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Re: Apple's Tools Strategy [was: Accessing function definitions Radar]


On Oct 28, 2006, at 4:11 PM, Mark Munz wrote:

I really, really hope OS X does not eventually get bitten badly by
moving that fast, neglecting thorough bug-fixing and refinement of the
existing features on its way.

LOL Mac OS X has been bitten by this since 10.0, which many considered to be a second public beta. To be honest, it's tended to get better with each release. Back when 10.0 came out, there was a very strong "we need to deliver this now or we're going to go out of business" mentality at Apple. It's taken a while, but that mentality seems to have subsided these days.

Remember how, back when 10.1 came out how developers (and users) couldn't leave 10.0 behind fast enough? And then almost the same thing happened to 10.1 when 10.2 was released? At that point Mac OS X was becoming useable. People upgraded to 10.3, but they weren't fleeing 10.2. Developers have been willing to support 10.2 much longer than they were 10.0 or 10.1. Even more people were content enough with 10.3 to wait for a couple of dot releases to 10.4 before upgrading, and I suspect most of us will be supporting 10.3 for a while to come.

So yes, I do understand the huge challenges the Xcode team is facing.


The reality is that releases are slowing down. They used to be almost
yearly and they're now approaching 1.5-2 years between releases.

Interestingly, Windows folks have complain that it's taken 5+ years to
get Vista out the door. So the OS guys lose if they're too fast and if
they're too slow.

As with all things there is usually a good balance. And it's not all about the time frame. A year wouldn't be too soon if the result was solid. But practical limitations being what they are, it's unrealistic to believe Apple's engineers can give Steve 150-200 new features every year and do them completely and robustly. Something has to give and in the past (especially in the early releases of Mac OS X) it clear priority was giving Steve his 150-200 features at all costs. Personally I think 1.5-2 years is a good time frame. It gives the engineers time to get things right and it doesn't have users feeling they need to buy a new version of the OS every year.

Larry
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References: 
 >Re: Accessing function definitions Radar (From: Turtle Creek Software <email@hidden>)
 >Apple's Tools Strategy [was: Accessing function definitions Radar] (From: Chris Espinosa <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Apple's Tools Strategy [was: Accessing function definitions Radar] (From: "Christian Roth" <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Re: Apple's Tools Strategy [was: Accessing function definitions Radar] (From: "Mark Munz" <email@hidden>)



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