iDevGames

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Stone Design

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BIG BLACK CUBE

Stone Design was the first independent software house to ship a shrink-wrap product for the NeXT Computer in October, 1989. Prior to that, what platform were you developing for?

The Macintosh, of course! What goes around, comes around… When the first copy of HyperCard hit Albuquerque in ’87, I saw an opportunity for a regular person to do cool programming tricks. I started building edgy stacks (such as the Mayan Icons and Quizmaker) and eventually even got paid work for ProtoTimer-a stack which let you build and test user interfaces virtually. I even got to write part of Tricks of the HyperTalk Mastersmy first published programming articles. I started the HyperTalk Special Interest Group at our local Applequerque Mac Users Group, and really got into end user programming. But something was missing-the ability to write totally native applications, and along came the BIG BLACK CUBE in the spring of 1989. Two guys from NeXT, Inc. were going from university to university showing scholars the future of computing: what you got if you crossed a Mac with UNIX and a LaserWriter.

HyperCard was in the news recently because many users don’t want to see Apple lose this valuable asset. To many, including yourself, it was a great tool to easily create applications. Do think HyperCard should be saved or is it time for Mac users to move on?

HyperCard was the precursor to the Internet-the idea that mere mortals could make cool software was very appealing. Now that Apple has Interface Builder and provides the entire IDE for making Cocoa applications, perhaps we’ll see several replacement applications. I have friends in Colorado who have been working on a HyperTalk compatible application for over eight years-so I expect this will keep the language alive for years to come.

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Andrew Stone

When you heard that Steve Jobs would buy NeXT Inc., and lay the foundation for what would become Mac OS X, how did you feel?

You need to remember that in 1996 we were the last struggling NeXTStep company still holding on to the dream. Everyone else had abandoned what was then called OpenStep but we actually ported Create to run on SOLARIS and WindowsNT, so we were in a perfect position to deploy all these new Mac OS X apps that had six years of development in them already! I told all my friends, “I think this means I just got a raise.”

You mentioned the ease of recompiling your applications to run on Mac OS X. I’m wondering if there is anything you miss from your NeXT days?

I knew every developer on the platform personally, I miss that. I also ended up knowing most of the users too! I’m happy to say many are coming back to Mac OS X. As far as the technology goes, we’ve been refining and simplifying the API’s in these last six years, so we have a much more stable platform and many more engineers at Apple to add cool bells and whistles.

Have all of your legacy applications been re-compiled and brought to Mac OS X?

My major passion-Create, the 3-in-one draw, layout, and publish to web or print app, was the first to be ported. CheckSum was sold to another Mac OS X company, DataPhile & 3DReality suffered the loss of key componentsthe IXKit and the 3DKit/Renderman, making them tough to bring over. Instead of trying to keep that part of the past alive, my interests moved to publishing-both to print and on the web.

So what ever happened to 3DReality?

I’m sure that some weekend the original authors (Bill Bumgarner, Adam Swift, and I) will reconvene to make something 3Dish!

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Stone Studio

Stone Design’s mission is to “develop low cost, easy to use, 100% Mac OS X native applications that are a joy to use.” Why such a simple approach?

If you’ve been to San Jose or Redmond, you’ll grow to understand that bloat happens at many levels-in the code, in the marketing, in the hype, in the corporate towers. Eventually, software will have to be “pushed” to support the nature of those businesses. (‘Push’ is when vendors pay a lot of money to retail channels to make sure their products sell.) These organizations are top heavy, and like the dinosaurs, in peril of extinction. People are screaming for their souls back from the Almighty Dollar-we offer a soulful alternative. Buy the Stone Studio and we’ll give you free upgrades for life!

“Free upgrades for life”? That sounds extremely generous, however aren’t you hurting your company’s long term future by disregarding potential upgrade revenue?

We have thought long and hard about creating a company that dovetails with our market and our philosophy. We are not afraid to give free upgrades because we know that we can grow our user base for years to come—even now, only a few million of the 30 million Mac users are using Mac OS X full-time, and they haven’t even started buying real Mac OS X apps yet. Because we have minimal overhead and are not engaging in any “get rich quick” schemes, we can survive just on the growth curve. Besides, we can always write new applications!

Your drawing, layout, and publish-to-web application, “Create”, has been getting rave reviews. Aaron Hillegass, author and Cocoa guru, of Big Nerd Ranch even went as far as saying “‘Create’ by Stone Design is better than Adobe Illustrator.” What makes Create so special?

It’s a labor of love that was redesigned from ground up using the Mac OS X technologies without years of barnacles which have attached to other Mac OS 9 applications.

The Cocoa Files contains your writings on the Cocoa API. I find there is still a resistance to Cocoa among Macintosh developers. Without sounding like an Apple PR, how would you convince the world to take a closer look at Cocoa?

Here is a good example: One guy wrote an application using Cocoa that has the most used features of (not to pick on any one vendor): Quark Express, Illustrator, and DreamWeaver. A team of 4 people have 10 applications shipping. Am I convincing you? Try doing that with Carbon and still have the code be totally understandable by any other programmer.

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Stone Studio for Mac OS X

Strong argument for Cocoa for Macintosh application development. However, what about vendors who need to publish cross-platform applications?

I’m glad you asked about that because it gives me a chance to talk about “Mac Only.” The pursuit of cross-platform is a “lowest common denominator” game-you end up with an app that is only as good as Windows allows. Besides, we’re 100% cross-platform on what our applications produce: HTML, JPEG, PDF, EPS, etc. Moreover, our native file formats are open, human readable, universally parsable XML. So, in theory, a Windows developer could make an application that can read Create files! Our competitive advantage is that we only develop for Mac OS X-so any cool new feature they put into the OS, we’ll take advantage of. The Mac community is big enough for us, and besides, Mac Users are “our kind” of people. Focus is good!

Documentation on Cocoa by Apple has been improving during the last year, and now we have a few books, such as ‘Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X’ by Aaron Hillegass, to guide us. With your extensive background, have you considered writing your own text book?

Apple asked me to redo their O’Reilly book a year or so back, and I decided to pass on that because writing software is more fun than writing about software. Plus, I’m good friends with Simson Garfinkle, who has a new O’Reilly book on Cocoa, so why compete?

New programmers on the Macintosh always ask if they should jump right into Objective-C, or start off with C or another language such as REALbasic. What would be your advice to them?

When I was studying for my Masters degree in Computer Science (never finished it because we started making money!), one of my favorite professors warned me against taking an assembly language class: “Andrew, save your mind for high level abstractions and don’t get weighed down with unimportant details.” In other words, use the highest level tools you can find. If you already know Java-then develop in Cocoa using Java. In fact, Java is so close to Objective-C, a reading of the original Java white paper sounds exactly like Objective-C with more network security. So, start at the top! Learning to use the objects in Cocoa by dragging and dropping and “test running” in Interface Builder is the fastest way to get started. Apple has some excellent tutorials, and after you do those, take one of the applications in /Developer/Examples/AppKit and begin modifying it. This way, you can make stepwise progress in learning. Also, speaking of StepWise-visit www.stepwise.com which has a bunch of articles on programming in Cocoa.

Since Mac OS 9 was laid to rest, I have noticed a kind of renaissance in Mac OS X application development for the Macintosh being lead by smaller developers as well as open source minded programmers. Is that the future of our platform?

In my dreams. Wouldn’t that be the kind of world you want to live in?

You’ve said that the day of hard goods (shrink-wrapped boxes and CDs) is almost gone. Is your philosophy shaped by environmental factors, or technology changes such as broadband delivery of software?

Environmental and broadband have helped, but consider this: A product goes into production, bugs are inevitably found, if there are tons of boxes out there, many companies will push this junk for months trying to recoup investments. That’s just plain wrongheaded. Big vendors will pursue the “PUSH” model of software sales, independents can dance circles around these dinos!

I’ve heard you say that software is a process not a product, and that it is like a living entity in the sense that it’s never finished and, like humans, it’s never perfect. This sounds like a case for the never ending need to pay for updates to fix bugs, or do you mean something else?

I do mean something else—we’ve moved to providing free software upgrades (Editor’s Note: See Stone Design’s website for the press release) for several reasons: we can provide free fixes and new features, we create a community of users who like this idea, the number of Mac OS X users will always grow from our perspective, so it’s good business sense. People hate being “Shaken down for forced, buggy upgrades”!

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NeXT Folder

When Apple announced the upgrade costs for Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), do you think they ran counter to your argument of “Don’t ‘feed’ off of your early adopters, but instead reward them with freebies”?

Apple is not some groovy spiritual being (although many cool people work there) but a piece of the corporate hegemony that dominates modern life. Ad Busters even includes an Apple Logo on their “Bars & Stripes” flag. When they say “Think Different,” they didn’t mean “act different.” Steve used the case of Microsoft and Yahoo charging for mail accounts as rationale for charging for .Mac. Heck, Apple uses its third party developers as a profit center!

I have often noticed that when a newly released software update is causing problems, some developers are quick to blame illegal users, or avoid their users’ complaints. What is your take on this?

Fix it as soon as possible, apologize and be open. Remember, when you tell the truth, you have less to remember! What people hate is nasty PR spin that tries to cover up stupid mistakes. We’d rather admit that the whole thing is a process and just fix the problem. Since we don’t charge for upgrades, our boxed software remains good forever!

It seems that your philosophy of upgrade releases conflicts with your other advice of “not publishing new software versions so often that users get annoyed.”

True, but users do not have to download every late breaking release. They can always check for new releases from within any Stone application using the “Check for Updates” menu item. I like monthly or every other month, but in times like these where Jaguar is so new, extra releases are always needed.

You are a strong believer of setting low price points for your products. Do you think this helps to combat piracy?

Absolutely. I’ve heard people say “That’s too expensive to buy”-and then they pirate it. Cost must be evaluated over the life of the product-since we do not charge for Stone Studio upgrades, the end user is always satisfied, and hopefully, will tell their friends.

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Cocoa Evangelist

Some Mac users have complained at the high pricing and bloat of Microsoft’s Office suite as well as Excel and Word products. Although Appleworks is heralded as an alternative, it seems to me that Mac OS X could really benefit from a productivity suite with Stone Design’s name on it. Do you have any plans to enter this market?

I have just one word to say to that: OpenOffice. It’s free and developers can pitch in and help make it the best.

When looking at other developers’ software, what stands out as some of your greatest pet peeves?

Quickly-ported Carbon apps really degrade Mac OS X. What a shame that many big vendors just pump out “carbon-copies” of their lousy interfaces that were Mac OS 9 specific. Anyway, it helps us because our apps are native and people can feel the difference.

I’m sure some of those apps were rushed to maintain market-share. As for the development tools, how do you view Apple’s tools against the Mac standard: CodeWarrior by Metrowerks?

I’m a 100% ProjectBuilder person and good friends with Mike Ferris, the ProjectBuilder team leader. He has a brilliant team of engineers and ProjectBuilder keeps getting better. CodeWarrior would be more appropriate for Classic Mac OS developers, and those who are content with its familiar environment. The good news from the folks at Metrowerks is that CodeWarrior is getting more Cocoa-savvy all the time.

Where do you see Stone Design two years from now?

Exactly where we’re at now, except with more features and customers!

Andrew Stone

Position: Founder and Chief Computer Scientist

Developer: Stone Design

Url: http://www.stone.com

Bio: Andrew Stone divides his waking hours between farming in cyberspace and on the good earth. He lives on a small farm in Albuquerque with his wife and 4 children, one of whom is away at college.

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