9 years of Apple text editor solo dev • Hacker News Board

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#181

Post by hit8run » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 4:57 PM UTC

rubymamis wrote: post #177

jwells89 wrote: post #170

The ability to go low/no-dependencies, as mentioned in the blog post, is one of my favorite things about Apple platforms. It’s not just possible but practical to build a capable, highly polished app without bringing in anything third-party thanks to the richness and depth of AppKit/UIKit. Few frameworks can compete, with even other juggernauts like Qt coming up short in comparison.

I've built my note-taking app[1] in Qt, and while I worked hard to make it look good, I'm very satisfied with the result. Also, it turns out to be much faster than comparable native apps (performance benchmarks available on the website). [1] https://www.get-plume.com/

Looks good indeed. Well done.

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#182

Post by kjs3 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 4:58 PM UTC

neverartful wrote: post #50

KMnO4 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That experiment was done in 2015, when the Swift runtime had to be included. If you build an app now, it will link to the system runtime and be close to 100kb as well. This seems to be premature optimization. The author forced himself to learn archaic Objective C for a completely unnecessary reason, and now is stuck with that design choice despite not having any benefits.

Have you ever developed anything substantial with Objective C? If not, I suggest that 'unfamiliar' might be more apt than 'archaic'. Anyone starting a non-trivial iOS project in 2015 in Swift would still need to learn the basics of Objective C because so much of the documentation and examples were still in Objective C at that time. I don't think it's accurate to say that learning Objective C in 2015 had no benefits.

Around here, anything that happened before 2017 or so is 'old', and therefore 'bad'. The echo chamber has spoken.

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#183

Post by settsu » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 4:58 PM UTC

germandiago wrote: post #173

jwells89 wrote: post #170

The ability to go low/no-dependencies, as mentioned in the blog post, is one of my favorite things about Apple platforms. It’s not just possible but practical to build a capable, highly polished app without bringing in anything third-party thanks to the richness and depth of AppKit/UIKit. Few frameworks can compete, with even other juggernauts like Qt coming up short in comparison.

And you are now locked down to one environment.

And? There are plenty of companies which have fared just fine under such "limitations".

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#184

Post by Analemma_ » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 4:58 PM UTC

germandiago wrote: post #173

jwells89 wrote: post #170

The ability to go low/no-dependencies, as mentioned in the blog post, is one of my favorite things about Apple platforms. It’s not just possible but practical to build a capable, highly polished app without bringing in anything third-party thanks to the richness and depth of AppKit/UIKit. Few frameworks can compete, with even other juggernauts like Qt coming up short in comparison.

And you are now locked down to one environment.

The insistence that every application/framework must be cross-platform, or its worthless, is so bizarre to me. What is even the point of having multiple operating systems if they can't have distinct features to gain competitive advantage by attracting application developers? If operating systems can't differentiate, we might as well all use Windows.

Cross-platform applications have their place, but sometimes I like having features that I can get in one place and nowhere else. Let them both exist and quit griping about it.

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#185

Post by papereditor » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 5:03 PM UTC

brantonb wrote: post #178

> For instance, the NSPopover is a good candidate for bubbles that hint at stuff in the Mac app. An iOS counterpart sadly does not exist, so no bubbles in the iOS app. Ignoring popover presentations in UIKit, there’s also a new TipKit framework in iOS 17, but it’s Swift-only. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/TipKit The author has done a great job while remaining in Obj-C. I’m really curious how long they can…

Thanks! Indeed, there is TipKit. I've just learned about it a few days ago.

I think so far when Apple added new features to existing components, they've always made dual APIs. Only some completely new things are Swift-exclusive.

That said, as the pile of those exclusive things gets bigger, it would be harder and harder to stay in Objective-C.

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#186

Post by fbnlsr » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 5:04 PM UTC

rubymamis wrote: post #177

jwells89 wrote: post #170

The ability to go low/no-dependencies, as mentioned in the blog post, is one of my favorite things about Apple platforms. It’s not just possible but practical to build a capable, highly polished app without bringing in anything third-party thanks to the richness and depth of AppKit/UIKit. Few frameworks can compete, with even other juggernauts like Qt coming up short in comparison.

I've built my note-taking app[1] in Qt, and while I worked hard to make it look good, I'm very satisfied with the result. Also, it turns out to be much faster than comparable native apps (performance benchmarks available on the website). [1] https://www.get-plume.com/

Looks really nice. Just a heads-up, I get a NS_BINDING_ABORTED error on the home page video, so I can't see it. (Firefox 121.0, Linux).

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#187

Post by allenu » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 5:05 PM UTC

germandiago wrote: post #173

jwells89 wrote: post #170

The ability to go low/no-dependencies, as mentioned in the blog post, is one of my favorite things about Apple platforms. It’s not just possible but practical to build a capable, highly polished app without bringing in anything third-party thanks to the richness and depth of AppKit/UIKit. Few frameworks can compete, with even other juggernauts like Qt coming up short in comparison.

And you are now locked down to one environment.

If you’re an indie dev, that can be a good thing. I find it much simpler to ship for iOS and Mac as a solo dev.

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#188

Post by rubymamis » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 5:05 PM UTC

fbnlsr wrote: post #186

rubymamis wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've built my note-taking app[1] in Qt, and while I worked hard to make it look good, I'm very satisfied with the result. Also, it turns out to be much faster than comparable native apps (performance benchmarks available on the website). [1] https://www.get-plume.com/

Looks really nice. Just a heads-up, I get a NS_BINDING_ABORTED error on the home page video, so I can't see it. (Firefox 121.0, Linux).

Whoops. I'll look into that, thanks!

EDIT: Fixed.

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#189

Post by quantumdot42 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 5:08 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #16

toxypol wrote: post #12

[flagged]

And $10/month subscription? What should something like Photoshop with 10000x the features and development costs then charge? $1000/month? I understand "keeping it simple" but not "keeping it simple AND charging a crazy price for it" (there are essential, complex apps, that charge much less than that). I guess, if you can get away with it...

I created an account on this site (after years of lurking) just to upvote you here.

Just because other people are willing to spend this kind of money on a text editor doesn't mean we can't think they are ridiculous for doing so. I definitely judge people who spend $10 on a text editor.

Re: 9 years of Apple text editor solo dev

#190

Post by bitwize » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 5:17 PM UTC

One of the really nice things about the Apple platform is you can still build and sell apps for it. Windows and especially Linux are encrusted with freeloaders, but Apple users are willing to open their wallets for software with that extra bit of care put into it.