Archive for May 5, 2009

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The PSD File Format

Adobe’s John Nack responds to a code-comment rant by Dag Ågren:

Here’s what I think people want to know: Is Photoshop’s PSD format a goofy, antiquated piece of crap, and by extension is Photoshop slow, clumsy, and/or outdated?…No.

On the contrary, I think that’s simply the question that Nack wanted to answer. Ågren’s points seem to be legitimate, if indelicately expressed and not intended for wide distribution. Nack essentially concedes them, then tries to suggest that someone wanting to read existing PSD files should care about Adobe’s FXG file format. The takeaway: Adobe has no sense of humor and would rather attack the messenger than accept criticism gracefully.

Update (2009-05-06): Gus Mueller makes some good points in the comments.

FaceSpan 5 Development Suspended

Mark Alldritt:

My reasons for suspending FaceSpan development are many. Chief among them are that I keep missing every deadline I have set for myself. I am now over 2 years into this project and I cannot clearly see how to wrap development up so that I have a product to sell. I also am feeling that in the time it has taken me to do this work, the world has moved on and AppleScript-based UIs are not going to be relevant in the marketplace.

This is a shame because FaceSpan seemed much more approachable than AppleScript Studio, but it does seem like a challenging product to sell. Hopefully, this will leave Alldritt more time to work on his other products.

iFlash Touch: Rejected

David McGavern:

On Friday, May 1st, I called Apple Developer Technical Support to find out what was going on with the review process, and to see if my earlier comments had been received. They then told me the shocking news that writing an iPhone app that requires a desktop “companion” app was prohibited.

Update (2009-05-07): The person in DTS who told him this was wrong.