Q: (Stuart Schmukler) I’ve come from the academic world, there are a lot of PCs and UNIX there, I've made my living porting UNIX to the Mac. Love the fact that OT is there, would like to see pthreads (POSIX compliant threads), no commitment to that in Mac OS 8. It would make my life easier if nondifferentiating features aren’t different on the Mac. Would like to see more POSIX compliant APIs in the Mac OS.
A: Sure. There’s no lack of standards, we’re trying to figure out which ones to support. We’ll put it on top issues, people can vote on it.
Q: (Chris, Nat Intelligence) I love Resorcerer, use ResEdit, turn it around on other developers, if you like Resourcerer, buy it, support your fellow tools developer, it’s up to us. If we do come up with a tool that’s better than the one Apple has, support us with a very lucrative site license.
A: Thank you.
Q: (Steve Sisak) One thing that would be very useful for Mac-studly developers is crippled versions of Mac APIs available on Windows, for example, fully-factored apps that are scripting, you can usually make the engine side of the code platform-neutral with a platform-specific lower layer, use the AppleEvent boundary as abstraction if there were an AE mechanism on Windows. You might find a lot more programs. Win version could be crippled if the API glue layer
A: (Chris E) Hear you, if we're going to ship stuff on Windows we’ll do it right (QTW experience).
Q: (Steve Kiene) Comment on competing, especially on installers, OK because yours sucks, but level the playing field, don't require using Apple installer.
A: It is so unbelievably complicated, it’s a moving target, there is stuff that is there that we’re taking away.
Q: License agreement says use Apple installer
A: Raise such issues, we'll fix it, if you’re willing to do them we’ll look at it and make sure no legal or practical restrictions.
Q: (Grant Neufeld) Attended university, Apple Research Partnership Program in Canada took students keen on Mac who could throw 40-50 hrs/week at this, software to work on and support, now degraded into a consultant program. Is Apple prepared to put a strong effort into universities and high schools (farm system) outreach program, I had time to run my own web server, Apple provided equipment, now I'm working professionally as a developer and expect to be doing more in that regard. Machines, machines for student consultants, hired the student consultants, working in psych, biology, etc. departments figuring out ways to integrate Mac technologies into those departments. Like a student Apple developer program. Site license for universities for ETO at no cost.
A: Sounds like a cool idea, gives us more people to hire, good training ground for the next set. Other software companies fund such an effort.
C: (Neil Ticktin) In CA there’s the Apple Tax Credit, you can give computers to a school inside CA and you get a credit to your taxes, schools have gotten a lot more Macs, if you’re in a state that’s not like that, get it on the books and it will increase the number of machines overall.
A: In Ann Arbor we welcome students into a programmer’s SIG, teach introductory classes, if there’s a problem with students not getting enough information, fix it, not just an Apple problem,
Q: (Dave Winer) I like Resourcer, have used it since it came out, somehow in allthis there’s got to be a way to make it work for everybody, there just isn’t that much at stake here, it has to be in all our interest to keep Resourcerer going. From a different perspective, somewhere in here there’s a way to meet the needs of people who want resource editing, free up people inside Apple, come to it with a positive attitude and Doug do well. I was at Amelio’s presentation and he said that when a developer has a solution that’s better than Apple’s, we will get out of the way. Give us an example of “gratuitous” competition. How does Apple make its damn promises stick? The line keeps moving around, why should we believe it’s going to last.
A: You don’t have to believe us, you can watch us. And accountability has been said
Q: (Doug McKenna) The rumor at WWDC was that Apple sales dipped by some huge amount, was Apple doomed, Guy said look at the car companies, but what happens if big companies go Wintel, in my opinion one of the key strengths Apple has is to get as many hardware and software patents, I’d like to see a CD-ROM of the text and pictures of all of Apple’s patents. There are plenty of little ones, if you have a good portfolio it helps you be the best, you should evangelize this to developers.
Greg Friedman, Janie Phillips, Geoff, Alex McHale, Henri Lamareux, Vinnie Mos, John Kallas, Leon Baranofsky, Rodney Somerstein, Mark Altenberg, Pete Gontier, Dave Guffin, Dave, Brian Becthel, Matt Mora, Mike Neal, Eric Slosser, Tim Holmes, Cameron Es, Steve B, Michael B, Keith , Jordan, Mike Bonen, Jim Black, Michael Evins, Cros Cotton, Quinn, Jeg Ann Jones, Chris Espinosa, Ben Calica, Arlo Reeves, dEvOn Hubbard.
