{"id":25669,"date":"2019-06-14T16:19:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T20:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=25669"},"modified":"2024-05-16T08:54:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:54:24","slug":"desktop-apps-post-catalyst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/14\/desktop-apps-post-catalyst\/","title":{"rendered":"Desktop Apps Post-Catalyst"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adam Engst<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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That’s not to say that Apple is trying to replace the Mac with iOS or remove those unique capabilities of the Mac that make it special. The Mac and macOS remain first-class, vibrant Apple hardware and software platforms. But what we’re not going to see, at least from Apple, are new technologies that set the Mac further apart from its iOS brethren. When it comes to operating systems, it’s safe to say that it’s one for all, and all for Apple.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Chance Miller<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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After talking about the new hardware introduced at WWDC, Craig Federighi dove into Apple’s new Project Catalyst, which allows developers to easily port their iPad apps to the Mac. Federighi noted that if a developer simply ticks the “Mac” option in Xcode, they’ll get some degree of “Mac-ification” right off the bat, but that developers can fine tune that for a true Mac experience.<\/p>\n

In defense of the first set of Catalyst apps that were released by Apple last year, such as Apple News and Home on the Mac, Federighi said that some of the complaints people voiced were actually simple interface design decisions that the development teams made. Not necessarily because of Project Catalyst framework itself. Over time, Federighi says that Apple has learned how to strike a balance between the best design for these types of media-oriented applications on the Mac:<\/p>\n

When we released the first set of apps using Catalyst, some of the concerns that were voiced placed a certain amount of focus on the technology, but that was really design decisions we made. There were pure design decisions that were different design teams pushing the bounds of what is the future of media oriented design. I think we’re finding our balance there, pulling back in some areas. And the underlying technology has improved.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

I guess this was a planned talking point because he repeated it to Gruber and Viticci<\/a> (whom he also told that he—like Tim Cook—mostly uses an iPad). It seemed to make people breathe a sigh of relief, but why<\/a>? Is it supposed to inspire confidence that Apple could<\/em> have used the technology<\/a> to make good Macs apps, but the designers<\/a> decided not to?<\/p>\n\n

And have you seen the apps in Catalina? The Home app still looks like an iOS port, with iOS-style buttons and navigation in a little overlay on top of the window.<\/p>\n\n

The News app seems pretty much the same as in Mojave. It still doesn’t support multiple windows. The navigation is still confusing. Basic features like text selection, page-up\/down, and printing don’t work. It still has the horrible iOS-style interface for configuring channels and notifications. The “Open in Safari” command should have been given a keyboard shortcut but was instead removed.<\/p>\n\n

The new Podcasts app has an iOS-style<\/a> interface for notifications and depends on a private Catalyst entitlement<\/a>. It also has to fake<\/a> some controls. The info pane slides over the content in a strange way. The compact outline view from iTunes is gone.<\/p>\n\n

The Music app<\/a> uses AppKit but lost the column browser.<\/p>\n\n

Apple Mail remains an AppKit app but is becoming more iOSified<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

We expected Catalyst to finally bring parity to the Mac version of Messages, but it didn’t<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Steve Troughton-Smith<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Catalyst is the main event, SwiftUI is more long term! That much is very clear to me now 😄 SwiftUI distracts Catalyst detractors from iOS apps consuming the Mac<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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An iOS picker control on the Mac is bad UI. I wouldn’t celebrate a Mac picker control on iOS just because the Mac is more important to me personally. Bad UI is bad UI and Apple’s willingness to ship bad UI is the only truly worrisome thing about Apple today.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n