BKeeney Briefs

The Mac App Store, so far, has been pretty good for sales of Task Timer.  We have been running double of normal sales of the previous version.  Technically, version 5 was out before it was approved in the Mac App Store so that’s even more proof that the Mac App Store is doing well for us.  So from that aspect we are very happy with what we’ve seen from a sales standpoint from the Mac App Store.

What’s not very good is the amount of time it takes to get an application – even an application update – approved (or rejected) in the store.  We’ve been lucky that the few bugs that have been reported aren’t affecting everyone and aren’t critical.  We submitted our update on January 12th and didn’t receive a rejection until January 28th.  That’s 12 business days!

The rejection was from not linking properly to the HXRuntime library.  The problem and fix is documented on REAL Software’s blog.  What’s worse is that REAL Studio applications don’t even use this library so this is a false-positive result from some automated test that Apple implemented between our first second submissions.

I realize that we’re not generating a ton of sales from Task Timer so we’re not even a blip in Apples sales figures, but 12 days is an eternity when a customer has a problem.  They won’t complain to Apple, they’ll complain to me.  At the best I can offer customers to update outside of the Mac App Store but that’s a half-assed solution, in my opinion.  At worst, I’ll lose customers for life because I’m ‘unresponsive’ or write ‘crappy’ software.  I predict most people will be relatively forgiving but I think it depends on the cost of the software and what it does.

We are not the first and only developers to face this problem.  Panic, makers of the popular Transmit, had a similar issue that was thankfully taken care of quickly.  One has to wonder if a public blog post from a very popular developer didn’t speed things up a bit, but the point is that the process has a flaw.

I can’t believe that Apple is oblivious to this problem.  The wait times for app approval is just too long.

I’m not sure what the solution is.  All I know is that the current situation is not good for smaller, independent developers like me.  Wasn’t the Mac App Store supposed to be a boon for us?

Anyway, I’m not really all that angry.  I expect that approval times will get better as time goes on.  I would also expect that the automation tools they’re using internally will be available to developers for testing purposes (before submission) or, at the very least, some sort of automated testing submission process that, if not instantaneous, is light years faster than it is now.

What say you?

Quick update on the ARBP and REAL Software Atlanta Summit.  This is the last week to get the early adopter pricing.  Purchase seats before February 1 to get the reduced price of $350.  After that it’s the full price of $450.  ARBP paid memberships get a reduced rate (check the discounts pages for coupon codes).

As of this morning, we have confirmed attendees coming from Europe and Australia and, of course, from all over the United States.  This is an excellent opportunity to talk REALbasic with others that know REALbasic.  This is THE place to find REALbasic developers for your Macintosh, Linux, Windows and Web projects and also a good place, as a developer, to find some work.  Certainly this conference is a good way to network with the REALbasic community.

Geoff Perlmann and Thom McGrath from REAL Software are presenting several sessions which should be a lot of fun.  They’ll be presenting about the new Web Edition and upcoming features.  If I was a betting person I would bet that REAL Software will show off something very different at the conference (don’t ask because I don’t know what it is).

So there you go.  What are you waiting for?  Come join us for what promises to be a very fun time.  Get your geek-on!

More information on the conference can be found at http://arbpmembers.org/real-studio-summit-2011.  Complete session list is at http://arbpmembers.org/real-studio-summit-2011/sessionspeaker-listing.

If you had one thing to change about REAL Studio, what would it be?  I’ve been giving this some thought recently and I think the number one thing that I wish was better is the training material.  To me, training material includes tutorials and example projects.

Yes, there are examples, but I find them to be so simple they don’t scale very well into my own applications.  Often, when I’m learning something new in REAL Studio I find the examples to almost hinder me because they demonstrate the most basic way to use <insert control/class/technique here> and not how you’d use it in a real application.  Don’t get me wrong, I understand that you need those types of examples but I want/need something just a little more in-depth.  I could just as easily argue that a more complete project that demonstrates several things at once is better than the simple ones but, as they say, to each their own.

Along with examples, I find the lack of REALbasic training materials on the RS website to be…interesting.  If you look at their training webpage at http://www.realsoftware.com/support/training.php they are pointing to three 3rd party websites (one of which is mine, by the way).  I find it odd that a development tool that is meant for hobbyist developers doesn’t really have a nice and big tutorials and training section.  I’m not complaining (because it’s part of my income) – just pointing it out.

Don’t get me going on the lack of Web Edition apps on their website…

Friday afternoon grousing material for you.  What would you change?

I’ve not spent a lot of time with sockets until a recent project and it’s been a definitely learning experience.  There is nothing like the School of Lessons Learned the Hard Way to truly learn something.

I ran across a tool today that is now definitely in my standard toolbox.  If you ever receive a Port In Use error when dealing with sockets, on Windows at least, you can find out what ports are in use by what applications by using TCPView which is a free download from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.  This nifty utility lets you easily see which processes have what ports open, TCP or UDP, how much data has been transferred, etc.  It even resolves the addresses of any clients that are connecting to that port.  Very handy and extremely useful.

Is there such a tool available for Mac OS X?

When dealing with networking, what tools do you find invaluable?

The January/February 2011 edition of REAL Studio Developer magazine is out.  My regular column talks about the value of ‘face time’ and how, despite all of the electronic means available to us, of communicating with one another, sitting across the table with another person is a very powerful thing.

Sadly, we (BKS) meet very few of our clients face-to-face.  Those that we do have become more than just clients – they’re colleagues, partners, and sometimes even friends.

Personally, I think this is why I’m so excited about the REAL Studio conference coming up in March in Atlanta.  It’s a lot of work to put on a conference and do a presentation.  But past conferences have shown that I always come home very happy and jazzed about the things that I’ve learned and people I’ve met.  Exhausted?  Definitely!  But well worth it.
What about you?

If you are a REAL Studio developer, you might want to check this out.  The Omega Bundle for REAL Studio developers is now available and is a very attractively priced bundle of 10 REAL Studio development tools for only $399 which is 80% off their regular price.

The bundle includes:

• Formatted Text Control
• Elastic Window
• Mask-R-Aid
• RB Code Reports
• REAL Studio Developer Magazine
• Aspen Icon Set
• Valentina Office Server Unlimited
• Franklin 3D Game Engine
• The complete Monkeybread Software plugin set
• Valentina ADK

I can tell you that there are more than a few items on this list that I already own and use on a regular basis.  I can’t tell you how happy this makes me to see this sort of bundle available to RB developers.
More information can be found at http://www.omegabundle.com

Welcome to 2011.  I hope that you, and your family, have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

If you’ve not heard about it already, THE REAL Studio event of the year is happening on March 19th and 20th in Atlanta, Georgia.  The Association of REALbasic Professionals (ARBP) and REAL Software are hosting the REAL Studio Summit 2011.

That’s just 10 weeks away!  There is still time to sign up and save some cash.  Until the end of January the cost is only $350 but after that it’s $450.

Nowhere else will you get as high a density of REALbasic developers in one location.  Currently there are REALbasic developers coming from across the United States, Europe and possibly Australia to come together to talk about our favorite development tool – REAL Studio!

This conference is shaping up nicely because there are topics that should interest many people.  If you want to learn more about the new Web Edition there’s a session on that.  Learn how to get your apps ready for the Mac App Store.  Learn about Cocoa and what’s going to be forthcoming in REAL Studio.  Learn how to manipulate PDF’s in your RB applications.  That’s just a few of the highlights.  See the complete session and speaker list at http://arbpmembers.org/real-studio-summit-2011/sessionspeaker-listing.

Some argue that conferences are a waste of time and resources and that you can do the same thing electronically.  I disagree, for many reasons.  There is something special about people coming together to discuss any particular topic.  Being able to sit across the table and look someone in the eye is an important quality that we overlook a lot of times.  I know I trust people more when I’ve met them in person than I do when I haven’t.

In years past (at REAL World events and the Colorado Summit ’09) I’ve found that the time in-between sessions is, in many ways, more valuable than the sessions themselves.  Developers that are business competitors discuss what they do to find clients.  They discuss the realities of being a business owner.  They discuss things face-to-face that they’d never do electronically.  Of course everyone gets something different out of conferences but I’ve found them invaluable as a RB consultant.

It’s also a place where work can be found.  I’ve not been to a conference where there wasn’t someone looking for a REALbasic developer.  Since there is no higher concentration of RB developers than at these conferences it’s an excellent way to find developers and find work.  Plus, you never know when another developer might have a lead and they’re too busy to work on so networking with other developers is always a good idea.

REAL Studio is made in REALbasic and it’s awesome that RS ‘eats its own dog food’ but we, as users, don’t necessarily have the same needs.  Many of todays biggest features have been discussed (ad nauseum it seems) at past conferences before they were implemented so don’t underestimate the power of cornering discussing things with an RS engineer.

I’m excited about this conference and I can’t wait to see you there.  See you in Atlanta in March!