Apples and Nuts

15 days into the tracking, patching, testing, cussing loop from hell. Familiar whining this. It pretty much epitomizes the life of a hacker.

The iPod Touch remains in its original box, untouched, waiting for the next (Palm OS) release of ninerpad (will it? ever?).

But I like to peek. So I waded, again, through the iPhone SDK (hush hush Apple may be listening) docs. Things are becoming clearer.

But then, this very interesting post by Michael Ash. It helped put things back in perspective.

Yes, the iPhone oasis may beckon, but you may want to reconsider drinking from its pool. The process of getting an app on the iTunes store is not as simple as it is for Palm (mobireach, my cart provider, makes the process a google times simpler). But that's not the main issue for me. Learning has its curves, like many good things, so it can't be that bad.

No, my main beef is that Apple will not remit royalties to participating developers until their net reaches 250$. Granted, if your paid app is hugely popular, that may come fast and easy. But if it is not -- and that is the most likely (just do the math) scenario "for the rest of us" -- , it may take months before you see that first payment. Nice? Not.

But I'll try anyway. After all, nobody likes to miss a boat, any boat, no matter how small.

Still, just to keep things on an even keel, I think I'll stick around for a while with the Palm OS and with my friends at mobireach.

And now, back to our regular programming: cussing at Palm OS 5.

Feature Quandary #1

See, there's this feature that at least one ninerpad user -- that would be me -- would like to have right now. It would be useful for getting things done, that, since it would let me reorder my scribbled Palm notes.

I could code it in tomorrow. in time for the next release. Approximate cost: 20 minutes of my time, testing included.

But if I do this now, I also know that I will have to replace its current interface, a menu item, with another, completely different one -- dragging and dropping of image thumbnails -- at a later date, in a later version. And at that time, anyone using the original feature might grieve for its loss when it is in fact still available, but in another place. Hence, confusion.

So I decided to postpone introduction of the feature, at a possible detriment to my current user base, and definitely to myself.

And I ask: is it better to give something now and (appear to) take it away later than to not give at all?