Re: *****SPAM*****How to convince company I should switch to Cocoa
Re: *****SPAM*****How to convince company I should switch to Cocoa
- Subject: Re: *****SPAM*****How to convince company I should switch to Cocoa
- From: Michael Rothwell <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 18:25:24 -0500
I'm facing this situation at work. The application framework our main
business app is using is end-of-lifed, and the replacement options
(even from the same company) are pretty much totally different. I'm
facing a re-write. It will be huge work, and if I do it well, the
visible gains won't be all that significant to the users. On the one
hand, I look forward to it, because the new environment will be
"better" than the old one. On the other, I hate to waste all that
effort just to get back where we are now.
Be careful and thorough when re-writing an entire app. All the little
bug-fixes, workarounds, tweaks and the like that have been made to the
application over its lifetime will be lost when you re-write, and
you'll have to go through the tweak-test-and-fix cycle all over again
for the new application just to get things back to where you are now.
In short, document the behavior of the application carefully if you
re-write it. You don't want to promise "better" and end up with an
application that has less functionality, or different behavior, or more
bugs. People don't generally like surprises -- especially the people
who sign your paychecks.
If the tools you use to maintain the application are simply not
available anymore, then you have to change something, so try to make
the best choice and present it in terms of necessity and cost/benefit.
"Toolkit X simply doesn't exist anymore. To ensure that we can continue
to ship software that works on Apple's new OSes, we have to switch
toolkits. I've done some analysis of the options, and here's the pros
and cons of each, and my recommendation."
I would say that you should go with the standard Apple tools and
libraries to help ensure forward compatibility of your application with
Apple's operating systems, just as I would have chosen MFC over OWL on
Windows. Cocoa is certainly nice, and you can call carbon (and other
c-based APIs) from it at will. Of course, the future on Windows is
DotNet, so neither MFC or OWL would have carried me forever. But MFC
would have carried me farther, and I can re-package some MFC code as
Managed C++ and/or COM+ objects that I can use from DotNet. In a
similar vein, Apple will help you maintain compatibility if you use
their preferred/flagship APIs and tools -- Carbon and Cocoa.
I hope that made some sense. I just woke up.
-M
On Jan 17, 2004, at 12:48 AM, Larry Gerndt wrote:
MY boss is asking me to to justify my desire to rewrite our
Carbon/PowerPlant app in Cocoa. I've seen enough of Cocoa to know
that this
is probably the best move I can make. Right now I'm stuck with
PowerPlant
(the original), and it's now dead. So either I should port to
PowerPlant X
(which is a huge port because PowerPlant X is radically different from
the
original), or I spend that time delving into Cocoa. I believe the
Cocoa API
is richer by far than PowerPlant X could hope to be, though PowerPlant
X
does look excellent for anyone who wants to stay in the Carbon API.
Our application isn't really all that large, and I know every single
line of
it, since I've written the whole thing, so I suspect that rewriting in
Cocoa
wouldn't really be that hard once I know Cocoa. Given that, I wonder:
1. Am
I making the right decision to rewrite in Cocoa, and 2. If so, would
any of
you be willing to just sketch out a few highlighted points about what I
would stand to gain by doing so? Personally I see it as the right
move,
because Cocoa apps have a great look and feel, and it seems that it's
the
richest framework out there. But I would like to give my boss some
justifications, and frankly I'm not knowledgeable enough to really
make the
best points (if there are any). Thanks in advance.
--
Larry Gerndt
AIM Handle: SonOfTheSonOfMan
Let the truth be told though the heavens fall -- James Garrison
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