Fast hardware is here...now where's the software?
I noticed that the Photoshop tests that Apple ran at WWDC were run using a special G5-optimized version of Photoshop. Up until now, 7 has been much faster in OS 9.
But Photoshop isn't the only one lingering behind. There's InDesign, Acrobat Reader, and Premiere (which only works in OS X 10.1??? WTF?). And Macromedia's weird-ass Java-using MX suite could use some speed as well.
Will the release of the G5 (and Panther) spur developers into optimizing for Mac OS X, which has been perceived as slow and immature? Or will Mac users have to live with crappy Carbon ports for years to come? (NOTE: I'm not saying Carbon sucks, just that the first round of major commercial software for OS X is a bit disappointing).
But Photoshop isn't the only one lingering behind. There's InDesign, Acrobat Reader, and Premiere (which only works in OS X 10.1??? WTF?). And Macromedia's weird-ass Java-using MX suite could use some speed as well.
Will the release of the G5 (and Panther) spur developers into optimizing for Mac OS X, which has been perceived as slow and immature? Or will Mac users have to live with crappy Carbon ports for years to come? (NOTE: I'm not saying Carbon sucks, just that the first round of major commercial software for OS X is a bit disappointing).
Comments
these are HUGE apps you are talking about... rewrites are NOT going to happen... they can use some MAJOR optimization, but that has to be done in carbon... its just too much work to expect cocoa...
Originally posted by Gizzmonic
I noticed that the Photoshop tests that Apple ran at WWDC were run using a special G5-optimized version of Photoshop. Up until now, 7 has been much faster in OS 9.
But Photoshop isn't the only one lingering behind. There's InDesign, Acrobat Reader, and Premiere (which only works in OS X 10.1??? WTF?). And Macromedia's weird-ass Java-using MX suite could use some speed as well.
Well, the big guys always talk about "competition" until someone actually beats them, and then they take their ball and go home. So I don't expect much as far as Acrobat Reader or (especially) Premiere go.
Will the release of the G5 (and Panther) spur developers into optimizing for Mac OS X, which has been perceived as slow and immature? Or will Mac users have to live with crappy Carbon ports for years to come? (NOTE: I'm not saying Carbon sucks, just that the first round of major commercial software for OS X is a bit disappointing).
The perception of OS X as immature is not entirely inaccurate, even as of now. Apple's been busy, and there will be a raftload of changes in Panther that users might be oblivious to, but developers will definitely not be. If Preview is any indication, Quartz is about to get a major boost.
The G5 will be better than the G4 at efficiently executing mediocre code (read: most compiler output), but that won't prevent Bad Carbon Ports from continuing to feel like Bad Carbon Ports - they just won't be as sluggish. Carbon is a lot slicker now than it was in 10.1, and it should be slicker still in 10.3, but (as with iTunes) the least nightmarish way to move to the newer, better Carbon is to abandon support for 10.1, which the big guys (and Apple) are obviously a bit reluctant to do.
Obviously, if you have specific complaints about bits of an application's interface that are clunky or un-Mac-like, write the developer. (And remember that Adobe design their own interfaces now, so "un-Mac-like" won't be parsed as a criticism...)
Apart from UI ignorance (PS7 browser die), Adobe has been using (for some time) its own font and screen display libs. And it seems from Acrobat 6, stil hasn't sorted out some performance issues with their code.
Font control in OSX sucks because you have to auto-activation with Adobe apps is a huge hack.
This post is all over the place, but I hope that Preview and Font Book (like Safari) are a shot across the bow of major vendors who can't get their sh*t together.
Sure, I still go back into AFX for some *needed* effects, but more and more I find that C2 does the trick...and Discreet's network renderer rocks.
Photoshop is Photoshop. I haven't yet found a worthy contender to replace it...but that doesn't mean I'm not still looking.
But stuff like After Effects really chaps my hide...right now, I'm running an ancient OS 9 version in Classic because all I really use it for is titling (and no, Final Cut Pro does not begin to have the usefulness of AE for titling). I'd upgrade, but I've seen how much AE sucks in OS X. How long is it gonna go without any update at all?
And then Macromedia has gone to this weird-ass Java/XML code for their interface, which makes everything SLOOOWW. I sincerely hope that isn't the future of all cross-platform coding.