RE: PICKY CRABB
RE: PICKY CRABB
Sent: Tue, Jun 11, 1996 at 7:40:00 AM
From: dwiner@well.com (Dave Winer)
We were working on Frontier long before AppleScript existed. They knew about it. Their internal development effort was launched in response to Frontier. This goes back to 1989 when I first showed Frontier to Apple.
BTW, you have me to thank for the outline view in the Finder. At that point Frontier included a file system browser that was an outliner. Ed Birss really liked the idea, so much so that he put it into the ERS for the System 7 Finder.
I guess that's respect. It's not the kind of respect I had in mind though.
There are other solutions to the dilemma you mention. They could trade withdrawal of AppleScript in exchange for a promise that Frontier would be Mac-only for perpetuity. Their lawyers know how to draft those kinds of agreements. Or I could have put the source to Frontier in escrow against UserLand going out of business. Or I could have licensed them co-ownership of Frontier. Any number of possibilities.
In May 1992 they announced AppleScript, just announced it. In April our sales were $90K. In May $12K. What good did that do for the Mac scripting community? They took my company away from me. We had debt. We were digging out of it, the market was developing. They killed the market right there, and waited over a year before shipping a product that was much less than ours.
Also track records should count for something. I've been working on Frontier for eight years. I've been a Mac only developer since 1983. I'm not likely to drop it if Apple gets out of the way.
You assume they can quickly implement everything we have in Frontier. I don't believe that's true.
You fail take into account the other side of the coin. Due to lack of sales, Frontier could disappear. I'm supporting Frontier and its user base personally, both with my time and my money. At some point I'm going to have to stop doing that. If it doesn't look like the market can support a commercial product, you'll be stuck waiting for Apple. Good luck!
I think that the idea of Apple controlling its platform is way overrated. If Apple had controlled Internet access, they would have made Netscape wait until they could get their architecture in place, and where would the Mac be now?
In my humble opinion -- there would be no Mac platform.
I'm thinking about running your piece. A brief bio would help. Do you have a website?
Dave
PS: I forwarded your comments to Heidi Roizen, Apple's developer VP. She's a friend, and has been following this discussion.
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