the App Store has brought fame and riches... for others... not so much. In January MacGourmet touch was released, after months of development. How did it go? Well, I can honestly say that considering the amount of time and effort that went into it, it still hasn't broken even. This is one of the main reasons why a) it's not a free add-on and b) why it's priced at $4.99. As much as I'd like to spend time doing things for free or for the "ultra low price of just 99¢", it's just not possible with this app. It can be complicated and every minute of every day has a dollar tag attached to it, and I'm just not at a point where I can give away my time for free... Still, it's sold well enough that I am planning and working on future free updates, so stay tuned. As a Developer One thing that's killing me, as a developer... is that there is absolutely no way for developers to comment ...Michael 142 days ago
I recently added a side project of mine to the App Store: Cloudburst. It was one of the things I was noodling on while trying to learn app development for the iPhone. It got to a point where I finally decided to get Jordan Langille at OneToad Design to put some graphics and an icon together for me afterwhich I packaged it for release. You can get the full story here: Welcome to Cloudburst for iPhone!
