Mac OS X Leopard is just one of three primary focuses for the 2007 edition of Apple's developer conference, company officials say. This year's gathering will reportedly stress Internet content more than ever while also catering to a rising niche: Windows switchers.
Most expect the next version of Apple's operating system to take center stage at the San Francisco event, a fact already reflected in the company's promo banners around the Moscone Center. But the Mac maker this year will be reaching out to some new audiences, including those who have never written code for the Mac.
Apple's attention in recent years has largely stuck to its base of loyal developers, and typically only sees outsiders who are new to development or are used to writing for Linux and other open development platforms. During WWDC 2006, however, the company noticed that roughly a third of its entire conference audience consisted of first-time developers coming from closed-source backgrounds -- a pleasant surprise, according to Apple's Worldwide Developer Relations head Ron Okamoto.
"Traditionally, we've seen lots of young people, coming out of college, or perhaps with open source backgrounds, getting introduced to the Mac," he told Paul Thurrott over at the SuperSite for Windows. "But now we're seeing people who have Windows and UNIX coding experience getting on the Mac in ever-bigger numbers."
The unprecedented shift has driven Apple to create session tracks it would never have considered possible until now. While Monday for most Mac developers will have a light schedule -- highlighted primarily by a keynote from Apple CEO Steve Jobs in the morning -- newcomers to Mac development will be consumed with Immersion Monday, a whole-day program built explicitly to help coders that may not grasp even the basics of writing Mac software.
Other sessions during the week will help tackle more specific aspects, with the ultimate aim of laying the groundwork for those who might have been lost in transitioning from .NET or other outside platforms in earlier years. "When [newcomers are] done Friday, they'll have gotten a nice jump start to getting around the Mac," Okamoto claims.
Just as new is an emphasis on the proliferation of online audio and video, according to the SuperSite's report. A new track, named Content and Media, is tailored just to those developers who need to focus on getting their media to the Internet. Though offline production will be covered, most tracks will focus on blending Apple's latest software with the web -- ranging from web-only AJAX and WebObjects code to the mixed-media Dashboard in Mac OS X or even crafting websites made just for the iPhone.
Leopard is set to give these content producers an edge regardless of how much they use the Internet, but the key will be unifying normally separate worlds. This is a specialty for Apple, Okamoto says. "The iTunes Store, and some things we do on our developer Web site, can point the way," he told the SuperSite.
No matter the background of the developer, the goal for this year's WWDC will be to live up to the conference's "worldwide" title by making the Mac's presence felt outside of familiar territory, both figuratively and literally: in addition to coders from rival platforms, Apple hopes to draw in guests from over 44 countries and foster growth beyond the company's American home.
PodTech, who will be podcasting the Steve Jobs podcast is suggesting that Apple will finally be getting into gaming and encouraging developers along these lines:
Hence their $100+ billion valuation and $12.5+ billion in cash.
Yeah, try living on that!
But I am assuming that BenRoethig was indicating that it was the not basics (little things like the iPod)--things that were not part of the core OS and computer market that helped Apple to take off.
Imagine if someone warned Apple to focus on the basics 6 years ago and they listened...
'Course, I would say that Apple has been rather good, lately, at focusing on more than one thing.
If they continue their rise through the computer, the consumer electronic, and the software markets it will be a testement to their ability to not only focus on several different areas but also to integrate them in ways that have never been seen--or even considered--before.
I have limited skills in coding, but would love to write some front end apps for my web server. I'd love to see what apple has to match visual studio.
I know this is really dumb compared to alot of developers, but these sessions are very valuable to me. I'm in the silly position of using my mac for most things but running windows to develop software, and I'd like to change that.
Anyway, just the thought of getting to the WWDC is exciting me now. I guess every aspirant programmer has to travel to mecca at least once in their lives....
I have limited skills in coding, but would love to write some front end apps for my web server. I'd love to see what apple has to match visual studio.
Xcode.
It's free. And it came with your computer. If you want to find out more, head over to http://developer.apple.com/products/online.html and sign up for a free developer membership - this gets you access to all the online docs, sample code, etc. What you have on your installer DVDs is what was current when your machine shipped, but the online site is where you get upgrades and more current information.
Xcode 3.0 will ship with 10.5, and it promises to be a huge jump.
Quote:
I know this is really dumb compared to alot of developers, but these sessions are very valuable to me. I'm in the silly position of using my mac for most things but running windows to develop software, and I'd like to change that.
Anyway, just the thought of getting to the WWDC is exciting me now. I guess every aspirant programmer has to travel to mecca at least once in their lives....
It's rather amazing that WebObjects gets mentioned by AppleInsider from that track of Content Media when the track itself has no mention of the Enterprise Product.
As a professional coder, I hope they revamp XCode and make it more beginner (to the Mac) friendly. I primarily do Java stuff for a living and can get around in Eclipse pretty well, and have even done a bit of Visual Studio work and old school C in the distant past.
This past year I joined an open source project on the Mac and had to learn XCode. Wow. What a mess. Some things are great (Interface Builder, Quartz Composer), but I found the core XCode environment to be be indecipherable. There are a zillion dialog boxes and preference panes with pages and pages of free text boxes. Changes made in the GUI don't get reflected in the text based preferences and vice versa. There appears to be a bazillion configuration and compile options (again with many entries just being blank text boxes). I never could get the debugging, tracing, and watches working.
I think the tool definitely shows a STRONG Unix background and leaning, but the experience is not pulled together with the polish and flow of Apple's consumer (and pro) applications. They definitely need to apply some of their human interaction expertise to XCode.
I am a programmer primarily for embedded control systems, but have been looking with interest in getting into the 21st century for more traditional IDE's. I have looked at XCode and written a few simple applications with some success, but am sort of looking hard at becoming more proficient at FLASH and AS3.0. Since I work mostly with UI design and have a smattering of target platforms to compile to, this seems to make the most sense to me. Most of what I do is fairly high level, from a "system level" perspective, so I am happy to leave the "power" of doing things like handling my own garbage collection and low level operations to the FLASH virtual runtime, even though there is probably a performance hit in doing so.
I am very excited to hear the status of iPhone with respect to FLASH support. The iPhone or perhaps a non-cell phone version in the form of a similiar video iPod will likely become my primary target platform.
Some things are great (Interface Builder, Quartz Composer), but I found the core XCode environment to be be indecipherable. There are a zillion dialog boxes and preference panes with pages and pages of free text boxes.
That's how I feel. It's Apple's style to have lots of these little "Inspectors" everywhere instead of putting the settings in one place. It might be a great pure OO paradigm to have the properties with their individual objects, but from a usability POV it's sh*t.
In the interview with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, didn't Steve mention that they were going to make .Mac improvements very soon? Perhaps he will be announcing something at the WWDC.
Any word on a live stream of this? I wish they would continue the live streams of keynotes, because it is always fun to stay up in the middle of the night and watch it over here in Japan. Sure, I feel sleepy the next day, and maybe the announcements weren't worth it, but every now any then, there's something really cool. "Just one more thing..."
That's how I feel. It's Apple's style to have lots of these little "Inspectors" everywhere instead of putting the settings in one place. It might be a great pure OO paradigm to have the properties with their individual objects, but from a usability POV it's sh*t.
You guys aren't the only ones. Adobe's engineers said the same thing.
XCode has been criticized as being difficult, and incomplete.
I know that there are defenders of it that will rise up and flame me for saying it, but it's true. Apple's OS X tools are simply not as developed as those for Windows.
Comments
Deja Vu ???
Most expect the next version of Apple's operating system to take center stage at the San Francisco event, a fact already reflected in the company's promo banners around the Moscone Center. But the Mac maker this year will be reaching out to some new audiences, including those who have never written code for the Mac.
Apple's attention in recent years has largely stuck to its base of loyal developers, and typically only sees outsiders who are new to development or are used to writing for Linux and other open development platforms. During WWDC 2006, however, the company noticed that roughly a third of its entire conference audience consisted of first-time developers coming from closed-source backgrounds -- a pleasant surprise, according to Apple's Worldwide Developer Relations head Ron Okamoto.
"Traditionally, we've seen lots of young people, coming out of college, or perhaps with open source backgrounds, getting introduced to the Mac," he told Paul Thurrott over at the SuperSite for Windows. "But now we're seeing people who have Windows and UNIX coding experience getting on the Mac in ever-bigger numbers."
The unprecedented shift has driven Apple to create session tracks it would never have considered possible until now. While Monday for most Mac developers will have a light schedule -- highlighted primarily by a keynote from Apple CEO Steve Jobs in the morning -- newcomers to Mac development will be consumed with Immersion Monday, a whole-day program built explicitly to help coders that may not grasp even the basics of writing Mac software.
Other sessions during the week will help tackle more specific aspects, with the ultimate aim of laying the groundwork for those who might have been lost in transitioning from .NET or other outside platforms in earlier years. "When [newcomers are] done Friday, they'll have gotten a nice jump start to getting around the Mac," Okamoto claims.
Just as new is an emphasis on the proliferation of online audio and video, according to the SuperSite's report. A new track, named Content and Media, is tailored just to those developers who need to focus on getting their media to the Internet. Though offline production will be covered, most tracks will focus on blending Apple's latest software with the web -- ranging from web-only AJAX and WebObjects code to the mixed-media Dashboard in Mac OS X or even crafting websites made just for the iPhone.
Leopard is set to give these content producers an edge regardless of how much they use the Internet, but the key will be unifying normally separate worlds. This is a specialty for Apple, Okamoto says. "The iTunes Store, and some things we do on our developer Web site, can point the way," he told the SuperSite.
No matter the background of the developer, the goal for this year's WWDC will be to live up to the conference's "worldwide" title by making the Mac's presence felt outside of familiar territory, both figuratively and literally: in addition to coders from rival platforms, Apple hopes to draw in guests from over 44 countries and foster growth beyond the company's American home.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Sounds like they're overreaching to me. Just focus on the basics and the rest will take care of itself.
Great... but where were YOU when we held the WWDC planning sessions?!?!
http://www.podtech.net/home/3282/app...one-more-thing
Developers, developers, developers!
Dont do that! It sends cold shivers down my spine every time...
Sounds like they're overreaching to me. Just focus on the basics and the rest will take care of itself.
They've been trying that for 30 years and the basics have traditionally barely paid the bills.
They've been trying that for 30 years and the basics have traditionally barely paid the bills.
Hence their $100+ billion valuation and $12.5+ billion in cash.
Hence their $100+ billion valuation and $12.5+ billion in cash.
Yeah, try living on that!
But I am assuming that BenRoethig was indicating that it was the not basics (little things like the iPod)--things that were not part of the core OS and computer market that helped Apple to take off.
Imagine if someone warned Apple to focus on the basics 6 years ago and they listened...
'Course, I would say that Apple has been rather good, lately, at focusing on more than one thing.
If they continue their rise through the computer, the consumer electronic, and the software markets it will be a testement to their ability to not only focus on several different areas but also to integrate them in ways that have never been seen--or even considered--before.
Those guys understand web services.
Simple, practical, effective tools that are worth $99/year.
I have limited skills in coding, but would love to write some front end apps for my web server. I'd love to see what apple has to match visual studio.
I know this is really dumb compared to alot of developers, but these sessions are very valuable to me. I'm in the silly position of using my mac for most things but running windows to develop software, and I'd like to change that.
Anyway, just the thought of getting to the WWDC is exciting me now. I guess every aspirant programmer has to travel to mecca at least once in their lives....
Michael
I think its fantastic.
I have limited skills in coding, but would love to write some front end apps for my web server. I'd love to see what apple has to match visual studio.
Xcode.
It's free. And it came with your computer. If you want to find out more, head over to http://developer.apple.com/products/online.html and sign up for a free developer membership - this gets you access to all the online docs, sample code, etc. What you have on your installer DVDs is what was current when your machine shipped, but the online site is where you get upgrades and more current information.
Xcode 3.0 will ship with 10.5, and it promises to be a huge jump.
I know this is really dumb compared to alot of developers, but these sessions are very valuable to me. I'm in the silly position of using my mac for most things but running windows to develop software, and I'd like to change that.
Anyway, just the thought of getting to the WWDC is exciting me now. I guess every aspirant programmer has to travel to mecca at least once in their lives....
Oh yas.
This past year I joined an open source project on the Mac and had to learn XCode. Wow. What a mess. Some things are great (Interface Builder, Quartz Composer), but I found the core XCode environment to be be indecipherable. There are a zillion dialog boxes and preference panes with pages and pages of free text boxes. Changes made in the GUI don't get reflected in the text based preferences and vice versa. There appears to be a bazillion configuration and compile options (again with many entries just being blank text boxes). I never could get the debugging, tracing, and watches working.
I think the tool definitely shows a STRONG Unix background and leaning, but the experience is not pulled together with the polish and flow of Apple's consumer (and pro) applications. They definitely need to apply some of their human interaction expertise to XCode.
- Jasen.
Developers, developers, developers!
This never gets old. Truly as funny as the day the sweaty monkey boy video hit the internet.
Poor Balmer. He's become an internet joke.
I am very excited to hear the status of iPhone with respect to FLASH support. The iPhone or perhaps a non-cell phone version in the form of a similiar video iPod will likely become my primary target platform.
Some things are great (Interface Builder, Quartz Composer), but I found the core XCode environment to be be indecipherable. There are a zillion dialog boxes and preference panes with pages and pages of free text boxes.
That's how I feel. It's Apple's style to have lots of these little "Inspectors" everywhere instead of putting the settings in one place. It might be a great pure OO paradigm to have the properties with their individual objects, but from a usability POV it's sh*t.
Any word on a live stream of this? I wish they would continue the live streams of keynotes, because it is always fun to stay up in the middle of the night and watch it over here in Japan. Sure, I feel sleepy the next day, and maybe the announcements weren't worth it, but every now any then, there's something really cool. "Just one more thing..."
That's how I feel. It's Apple's style to have lots of these little "Inspectors" everywhere instead of putting the settings in one place. It might be a great pure OO paradigm to have the properties with their individual objects, but from a usability POV it's sh*t.
You guys aren't the only ones. Adobe's engineers said the same thing.
XCode has been criticized as being difficult, and incomplete.
I know that there are defenders of it that will rise up and flame me for saying it, but it's true. Apple's OS X tools are simply not as developed as those for Windows.