x2y for iOS was my first app, and I’ve always been particularly proud of it. It’s come a long way in its four major iOS versions, but I hadn’t added very much to it this year. I had one small customer request (the stepper tool), but that was about all I could think to add at this point. It’s a simple tool that does its job very well. I didn’t want to tack on a bunch of extra features that no one wanted.
So I thought, rather than trying to justify some major new iOS version, the next logical move for this app would be to finally make the macOS version.
Perhaps some other iOS developers can relate to this, but simply adding a line item “Mac Version” in your task manager is not the best way to get a Mac app made. That item has been sitting in my OmniFocus for more than two years, intimidating me with the sheer scope of what it appeared to involve. It was far too easy to brush it off as something I’d have to do later, when I had more time to tackle some serious new learning.
I had done some Mac design in the past, and I’ve been using a Mac as long as I’ve been using computers, but I had never actually coded a Mac app before. I knew AppKit was going to be a challenge compared to UIKit.
But here’s the thing; the transition over to AppKit was not that bad. Consider this: I’m primarily a designer and only a part-time self-taught coder. I had very limited knowledge of Swift going into this project, having only worked with it in my two sticker pack apps. Yet I managed to build x2y for Mac, in Swift, in ten days. If I can do that, any experienced iOS developer can certainly become competent on the Mac pretty quickly.
x2y now has a spot in my Dock, and it has already proven very useful for me to be able to do aspect calculations while coding web sites, never having to change to another device or even move my hands from the keyboard of my laptop.
If you want to check out x2y for Mac, it’s available now on the Mac App Store.
If you’ve been afraid of the Mac in the past; if you’ve had a “Mac version” line item or two sitting in your task manager for a few years now, like I did; if you have this great app idea that just doesn’t make sense for iOS but would be perfect for the Mac, you should consider going for it. It’s not going to be as hard as you think. And there can never be enough great software for macOS.
