Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development • Hacker News Board

Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#1

Post by sahillavingia » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 5:58 PM UTC

Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development
chameleonproject.org

Re: Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#2

Post by christo16 » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 6:25 PM UTC

Definitely a cool, will make porting iOS apps easier. However, a lot of the ideas in UIKit are meant for a touchscreen and wont translate well.

Re: Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#3

Post by shaggyfrog » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 6:38 PM UTC

I really don't get the point of this at all. When I've ported iPhone apps to iPad (i.e. make them Universal) there was always little-to-no work to do on the underlying model classes, but always a lot of work to do designing new views since the UI model is so much different (mainly from the bigger screen). Same deal with Mac OS X, except the UI changes are even more extreme. If I want my iOS app to work on a Mac's screen, I'll have to spend the time to redesign the UI. Which is fine, so how is this thing going to save me any time at all, really?

Re: Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#4

Post by Samuel_Michon » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 6:42 PM UTC

Fascinating idea, but as also mentioned in the article: won't Apple do something similar?

There are way more iOS developers than there are Mac developers, and many more flock to the iOS platform every day. Surely, Apple has some incentive to make it easy for iOS developers to make software for the Mac.

From the article:

  Apple already has a version of UIKit that runs on the Mac: 
  every time you launch the iOS Simulator, 
  you're using that framework.

Re: Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#5

Post by pohl » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 6:47 PM UTC

Of course, Apple executives may change their priorities when they see how many developers are interested in a tool like Chameleon. Many people have speculated that the popularity of the Jailbreak SDK accelerated the release of the original iPhone SDK. It would be great if history repeated itself.

Great, so they're trying to position themselves to take credit for what may be inevitable.

Re: Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#6

Post by glhaynes » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 6:50 PM UTC

shaggyfrog wrote: post #3

I really don't get the point of this at all. When I've ported iPhone apps to iPad (i.e. make them Universal) there was always little-to-no work to do on the underlying model classes, but always a lot of work to do designing new views since the UI model is so much different (mainly from the bigger screen). Same deal with Mac OS X, except the UI changes are even more extreme. If I want my iOS app to work on a Mac's scr…

It could be useful for lots of folks that know UIKit inside and out but haven't dealt with AppKit before.

Re: Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#7

Post by mhd » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 6:54 PM UTC

Right after opening, the app store seemed flooded with programs that had UIs that clearly showed their iOS heritage. And I've yet to see a singly one where this actually is good (no, Twitter for Mac isn't one). Going further along this road doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Yes, you'll save some time. But unless you're making a throwaway, gimmicky application, you'd better invest some time in creating a new GUI that'll better integrate into the desktop. This time, most likely you're not the only thing on the screen.

Re: Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#8

Post by shaggyfrog » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 7:06 PM UTC

glhaynes wrote: post #6

shaggyfrog wrote: post #3

I really don't get the point of this at all. When I've ported iPhone apps to iPad (i.e. make them Universal) there was always little-to-no work to do on the underlying model classes, but always a lot of work to do designing new views since the UI model is so much different (mainly from the bigger screen). Same deal with Mac OS X, except the UI changes are even more extreme. If I want my iOS app to work on a Mac's scr…

It could be useful for lots of folks that know UIKit inside and out but haven't dealt with AppKit before.

But a Mac's interface is not an iOS interface. There are different constraints and different best practices, and sometimes completely different widgets. To make a decent UI, you have to understand the native platform.

Re: Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#9

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 7:06 PM UTC

glhaynes wrote: post #6

shaggyfrog wrote: post #3

I really don't get the point of this at all. When I've ported iPhone apps to iPad (i.e. make them Universal) there was always little-to-no work to do on the underlying model classes, but always a lot of work to do designing new views since the UI model is so much different (mainly from the bigger screen). Same deal with Mac OS X, except the UI changes are even more extreme. If I want my iOS app to work on a Mac's scr…

It could be useful for lots of folks that know UIKit inside and out but haven't dealt with AppKit before.

[deleted]

Re: Chameleon - UIKit for Mac development

#10

Post by ugh » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 7:13 PM UTC

pohl wrote: post #5

Of course, Apple executives may change their priorities when they see how many developers are interested in a tool like Chameleon. Many people have speculated that the popularity of the Jailbreak SDK accelerated the release of the original iPhone SDK. It would be great if history repeated itself. Great, so they're trying to position themselves to take credit for what may be inevitable.

Aren’t you way too cynical?