Atlas Beta Program Launched

https://atlas-beta.heroku.com/users/new

by wooby • 17 years ago

46 38 17 years ago

atlas-beta.heroku.com

icey2• 17 years ago

"Membership does not include a copy of the final version of Atlas, but we'll deduct the $20 from the final price."

Has there been any indication as to the neighborhood of the final price? I'd hate to invest a bunch of time learning a new tool to find out that it's priced outside of my budget when it releases.

boucher8• 17 years ago

We haven't set a final price yet. We're hoping to use our beta members as a sounding board for determining the right price point.

It's worth noting that all of the stuff Atlas builds is still usable without Atlas, though there will be no way to edit it without Atlas.

Of course, most of the editing technology is also open source, so building a cib2nib (the reverse of our nib2cib) should be very possible, and give you alternatives.

icey2• 17 years ago

I think it looks like a really cool product; I definitely want to use it. You guys are making the right decision by charging for it for sure. My only concern is that I don't know how 280 North views pricing, so it gives me a little bit of pause.

Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing how it shapes up - good luck!

shib712• 17 years ago

How is a signup form meant to be interesting? Perhaps I'm just out of the loop, but the only thing I know about Atlas now is that it's associated with Heroku and it will cost more than $20. That's not enough.

boucher8• 17 years ago

We're just hosted on heroku. If you'd like more info, there are a few videos available on http://280atlas.com

Don't worry though, this is a beta, and it's meant for people who already know what Atlas is and already want it.

shib712• 17 years ago

Thanks. A blog post or something when you guys were ready would be great. But this link is a bit premature and not very interesting.

barrkel2• 17 years ago

Forgive my complete cluelessness, but what is "Atlas Beta"? I can't find any simple explanation for what this actually is.

wooby• 17 years ago

http://280atlas.com/

abossy• 17 years ago

I was wondering the same thing. From the actual website:

"Atlas is a development tool for building Cappuccino applications.

In addition to managing your project files and editing code, it includes a powerful visual layout tool for designing your interfaces without ever having to touch code.

Designers are empowered to interact with their designs instantly, which means programmers get to finished applications faster."

martey• 17 years ago

This confused me as well. http://280atlas.com/what.php says:

Atlas is a development tool for building Cappuccino applications.

barrkel2• 17 years ago

Ah, and Cappuccino is apparently a clone of Apple's Cocoa in Javascript, using a preprocessor for Javascript called Objective J.

icefox• 17 years ago

Sadly this seems to be more and more the norm. Someone launches their Foozwall product and a link gets on HN, but the website's page doesn't actually tell you what the Foozwall is.

marbletiles• 17 years ago

I've been playing with this tonight. I had absolutely no problem paying for the beta - I've paid Microsoft and Apple for betas and they need the cash a lot less than these guys.

That said, I wouldn't quite recommend it if you're on the fence or just want a quick intro to Cappuccino. It is a beta -- there are a lot of polish issues with the cocoa app, there are some bugs, and these are understandable. But the biggest problem of all is the total dearth of documentation. There is a class guide, there are some non-Atlas tutorials, and that's about it. So, for instance, my app template comes up by default with a menubar, but there's no obvious way I can see to remove or edit it. MainMenu.cib has no menu in it, so I can't even see how to make connections to it and there's nothing to read to find out.

It's definitely impressive -- that they've done this in JS and running in a browser is a little marvel. However, I'm pretty used to Xcode and Interface Builder, and in comparison it's really not there. Trying to work with multiple embedded split-views really highlighted the differences: it's tricky enough in IB, and proved almost impossible here. That they've achieved so much does mean that you're into uncanny valley territory; if it looks like a cocoa app, I want it to work like one too.

However, the things I could figure out how to do, worked well. I defined outlets and actions, hooked them up, and was basically thinking and coding exactly as I would in Cocoa and Objective-C. Nifty.

It has got a fair way to go, but I think they well might get there. If you're already working with Cappuccino and don't need documentation, it could well be worth your time.

boucher8• 17 years ago

Thanks for the feedback. Accurate assessment. This is definitely still too early to use for most people. We're not really trying to push the beta, we're just looking for dedicated users to help give us great feedback.

eob2• 17 years ago

Congrats you guys on launching the beta. I've been following Cappuccino for a while and, while I'm still on the fence about it as a developer, it is certainly an impressive technical feat.

WesleyJohnson• 17 years ago

I was really looking forward to signing up for the beta this evening, but unfortunately I'm on Windows and the beta is currently Mac only.

I'm surprised that more people haven't heard of 280 North or Objective-J and Cappuccino in general. I would consider myself moderately inclined when it comes to technology and I had heard of Cappuccino close to a year ago. I watched the demo of Atlas some weeks back and I was really impressed with what they've accomplished.

I think they're doing the right thing by charging for the beta. It's a small team of guys doing the development and I'm sure they could use the money. Not to mention, if you're paying for a beta then you've likely been following the development, have serious intent on using the technology long term and will likely contribute more than a casual user would - which from what I gather is exactly the target market they're after.

Looking forward to windows support in the coming month(s).

Atlas Beta Program Launched

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