Platform Divergence

[Paul Dupuis]

We make and sell a desktop application (Windows and macOS) for a niche 
research market. I expect when Apple does their migration to a common 
processor and OS, Apple Developer's will have to go through all of Apple 
hoops for all their platforms.Most of our customer don't care about UI 
widget animations. They want the app to do certain functions and do them 
well and quickly to work with their data. As long as the UI is 
effective, whether it conforms precisely to Microsoft or Apple UI 
guidelines is secondary. So, even if you only care about desktops, your 
app will have to be sold through Apple's single App Store, conform to 
all screen sizes on all their devices, and follow all their UI 
guidelines, etc.

At that point, given that Windows is 2/3rd of our market and macOS 
1/3rd, we'll drop support for macOS sadly. I say sadly because our 
application originated way back in the late 1980 as a HyperCard App for 
MacOS.

But, to your point, your concern IS valid for those people wanting Apps 
from you that they insist MUST conform to all of Apple's esoteric 
requirements. It is likely it will become increasingly harder for the 
LiveCode ideal of develop once and deploy everywhere.


On 6/23/2020 2:56 PM, Jim Lambert via use-livecode wrote:
> This year’s WWDC shows Apple is moving to a unified ‘system' for all their products: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AppleTV.
> The Apple development environment promises to produce a single app capable of running on all, or almost all, of Apple devices. This unification promises to be quite convenient for Apple developers.
>
> In contrast, over the last decade or so there has been an ever increasing divergence in UX between major operating systems: Apple, Windows, Linux, Android. The days when systems were so similar that you could rely on the commonality of a handful of UI elements across platforms seems over to me. That’s troubling because such commonality is fundamental to LiveCode’s approach - write once, run everywhere.
>
> In watching WWDC sessions it’s pretty clear that even simple UI elements have become more like UX elements having intrinsic and complex properties, such as certain visual and behavioral animations. Users readily learn to expect these behaviors. Yet such things are increasing difficult to fake with LiveCode’s basic palette of objects.
>
> Enter LiveCode Builder and LC Widgets. They offer the promise of platform-specific UI elements - a promise fulfilled with some simple elements like iOS Native Button or Android Native Field. But I’m concerned that as platforms diverge in the interface experiences they present to users, that LC and LC developers will have difficulty satisfying users' divergent expectations.
>
> Is my concern valid?
>
> Jim Lambert
>
>
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