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Comment by huhtenberg | Hacker News Reader

> We’re working on a new version of Prompt, though!

Ugh-oh. Not again. The last time it happened, they took the old version off the AppStore and ultimately forced everyone to re-purchase their new and shiny remake for the full price. I'm still bitter about it. You want to make a new version - fine, but taking the old one off was a real shitty move (* see EDIT below).

So despite of how it sounds, that ^ part is the exact opposite of good news.

EDIT - I misremembered, my bad. They refused to rebuild the original prompt for x64 target. That's what it was. They didn't take it off the store, they just claimed that rebuilding for 64-bit platform was such an immense hassle and monstrously complicated task that they just can't. But! Lucky for you we just happened to have this brand new version that is 64-bit. It has few things improved, but largely the same. You'll love it. $15.

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This is just the reality of iOS software development, the amount of work required to keep it working on newer versions of iOS costs more than the initial purchase from the users who then get a perpetual licence.

Only routes to sustainability is this ship new version, support it for a few months then start working on a new version that will be another purchase, or well you know subscription which I'm sure we all agree is the less preferred of the two.

I know a guy who works on a team that makes productivity apps for iOS, and there is a coupon system, but not many people use it (logistically it sounded a bit tricky).

There are ways to let someone upgrade to the new version for less than retail price, but you just don’t hear if that many people doing it.

Or maybe we don’t hear because so many apps are made by very small companies, or as a loss leader for other services. And maybe the latter should give them/us pause.

> the amount of work required to keep it working on newer versions of iOS costs more than ...

My educated guess would that this is simply not true. It's a convenient excuse, but a bullshit one. Either covering up engineering incompetence or the good old desire to sell the same thing more than once. And that's even if Prompt weren't a relatively expensive app with a large user base.

In any case, this is not my problem as their client. My fairly basic assumption is that what they sell will last a reasonable amount of time and it's entirely their headache to work out the details behind that.

It’s not engineering incompetence when the floor is constantly changing under your feet.

How many apps coded 5 years ago even run on modern iOS. Apple expects engineers to ship at least one new version a year and don’t care about backwards compatibility. Have a ton of apps on my phone that no longer launch for various reasons.

Not saying I endorse it or agree with it. Just saying this is the world Apple built and don’t intend to change.

I am not saying that iOS doesn't change in a breaking way. That's given. I am saying that the upkeep is not as expensive as you said it was.

I've lived through the W10 launch and that was a fucking dumpster fire. Still, adapting to whatever Microsoft broke with their brand new "update" wasn't that difficult even though these were genuine surprises. Things. Just. Broke. In comparison iOS changes are announced well in advance and they aren't too drastic. So while you can't compile an iOS app today and expect it to work in few years, keeping it updated is not that hard or time-consuming. Unless the code is a mess to begin with.

I don't know why you're excusing their behavior.

Apps on Android and windows run regardless of how many years ago they were written with very few exceptions.

Let's call a duck a duck: Apple choose this right because it was easier and made them more money, at the expense of their users. It's a fact. It just is.

Once again, I view this as Apple's fault. You can't release pay for upgrades, if you leave both up it confuses people.

Very few Prompt users will be confused by seeing two whole versions of the program.

You have a lot of confidence in Prompt users. I see so much whining and complaining from otherwise seemingly erudite online communities such as HN, I'm inclined to believe people who know how to use SSH and are in possession of a mobile Apple device are incapable of maintaining a state of calm when confronted with a plurality of versions of the same app in the same app store.

Panic lost their cool, and their marketing is completely stale. You are exactly right, it’s a lot of “You’ll love it”’s these days.

I used to like Coda and Coda 2, but I was more of a Mac simp back then, and didn’t realize that they literally just plopped in some other editor (can’t think of the name at the moment). Plus, the one-window workflow was just a bad idea. Especially if you have multiple monitors at your disposal.

Insane to think that they only thing they make now that has actual utility is their FTP client. Still. After all these years.

$15 doesn’t seem like so much to give for software. I understand you’d already paid, I just don’t see how panic is supposed to thrive if they can’t create new versions and get paid for the effort.

The product I work on is $10/month and worth it to many people, and by my own admission, considerably lower quality and utility than any panic product. I just can’t make it for any less, realistically.

I mean, you would still be able to access the old version in your Purchases section.

What's the alternative? Why would you leave the old version on the store? I don't understand why anyone would benefit from both (hypothetically) Prompt 2 and Prompt 3 being for sale at the same time.

So long as I can download my previously paid-for Prompt when I get and setup a new device, no problem.

It's not so much about people having to choose, it's people that bought Prompt 2 being forced to upgrade if they for example set up a new mac.

you get to redownload purchased software don't you, even if it was taken off the store from the public?

Yes, you don't lose access to purchases just because they're not still for sale.

It can be weird though. I had a hobby I kept meaning to get back to Some Day(tm) and when I did the app was on my device just like always, but I was now two devices later and it would simply crash on startup.

I’m fairly sure that at some point those devices ran low on space (less of a problem today, but mostly because I’ve been off the music treadmill for a while) and I had to delete things to keep working.

Yeah, you do. Apps routinely disappear from the AppStore, e.g. after some M&A and such. They just vanish from your purchase history without a trace. No way to get a copy if you don't have one already.

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