A Call to Action For Mac Developers [Archive]

Joe Johaneman

12-10-2008, 06:00 PM

<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1228843567.usr105505.jpg" border="1" />This is a call to action for Mac developers, particularly open source Mac developers. There are plenty of Applications for the Mac that could and should be written. Since these are large projects, the open source Bazaar model of development seems appropriate.<MORE />Photo Management and Workflow<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1228843554.usr105505.jpg" border="1" />Figure 1:  Adobe's Lightroom is a powerful Photo Management and Workflow tool I love Adobe's Lightroom, but it carries a hefty price tag. Apple's Aperture serves a similar purpose for a little less money. But there's plenty of room for innovation in this department. As far as I know, there is no Open Source Photo Management and Workflow application for the Mac (and if I'm wrong, please point me in the right direction.)What I really like to see here is a large scale open source project to create this application. Ideally, it would have an embedded python or ruby interpreter for plug-in creation. There are plenty of image processing libraries in existence that could be built on to create this application.Video Processing<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1228843540.usr105505.jpg" border="1" />Figure 2:  Jakhasha is a decent video editing tool, but lacks the polish and features of Final Cut. Right now, there are plenty of commercial applications for video processing on the Mac. Chief among these is Apple's Final Cut. In the Open Source world, there's Jahshaka, but it lacks a lot of the power that Final Cut has. Jahshaka is currently in Alpha. I'd like to see Mac open source developers take a hold of this package and really bring it to it's potential. In particular, I'd like to see a version that leverages the power of Cocoa rather than using the OpenGL interface it currently ships with.<PAGE />Project Management<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1228851536.usr105505.jpg" border="1" />Figure 3: OpenProj is open source Project Management software written in Java. One of the programs I really miss from the Windows world is Microsoft Project. While there are plenty of open source project management tools, none of them provide the amount of power that Microsoft Project has. Microsoft stopped development of Project for the Mac in 1994. As much as I love open source software, I'd pay for an updated version of Project for the Mac if Microsoft was inclined to make it.  For now I'm using OpenProj,Odds and Ends<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1228843531.usr105505.jpg" border="1" />Figure 4: Inkscape is a Vector Graphics package which is ideal for those doing light vector graphic work. Currently, the GIMP and Inkscape are available for the Mac, but both require you to run X11. For those who aren't aware of these programs, the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a graphics processing application often compared to Adobe's Photoshop. It's not as powerful, but for many people, it's a viable alternative. Inkscape is a Vector drawing application similar to Illustrator. Again, it's not as feature rich but it's a good alternative if you don't have the money for Illustrator and are willing to live with Inkscape's limitations. They are working on a native port of both applications for the Mac, and I'd love to see Mac Open Source developers jump on board and help out so we get both native ports faster.Conclusion There's plenty of room for innovation in the areas I've mentioned. I'm sure there's plenty of other applications that need to be written. If you've got some ideas, I'd like to hear them. What do you think?