View Full Version : App Ideas
hyperb0le
2004-12-12, 14:33
Does anyone have any ideas for applications that you would like to see built? This could be something that doesn't exist at all, or just something that hasn't been done well in the past.
Thanks
DMBand0026
2004-12-12, 14:44
Finder.
'Nuff said.
futuretheory
2004-12-12, 14:49
Finder.
'Nuff said.
Make that 2 votes; it needs some help... at least labels that don't suck and Dock-pro, maybe a little consistency? Finally, PLEASE save me from ._file nightmares when viewing network drives on a PC. IT hates my mac because of this, actually everyone does.
Beyond that, why can I not find decent Project management oriented software (like "MS Project")? Shared business calendars (yes, iCal is *almost* there).
I think the most innovative apps are coming out on OS X these days, especially little niche apps like Omni outliner that have changed my life. If anything, I'd like to see more of these apps go to PC so that I can share files with my peers...but at the same time I like having better apps on the Mac side.
DMBand0026
2004-12-12, 15:09
It's not just that the finder needs some help, it needs a lot of help. The finder is by far the weakest part of OS X, and it's sad. In an OS that strong you absolutely need the finder to be strong.
Gargoyle
2004-12-12, 17:11
Well in the interest of not sending this thread into the pits of "Finder Sucks" I am gonna pull it back online (ish) and ask hyperb0le, if you are trying to learn programming on the Mac?
I have an idea for a java app. But I really think it could be a success so I wanna keep it under wraps for now. Which language are ya gonna do it in?
hyperb0le
2004-12-12, 17:15
Well in the interest of not sending this thread into the pits of "Finder Sucks" I am gonna pull it back online (ish) and ask hyperb0le, if you are trying to learn programming on the Mac?
I have an idea for a java app. But I really think it could be a success so I wanna keep it under wraps for now. Which language are ya gonna do it in?
I already know Cocoa/Objective-C. I am, however, at a loss for an idea for a project to undertake.
So, I'd be writing it in Objective-C.
Gargoyle
2004-12-12, 17:18
How about a freeware serial terminal? ZTerm type of thing?
BarracksSi
2004-12-12, 19:56
What's so bad about the Finder? What kinds of things should it be able to do?
Finder.
'Nuff said.
I would concur if it weren't for the existence of PathFinder. As a user group, Macheads need to get beyond the Finder griping. I agree fully that it needs more polish and flexibility (as do OS X' open and save dialogs) but I would say there are other kinds of apps that would better serve OS X users.
There are enough robust replacements for the Finder, Dock (like DragThing or Snard) and Menubar IMO (Launchbar or the other Snard... and one other whose name escapes me). Not to say those can't be improved either (everything can), but let's be a little more ingenuitive. :)
BarracksSi
2004-12-12, 21:38
I've only looked through PathFinder's site, and I don't see what the big deal is. Everything it does can already be done, even if I have to launch Terminal or Activity Monitor separately (and I rarely have those open at all). Finder does just what it needs to do without being loaded with extra junk.
What else am I missing?
BarracksSi: I'll get to Finder in a bit...
Moogs: Mac users should not have to rely on a third party solution that costs money just to navigate their damn files. It's one thing if you think iPhoto is slow and should be changed - picture management applications are not a necessity for an operating system. But one of the key tasks an OS must accomplish is sorting and allowing you to find your files easily. Being forced to install PathFinder to get a decent file browser sounds like the early days of OS X, when you had to dual-boot in OS 9 as well just to use all the applications you needed. That changed fairly quickly, and Finder better change quickly too.
Okay Barracks, now for why Finder sucks. If you haven't noticed, it's slow, bloated, buggy, and it can't handle complex tasks well. Try selecting fifty items and trying to move them somewhere. It chokes because it tries to draw 50 little transparent icons of those files. Okay, now try connecting to another computer on your network. Then turn off that computer. Finder will beachball for ages because apparently it can't tell that when a remotely connected computer turns off, it's supposed to stop looking for it. Even if it does keep looking for a 30 or 60 second timeout period, you should still be able to USE Finder during that time. It doesn't take 100% of your computer's resources to ping a computer. Now download some files to your desktop using Safari. They won't appear on your desktop until you click on the desktop to refresh it.
These are just a couple problems. Overall the Finder seems slow and unsophisticated given that you're using an OS based on Unix. It should be much more robust and less prone to crashing and beachballing. Not to mention the fugly new metal windows with the sidebar and the worthless right-button-cop-out "Action Button."
I think there are some people here who would be better at explaining this... I sort of have a vague dissatisfaction with Finder but there aren't a whole lot of tangible examples of why it's bad. I just know that it is not nearly as good as it should be.
BarracksSi: I'll get to Finder in a bit...
Moogs: Mac users should not have to rely on a third party solution that costs money just to navigate their damn files. ...
I agree, but I thought the whole point of the original question was to see what kind of apps people are looking for from 3rd parties, not Apple. Apple is going to develop what they want to develop, we all know that by now. The way the question is phrased it seemed to me he was asking for ideas to build an app of his own?
BlueRabbit
2004-12-13, 00:57
Okay, now try connecting to another computer on your network. Then turn off that computer. Finder will beachball for ages because apparently it can't tell that when a remotely connected computer turns off, it's supposed to stop looking for it. Even if it does keep looking for a 30 or 60 second timeout period, you should still be able to USE Finder during that time. It doesn't take 100% of your computer's resources to ping a computer.
This is really annoying, especially when since it's pretty easy to accidentally close a Powerbook while connected to it. Either that, or I'll connect to another computer, then forget to disconnect later on. Or the Powerbook will lose Airport reception for 5 seconds. As you can see, it's really easy to freeze the Finder. :rolleyes:
Now download some files to your desktop using Safari. They won't appear on your desktop until you click on the desktop to refresh it.
I've seen a couple instances where the file won't show up until you open a new window showing the desktop. :grumble:
Okay Barracks, now for why Finder sucks. If you haven't noticed, it's slow, bloated, buggy, and it can't handle complex tasks well. Try selecting fifty items and trying to move them somewhere. It chokes because it tries to draw 50 little transparent icons of those files. Okay, now try connecting to another computer on your network. Then turn off that computer. Finder will beachball for ages because apparently it can't tell that when a remotely connected computer turns off, it's supposed to stop looking for it. Even if it does keep looking for a 30 or 60 second timeout period, you should still be able to USE Finder during that time. It doesn't take 100% of your computer's resources to ping a computer. Now download some files to your desktop using Safari. They won't appear on your desktop until you click on the desktop to refresh it.
These are just a couple problems. Overall the Finder seems slow and unsophisticated given that you're using an OS based on Unix. It should be much more robust and less prone to crashing and beachballing. Not to mention the fugly new metal windows with the sidebar and the worthless right-button-cop-out "Action Button."
I think there are some people here who would be better at explaining this... I sort of have a vague dissatisfaction with Finder but there aren't a whole lot of tangible examples of why it's bad. I just know that it is not nearly as good as it should be.
Wow... and here I was thinking I was the only one having these problems!!
I really thought that I was at that stage in the OS (just before the next big update) when you really should consider doing a clean install!!
What a relief... Why is the finder so weak?
And while we are at it can we get some better memory management. I am forever finding my hard drive (which I must admit is pretty full) being out of space. The fact that when I boot up I have 2Gig seems to mean nothing to Photoshop and other apps... I regularly end up with 200MB free and System Drive Full messages, even after I have quit everything! Really.. Apps should clean up after themselves better!!
Hey, I'm sorry for derailing this thread... it's meant to determine what applications would be nice for OS X, not to bash on the Finder (even though the Finder does deserve some bashing). I think people have raised some good issues here.
Anyway, while it sounds like people would like a better way of sorting and browsing files, that's a pretty tall order. PathFinder is already out there, after all. Perhaps a lighter, faster, less complex equivalent to iPhoto would be nice.
Oh, and scratt, you probably shouldn't be going around with just 2 GB free. That's very little and the swap file will mess with it.
Oh, and scratt, you probably shouldn't be going around with just 2 GB free. That's very little and the swap file will mess with it.
He! I know... but I just seem to keep filling that sucker up!
2GB is my lower limit and then I start throwing stuff away and backing up!
Ok.... Ideas for apps...
A decent and simple duplicate / redundant file locator and pruner.
Perhaps I am being dense but I have tried a few of these and they all seem to be so complex. I just want to know what *exact* copies of files I have. Where they are and to be able to delete them, wth perhaps the option to alias the deleted duplicates to the one unique copy left.
A Macro system for the mouse and keyboard as part of the OS.
For example in some apps I like? (have) to do repetative tasks. In photoshop for instance I will load about 15 pictures and want to do the same thing to each of them... Add a layer, add a drop shadow to the top layer, make the whole canvas slightly larger, fill the extra layer with a colour and then save it for web...
If I could have this as a function where the mouse movements, or functions are recorded in a macro file I could automate the process..
The new Sun OS option where you can tilt a window on it's side, or at so many degrees integrated into Mac OS. Not an app, more a feature.
You should check out Omni DiskSweeper. It's a pretty simple little app that lets you go through your folder structure in a column view-like interface. But instead of being a file browser, it's a file size browser. Next to the name of each file or folder is the size of that file or folder. So if you are low on disk space it'll point out which folders have a lot of stuff in them, and which aren't worth going into to clean up.
bassplayinMacFiend
2004-12-13, 10:20
I already know Cocoa/Objective-C. I am, however, at a loss for an idea for a project to undertake.
So, I'd be writing it in Objective-C.
If you do decide to take on a project, do you want to collaborate? I too want to keep my coding skills sharp and learn more of the Cocoa APIs. You can see from the link in my sig that I have some coding skills (Obj-C skills, not HTML). ;)
I'd like to add more to my program but haven't had much luck in picking which direction to go next. It's grown into much more than I had originally planned for it, thanks to many suggestions I received.
Since I'm at a standstill with my only real OS X program I'm in the same boat as you, wanting to code but not knowing what to code. I don't feel like rehashing freely available programs either (i.e. FTP program, Jabber IM client). I'd rather spend coding time working on a new idea that would provide something unique to the OS X platform.
So, hyperb0le, if you feel like collaborating at all, PM me. Meanwhile I'm going to keep banging my head against the wall and hope a decent idea falls out of it. :)
*cough* music theory/ear training aid *cough*
bassplayinMacFiend
2004-12-13, 13:43
*cough* music theory/ear training aid *cough*
:D
I still have your PM about that. :)
My big hangup with your idea is the 'generating a melody' part. I'm not sure I could write something to pseudo-randomly create melodies to work with, and building a bunch of melodies to work/practice with has already been done i.e. Band In A Box, and they have a Mac version available.
I guess if I could my hands on some MIDI files I could learn how to parse those and generate the sheet music. The training part would be easy, just not showing the notes, or only showing the notes for x amount of time, etc.
Geez, there you go making the wheels in my head turn again.
:D
I still have your PM about that. :)
My big hangup with your idea is the 'generating a melody' part. I'm not sure I could write something to pseudo-randomly create melodies to work with,
Well, I envisioned it like, in your framework your program would know how to play a whole note, half note, quarter, eighth, 16th..etc. then, you'd establish a set of parameters,
first of all the range, what key it's in what the highest note to be played is and what the lowest note,
secondly would be the length, how many bars, what time signature
thirdly would be the notes, how many of each or all eighth note/rest melody or all quarter or just quarters and eighths, or just quarters and eighths with 2 random 16ths.
fourth would be anything else I'm forgetting that's important. :p
and building a bunch of melodies to work/practice with has already been done i.e. Band In A Box, and they have a Mac version available.
and band in a box for mac BLOWS, heck it blows on windows too, horrible interface, confusing, unintuitive, redundant, proprietary...ugh. I can't stand it
That said, despite it already having been done before, it's never, imo, been done WELL. band in a box is a fantastic program in theory, but it really falls flat on its face in terms of usability.
I guess if I could my hands on some MIDI files I could learn how to parse those and generate the sheet music. The training part would be easy, just not showing the notes, or only showing the notes for x amount of time, etc.
Geez, there you go making the wheels in my head turn again.
that's the spirit! :)
bassplayinMacFiend
2004-12-13, 15:07
... that's the spirit! :)
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/images/smilies/spitting.gif
InactionMan
2004-12-14, 00:48
Make an Atari Jaguar emulator! I want to play Alien VS Predator again!
*cough* music theory/ear training aid *cough*
I'll go one further - I want an app I can whistle a melody into and have it generate a MIDI track. Would make GarageBand just that much faster for me. :) I can whistle like nobody's business (I get into conversations with birds on campus), but my instrument playing skills are lacking.
I'll go one further - I want an app I can whistle a melody into and have it generate a MIDI track. Would make GarageBand just that much faster for me. :) I can whistle like nobody's business (I get into conversations with birds on campus), but my instrument playing skills are lacking.
There have been programs that do(attempt to do) just that. They have a pretty horrid success rate, but I think some of them work at least semi decent. I mean, a large part of it depends on how well you can whistle I guess.
:lol:
I actually remember reading something not too long ago about some new program that is working to revolutionize audio->midi but like a lot of software, it always sounds good on paper.
Not quite an app but system level programming... I'd like *full* keyboard mapping ability. DoubleCommand, which I haven't tried yet, can apparently do a lot that can't be done otherwise, but has very limited scope. One thing I'd like to do and don't think can be done with current utils is switching caps lock and esc. Then as a long term project, I could make my own full keymap that was mostly US layout but included some of my own language specific characters so I wouldn't have to switch between US an local layout twenty times a day.
Speaking of keyboard remapping, another nice thing would be to write an app that gives you full control over your F-keys. Right now you pretty much have F9, F10, and F11 for Exposé, and F12 will be used for Dashboard in Tiger. I guess laptop owners won't really be able to use these since all the F-keys are already in use for volume control and stuff, but for desktop users it would be nice if you could adjust the system volume, launch applications, switch applications, or perform basic keyboard shortcuts using the function keys.
bassplayinMacFiend
2004-12-14, 12:52
Speaking of keyboard remapping, another nice thing would be to write an app that gives you full control over your F-keys. Right now you pretty much have F9, F10, and F11 for Exposé, and F12 will be used for Dashboard in Tiger. I guess laptop owners won't really be able to use these since all the F-keys are already in use for volume control and stuff, but for desktop users it would be nice if you could adjust the system volume, launch applications, switch applications, or perform basic keyboard shortcuts using the function keys.
Laptop users can use the function keys, they just need to hold down the "Fn" key (lower lefthand corner of keyboard) before pressing the F9, F10 or whatever. This can also be reconfigured so you need to hold down the "Fn" key to affect sound, screen brightness & keyboard backlight brightness (handy when playing Diablo II).
All the keys can be mapped in Interface Builder including modifiers such as SHIFT, ALT & CTRL. So a program could be built to catch these keystrokes and perform programmed actions. The only stumbling block I would have is how to intercept these keystrokes when my program doesn't have focus. Having to click on the dock to bring my program forward, then pressing a key combo doesn't seem too polished to me.
If I could figure out how to intercept F keystrokes when my program didn't have focus the rest of the program would be cake to write.
I'm sure once Tiger comes out someone will probably create an App launcher widget. You'd still have to bring up the widgets first though.
Speaking of keyboard remapping, another nice thing would be to write an app that gives you full control over your F-keys. Right now you pretty much have F9, F10, and F11 for Exposé, and F12 will be used for Dashboard in Tiger. I guess laptop owners won't really be able to use these since all the F-keys are already in use for volume control and stuff, but for desktop users it would be nice if you could adjust the system volume, launch applications, switch applications, or perform basic keyboard shortcuts using the function keys.
this program butler (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12170) does practically everything one could ever need regarding assignable keys to do whatever the fuck you want.
Frank777
2004-12-25, 12:48
Wait till MWSF. If Apple does not announce a new office suite, write a Spreadsheet app and free us from Redmond's grip forever.
It's the last remaining piece of the Mac Productivity puzzle.
futuretheorys
2004-12-25, 22:35
Wait till MWSF. If Apple does not announce a new office suite, write a Spreadsheet app and free us from Redmond's grip forever.
It's the last remaining piece of the Mac Productivity puzzle.
Well, OpenOffice should be helping us out here soon. If anything does happen here, it needs to be using the OpenOffice formats like Sun's StarOffice does.
I said right at the beginning of this thread that the mac needs real business software for project management. It shouldn't be so hard to to build timelines and track projects on a mac in a way that PC users can work with as well.
Oh yeah, that's the other thing. Windows doesn't have any way to collaborate with some of the nifty new tools I use in OS X like Omni Outliner and SubethaEdit, and ical shares for that matter. We need ways to more easily collaborate... so I guess I'm saying that really it's more Windows development that is needed so that my peers can make use of the brilliant things I do without having to vomit things into MS Word first.
bassplayinMacFiend
2004-12-27, 14:16
Wait till MWSF. If Apple does not announce a new office suite, write a Spreadsheet app and free us from Redmond's grip forever.
It's the last remaining piece of the Mac Productivity puzzle.
There are already open source alternatives that provide spreadsheet functionality. Speaking as someone who's used Excel since '97 (read: I've been using and programming Excel since 1997) I have to say that no one has made a program that comes close to its functionality. If what you want isn't there, then you can code new abilities using VBA. Until alternatives can add programming capabilities you won't be unseating Excel. It's just that powerful. The only other contender is Lotus 1-2-3, but I don't think any serious development has happened to that program in years.
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