Missing software on Mac?

[MarkCollette]

I'm new to the Mac. I bought one so that I could learn to program on it. I was wondering if people could say what third party software they feel is missing from the Mac?

I'm not talking about little hacks to make windows turn blue, or something like that. I'm talking about useful applications that you would spend at least $20 (or more) on, which is either not on the Mac, or not to the quality that you require.

Thank you.

 

[patrick0brien]

-MarkCollette

Access.

But that's just a desire. Filemaker works as an adequate replacement - I just love Access. Everything else I require has a Mac equivalent (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project (Mac: FastTrack), Photoshop, Electric Image, Visio (Mac: Omnigraffle), etc.)

 

[TEG]

Personally,

I'd like to see more games, heck even a bundled solitare game would be great. I'd even like to see more como releases, like Tony Hawk 4, on Mac and PC in the same box at the same time, from two different companies (Activition and Aspyr).

Access would be good, or even a converter from Access to Filemaker or AW and vise a versa.

I have a client, and his only trepidation about switching is he is a real estate agent, and his Overarching company uses ACT! to track data, and there isn't a newer/compatible version for Mac.

I'd also like to see both a New version of Claris Home Page, carbonized, with more features, and of course called "Apple Home Page" or "iBuilder" or even "iWeb Page"
Also, we need a Mac version fof M$ Front Page and FP Express.

Also, I'd love for Apple to include a Darwin version of the Korn Shell (ksh), then I could program and test for work on my mac, especally when traveling.

TEG

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

The main thing I think is missing in OSX is GUI apps for Unix maintenance scripts. But if OSX had those built in, there wouldn't be anything for third-party developers to do.

 

[blogo]

You get solitaire with .mac

 

[tjwett]

i'd like to see a Blogging application become a standard part of .Mac, i know about the other ones out there but Apple should really do their own. i can't believe they haven't yet. it would add a whole dimension to the current Homepage feature.

 

[mj_1903]

I think he was thinking more of ideas that Apple would not copy, things that I would like to build as well and am rapidly preparing to.

We are talking innovative things like business applications based on rendezvous, new education tools to take advantage of the Unix core and of course consumer applications to support Apple's products, like the iPod, iSight or Cell Phones.

I have some ideas and I have some projects, so if you would like to talk about it, contact me.

http://www.thelittleappfactory.com

 

[patrick0brien]

Originally posted by Daveman Deluxe
The main thing I think is missing in OSX is GUI apps for Unix maintenance scripts. But if OSX had those built in, there wouldn't be anything for third-party developers to do.

-Daveman Deluxe

Apple might be rolling Gui-fied functions for Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Chrons into the GUI and renice (app reprioritization) functions as well sometime soon, and boy wouldn't that be nice.

 

[MarkCollette]

I like the idea of graphical versions of the *nix utilities, especially the ones where the MAN pages are longer than the actual source code

As well, I really like the idea of software that augments devices, and networking (just not another icq program, or file trading program!).

Here's a question: is there any market for ported device drivers from free/open/net bsd over to darwin? Especially to user-space, where it would be easier to sell?

And finally, I don't mind making programs that include functionality from other platforms, but I really don't like the tendencies of open source developers to create clones of existing programs. I think that shows a lack of creativity, and threatens those of us who rely on our programming skills for income.

 

[ima_pseudonym]

Here's what I was wishing I could do the other day:

Get data into/out of iCal so that I could either make a class calendar out of an existing class syllabus (where the data is in tables with date and assignment); or generate a plain list of dated events from an iCal calendar that could then be inserted into Word.

Not sure how much of a market there would be, but it is probably a demographic that tends to pay their share-ware fees.

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-Daveman Deluxe

Apple might be rolling Gui-fied functions for Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Chrons into the GUI and renice (app reprioritization) functions as well sometime soon, and boy wouldn't that be nice.

That will only go part of the way. There's still prebinding and system caches to worry about. But it's a step in the right direction.

 

[hayesk]

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-MarkCollette

Access.

But that's just a desire. Filemaker works as an adequate replacement - I just love Access.

Good lord, I hope they have a drug for that.

Anyway, Look at 4D - it has everything Access does and then some, and it's not as cumbersome to use. I runs on Windows and MacOS too.

 

[mattmack]

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-MarkCollette

Access.

But that's just a desire. Filemaker works as an adequate replacement - I just love Access. Everything else I require has a Mac equivalent (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project (Mac: FastTrack), Photoshop, Electric Image, Visio (Mac: Omnigraffle), etc.)

Thanks patrick I was looking for a MS project solution for mac and saw the FastTrack on your list and it looks perfect

 

[multifinder]

This isn't a category the Mac is missing software, but I have yet to find a truly exceptional text editor for the Mac. Textpad, the text editor I use on Windows at work, is IMHO better than any Mac text editor I've seen. I've used BBEdit, Tex-Edit Plus, mi, and some others, but Textpad has a slew of additional features I sorely miss on the Mac (document tabs, customizable syntax highlighting by document class, the ability to change every shortcut key for every command it has, regular expressions in Find, etc.). BBEdit has some of the same features but it's insanely overpriced and doesn't feel Mac-like to me (Textpad has all the same features and then some for $27--I know the Mac market is smaller, but come on).

 

[MisterMe]

Originally posted by multifinder
This isn't a category the Mac is missing software, but I have yet to find a truly exceptional text editor for the Mac. Textpad, the text editor I use on Windows at work, is IMHO better than any Mac text editor I've seen. I've used BBEdit, Tex-Edit Plus, mi, and some others, but Textpad has a slew of additional features I sorely miss on the Mac (document tabs, customizable syntax highlighting by document class, the ability to change every shortcut key for every command it has, regular expressions in Find, etc.). BBEdit has some of the same features but it's insanely overpriced and doesn't feel Mac-like to me (Textpad has all the same features and then some for $27--I know the Mac market is smaller, but come on).

Take a look at Alphatk.

 

[eclipse525]

Here's an idea for a not so Awe inspiring App.

How about an App that can extract the Names and Address from the Address Book and automactically put them into any Avery Label format(or any other). Great for Thank you cards, Holiday Cards, Etc. Major time saver. I'm not talking about a script but a Self-Contained App. that does it all.

Hmmm....yeah...that's the ticket. I know it's not going to rival an Access OS X App but it's the little apps that make the world go round.



~e

 

[mattmack]

Originally posted by eclipse525
Here's an idea for a not so Awe inspiring App.

How about an App that can extract the Names and Address from the Address Book and automactically put them into any Avery Label format(or any other). Great for Thank you cards, Holiday Cards, Etc. Major time saver. I'm not talking about a script but a Self-Contained App. that does it all.

Hmmm....yeah...that's the ticket. I know it's not going to rival an Access OS X App but it's the little apps that make the world go round.



~e

I thought that was a functionality of address book in 10.3