The uber geeks

Porting Mac applications to Windows - An interview with Cris Pearson of plasq

As a small software development company, spread out over several different countries, plasq has always tried to make the right decisions as to where to put their development resources. Comic Life, one of plasq’s most successful applications on the Macintosh, was recently released for the Windows platform.

This intrigued me because there are a lot of Macintosh applications, really useful ones, that never make it into the Windows market for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the company just can’t pull enough resources together to pull off such a daunting task. Other times, it would seem, that companies like to remain loyal to the platform of their choice. Obviously the Windows market is much larger than the Macintosh one, but that doesn’t make plasq’s decision any easier. To port an application from one platform to another is a lot of work.

I’ve been privileged enough to know Cris Pearson, CEO of plasq, for a little while now and he graciously answered a few questions regarding the porting of Comic Life to Windows. The interview continues below.

Colin: Comic Life has been a huge hit on the Macintosh platform. Was there a large public outcry for Comic Life to be ported to Windows, or was this simply a decision based on market share?

Cris: Since the first day, we have had people beg for a Windows version. Some even switched or bought a Mac just to get Comic Life.

We focus on Mac development internally as that is where our main love and skills are. When we noticed the many schools who wanted Comic Life however, with the help of Freeverse and i5Works, we took the plunge and did the Windows version.

Colin: I see that Comic Life, for Windows, has been in beta since May 2007. Was the porting of this application a huge struggle? Can you tell us whether this process was easier or harder than plasq anticipated?

Cris: It was a big task, yes. Considerable parts that we got for free or were simple on Mac required a lot of code from scratch. Then we had to do a lot of testing to get it up to plasq standards

It certainly took longer than we expected. The final results are great and very close to that of the Mac version. It’s one of the best Windows applications I’ve seen

Colin: Are there any differences between the Mac and Windows versions of Comic Life? Any goodies for either group?

Cris: We have kept it as close as possible except OS specific things, like .mac uploading and iPhoto integration. We use the Pictures folder in a manner similar to iPhoto integration though.

Even files are transferable across platforms.

Colin: Does plasq plan to release all of its products cross-platform?

Cris: No When it makes sense from a market perspective or type of app, then we will think about it. It will also depend on complexity. Apple are making creating advanced graphical heavy apps quite easily compared Windows.

In the case of Skitch, communication is one of it’s strong points, so having a communication application limited to Mac isn’t a good idea, so we are porting that.

Colin: plasq is one of my favorite software development companies, and I’m sure I’m not alone, any plans for some new products in the near future?

Thank you saying that!

We are working on a Drawing program for the 0-7 age group. There aren’t many programs around in this space… and the ones that are, their Interface leave a lot to be desired.

— End Interview —

Thanks to Cris for doing the interview and to his entire team at plasq for making great software that is useful, easy, and above all fun to use. Be sure to check out all of plasq’s products.

Recent features

• The Format - Give It Up
• Leah Andreone - Break Your Fall
• Coheed and Cambria - The Velorium Camper II: Backend Of Forever

Song of the week

Sara Bareilles - Between the Lines
Sara Bareilles' "Between the Lines" is the Song of the Week for April 20 to 26.

Warning: main(images/faq.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/.eastwood/cdevroe/theubergeeks.net/wp-content/themes/clockworkorange/sidebar.php on line 119

Warning: main(images/faq.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/.eastwood/cdevroe/theubergeeks.net/wp-content/themes/clockworkorange/sidebar.php on line 119

Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'images/faq.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/.eastwood/cdevroe/theubergeeks.net/wp-content/themes/clockworkorange/sidebar.php on line 119