Goldenseal Pro Progress (Nov 22)

Microsoft has five or six different platforms for writing Windows software. You might say they are software hoarders, who rarely throw anything out. We looked through the choices a month ago, and got so confusing that we gave up, and decided to stick with MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes). It’s what we previously used for the current version of Goldenseal. MFC is old, but it works. It will get the job done.

There have been very active discussions on the Apple developer list, the past couple months. Last week someone posted a link to Microsoft’s roadmap for WinUI 3. It looks great. Microsoft must have realized that their developer choices were a mess, and decided to put everything into one box.  It’s due next year, which probably means 2021. The fact that they are so transparent about the whole process is very reassuring.

By their roadmap we can write code in MFC now, and ship Goldenseal Pro for Windows in a year or so. Then gradually update it with their new libraries over the next few years. Because of their transparency, we are very confident about the long term future of Goldenseal Pro for Windows.

On the Macintosh side, it’s Opposite Land. Apple is very secretive about their plans. They have a new SwiftUI in the works, which uses their relatively new Swift programming language. Their goal is to have one set of programming tools that builds apps for iPhone, iPad, Macintosh, Apple Watch, Apple TV and any other hardware they come up with. But details about it are few.

Based on what we do know, it is extremely unlikely that we can move Goldenseal onto SwiftUI. It appears to be designed mostly for small single-window phone apps, not for software as complex as ours. It uses a new language that probably would mean an enormous code rewrite, even worse than what we already have done for their Cocoa library.

Will Apple have a way to connect existing C++ code to it? Or can we finish the Cocoa version in Objective-C, and convert it easily?  Will Apple keep supporting Cocoa, so we don’t have to convert at all?  Maybe.  There is speculation on the list, but nobody knows for sure.

It usually takes us years to write software. Then it takes years to sell enough to pay for the programming time. That makes it just too risky to be working without better knowledge.

Right now the future of our Macintosh software is very much in limbo.  I’ll post details, as we find out more about Apple’s future plans.

Dennis Kolva
Programming Director
TurtleSoft.com

 

 

Goldenseal Pro Progress (Nov 8)

Our staff is making progress on Goldenseal Pro for Windows. However, it will still take some time to get back to full speed. It’s easy to forget stuff after being elsewhere for two years. At least it’s already less frustrating than Cocoa was. We’ll be up the learning curve soon.

Since tables were the hardest thing on Macintosh, it makes sense to start work on them right away. Windows does not have a built-in table class, but we probably can adapt our existing C++ table code. We also are checking out a couple of open source libraries for it.

Goldenseal has 30 or 40 action windows to handle Reconcile, Pay Bills, Write Payroll and a few other commands. We set up one of them for the Mac version, and started a second one. That’s when we realized they would take a week or more apiece to build, or a good fraction of a year total. That was the last straw that convinced us to delay work on the Mac update.

The Windows version has the same issue. Fortunately, we just figured out a way to convert the existing screen layouts from Goldenseal into text files. We can read those and build the windows with generic code, rather than redo each layout individually, twice. It’s the same approach we already use for data entry screens, reports and printed forms.

As for the Macintosh version, Apple likes to burn bridges. Rumors are they will switch from Intel to their own chips next year. When that happens, it’s very possible they will retire the Cocoa library that we used for Goldenseal Pro, and replace it with an entirely new framework called SwiftUI. Right now it only runs on iOS, but Apple wants a single OS for all machines.  If that happens, I don’t know if we will ever be able to write a Goldenseal for SwiftUI. From the specs it seems even less friendly than Cocoa.

I personally have used Macs since 1985, and prefer them to Windows. But the many bridge-burnings are annoying, for users as well as developers. When I bought my current house in the mid-90s I made detailed blueprints in MacDraw, with layers for electrical, plumbing, HVAC etc. It has been handy for permits and planning. Sadly, MacDraw didn’t even make it from OS 9 to OS X, and our last old Mac that can open that file just died.

Dennis Kolva
Programming Director
TurtleSoft.com