LC & Catalina; macOS 10.15.x; Xcode 11.3.x; iOS 13.3.x support ???

Bob Sneidar bobsneidar at iotecdigital.com
Thu Mar 12 19:13:27 EDT 2020


I hesitate to opine, but there's so much here. I think anytime a product is dependent on a Google API, long term support is uncertain. For example, recently Google dropped support for Google Docs. The copier companies have written plugins to their copiers SPECIFICALLY to work with Google Docs. So Toshiba, Konica, Canon, Ricoh... all sold commercial products to support an API that CUSTOMERS ASKED FOR, and now it's gone. Poof. Bang. 

Their recourse? Nil. Nada. See, Google very wisely advised everyone that they reserved the right to discontinue any or all of their API services at their own discretion, so no one has any recourse. Not the end user, not the hardware vendor. 

This begs the question, what recourse can any of us expect when we support a 3rd party API from ANYONE, including one of our own? Apple and Google can change their terms of service or APIs anytime they want, and can pull the rug out from under our commercial products and we are helpless. Oracle can push out a critical update to their SQL server that sqlYoga can't handle, and Trevor can say, "Yeah, no not going to update that product because I've discontinued supporting it." I'd be forced to completely refactor what is now a fairly complex app. This is the nature of software development in this pervasively connected world of ours. 

Perhaps a good approach is to include in any contract for software products or development the disclaimer that if the customer requests support for a 3rd party API, that functionality and support for that API is restricted to the terms of the 3rd party. Not sure how to word that legally. 

Bob S


> On Mar 12, 2020, at 15:31 , matthias rebbe via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
> Herman, the problems i referred to were the problems he had  with a library that did not work anymore after Google changed something and he was in urgent need of a fix, which was not possible because Monte were at sleep at the time of Sean´s posting and therefore he lost an important customer.



More information about the use-livecode mailing list