The last official word on this was from Jeremy, who is the one doing the actual coding. The plan he announced was that they were re-writing the entire application, in Swift, as another stand-alone Mac application. That does not preclude subscription pricing for that app, but nothing in Softpress’s history would hint that, either.
As a programmer (although not a desktop app programmer), I can say with painful experience that rewriting an existing piece of software always takes a very long time. Good software is “grown”, with features and capabilities added organically over time. Periodic refactoring (changing the code without changing the result of the code) is like “pruning”, which makes the application easier to extend and change. Freeway sat for a very long time without any pruning, and as a result, the task that Softpress have set for Jeremy is fairly daunting.
If I were to do it, I would not start at one end and start copying features over to the new app, one at a time. I would probably try to keep my understanding of how the old code worked from clouding my thinking, and build a tiny, nearly featureless version of the app. It would be able to create and save a document, but not generate HTML. Then I would start modeling one HTML element at a time, and see how little I could do to generate a simple page. I’d probably be tempted to release it as soon as it could make a “hello world” page with no style. But then I’d try to push ahead toward a “minimum viable product”. Something that could make a decently-styled page without too many bells or whistles.
Apple went through this with Final Cut X. The first version they released had a serious feature deficit compared with Final Cut 7. Apple persevered, though, because they had a vision of a better workflow, faster and simpler, but incompatible with then-current thinking. Pros left the platform in droves, for the more familiar Adobe Premiere platform. As Apple released further versions, and filled in the gaps, some returned. More importantly, new filmmakers came to the platform and found that it worked intuitively, since they had not been bent to the old way of thinking.
I could see people using the discontinued Adobe Muse in the same way, as a “familiar enough” crutch for Freeway 7, while a lean and minimal Freeway X gestated a little longer. Freeway didn’t get all the features it has now in one day. Even though they are all implemented in the existing code, the way you would approach that problem in the modern framework and language have changed to the point that you can’t just copy them over and expect them to work.
I’m eager to see what comes next, and I have used Jeremy’s handiwork for more than 20 years, so I know he has the chops to pull this off. Whether the market will bear the transition, that’s another thing entirely.
Walter
On Aug 2, 2018, at 1:59 AM, Rene Daveluy via freewaytalk email@hidden wrote:
Hello Everyone,
Last discussions on Freeway Talk about Softpress releasing the new Freeway version (either Freeway 8, … or Freeway X … etc), seems to date as of April 2018. The year is seriously rolling in at this time and Mac OS Mojave stands to be the last Mac OS that will support the current Freeway 7 architecture. So, well … anything on a possible new Freeway Pro release? The clock is ticking as it were… Would Softpress release something like a subscription based web building App (such as Squarespace, or Wix etc…) or most likely, as reported in some discussions, a stand alone full fledge and updated version in 64 Bit?.. Any news would be appreciated. Thank you.
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