The erosion of the Mac experience
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The erosion of the Mac experience
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Re: The erosion of the Mac experience
#2This guy has no idea what he’s talking about. One language, one gui framework, and one API paradigm - unified across all contextual devices - is exactly what Apple should do.
SwiftUI is not it by any means, but to say that the idea of SwiftUI tries to achieve is a bad aim is completely wrong.
The aim of UIKit on all Apple devices is 100% correct; and allows developers to go deep into the API forest to create mystical interactions for their customers, friends and users - in every device context. Merging AppKit and UIKit (MacCatalyst) should have been the team to win out the battle, just like in the days of the competing iPhones. The idea Apple is letting both live and fostering the wrong team is its only black eye in this story -
So no, the Mac is flourishing, you’re just not following the way.
Re: The erosion of the Mac experience
#3Whats with these Apple complainers they never shut up? Why do they find fault in the minor details of the best computing experience ever delivered?
Re: The erosion of the Mac experience
#4> Fresh new hires, who’ve never known a reason to care about the Mac, trying to rewrite key portions of the OS
I'm confused. Don't Apple developers develop on MacOS machines?
Re: The erosion of the Mac experience
#5This guy has no idea what he’s talking about. One language, one gui framework, and one API paradigm - unified across all contextual devices - is exactly what Apple should do. SwiftUI is not it by any means, but to say that the idea of SwiftUI tries to achieve is a bad aim is completely wrong. The aim of UIKit on all Apple devices is 100% correct; and allows developers to go deep into the API forest to create mystical…
It's not the mystical interactions or feel of widgets, layout, and function that are the problem, it's bad UX paradigms, declining consistency between apps and across versions (a Mac hallmark), buggy software on an aggressive annual schedule, holes and rot in developer documentation, constant treadmill of Xcode and device updates, and general lack of attention to detail in Mac apps.
I've been a Mac user and dev for twenty years. Music.app is probably the most egregious example and gets a lot of flak for good reason. It's so bad, when I'm working all day on my Mac, I listen to music on my iPhone instead. It's utter trash, designed with the foremost goal to push Apple Music sales and subscriptions, with everything else propping that up.
There are still so many magical features — Safari Cloud Tabs, using your iPad as a second display with automatic keyboard & mouse switching, attention to Focus and Notification management, a very solid iCloud sync service for so many core data apps like Contacts, Notes, and Messages, and so much more.
But the whole platform just feels like a rot, and the generational gap alluded to in the post is spot on. It's not necessarily an age thing, but it feels like those who "get it" and know what the Mac was and could be, and those who are making decisions and setting deadlines who are largely driven by company-wide synergistic goals. It could be both. But instead, the latter is winning.
Re: The erosion of the Mac experience
#6I believe that Apple is strategically choosing to coast on their desktop software while they work to harmonize their mobile, desktop, and entertainment software stacks.
Why? Because based on rumors, patents, and the decisions they've made and the actions they've taken (or not taken), it appears as though that Apple believes that in the not so distant future the concept of having a separate mobile device and a computing device will be irrelevant. Consumers will have a single device, and that device will be capable of some form of altered reality interaction, or at least some impressive context switching behaviour.
It's already the case that an entire generation has been raised with their primary computing experience not being on general computing devices, but on some variant of mobile or tablet computing. It's not too much of a stretch to consider that they will be most comfortable with a device that behaves with some familiarity to that experience, but which can engage in much greater utility in a pinch. And it will be mobile, and it will require a better input experience than mashing your fingers on the small screen that splits its available space between the important information and large input elements.
Re: The erosion of the Mac experience
#7This guy has no idea what he’s talking about. One language, one gui framework, and one API paradigm - unified across all contextual devices - is exactly what Apple should do. SwiftUI is not it by any means, but to say that the idea of SwiftUI tries to achieve is a bad aim is completely wrong. The aim of UIKit on all Apple devices is 100% correct; and allows developers to go deep into the API forest to create mystical…
It's not the mystical interactions or feel of widgets, layout, and function that are the problem, it's bad UX paradigms, declining consistency between apps and across versions (a Mac hallmark), buggy software on an aggressive annual schedule, holes and rot in developer documentation, constant treadmill of Xcode and device updates, and general lack of attention to detail in Mac apps. I've been a Mac user and dev for t…
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Re: The erosion of the Mac experience
#8No post body was provided.
Re: The erosion of the Mac experience
#9This guy has no idea what he’s talking about. One language, one gui framework, and one API paradigm - unified across all contextual devices - is exactly what Apple should do. SwiftUI is not it by any means, but to say that the idea of SwiftUI tries to achieve is a bad aim is completely wrong. The aim of UIKit on all Apple devices is 100% correct; and allows developers to go deep into the API forest to create mystical…
I don't think he was arguing against unification; he was just arguing that in practice, the unification Apple settled upon was one that made macOS worse and thus represents their continual disinvestment in the platform (because, as you note, "SwiftUI is not it by any means"). This comes after years of neglect for the Mac platform; OP says Apple was "distracted" by iOS, but IMO that is unfair; instead I would say they were focused on iOS, probably correctly, but with a downside cost for Mac users. Macs are no longer the primary breadwinners for Apple, so they get a smaller percentage of focus and resourcing.
It sure seems like they could've done a better job at the unification attempts though, at least from the videos of the new Settings app floating around the internet. How can you break toggles that badly? It seems like it should be very hard to make a toggle button that occupies the regular amount of screen real estate, but has a click target that is 1px. That shouldn't happen by accident!
Re: The erosion of the Mac experience
#10I believe that Apple is strategically choosing to coast on their desktop software while they work to harmonize their mobile, desktop, and entertainment software stacks. Why? Because based on rumors, patents, and the decisions they've made and the actions they've taken (or not taken), it appears as though that Apple believes that in the not so distant future the concept of having a separate mobile device and a computi…
That seems exactly the opposite direction they’ve always gone though. Microsoft tried to have a completely unified PC/tablet experience, where their desktop OS basically became completely tabled focused in Windows 8. Whereas Apple has always made a strong distinction between e.g. the iPad and the Mac, refusing to build a convertible Mac or any Mac with a touch screen…