at999 wrote:

jventura wrote:

zoidsoft wrote:I've made the jump to cross platform so it is only a matter of time before I have native MacOSX, Android and iOS versions out.

The web is, in my opinion, the ultimate cross-platform framework. Even smartTV's nowadays have a web browser built-in..

...Facebook astro-app would be the coolest thing all around BUT every decent astrologer would rather like to have it INSTALLED on his HD, it's a matter of integrity and trust in what we call authorship, so my vote goes to Curtis :-)

Thanks Nick! My decision to stick with desktop (for now) has more to do with bandwidth, security and interactivity. While high bandwidth computations can be done in the cloud, the delivery is only as good as your internet connection. I have some high intensity calculations in my 3D animations which actually make the screen look more like a window into space. Delivering the result can be helped by the lower resolution of the typical web based images, but serving up image after image of animation in real time made web based technologies impossible. They just can't do it without the local high speed ram (unless you have several dedicated T1 lines which is very unlikely for most users). I actually looked into doing this with Delphic Oracle several years ago, first with active x and again more recently with HTML5.

Also I noticed that some prefer something more "tangible". While it seems illogical to me to think of software in this way, there are a lot of people who still do and "ownership" is more closely achieved on the local machine than in the cloud. Once you have it, you have it, and it is a lot easier to have control over your machine and power supply (I used a solar panel out in the desert) than it is to maintain a good connection. Many people don't have good internet connections and I am one of them because I don't like hanging around cities and am off in some rather remote areas from time to time. Also the "subscription" model is more like "renting" than owning.

There is also the issue of security; a Facebook astrological app would just be plain irresponsible (with its ties to the NSA) and maintaining client confidentiality would be next to impossible. Small web apps don't really have to worry too much about being hacked because hackers like the bigger targets. But astrology needs a lot of the same personal information that would be needed for applying for a credit card so encryption becomes essential on the web.

Also there seems to be a misconception for new developers that software is about having the most features. Features that can't interact with other features become "static" displays that have a hard time giving astrologers that "ah ha" moment in their understanding of what is going on in a chart. Just displaying information in multiple displays doesn't cut it. You have to be able to cross reference to any other technique on the fly and that is what I have done with Delphic Oracle and to a lesser extent, Timaeus. I have a special way of doing this that no one has ever done before.

It really isn't about the difference in difficulty in writing for these technologies anymore. The tools are out there to write in your preferred programming languages for every platform (even the web). But programmers don't need to worry too much. The typical user has at least one mobile and one desktop. They use their mobile devices during the day (at work, etc) and typically prefer the larger screen of their desktop at night (as shown by Google Analytics).