NW for iPad?

Everything related to our flagship word processor.
JBL
Posts: 170
Joined: 2003-04-25 14:33:59

Re: NW for iPad?

Post by JBL »

Me too. Please Nisus, give me a reason to give you money!
MacSailor
Posts: 290
Joined: 2003-04-03 08:38:41
Location: Linköping, Sweden

Re: NW for iPad?

Post by MacSailor »

During the WWDC, Apple announced that it will be possible to use iOS applications in the macOS environment as on the iPhone and the iPad. The question is now, will it be possible to do opposite as well, i.e. be able to use a future version (an ARM friendly version of Nisus Writer Pro) also on the iPad?
Peter Edwardsson
..............................
waltzmn
Posts: 50
Joined: 2013-05-05 12:52:00

Re: NW for iPad?

Post by waltzmn »

I agree with those who would like to give Nisus Software money, because I want to keep the company and their software around.

But I find myself wondering. Obviously the new Macs, and Catalyst, should make it easier to bring NisusWriter to the iPad. But porting a program requires more than just re-compiling code. Even with all its recent updates, iOS is not Mac OS, and the tools available in each are quite different. It seems to me that a lot of what makes NW Pro "pro" -- macros, in particular -- are going to have to be really retooled for iOS. And I doubt many people with iPads will want that ability. If you want a machine that does real work, you don't buy an iPad!

Having NW Express on the iPad makes sense. But I wonder about Pro.

No need for an answer from Nisus Software; I'm sure they have a lot of recompiling to do. :-) Just some thoughts on what we should wish for. (Me, I'm wishing that Apple hadn't decided to kill off FileMaker Developer just weeks before moving to ARM. More than a decade of coding down the tubes, since there will no longer be a working way to distribute Mac runtimes -- at least not fast, reliable ones.)
User avatar
martin
Official Nisus Person
Posts: 5227
Joined: 2002-07-11 17:14:10
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:

Re: NW for iPad?

Post by martin »

MacSailor wrote: 2020-06-26 09:47:45 During the WWDC, Apple announced that it will be possible to use iOS applications in the macOS environment as on the iPhone and the iPad. The question is now, will it be possible to do opposite as well, i.e. be able to use a future version (an ARM friendly version of Nisus Writer Pro) also on the iPad?
WWDC certainly has been exciting this year! It's going to be interesting to see how the switch to Apple Silicon progresses. I'm looking forward to seeing some real performance benchmarks and battery life data once the first ARM-based Mac ships later this year.

But the quick answer is no, the announcements at WWDC 2020 do not help anyone with an existing macOS app run it on iOS or iPadOS. The forthcoming Macs with Apple Silicon may be able to run iOS apps without modification, but there's nothing that helps in the other direction. It's likewise with Catalyst, which only helps port an iOS app to macOS, not from macOS to iOS.

The only thing Apple released that helps port apps to iOS is SwiftUI. You can create apps using SwiftUI that run on macOS or iOS. SwiftUI may be elegant, but it's also immature. It's only now gaining features that have been available to Mac developers for decades.

Ultimately Nisus Writer is a sophisticated piece of software that has a lot of existing code and features that would need to be carefully reconsidered for use on iPads and iPhones. There's no magic checkbox in Apple's developer tools for that.
cashdollar
Posts: 17
Joined: 2011-11-27 09:05:10

Re: NW for iPad?

Post by cashdollar »

Thanks for addressing this directly Martin. I for one have pined for a Nisus lite for the iPad, but as the iPadOS and the hardware has progressed, that might no longer be satisfactory to most users. I've always appreciated how clean Nisus handled text and it's interface (I've grown to prefer NW Pro to NW 6.5). Hopefully, Apple will provide the tools to make it easier to port, because I increasingly jump from device to device.
spitfire31
Posts: 7
Joined: 2009-11-15 19:26:03

Re: NW for iPad?

Post by spitfire31 »

Another voice in the choir for, at least as a starter for testing the water, a Nisus Writer Express level WP for iPad.

I'll get my iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard in a couple of weeks and I really need a WP that I'm used to and that would be file compatible via iCloud with Nisus Writer Pro, my main axe together with Scrivener.

Please! It's time.

Kind regards,

Joachim
JBL
Posts: 170
Joined: 2003-04-25 14:33:59

Re: NW for iPad?

Post by JBL »

I don't know if I am the only one, but I would settle for something really simple. Just so long as I can read and edit the text in my Nisus files without screwing up the formatting when I open them on my Mac.
maurerc
Posts: 46
Joined: 2003-04-28 07:19:23

Re: NW for iPad?

Post by maurerc »

I quite agree with JBL.
Post Reply