Company Apple A few months ago, along with the macOS Catalina operating system, it also introduced a new tool, Catalyst, to help developers convert iOS applications to the macOS environment. Developers have had this tool available for long enough to assess how well it suits them. What are their opinions?
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It looks like they're still picking their favorites this year. iOS We won't see any applications on the Mac. This is a lengthy, completely new and still quite demanding process that will take some time. Developers who have already spent some time working with Catalyst are not very unanimous in their opinions. Many of them also said that Catalyst is practically useless to them because they have already started working on developing their own applications for the Mac. Pro For many other developers, Catalyst was the impetus that led them to develop macOS apps. Jake Underwood of Moleskine Digital Studio is excited about Catalyst and expects the same enthusiasm from users, who often contact him asking if the company plans to release their favorite apps for Mac. However, he admits that the release of apps like Timepage the Mac version still has a long way to go.
Apple has already introduced some of its favorites for Mac iOS apps like Home, Stocks, and Voice Memos. Developer Andrew Marsden says the quality of these apps varies. “None of them are great Mac apps,” Marsden says, recalling a public statement in which the company Apple stated that the quality of these applications should increase in the first betaversion of macOS Catalina. “But these apps haven’t seen any significant changes since the first beta of Catalina,” Marsden notes. An example is the Home app, where you can’t add new accessories to your Mac—you still need to use the iOS device. At this time, in addition, according to Applu platforms are not available for Mac Healthkit a HomeKit.
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Mathias Hochgatterer, creator of the app Home 3, argues that Catalyst is not really designed for creating good Mac apps, but rather for expanding the reach iOS applications among Mac users. “There may be exceptions, but I don’t think there will ever be a good Catalyst application,” he says. PSPDFKit founder Peter Steinberger agrees, saying that Catalyst has a lot of bugs and is poorly documented. “When we see unusual behavior [in an application], we don’t really know if it’s a bug or if it’s supposed to be that way,” he says. Expert Mike Stern even expressed concern about whether Catalyst will ever be available in the market.oneattractive to developers. “Catalyst represents a pragmatic solution for existing projects,” he says, adding that new developers are Apple platform, the tool probably won't attract them. According to him, they will most likely prefer the platform SwiftUI. Stern calls Catalyst a “bridge to the future for existing iPad apps,” with iPhone According to Strena Catalyst, the application will not be usable at all - for example, the documentation completely lacks any mention of the iPhone.
Andrew Mardsen adds that Catalyst already has several competitors on the market, and developers often use cross-platform web tools for developing applications, such as Electron. However, he admits that for many developers Catalyst could be a more convenient alternative to Electron. The reason why we will still have to wait for applications ported via Catalyst is also that many developers will prefer to improve existing ones iOS and iPadOS apps. With the advent of new mobile operating systems, there is still a lot to work on, and most developers will prioritize the quality of their apps over their priority in terms of release date.
