Author Topic: Poll: Is donationcoder an iOS unfriendly environment? (Read 14194 times)

Krishean · « **on:** December 12, 2012, 08:52 PM »

I've seen a lot of posts and topics here one way or another about Apple's mobile operating system, but I would like to know everyone's opinion on how they felt the forum's overall stance on it is. Personally I'm not a fan of it, but everyone is entitled to their own preference. Also, this may or may not be your opinion on iOS, but what you think the forum's stance is.

Edit: To clarify what i mean by iOS unfriendly: If you think more people on the forum dislike iOS than like it and that there are more iOS critical topics on the forums.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 12, 2012, 08:56 PM »

IMHO: I wouldn't say we are iOS unfriendly, its just iOS is more closed down, and for a place like DoCo (FOSS stuff) it is not a friendly platform. Thus, making it difficult for people who support the DoCo model, to find any love for it.

40hz · « **Reply #2 on:** December 12, 2012, 09:30 PM »

I don't think anyone can really speak for the forum as a whole. There are as many differing opinions on just about everything as there are members here. Speaking for myself, I own and use an iPhone. And I don't think very highly of it.

But my criticisms and attitude toward it isn't much different than it is for any other smartphone since the telcos do their best to lockdown everything running on their networks. And they've been doing that since the days of the old Bell Telephone System who arranged to make it a federal offense to plug anything into the US telephone system that wasn't manufactured by Bell Labs - their captive manufacturing company.

If the forum has an overall attitude, it's that of basic geeks who don't suffer fools too gladly when they happen to be corporations that should know better than to carry on the way they do.

If Apple occasionally seems to get more than its share of criticism and put downs, that's only because Apple's condescending attitude towards the rest of the world in general invites an equally snarky response when they drop the ball or play games with their customers.

And that's not confined to just Apple. Microsoft has gotten its share of heat for where they're going with Windows 8. Linux gets its share of shots for the uneven level of quality among the various distros and GNU projects, and the GPL. So I hardly think there's a general feeling of knee-jerk unfriendliness towards iOS. It gets criticized for what it is as well as for what it is not. But I think most of the criticisms are valid and based on due consideration of the technical issues surrounding iOS as well as the corporate policies Apple is bent on pursuing.

At least that's what I think. (And you'll easily get dozens of people here who will disagree with me and/or characterize it differently.) That's a good part of what makes DoCo what it is.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #3 on:** December 12, 2012, 09:38 PM »

From a different angle, I just randomly picked up an iPhone before Android really got going, as my one and only model of smartphone after I ditched some HTC WinMobile 6 piece of junk.

I have typed posts here at like 3AM in hotel rooms on it, so the forum mostly displays on iOS. I think there was some funny glitch a few times, but I'll leave that for later. I'm no fan of a lot of the policies of Apple, but knowing I'm in the lion pit, I can indeed get a few things done with my iPhone that weren't ever possible for me before.

Renegade · « **Reply #4 on:** December 12, 2012, 09:47 PM »

If Apple occasionally seems to get more than its share of criticism and put downs, that's only because Apple's condescending attitude towards the rest of the world in general invites an equally snarky response when they drop the ball or play games with their customers.
-40hz (December 12, 2012, 09:30 PM)

I think that sums it up pretty well.

For iOS, I've been openly hostile towards it because of the closed nature of it. As a concrete example, it is impossible to read data from a file in the device's multimedia library. Literally. Impossible. You cannot do it. It is that closed. Sure, you can create an object from a class defined in iOS (read: proprietary and closed) to consume the file through a URL, but you cannot read the data yourself. This is unforgivable.

Still, to give it credit, animation on iOS is far superior to Android or Windows.

barney · « **Reply #5 on:** December 12, 2012, 09:54 PM »

Stephen66515 and 40hz prolly have the right of it.

Personally, I developed a distaste for Apple products in the early nineteen eighties. Their product was way overpriced - if they'd had a reasonable price point, the IBM XT would never have got off the ground. (And they still overcharge for their products.) Then, later, I knew a few folk who developed software for the Apple hardware - and the hoops through which they had to jump were ghastly. So I've never been able to develop any affinity for the Apple brand. But, as mentioned, that's a personal thing, not necessarily relevant to the DC forums. (And their walled garden penchant seems to be contagious

.)

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #6 on:** December 12, 2012, 10:04 PM »

I am grumpy that my iPhone won't do simple things like store files. (Not easily! There are apps that sneak around it all but they are work to use!) That's one reason I used to like cheap knockoff Chinese mp3 players - you could just plug them in and they'd store a 600 megs of music and say 200 megs of random files you just wanted to have around.

Apple made a very conscious decision no to allow very much file structure in iOS, and that annoys me because all of my quality computing runs on a file-oriented model. So yes, Iuse a cheap calculator app (wasn't that in Windows 1.0?) and a few random things, but wen I knuckle down to do work I don't like iOs at all.

SQUIDMAN · « **Reply #7 on:** December 13, 2012, 01:57 AM »

Just a Tech Noobs opinion, I don't have a cell phone, text, tweet, facebook (maybe 1 day), but as far as the site goes. Everyone I have sent a message to has replied, and when I ask a stupid Noob question in forums someone always tries to help! NO your stupid, WHAT a DA, or the the dreaded your a NAZI stuff replies. I've been on a few that
all it is a giant click, or everyone raggs on someone.

Renegade · « **Reply #8 on:** December 13, 2012, 02:33 AM »

Just a Tech Noobs opinion, I don't have a cell phone, text, tweet, facebook (maybe 1 day), but as far as the site goes. Everyone I have sent a message to has replied, and when I ask a stupid Noob question in forums someone always tries to help! NO your stupid, WHAT a DA, or the the dreaded your a NAZI stuff replies. I've been on a few that
all it is a giant click, or everyone raggs on someone.
-SQUIDMAN (December 13, 2012, 01:57 AM)

I stopped even reading some forums as I got tired of being attacked for no reason, and got tired of reading constant attacks on people.

f0dder · « **Reply #9 on:** December 13, 2012, 03:45 AM »

I'm not voting since there's no "IT SUCKS AND APPLE ARE BASTARDS THAT MUST DIE" option

Still, to give it credit, animation on iOS is far superior to Android or Windows.
-Renegade (December 12, 2012, 09:47 PM)

Android yes (their graphics stack is horrible - Google made a bad choice in not designing with hardware acceleration from day 0), but Winphone no - at least the Winphones I've seen have been noticeably smoother than iOS (lumia800 class HW+OS and forward).

Renegade · « **Reply #10 on:** December 13, 2012, 04:22 AM »

I'm not voting since there's no "IT SUCKS AND APPLE ARE BASTARDS THAT MUST DIE" option

Still, to give it credit, animation on iOS is far superior to Android or Windows.
-Renegade (December 12, 2012, 09:47 PM)
Android yes (their graphics stack is horrible - Google made a bad choice in not designing with hardware acceleration from day 0), but Winphone no - at least the Winphones I've seen have been noticeably smoother than iOS (lumia800 class HW+OS and forward).
-f0dder (December 13, 2012, 03:45 AM)

Windows? Really? Hm. Guess I need to check some newer phones then. Last time I checked, they sucked badly. I have an HP Windows PDA, and man... sucky just doesn't begin to describe it. It's a bit older though, and I suppose that I'm being a bit harsh there.

app103 · « **Reply #11 on:** December 13, 2012, 08:25 AM »

I have an HP Windows PDA, and man... sucky just doesn't begin to describe it. It's a bit older though, and I suppose that I'm being a bit harsh there.
-Renegade (December 13, 2012, 04:22 AM)

Not harsh at all if it is as old as my PDA. While most of it is ok, pIE 3.0 really sucked. No support for CSS at all! I can remember when I was developing a website for my dad and he kept viewing it on his Pocket PC and complaining how it looked like crap compared to viewing on the desktop, and he demanded that I fix that. Could not figure out what the issue was till I did some research on designing pages for pIE and found out it lacked CSS support. It had none at all, which is why the pages I wrote had no color when viewed on my dad's Pocket PC. I had to do it old-school with HTML colors and fonts coded into the page and use CSS only for positioning elements. (yuck!)

app103 · « **Reply #12 on:** December 13, 2012, 08:37 AM »

The DonationCoder community has a reputation of being rather obsessed with finding the best tool for the job. This obsession leads us to sometimes be rather critical of the flaws of software that doesn't meet the requirements to be the best of the best.

Our honesty is a good thing, if you are a developer looking to improve your software. If you receive a less than stellar review, pay careful attention to it and the discussion that follows, and dedicate yourself to fixing the issues that were brought up, you'll be well on the path to having your software among the best of the best.

I am pretty sure if Apple paid attention to what the community here had to say about iOS and made the necessary changes, iOS would be the best of the best and this community wouldn't be afraid to admit it. But the changes they would have to make are massive, and would also require them to change their business model...something they are not likely to want to do.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #13 on:** December 13, 2012, 08:54 AM »

Windows? Really? Hm. Guess I need to check some newer phones then. Last time I checked, they sucked badly. I have an HP Windows PDA, and man... sucky just doesn't begin to describe it. It's a bit older though, and I suppose that I'm being a bit harsh there.
-Renegade (December 13, 2012, 04:22 AM)

A bit older?? The fact that it's called a P.D.A. puts it back about a decade. I've yet to hand my HTC Aspire (WMP7) to anyone that didn't comment on how smooth the graphics. Several folks had to flip it over to check the logo before commenting/believing it was Windows..

Renegade · « **Reply #14 on:** December 13, 2012, 09:03 AM »

The DonationCoder community has a reputation of being rather obsessed with finding the best tool for the job. This obsession leads us to sometimes be rather critical of the flaws of software that doesn't meet the requirements to be the best of the best.

Our honesty is a good thing, if you are a developer looking to improve your software. If you receive a less than stellar review, pay careful attention to it and the discussion that follows, and dedicate yourself to fixing the issues that were brought up, you'll be well on the path to having your software among the best of the best.
-app103 (December 13, 2012, 08:37 AM)

I still don't agree that a static image (with no network connections) in software constitutes it being adware. That was one of the issues that first brought me to DC. I still think it's pretty harsh.

Windows? Really? Hm. Guess I need to check some newer phones then. Last time I checked, they sucked badly. I have an HP Windows PDA, and man... sucky just doesn't begin to describe it. It's a bit older though, and I suppose that I'm being a bit harsh there.
-Renegade (December 13, 2012, 04:22 AM)

A bit older?? The fact that it's called a P.D.A. puts it back about a decade. I've yet to hand my HTC Aspire (WMP7) to anyone that didn't comment on how smooth the graphics. Several folks had to flip it over to check the logo before commenting/believing it was Windows..
-Stoic Joker (December 13, 2012, 08:54 AM)

Well, it's about 4 years old or so. Maybe 5 now. I also have a Palm Pilot III.

But, that's ancient history.

f0dder · « **Reply #15 on:** December 13, 2012, 09:30 AM »

Windows? Really? Hm. Guess I need to check some newer phones then. Last time I checked, they sucked badly. I have an HP Windows PDA, and man... sucky just doesn't begin to describe it. It's a bit older though, and I suppose that I'm being a bit harsh there.
-Renegade (December 13, 2012, 04:22 AM)

Everything I've seen before the Metro interface (introduced in WP7? Dunno) s-u-c-k-e-d. Bigtime. But Metro was a bigtime game-changer - both in getting the GUI right for phones (and tablets), but also in being helluva smooth.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #16 on:** December 13, 2012, 04:44 PM »

Seems like the iOS6 Panoramic Camera can be quite buggy also...Seriously, who could love a product that makes you looks like this!

tomos · « **Reply #17 on:** December 13, 2012, 04:47 PM »

^ were you dancing

is that one of those sweep panorama jobbies?

rgdot · « **Reply #18 on:** December 13, 2012, 04:55 PM »

unfriendly no, shaking head at people treating it like a holy grail yes.

Tinman57 · « **Reply #19 on:** December 13, 2012, 08:44 PM »

Did he say IOS? GET A ROPE! lol Seriously, I don't think there would be a problem if there were an IOS forum just for that. But as far as I can tell DOCO caters to Windows apps.

mouser · « **Reply #20 on:** December 13, 2012, 11:58 PM »

The way things turned out, we've always focused mainly on MS Windows software here, though the occasionally cross platform or other program comes up..

However, recently I've been thinking a lot about DC needing to be reinvigorated and revitalized, and I've been considering all sorts of possibilities, including having areas focused on Linux, Mobile, Web (Android, iOs), Mac, etc. That's surely for another discussion thread and not this one, but thought it was worth a mention.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #21 on:** December 14, 2012, 12:22 AM »

Seems like the iOS6 Panoramic Camera can be quite buggy also...Seriously, who could love a product that makes you looks like this!
-Stephen66515 (December 13, 2012, 04:44 PM)

Oh, I know this one!
This guy from T2
http://static.blogst...MINATOR-2-T-1000.JPG

(Bonus: Is that the best action figure ever or what?

)

40hz · « **Reply #22 on:** December 14, 2012, 07:07 AM »

However, recently I've been thinking a lot about DC needing to be reinvigorated and revitalized, and I've been considering all sorts of possibilities, including having areas focused on Linux, Mobile, Web (Android, iOs), Mac, etc. That's surely for another discussion thread and not this one, but thought it was worth a mention.
-mouser (December 13, 2012, 11:58 PM)

Breaking things out by major OS (Windows/OSX and iOS/*NIX) plus a catchall for 'other mobile' (Andriod/WebOS/etc) would make good sense.

And yes, it's definitely something deserving a separate discussion.

Tuxman · « **Reply #23 on:** December 14, 2012, 07:37 AM »

iOS is an unfriendly environment.

40hz · « **Reply #24 on:** December 14, 2012, 08:10 AM »

iOS is an unfriendly environment.
-Tuxman (December 14, 2012, 07:37 AM)

+1!

I guess when it comes to Apple, whatever ill they do to others is what they "just know" others are doing to them. They know this because they're all good people working for an "insanely great" and wonderful company which is simply trying to protect itself from all the cheats, thieves, and lairs out there - including YOU!

How could it possibly be otherwise?