Re: Re: Further development on Windows?

On Thu, 12 Mar 2009, Matt A. wrote:

# WHOA NELLY on that Palm obit.  I, as I'm certain, others still have a 
# strong investment in our PalmOS software library of which ShadowPlan is 
# among them.  Please reaslise that there are those of us who are just 
# waiting for the same Palm software essentials we use to be available in 
# the next big thing, thing, be it Pre, iPhone, BlackBerry.  As much as 
# I'm a Mac/Apple loyal, the iPhone has not caught up with my needs so, 
# I'm still, as I'm sure others, relying on my Palm for the stuff that 
# iPhone doesn't have **yet**.  I do not see why Palm support or even 
# other "legacy" platforms should be in the wastepile.  Besides, people 
# are looking for jobs nowadays.  So, why not create a new job opening and 
# have jobseekers fill "Legacy platform/legacy app development" 
# departments in companies that develop stuff for handhelds?

	*g* Can of worms, meet my quick fingers :)

	The easy reply is .. during severe economic turmoil, people tend 
to buy less whizzy apps or devices. (But sometimes the opposite is true.)

	The complex answer is .. its hard to sell Palm OS software right 
now; certainly PalmGear mostly blew up, and in general sales are down to a 
tiny fraction of what they were a couple years ago, _across the board_. 
Palm developers were dieing a couple years ago, but we're a rare breed 
now.

	Another factor is .. to make a sellable update to Shadow, it has 
to be a pretty big one; a lot of changes, to make it worth it: ie: a lot 
of time/risk to build some signifiacnt fixes and changes, for a very 
likely very little turnaround. 

	Now, I've always played the fool in going for lower profits and 
doing the right thing and all, but its a tough line to walk to make a huge 
investment in time for a dieing platform. (ie: Theres a certain core, and 
yes Centro's are selling (but arguably not a lot of software for 
Centros).) If I did a really bang up change, it'd definately sell, but its 
a lot of work I think.

	There is also the desktop site, which definately is a lot easier 
to develop for (and a cleaner design and whatnot since it didn't have to 
run on 16mhz devices), so thats much more in the cards (by design, old 
timers may note it was built ground up to be device agnostic.)

	Now, I am pretty interested in building Shadow for Pre, I must 
admit. Its not likely to occur on the iphone (but not out of the cards); I 
do have an app coming out for the iphone in awhile, so we'll see how that 
floats first.

	RIM is not likely in the cards right now; not sure if accurate or 
not, but I've often been heard to say over the last year that 'RIM is the 
new Palm', and I think they know it. ie: They've got their push email, but 
they've been sitting on their rear for years, living on that. Until the 
iPhone came along, RIM was pretty smug.. but they're on a hiring spree I 
think, and they're actually worried to some extent.. notice the sudden 
flurry of activity.. their app store, the new touchscreen devices, etc. So 
we'll see, but traditionally they're not supportive of developers too 
much, so not a fun platform to look into building for.

	Palm OS .. we'll see, but it seems a tough one to do additional 
work on; also, its one of the largest PITAs around, due to the mess that 
was made over the OS over the many companies, though admitedly new work 
could really target the core and largely ignore Handera, Sony and other 
extensions, to keep things simple. (ie: aim for T|X, Treo, Centro support 
maybe.. but you see the problem, as soon as I say that, all the T|T3 and 
so on will come out and bite me ;)

	Mobile dev was always one of the harder 'markets', and its 
generally agreed to be suicide now more than ever before; many devices, 
few certainties, almost no ability to share common code across devices.. 
brutal.

	But I'm still in the fight, as always.

		jeff

--
If everyone would put barbecue sauce on their food, there would be no war.