DP Autochanger Reaches End of Life
I wrote the first version of DP Autochanger for
Mac OS 8, but there won't be a version of it for Mac OS X 10.5 and
beyond.
DP Autochanger began its life in 1997 as a hack for
my own enjoyment. Mac OS 8.0 made it possible to change the Desktop background
picture via AppleScript. I was pretty good with Applescript by that time, and
decided to write a script to change the picture on a timed basis. When I saw
that people were paying for background pictures, I decided that people would pay
for a tool to change them.
I productized DP Autochanger and had it on the market pretty quickly. To my surprise, it sold well at $5, actually better than any product I have sold before or since.
As more features became available in AppleScript, I improved DP Autochanger. Before long, I had added the ability to download pictures from the web and display those. When Mac OS X came along, I pretty easily ported DP Autochanger to run there as well.
AppleScript Studio made it possible to combine the user interface goodness of Cocoa with AppleScript. DP Autochanger was in need of a better UI, so I moved it to AppleScript Studio and began coding. I released DP Autochanger 2.0 on August 5, 2002. Unfortunately, Apple released Mac OS X 10.2 within a month, and it had the ability to change pictures built-in. I was actually mocked on Version Tracker for it (you can still read the comments there!).
Of course, DP Autochanger did more. All the same, it took a lot of the wind out of my sails. It did continue to run through 10.2 and 10.3. !0.4 required some simple bug fixes.
This week, however, the advent of Leopard has brought emails telling me that DP Autochanger is broken under Mac OS X 10.5. I have decided to declare that DP Autochanger has reached End of Life (EOL). I will continue to provide it for versions prior to 10.5, but not beyond. But why?
Well, first, the system has provided changing for 5 years. Admittedly, it still doesn't do nested folders, but really, how big a deal is that? The system does its changing in a prettier fashion, with fading between pictures. It handles multiple monitors, something that has never been provided via AppleScript in Mac OS X. And the most recent version of Daydreamer (my other product) handles downloading pictures from the web so that the System can use those pictures as well (see the Daydreamer help or documentation ). DP Autochanger isn't bringing in money anymore. The last registration was over a year ago. And the penultimate registration was a year before that!
But the number one reason is that is just isn't fun anymore. I could dig into the code again (in fact, I started), but it would take me a long time to figure out what's going on. With the changes in AppleScript in 10.5, I have a feeling that the version I would create would be 10.5 and on only, requiring me to maintain yet another version. Not interesting.
So, DP Autochanger has reached the end of the line. 10 years! Not a bad run.
I productized DP Autochanger and had it on the market pretty quickly. To my surprise, it sold well at $5, actually better than any product I have sold before or since.
As more features became available in AppleScript, I improved DP Autochanger. Before long, I had added the ability to download pictures from the web and display those. When Mac OS X came along, I pretty easily ported DP Autochanger to run there as well.
AppleScript Studio made it possible to combine the user interface goodness of Cocoa with AppleScript. DP Autochanger was in need of a better UI, so I moved it to AppleScript Studio and began coding. I released DP Autochanger 2.0 on August 5, 2002. Unfortunately, Apple released Mac OS X 10.2 within a month, and it had the ability to change pictures built-in. I was actually mocked on Version Tracker for it (you can still read the comments there!).
Of course, DP Autochanger did more. All the same, it took a lot of the wind out of my sails. It did continue to run through 10.2 and 10.3. !0.4 required some simple bug fixes.
This week, however, the advent of Leopard has brought emails telling me that DP Autochanger is broken under Mac OS X 10.5. I have decided to declare that DP Autochanger has reached End of Life (EOL). I will continue to provide it for versions prior to 10.5, but not beyond. But why?
Well, first, the system has provided changing for 5 years. Admittedly, it still doesn't do nested folders, but really, how big a deal is that? The system does its changing in a prettier fashion, with fading between pictures. It handles multiple monitors, something that has never been provided via AppleScript in Mac OS X. And the most recent version of Daydreamer (my other product) handles downloading pictures from the web so that the System can use those pictures as well (see the Daydreamer help or documentation ). DP Autochanger isn't bringing in money anymore. The last registration was over a year ago. And the penultimate registration was a year before that!
But the number one reason is that is just isn't fun anymore. I could dig into the code again (in fact, I started), but it would take me a long time to figure out what's going on. With the changes in AppleScript in 10.5, I have a feeling that the version I would create would be 10.5 and on only, requiring me to maintain yet another version. Not interesting.
So, DP Autochanger has reached the end of the line. 10 years! Not a bad run.
Posted: Sun - November 4, 2007 at 06:07 PM
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Published On: Nov 04, 2007 06:07 PM
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Published On: Nov 04, 2007 06:07 PM