Re: Is WebObjects moving away from Windows development platform?

Cheong wrote on 06/20/2006 03:06:46 AM:

> Deployment is not an issue.  Development is.  The big blow comes 
> from limiting those using Windows as single platform for all sort of
> works and development.  It is not the choice we have, sometime, to 
> use Windows as the single platform for development and works.

We don't have much choice either, as our development is <grin--mostly> 
Windows-only (due more to the competency of the management & IT staff than 
the developers ;). We use WOLips+Eclipse and WebObjects 5.2.4 and find 
that to be a workable solution.  At home I use the Mac and currently I 
don't find that developing WebObjects on Windows vs Mac differences to be 
that significant yet. I would hope that Apple will continue to improve the 
new Mac-only tools until there is a compelling case to switch.

We just barely retired our last Obj-C WO 4.5.x app from our location last 
month, and there are still others running in other locations. So 5.2.4 on 
Windows should still be workable for some time to come (unless it breaks 
under Vista I guess), at least as far as maintenance is concerned. And as 
long as the bits remain pure Java and cross-platform, you will still be 
able to manually copy most of the new bits from a Mac to other platforms 
and get them to run, the major exception being WOBuilder and EOModeler.

Once it gets compelling or required to use the new Mac-only versions of 
those tools, then your company will have to decide if WebObjects is worth 
being Windows-only. If they see the value that WebObjects provides, then 
buying a few Macs and supporting those is not a big deal. If they don't 
see the value, as my management has decided, then they will transition to 
something else.

It seems apparent that Apple isn't overly concerned about WebObjects 
outside of Apple. It's unfortunate as I think that D2W with some attention 
and support could've had a Ruby-on-Rails-like impact several years ago, 
but that's not the way things are. You either have to go with Apple's 
flow, or move to something else.

Logan

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