Scott Stevenson on why upcoming apps are going Leopard-only
Scott Stevenson, blogger of many things developer-related, has penned an in-depth explanation that answers my assumptions as to why developers would (or should) go Leopard-only with their apps.
The explanation Scott provides is pretty thorough, offering brief examples of what is so new and fancy in Leopard that would appeal to a developer. To be more specific: Leopard offers some powerful tools and major changes in code that can really propel many apps to be all they can be, and as Scott puts it: "Forgoing Leopard APIs until some arbitrary point in the future can actually hold the app back from its full potential."
A lot of the points Scott makes seem to boil down to a couple of fundamentals, with one of them being the tried and true mantra of "know your audience." Scott is right on when he points out that Mac users are Mac users by choice, which means many of them who have a vested interest in 3rd party software (like TextMate and Delicious Library - both of which have announced future Leopard-only updates) are far more likely to be early adopters; i.e. - they're also likely to be first in line for Leopard.
Even though he can roll with the devs, Scott writes in a language everyone can understand. His post is a great read if you're interested in the dynamics of why a Mac OS X developer would release an app on the bleeding edge of an OS update.
[via The Apple Blog]
