No it’s not, not at all. A Catalyst app is just as real a Mac app as any other.
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Code in macOS Catalina Suggests Apple is Working on Catalyst Versions of Messages and Shortcuts for Mac
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No it’s not, not at all. A Catalyst app is just as real a Mac app as any other.
Right, and I think Apple is the last company to make something trashy like Electron or some well-intentioned dumpster fire like Wine.
Catalyst Apps are native apps. It's not a web app masquerading as a desktop app like electron. It has a native codebase and a mac UI, meaning it won't be a memory hog and will have built-in accessibility features. With the improvements coming in version 2, the apps produced will be indistinguishable from traditional mac apps if developers just spend a little time making sure the UI is good.
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So at this point it’s clear to me that new Macs with FaceID cameras are coming.
It’s pretty obvious that one of the biggest difference between iOS and Mac OS in the Messages territory is the Memoji or whatever it is called.
Not that I care much for it....
It’s pretty obvious that one of the biggest difference between iOS and Mac OS in the Messages territory is the Memoji or whatever it is called.
Not that I care much for it....
Catalyst is a saboteur. When Apple has replaced its own Mac apps with iPadOS ones, there will be little need to keep the original macOS apps at all, which is going to see a lot of dedicated macOS apps from other developers also disappear.
We are heading to universal apps and laptops that no longer need or use macOS.
Develop once, publish everywhere, don’t bother with macOS development as something better exists.
We are heading to universal apps and laptops that no longer need or use macOS.
Develop once, publish everywhere, don’t bother with macOS development as something better exists.
Apple did mention that they have ported most of iOS frameworks to MacOS. Whether they are actually writing a Catalist Messages replacement is a different question. I would welcome it, the iOS version has more features.
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I think you got the idea right, but your interpretation is backwards. Sure, there will be more universal apps, which is kind of the point, but I do not think this will weaken the Mac — only strengten is. Ultimately, its develop once, tweak for each individual platform to make sure you utilise its particular features best, publish everywhere.
Catalyst is just a small thing. A big one is SwiftUI — the new UI framework, which will in the future replace the AppKit, the UIKit and the rest. Starting from 10.15 you can develop UI for all Apple platforms using the same framework. It does not mean however that the platforms are being fused together (if anything, they are drifting apart, as evidenced by iPadOS fork). There will always be differences, just writing common code that can also make best use of these differences is becoming much easier.
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I think you got the idea right, but your interpretation is backwards. Sure, there will be more universal apps, which is kind of the point, but I do not think this will weaken the Mac — only strengten is. Ultimately, its develop once, tweak for each individual platform to make sure you utilise its particular features best, publish everywhere.
Catalyst is just a small thing. A big one is SwiftUI — the new UI framework, which will in the future replace the AppKit, the UIKit and the rest. Starting from 10.15 you can develop UI for all Apple platforms using the same framework. It does not mean however that the platforms are being fused together (if anything, they are drifting apart, as evidenced by iPadOS fork). There will always be differences, just writing common code that can also make best use of these differences is becoming much easier.
iPadOS is just a marketing name. It’s still very much iOS and its first two betas’ build numbers have therefore matched the corresponding iOS 13 betas.
What is wrong with the current messaging app now in macOS? I use it when I am on my Mac and it more than meets my needs.
There's probably nothing wrong with it as it is, but it's probably that Apple could cut their total dev time in half if they can build a Catalysed version of iOS Messages that is essentially the same thing as the Mac version
I agree with you about the Messages App on MacOS meeting my needs as well. I think the reason they want to do this is to bring iMessage effects, and possibly some other new features.
If Apple does it right, I have zero issue with it though.
I can see Apple is trying to merge iOS and macOS in a way that can still kinda distinguish each other while completing tasks in a very similar workflow. Just like someone says, mac will eventually be killed, so does iPhone and iPad. I consider this Project Catalyst the clear direction to kill the Mac, and they are doing well so far.
The big takeaway is this is limited to Mac App Store I think, unless any mac app can be converted this way around without major code rewrite.
It's not about performance/rendering issues. It's all tools for lazy developers. If Twitter says they don't have resources to build native macOS app (wat??) why do you think they will pay attention to make proper Catalyst port?
The only relief for me is introduction of SwiftUI. It uses AppKit on macOS and it is the real future of apps development. Single code that translates into native UI frameworks on different platforms instead of just bringing tablet UIKit to desktop.
Which means that the dedicated macOS apps we have now will rightfully disappear and be replaced. Catalyst is a Trojan horse: it is sneaking in a level of change that most people don’t even realise what is happening. I think the Mac is safe. Most original macOS apps are on death row. Only a few professional apps might remain. Apple can then release ARM laptops for consumers and leave macOS to the people who can afford $20,000 MacPros. Catalyst is all about major change. Within 12-24 months, ARM Macs will be here, running a version of iPadOS. Apple will position Intel Macs for a tiny market share.
yes, I am not seeing the daily, non-dev use of it either
could anyone share a thought?
True, but then again it’s much easier to maintain one codebase with a few desktop-specific lines here and there that to maintain two separate code based.
But at the same time, it doesn’t free the devs from responsibility to write platform-specific UI code. I see AppKit, UIKit and the rest being deprecated in a not too distant future and SwiftUI taking over as a unified design language that renders differently on each platform. If I am not mistaken, SwiftUI is already rendering some of the controls by itself.
Yes macOS version is bugged, have sync many issue, it is slow, doesn't play nice with international prefix... and go on.
Messages on iOS has better support for special effects etc. and it’s overall visually smoother. And if course, stickers. I use messages exclusively to communicate with my friends and family, and the fact that Mac version is not as emotionally expressive was always disappointing.
Catalyst is native.. it runs off the same frameworks that AppKit and UIKit are built off. So is SwiftUI.
I really wish Apple would stop leaving in hidden clues for us all to find. It's like a constant treasure hunt.
You don't need to have any clue in code to test before something comes out. Particularly, in this case, where Apple themselves have not even raised an eyebrow of Messages or Shortcuts. Perhaps Apple needs to be reminded developers don't keep secrets as they should be.
You don't need to have any clue in code to test before something comes out. Particularly, in this case, where Apple themselves have not even raised an eyebrow of Messages or Shortcuts. Perhaps Apple needs to be reminded developers don't keep secrets as they should be.
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Catalyst in many ways isn't as good as AppKit (whether it's advanced stuff like AppleScript or even simple things like, uh, date pickers?), but for the user, it's definitely better than Electron. For the developer, it's tricky — if you already have a web app, it's tempting to take that and make that work as a quasi-desktop app on macOS and Windows. But for the user, Apple is simply more likely to evolve Catalyst to produce Mac-like apps than Electron.
The worst case for Catalyst is that the app will look and behave too much like an iPad app. The worst case for Electron, though, is that it will look and behave too much like a web app or a Windows app.
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And aside from that: as others have pointed out, there are other benefits. A Catalyst app builds on macOS/iOS frameworks like Core Animation, whereas an Electron app comes with its own (Chromium-derived) runtime. This means performance benefits, and it means it will come with Apple's new features much sooner than Electron possibly could.
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Looks like all these apps get dumbed down to show as little as UI elements as possible on a Mac to make sure it’s working fine on any device.
Everything about this statement is incorrect.
So you would never install Visual Studio Code? Or Slack?
And how is Catalyst in any way comparable to a JavaScript-on-desktop experience? This is actual Apple framework code written in Swift, not a macOS hijacking by open source rogues riding on a V8 engine.