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Could you expand on how it's not a good Mac app?

by ptx 8y ago

saagarjha 8y ago
He basically made the Marzipan apps we have today. They are at best passable apps, but hoisting a couple of buttons into the title bar and using the same bland "large sidebar tableview" style does not make an app into a good Mac app. Apple has not yet provided the APIs to make these apps good Mac apps. Calling these apps "good" is quite a stretch. (Before someone mentions it: yes, I know he has improved his apps since his blog post, but it's mostly just been in response to people saying that he's missing something that AppKit provides for free, and he will go in and monkey patch the thing in hackish way and call it a day. I have a feeling that he actually personally thinks that these are good apps and is annoyed that people are calling him out for believing this.)
- layoutIfNeeded 7y ago
  >I have a feeling that he actually personally thinks that these are good apps and is annoyed that people are calling him out for believing this. It's more like he worked hard on Twitter to become "the Marzipan guy", so now he has stake in this game. If he were to express the slightest concern, his consulting/Patreon revenue would suffer, so he has to believe™ in Marzipan. Always look for the incentives!
- tinus_hn 7y ago
  I think that is all we are going to get from this, hastily ported small apps where the fact you even have the app on your Mac outweighs the bad UI. I don’t think it is useful to port large apps because the iOS kit just doesn’t support everything you need for a good large Mac app.
  - zapzupnz 7y ago
    That's precisely what Marzipan proposes: additional APIs that allow iOS apps to be good Mac apps without needing to port to AppKit. Looking at how it behaves now, it seems to either bridge some UIKit concepts to AppKit directly or replicate AppKit functionality within this macOS-specific version of UIKit.
- scarface74 7y ago
  He basically made the Marzipan apps we have today. The only shipping Marzipan apps today are the ones that Apple released last year. He didn’t have anything to do with those. He just played around with the library and made some tools as a hobby. None of those apps are in user’s hands.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    I meant that line as "he's made apps of comparable quality to today's official Marzipan apps", not "he wrote the Marzipan apps that ship with macOS".
pcr910303 8y ago
Try reading this: https://bzamayo.com/marzipan https://bzamayo.com/marzipan Basically, unless Apple makes Marzipan to map UIKit components to AppKit components, Marzipan really can’t make a ‘Good citizen Mac App’.

Could you expand on how it's not a good Mac app?

by ptx 8y ago

Could you expand on how it's not a good Mac app?

He basically made the Marzipan apps we have today. They are at best passable apps, but hoisting a couple of buttons into the title bar and using the same bland "large sidebar tableview" style does not make an app into a good Mac app. Apple has not yet provided the APIs to make these apps good Mac apps. Calling these apps "good" is quite a stretch. (Before someone mentions it: yes, I know he has improved his apps since his blog post, but it's mostly just been in response to people saying that he's missing something that AppKit provides for free, and he will go in and monkey patch the thing in hackish way and call it a day. I have a feeling that he actually personally thinks that these are good apps and is annoyed that people are calling him out for believing this.)

layoutIfNeeded 7y ago
>I have a feeling that he actually personally thinks that these are good apps and is annoyed that people are calling him out for believing this. It's more like he worked hard on Twitter to become "the Marzipan guy", so now he has stake in this game. If he were to express the slightest concern, his consulting/Patreon revenue would suffer, so he has to believe™ in Marzipan. Always look for the incentives!
tinus_hn 7y ago
I think that is all we are going to get from this, hastily ported small apps where the fact you even have the app on your Mac outweighs the bad UI. I don’t think it is useful to port large apps because the iOS kit just doesn’t support everything you need for a good large Mac app.
- zapzupnz 7y ago
  That's precisely what Marzipan proposes: additional APIs that allow iOS apps to be good Mac apps without needing to port to AppKit. Looking at how it behaves now, it seems to either bridge some UIKit concepts to AppKit directly or replicate AppKit functionality within this macOS-specific version of UIKit.
scarface74 7y ago
He basically made the Marzipan apps we have today. The only shipping Marzipan apps today are the ones that Apple released last year. He didn’t have anything to do with those. He just played around with the library and made some tools as a hobby. None of those apps are in user’s hands.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  I meant that line as "he's made apps of comparable quality to today's official Marzipan apps", not "he wrote the Marzipan apps that ship with macOS".

pcr910303 8y ago

Try reading this: https://bzamayo.com/marzipan https://bzamayo.com/marzipan Basically, unless Apple makes Marzipan to map UIKit components to AppKit components, Marzipan really can’t make a ‘Good citizen Mac App’.