We make and sell a desktop application (Windows and macOS) for a niche
research market. I expect when Apple does their migration to a common
processor and OS, Apple Developer's will have to go through all of Apple
hoops for all their platforms.Most of our customer don't care about UI
widget animations. They want the app to do certain functions and do them
well and quickly to work with their data. As long as the UI is
effective, whether it conforms precisely to Microsoft or Apple UI
guidelines is secondary. So, even if you only care about desktops, your
app will have to be sold through Apple's single App Store, conform to
all screen sizes on all their devices, and follow all their UI
guidelines, etc.
At that point, given that Windows is 2/3rd of our market and macOS
1/3rd, we'll drop support for macOS sadly. I say sadly because our
application originated way back in the late 1980 as a HyperCard App for
MacOS.
But, to your point, your concern IS valid for those people wanting Apps
from you that they insist MUST conform to all of Apple's esoteric
requirements. It is likely it will become increasingly harder for the
LiveCode ideal of develop once and deploy everywhere.
On 6/23/2020 2:56 PM, Jim Lambert via use-livecode wrote:
This year’s WWDC shows Apple is moving to a unified ‘system' for all their
products: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AppleTV.
The Apple development environment promises to produce a single app capable of
running on all, or almost all, of Apple devices. This unification promises to
be quite convenient for Apple developers.
In contrast, over the last decade or so there has been an ever increasing
divergence in UX between major operating systems: Apple, Windows, Linux,
Android. The days when systems were so similar that you could rely on the
commonality of a handful of UI elements across platforms seems over to me.
That’s troubling because such commonality is fundamental to LiveCode’s approach
- write once, run everywhere.
In watching WWDC sessions it’s pretty clear that even simple UI elements have
become more like UX elements having intrinsic and complex properties, such as
certain visual and behavioral animations. Users readily learn to expect these
behaviors. Yet such things are increasing difficult to fake with LiveCode’s
basic palette of objects.
Enter LiveCode Builder and LC Widgets. They offer the promise of
platform-specific UI elements - a promise fulfilled with some simple elements
like iOS Native Button or Android Native Field. But I’m concerned that as
platforms diverge in the interface experiences they present to users, that LC
and LC developers will have difficulty satisfying users' divergent expectations.
Is my concern valid?
Jim Lambert
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