[BrandonCorbin]

If you had a development company at your exposure to develop ANY application that you wanted, what would you want and why? There are no limitation other than it should be for MAC (obviously) and for OS X.. Other than that, let the ideas run wild. We are currently looking for the next application we are going to build...

[djohnson]

Yes, the more suggestions we get, the better the idea on what you want!

[proton]

Easy.

An application that builds any application I describe to it in plain English.



- proton

[BrandonCorbin]

Originally posted by proton:
Easy.

An application that builds any application I describe to it in plain English.



- proton

Wait isn't that AppleScript Studio?

[bergy]

I have kids. They will never buy a Mac because they cannot use their webcam and audio chat with anything but Messenger because that's what all their friends use. The mac version is so far behind and buggy it's pathetic. We need an app that can interface with MSN Messenger with webcam capability that ALL works. Probably impossible but what the heck, they asked!

[djohnson]

Hmm... Anyone know how to hack into the MSN protocols?

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by BrandonCorbin:
Wait isn't that AppleScript Studio?

Calling AppleScript "plain English" is like calling a G5 "that low-end PC."

[djohnson]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
Calling AppleScript "plain English" is like calling a G5 "that low-end PC."

Well it is more english then cocoa is! I spent 2 years doing nothing but Applescript on a Performa 6200... Mmm those were fun times!!! Now we are off topic!!!

[BrandonCorbin]

Hacking the MSN protocol shouldnt be to tuff, thanks to the Fire project!

http://www.epicware.com

[brutal]

How about making a plugin for iChat that makes it support the MSN-protocol?

[Sophus]

Originally posted by brutal:
How about making a plugin for iChat that makes it support the MSN-protocol?

I second that. I would love to be able to chat with people on MSN from iChat. If possible I would also like to be able to do file transfers and video with them, but that is no big priority. Chatting is a minimum requirement that would solve my daily needs. (and btw, I would love to see Apple get the full AIM compatability in iChat right, though this might possibly depend on AIM getting their stuff done right).

Sophus

[Sophus]

Originally posted by BrandonCorbin:
If you had a development company at your exposure to develop ANY application that you wanted, what would you want and why? There are no limitation other than it should be for MAC (obviously) and for OS X.. Other than that, let the ideas run wild. We are currently looking for the next application we are going to build...

This suggestion may possibly be a task for Apple rather than for a thirdparty developer: I would like to see apple integrating Aspell or some other spelling checker for all the languages suported by OSX. As it is now, only some of the languages is in the spellchecker. This should be a rather trivial task considering there is several opensource spellchecking libraries readily available in a 150 or so languages.

[mitchell_pgh]

Forget creating one from scratch...

Application Name: iTheater

Here we go.

I want a program like VLC + iTunes + SimpleVideoOut

Criteria:
- Plays just about every kind of video (VLC)
- Can organize videos (iTunes like front end)
- Can play my videos through firewire to my TV set (SimpleVideoOUT)

I would like something where I insert a DVD, it will rip it to my computer in a high quality format (MPEG-4 with the chapter artwork, titles etc.) and then drop it in iTheater

[BrandonCorbin]

iTheater, I like that. That one is going in to the R&D folder right now! Great suggestion.

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
Forget creating one from scratch...

Application Name: iTheater

Here we go.

I want a program like VLC + iTunes + SimpleVideoOut

Criteria:
- Plays just about every kind of video (VLC)
- Can organize videos (iTunes like front end)
- Can play my videos through firewire to my TV set (SimpleVideoOUT)

I would like something where I insert a DVD, it will rip it to my computer in a high quality format (MPEG-4 with the chapter artwork, titles etc.) and then drop it in iTheater

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by BrandonCorbin:
iTheater, I like that. That one is going in to the R&D folder right now! Great suggestion.

Keep in mind that if you were to create a VLC-based multimedia player, it would have to be open-source, since VLC is GPL'd (ditto MPlayer).

[BrandonCorbin]

good point.

Originally posted by Chuckit:
Keep in mind that if you were to create a VLC-based multimedia player, it would have to be open-source, since VLC is GPL'd (ditto MPlayer).

[mitchell_pgh]

You could still sell it... you would simply have to give up the source...

[Uncle Skeleton]

yeah you know I actually tried to compile VLC the other day and couldn't get it to go. Which means just making the source available doesn't mean the average person wouldn't pay for a working copy.

As for the app idea, if you do take a swing at a VLC media center you should try to make a QT Import component that can access all of VLC's supported file types (for which you just need to find the offset and size in the file of each frame or sample, and stick that to the ElectricImageComponent sample code at apple.com), and if possible a codec that can access all of VLC's supported decoders. That's what I'd like to see. Especially now that the future of VLC is in question (on Mac OS). The core will obviously be maintained, but now the GUI might not be, so why not try to let QT apps' guis access the VLC demuxers and decoders?

[brutal]

I still think an MSN-protocol-plugin for iChat is a good idea..

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
yeah you know I actually tried to compile VLC the other day and couldn't get it to go. Which means just making the source available doesn't mean the average person wouldn't pay for a working copy.

I don't think that's the main problem people have with open-source. Having to open-source your code means that, even if Joe Schmoe can't download and compile your software, any decent rival programmer could come along, take all the work you've done and make it his own, thereby making your work less useful to you and more useful to the community. This was the whole idea behind the GPL -- it benefits the community as a whole.

As for the app idea, if you do take a swing at a VLC media center you should try to make a QT Import component that can access all of VLC's supported file types (for which you just need to find the offset and size in the file of each frame or sample, and stick that to the ElectricImageComponent sample code at apple.com), and if possible a codec that can access all of VLC's supported decoders. That's what I'd like to see. Especially now that the future of VLC is in question (on Mac OS). The core will obviously be maintained, but now the GUI might not be, so why not try to let QT apps' guis access the VLC demuxers and decoders?

I'm not exactly down with all the legal intricacies, but I think that would violate the GPL. To my knowledge, any software that links with GPL code has to also be under the GPL. That's why the LGPL was created.

[Powaqqatsi]

Originally posted by brutal:
I still think an MSN-protocol-plugin for iChat is a good idea..

Me too, as long as it supports group-chat and filetransfer.

[jasong]

A simple MPEG-2 editor for editing commercials out of ReplayTV files.

All the current solutions suck.

-- Jason

[cpac]

my personal choice, (and many a lawyer's) would be a stand-alone Westlaw client - one that really works, is fast, and has that mac-only ease of use. (I'd settle, to begin with, for a service that took the highlighted phrase a searched for it on Westlaw)

[BrandonCorbin]

Whats Westlaw? Are there a lot of Lawyers on Macs nowadays?

Originally posted by cpac:
my personal choice, (and many a lawyer's) would be a stand-alone Westlaw client - one that really works, is fast, and has that mac-only ease of use. (I'd settle, to begin with, for a service that took the highlighted phrase a searched for it on Westlaw)

[cpac]

I sent this to Brandon off list, but in case others care, here's my explanation:

Westlaw is one of two major online legal services (LexisNexis being the other one). It basically is a huge database of every case decision, every statute, every legal article, most every news article, etc. in the world. It's all nicely cross-referenced and is robustly searchable.

Needless to say, it's a pay-service that can be very expensive (though it's free to students, and possibly for judges and their staffs as well).

They used to have Mac client software, though they have not yet written anything for Mac OS X - mostly, it seems, because they have generally switched to a web-based format (which is, by far, the most common way of accessing Westlaw). However, they maintain some windows software which has no current Mac equivalent. Westmate and Westcite are examples - these programs scan documents (in various formats (.doc, .rtf., .wpd), extract citations, scan westlaw for information related to those citations, and then allow for the presentation of output in a variety of formats.

As far as where software would be useful for OS X users. I think the following are all possibilities (in order of easiest/most useful to less necessary)

(1) Westlaw Service: app that merely provides a service (in the Services menu) to take the highlighted text, and do a "Find" search for it in Westlaw via the web interface. The program would need to be able to store a westlaw password (or westlaw sign-in and password, depending on the user's preferences). This much, at least, could probably be done without needed to get any permission from Westlaw at all, as it's just a matter of scripting some strings into the proper fields in a web page, and activating the right button on that web page.

(2) OS X version of Westmate/Westcite (as I described above) an app that scans a text document (Word only would probably be sufficient on OS X) for legal citations and allows for their manipulation/retrieves relevant information on those citations from Westlaw. If limited to manipulation of the cites, this would not require any permission at all from Westlaw. It would need to be able to do things like create a citation list (organized by type of authority - case, statute, treatise, etc., and then alphabetically by case name, author name, etc. - robust sorting would be necessary), create a professional looking Table of Authorities (probably in Word format) for insertion into legal documents, etc.

(3) Westlaw Basic App: the above service could be expanded to a stand-alone app, which actually retrieved and displayed the legal document cited. (It could even just be a sherlock plug-in). I'm not sure, but this might require some sort of permission from Westlaw themselves. Within the retrieved case, there could be searching, the ability to pull up linked cases, etc.

(4) Westlaw Complete App: this would be the basic app extended to allow for searching and all the other features available via the web interface to Westlaw. Searching within known databases and display of the results would be the first step with additional functionality being added incrementally.

Anyway, hope that gives you some idea what I'm looking for. You can learn more about Westlaw and what it offers through their web page: http://www.westlaw.com/ and more specifically through: http://west.thomson.com/customerservice/software/
--------------------------------------------

And a couple of things not in the email:

A study (2 years old now?) found that 25% of US attorneys use Macs, and I guaranty, they all have used/do use Westlaw. (See www.apple.com/myths)

According to the MacAttorney newsletter, Apple & Westlaw have about 6 dedicated people just working on Safari/Webcore/Webkit compatibility with westlaw (so you could use Webkit to do rendering of Westlaw info if necessary).

If anybody else wants to write this software, please feel free (the service would probably have to be free/shareware, the sherlock plug-in if done correctly, could cost a few dollars, the standalone apps pricing would be proportional to how well those apps behaved/what range of capabilities they had)

[brutal]

another thing I´d really like to see is a WMA/WMV-codec for quicktime. I hate Windows Media Player, and I don´t want it anywhere near my machine.
(Yes I´m aware of VLC, but I´d rather see a codec for QT/Itunes)

[BZ]

It would be a kick a$$ Apple data based PIM.

Take the functionality of iCal, Palm Desktop, AddressBook and wrap it all into one app.

- Calendars using iCal formatted calendars with subscribing, iSync
- Todos with categories, etc.
- Memos (like palm desktop)
- Use all the data that exists so it would be easy to switch back and forth and leverage the work that Apple does with iSyncing, mail.app
- Build in iChat awareness
- Build Applescripts to make apt, todos from mail recipients.
- Build in smart lists/folders/collections in an iTunes like format so I could have smart collections of all todos, memos, events have to do with x or where created between x and y, or have "xxx" in the name.
- Build it in cocoa and use all of the built in framework
- Build in plug in support for other features (like seeing a new comic every day when you log in).
- Build in some basic project mngmt stuff.
- Build in sharing of everthing from cals, contacts, memos, all customizable with options and all using roundevous (SP).
- Build in better contact mngmt

Basically it would be a easy, start up replacement for people who need more functionality than iCal/Addressbook/Palmdesktop, and don't want to use Office because they want to leverage the data manipulation that Apple done so well.

I would get it out the door with updates very quickly, price it around $59, make sure it works with palms for syncing (easy if you use Apple data).

Basically a best of breed PIM for OSX.

BZ

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
I'm not exactly down with all the legal intricacies, but I think that would violate the GPL. To my knowledge, any software that links with GPL code has to also be under the GPL. That's why the LGPL was created.

so a 3rd party open-source plugin can't be written for a closed-source pre-existing app? if worse comes to worst you could write an open-source app that displays the needed information and a non-GPL plugin that calls that binary and uses the information for a QT importer (right? am I off base here? because I've used (other people's) compiled GPL apps to add things to my closed-source apps before and I'd like to know if there's a problem).

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
I don't think that's the main problem people have with open-source. Having to open-source your code means that, even if Joe Schmoe can't download and compile your software, any decent rival programmer could come along, take all the work you've done and make it his own, thereby making your work less useful to you and more useful to the community. This was the whole idea behind the GPL -- it benefits the community as a whole.


I'm not exactly down with all the legal intricacies, but I think that would violate the GPL. To my knowledge, any software that links with GPL code has to also be under the GPL. That's why the LGPL was created.

The real issue is updates. If you made a GPL application, you can make money with it (just like many shareware applications. You can place nag windows etc.

Also, say "paid people get the updates first, then the rest..." etc. etc.

[djohnson]

Hmm some really good ideas so far! Keep them coming

[ThisGuy]

because this has been bugging me lately.
i am in the middle of reencoding/retagging most of my itunes library and adding album art i would love to see a utility or applescript that will do the dirty work of adding album art to my tracks automatically. i have been using Sofa, but i would love it if i didn't have to tell it to add the album art to iTunes. i wish it just did it automatically as it played.

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
so a 3rd party open-source plugin can't be written for a closed-source pre-existing app? if worse comes to worst you could write an open-source app that displays the needed information and a non-GPL plugin that calls that binary and uses the information for a QT importer (right? am I off base here? because I've used (other people's) compiled GPL apps to add things to my closed-source apps before and I'd like to know if there's a problem).

From the GPL FAQ:

Can I use the GPL for a plug-in for a non-free program?

If the program uses fork and exec to invoke plug-ins, then the plug-ins are separate programs, so the license for the main program makes no requirements for them. So you can use the GPL for a plug-in, and there are no special requirements.

If the program dynamically links plug-ins, and they make function calls to each other and share data structures, we believe they form a single program, so plug-ins must be treated as extensions to the main program. This means that linking the GPL-covered plug-in with the main program would violate the GPL.

The FSF does note that the copyright owner of the plug-in can make an exception in the license to allow closed-source apps to link with it.