On 2014-08-04 10:57, David Schwartz wrote:
> It always amazes me that these discussions inevitably devolve into
> arguments about the tools.
>
> When people discuss new features for cars, like switching to hybrid or
> electic technology, do they spend most of their time talking about
> battery chemistry or the electromagnetic properties of different
> materials? Or do they talk about the benefits mostly?
If they are engineers they might. Look at the audience.
My question was a technical question about the future of Android
developer demand.
>
> Why is it that we in the software world are so freaking attached to
> the technology used to IMPLEMENT our ideas?
>
Because we are the ones implementing those features. I'll bet car
engineers have the same types of debates and talk much the same way we
do.
> Way back when Windows 3 was released, I was doing my own consulting
> work for clients. I focused on real-time embedded solutions written in
> C/C++ that ran on DOS or some kind of embedded kernal.
>
> People kept asking me why I didn’t get into Windows programming.
>
> My explanation was simple: because I had observed that every time
> Microsoft came out with a new version of Windows, they required
> developers to attend a week-long training course in Seattle to become
> “certified”. It cost several thousand dollars and happened every 9-12
> months.
>
> That in itself wasn’t so bad. The problem I noticed was that I knew a
> TON of small developers who did this a few times and ended up going
> bankrupt because of the long ramp-up time it took to absorb all of
> this new technology. What I saw was they’d pop for the training and
> certification course, come back home, start busily working on apps,
> and right about the time they’d be ready to release something, MS
> would come out with the Next Great API version and they had to start
> all over again!
>
> In the embedded design world, people much preferred stability — we
> used stuff that was solid and proved and stable and used for several
> years. Customers didn’t like new APIs, or even new programming tools.
>
> I see the same thing happening in the mobile world, except the market
> has been transformed such that virtually anybody can participate.
>
> In the iOS world, Objective-C is like C, only with quirks. C
> programmers can pick it up without too much trouble. Newbies don’t
> have to overcome their earlier biases and probably pick it up faster.
>
> In the Android world, Java is an old and stable platform,
>
> But in both cases, the mobile APIs keep moving! Apple releases a
> fairly massive update annually, and Google is doing their best to keep
> up with new Android releases.
>
> So you’re barely able to get up to speed with the latest API before a
> new one comes along and renders a lot of your work obsolete.
>
> To make matters worse, if you want to support multiple platforms, you
> need to be fairly proficient in SEVERAL DIFFERENT LANGUAGES AND
> PLATFORMS.
>
> Then from the marketing angle, you’ve got people who say, “Oh, HTML5
> web apps are really the future, we’re not going to waste our time with
> native apps!” That’s all well and good, except it misses the point
> with native apps, which is that they’re able to access all of the
> hardware goodies that Apple and Android manufacturers keep adding to.
>
Good Point!!
> That is, web apps will FOREVER be behind the technology curve when it
> comes to supporting the wizbang functions inherint in most mobile
> devices. Sure, they’re fine for generic data-driven needs, but not for
> things that are generating sales at the front-edge of the technology
> curve leveraging the latest hardware features.
>
Web apps = run everywhere there is a browser. Native apps are
restricted to their hardware & O/S. Both have their merits.
> Now we’ve got a new language: Apple introduced Swift and is making it
> available for free, like their other tools. This is going to stimulate
> a whole new generation of devleopers to jump into the fray and start
> building apps for iOS — apps that are going to be hard to “port” over
> to Android platforms, or even web platforms.
>
>
> I’ve talked with Joe about his app. To his credit, he’s focused mainly
> on the app. But what he’s missed is the fact that, IMHO, he’s
> over-spec’ed it to the point where you'd need so much custom code to
> impement what appears to be a simple tool that he’ll never be happy
> with the end result. His UI design makes assumptions based on HIS
> experience with *nix shell scripting, and he clearly explains this in
> the spec. There are no native widgets that work like “grep” in the
> Android world! So he’ll be extremely hard-pressed to find anybody
> who’ll build it for him within the budget he’s demanding.
>
> I’ve worked with something called Delphi since Borland introduced it
> in 1995. Starting with the XE2 release a few years back, they’ve been
> embracing a multi-platform targeting strategy where you can develop
> apps in one language that will run on any of the popular platforms:
> Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android. And it actually WORKS!
>
This is what we need - build once run everywhere. I personally think
web development is way behind in they types of tools we have. I often
wonder why we do not have something like VB that is drag and drop.
Instead we build everything every time. The web dev model is very
expensive.
> You can’t even do that with JAVA!!! The supposed “write it once, run
> it anywhere!” platform.
>
> Again, I talked with Joe about his app, and there are no native
> widgets available in Delphi that implement the specific UI behaviors
> he’s looking for. I cannot build an app for him that fits his criteria
> as closely as he wants, but it’ll come close, AND it’ll run on all
> four major platforms.
>
> I’ve interviewed for a couple of mobile app jobs; I have a tough time
> getting interviews because they’re all looking for the same thing: 3+
> years of experience with at least one app selling in either Google or
> Apple’s App Store.
Sounds like you need to freelance.
>
> Who are they interviewing mostly? Kids — gamers with no computer
> science background who’ve been building and selling games!
>
> Everybody else is spending so much time deliberating about whether
> it’s better to use Objective-C or Java or C++ or HTML5 or this
> platform or that platform, and will it fit into our strategic
> marketing initiatives in three years time …
>
> Sheesh … the only way to get a job doing mobile development these days
> is NOT so dependent on being a “mobile developer” but being able to
> converse intelligently about mobile languages and platforms. Because
> when Apple and Android issue an update, Marketing melts down and
> decides to stop development on everything while they figure out how to
> incorporate all of the latest cool new hardware features and API crap
> into their design.
>
> It’s the same as Microsoft’s Windows API update “tail" wagging the
> development “dog” all over again!
>
> Let’s talk about our customers for a change, and what we can do for
> them, eh?
>
Ok, I'm game (no pun intended) It really is all about the customer.
What did you have in mind?
> -David "The Tool Wiz" Schwartz
>
>
>
> On Aug 4, 2014, at 9:48 AM, Paul Mooring <paul@getchef.com> wrote:
>
>> I wanted to send this to the list, because I think you make some
>> excellent points here. Also just for the record, I'm not necessarily
>> saying I think do web apps for smart phones is better. I'm merely
>> providing POV from someone working in the tech start-up space that
>> that's what the industry is currently leaning towards. I actually
>> prefer native apps myself.
>>
>>
>
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