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"Wow, I'd love to develop for Mac! Let's see...where's Xcode..." Dev navigates to the App Store. "Ah! Here we are. Now I can make splendid apps for Mac and iO

"Wow, I'd love to develop for Mac! Let's see...where's Xcode..." Dev navigates to the App Store. "Ah! Here we are. Now I can make splendid apps for Mac and iOS like I've always want--" He notices the $5 fee...jaw drops, eyes bug out. "What is THIS?! A price for DEV TOOLS?! Confound it all, now I can't develop for the platforms I love!" Buries head in hands, then looks to the heavens. "JOOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBS!!!" End scene. -- Working title of this play: "The Story of a Developer That Doesn't Exist."

jonny_eh 16y ago
How much do Microsoft's dev tools cost? (honest question)
- achompas 16y ago
  My experience: they're free, but they cost a piece of your sanity. [0] I wanted to set up Visual Studio Express on my Windows partition just so I could screw around with Silverlight. Two hours, about 12 forum threads, and three beers later, I vowed to never develop anything for Microsoft. [0] http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/express http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-ed...
- self 16y ago
  The SDKs are free, and ship with compilers. The Express GUI development environments are free, but limited.
  - gte525u 16y ago
    There are third party tools like sharpdevelop which are generally better than the express tools.
- oemera 16y ago
  There are free (Express) versions of Visual Studio but they lack those awesome Visual Studio Professional features AND Visual Studio Professional costs 1500 bucks.
tvon 16y ago
What about someone who isn't in love with the platform, just curious?
- achompas 16y ago
  Act two: ----- "Hey, everyone's always talking about iOS...maybe I should check out it's dev tools." Dev navigates to the App Store. "Ah! Here we are. Now I can find out more about making apps for--" He notices the $5 fee...jaw drops, eyes bug out. "What is THIS?! $5?! Now I can't have my BURNT STARBUCKS TOMORROW!" Buries head in hands, then looks to the heavens. "JOOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBS!!!" End scene. ----- On a serious note, I was a curious developer. Couldn't grab Xcode 4 because I didn't have Snow Leopard, so I actually went and paid $29 so I could try developing for iOS. Very happy with my purchase.
  - tvon 16y ago
    Okay, you've got me. I hope there is some core distribution of basic build tools available for free in the future though, the first step to building anything on OSX is "go download/install xcode". The community could work around it since all these build tools are freely available, but it's nice to have an official bundle available from upstream.
  - adbge 16y ago
    I think people are forgetting that it's $5 AND the additional hassle of entering your credit card information and so on. The cost could be a dime and Apple would still be raising a non-trivial barrier to entry. Further, it seems like a pretty big "fuck you" to anyone under 18 and/or living in a country, like Brazil, where you can't pay for it.
    - ugh 16y ago
      Everyone under 18 can buy a iTunes gift card. (It’s a hassle but it’s not impossible.)
    - achompas 16y ago
      What credit card info? You're telling me someone would want to develop for Apple after owning a Mac but having never bought something from iTunes before?
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jkahn 16y ago
I know you're being tongue-in-cheek, but it seems like a lot of others aren't. This is only five dollars folks. You get a hell of a lot of value for that five bucks. I don't think Apple will even recoup their development and distribution costs with that. I'm guessing the main reason for the price is to deter every man and his dog from downloading it - anyone who cares can part with five bucks.
- blake8086 16y ago
  Won't Apple recoup their costs through selling a platform strengthened by everything Xcode-using developers create?
  - rbarooah 16y ago
    Won't developers recoup their costs by selling software through a platform strengthened by Apple's massive infrastructure and marketing?
- jcl 16y ago
  It is a puzzle. At one time, developer tools were priced to extract money from developers. Then, when third-party free tools came along, platform owners realized that market share and lock-in was much more valuable and started giving their tools away for free. But now Apple is neither charging to recoup development costs nor giving tools away. It is strange that the cost should be so close to free yet not actually be free. My working assumption is that Apple is charging to ensure that each developer must experience the App Store purchasing process at least once, thereby encouraging them to write apps for it.
  - varikin 16y ago
    But, if you pay for the Mac Developer Program, you can download it from the website. So either $5 or $99/year. But you need to pay $99/year to submit apps to the app store—at least iOS app store, I assume the same for Mac App Store. So developers don't have to experience the app store. I think it is to deter everyone from installing XCode just because they can. That 4+ GB download isn't free on their side. It is just enough of a pain point to make sure the user is sure they want it, but not so bad that people have to save up for it.
martythemaniak 16y ago
It sure does look like very petty nickel and diming. My guess is they put a nominal price so they keep out the undesirable riff-raff.

jonny_eh 16y ago

How much do Microsoft's dev tools cost? (honest question)

achompas 16y ago
My experience: they're free, but they cost a piece of your sanity. [0] I wanted to set up Visual Studio Express on my Windows partition just so I could screw around with Silverlight. Two hours, about 12 forum threads, and three beers later, I vowed to never develop anything for Microsoft. [0] http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/express http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-ed...
self 16y ago
The SDKs are free, and ship with compilers. The Express GUI development environments are free, but limited.
- gte525u 16y ago
  There are third party tools like sharpdevelop which are generally better than the express tools.
oemera 16y ago
There are free (Express) versions of Visual Studio but they lack those awesome Visual Studio Professional features AND Visual Studio Professional costs 1500 bucks.

tvon 16y ago

What about someone who isn't in love with the platform, just curious?

achompas 16y ago
Act two: ----- "Hey, everyone's always talking about iOS...maybe I should check out it's dev tools." Dev navigates to the App Store. "Ah! Here we are. Now I can find out more about making apps for--" He notices the $5 fee...jaw drops, eyes bug out. "What is THIS?! $5?! Now I can't have my BURNT STARBUCKS TOMORROW!" Buries head in hands, then looks to the heavens. "JOOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBS!!!" End scene. ----- On a serious note, I was a curious developer. Couldn't grab Xcode 4 because I didn't have Snow Leopard, so I actually went and paid $29 so I could try developing for iOS. Very happy with my purchase.
- tvon 16y ago
  Okay, you've got me. I hope there is some core distribution of basic build tools available for free in the future though, the first step to building anything on OSX is "go download/install xcode". The community could work around it since all these build tools are freely available, but it's nice to have an official bundle available from upstream.
- adbge 16y ago
  I think people are forgetting that it's $5 AND the additional hassle of entering your credit card information and so on. The cost could be a dime and Apple would still be raising a non-trivial barrier to entry. Further, it seems like a pretty big "fuck you" to anyone under 18 and/or living in a country, like Brazil, where you can't pay for it.
  - ugh 16y ago
    Everyone under 18 can buy a iTunes gift card. (It’s a hassle but it’s not impossible.)
  - achompas 16y ago
    What credit card info? You're telling me someone would want to develop for Apple after owning a Mac but having never bought something from iTunes before?

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jkahn 16y ago

I know you're being tongue-in-cheek, but it seems like a lot of others aren't. This is only five dollars folks. You get a hell of a lot of value for that five bucks. I don't think Apple will even recoup their development and distribution costs with that. I'm guessing the main reason for the price is to deter every man and his dog from downloading it - anyone who cares can part with five bucks.

blake8086 16y ago
Won't Apple recoup their costs through selling a platform strengthened by everything Xcode-using developers create?
- rbarooah 16y ago
  Won't developers recoup their costs by selling software through a platform strengthened by Apple's massive infrastructure and marketing?
jcl 16y ago
It is a puzzle. At one time, developer tools were priced to extract money from developers. Then, when third-party free tools came along, platform owners realized that market share and lock-in was much more valuable and started giving their tools away for free. But now Apple is neither charging to recoup development costs nor giving tools away. It is strange that the cost should be so close to free yet not actually be free. My working assumption is that Apple is charging to ensure that each developer must experience the App Store purchasing process at least once, thereby encouraging them to write apps for it.
- varikin 16y ago
  But, if you pay for the Mac Developer Program, you can download it from the website. So either $5 or $99/year. But you need to pay $99/year to submit apps to the app store—at least iOS app store, I assume the same for Mac App Store. So developers don't have to experience the app store. I think it is to deter everyone from installing XCode just because they can. That 4+ GB download isn't free on their side. It is just enough of a pain point to make sure the user is sure they want it, but not so bad that people have to save up for it.

martythemaniak 16y ago

It sure does look like very petty nickel and diming. My guess is they put a nominal price so they keep out the undesirable riff-raff.