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Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-04 18:33:47
by loulesko
…plus the popularity of plain text, minimalist editors…
Nisus really outpaces a lot of other writing software because it is spectacularly extensible and adaptable. This is why Nisus will soldier on and continue to grow. Ultimately we writers will need the ability to do many, as yet unknown things with our words as we type our way into the future. Nisus is perfectly positioned to do that with its easy-to-use features and its reliability. (In my six years of daily use I can count the number of times Nisus has crashed on one hand.)

My feeling is that the popularity of the plain text writing movement using the clever Markdown syntax is driven by writers who mostly publish online. I also feel that writers who like to tinker have an affinity for using plain text and one of the excellent preview/output tools like the Marked App.

Before I bought Nisus Writer Pro I did all my writing in a plain text editor called BBEdit. I filed my stories via email and, as many plain text advocates point out, my work was compatible across operating systems and the all the content systems of the all the different magazines.

When I switched Nisus I found that its RTF file type was equally as compatible and I had the advantage of carrying over my style choices, comments etc. When a publisher has had a special requirement, or, as was the case with my last book, I had to manage two other authors beside myself, Nisus’ macro feature and robust find/replace engine truly saved my fanny. In another instance I had to fill in at the last minute to write a short scene for two actors. Because Nisus’ style sheets are so easy to work with it only took 15 minutes to put together a screenplay style sheet that worked flawlessly.

At the end of the day don’t get religiously attached to process philosophy otherwise known as “workflow.” Writers write, procrastinators fiddle. Find one software and learn it inside and out. The less time you spend thinking about your software the more time you’ll have to produce excellent content. I’m a huge advocate of Nisus Writer Pro because it does words very well and easily outputs them in a vast myriad of ways. Which means no matter where I am published, Nisus Writer will be able deliver my work.

Nisus is eternally viable.

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-09 08:01:33
by Timotheus
But what wonders, and irritates, me most of all is the absolute and prolonged silence about Nisus' future maintained by the developers. The last update worth the name dates back to at least three, perhaps even four years ago. They should at least have the decency to tell their clients what they're up to: if they are still determined to give Nisus a future, or if Nisus will more or less stay as it now, and can therefore more or less be considered abandon ware.

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-09 08:31:12
by ptram
We asked Apple for four years about the future of Pages.
Then, the new mini-Pages arrived.

Sometimes, it is better not to ask! :)

Paolo

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-09 10:41:56
by loulesko
Paolo, I agree.

Lou

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-09 11:46:47
by Timotheus
Yes, it is of course possible that sooner or later Nisus's developers will give us a very pleasant surprise. Yet I vastly prefer the openness and the regular updates which characterize applications like Scrivener, Launchbar, Devonthink, 1Password and others to the standstill and the silence of Nisus.

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-09 22:11:40
by MacSailor
Nisus is not the only one that is working in silence, both Apple (Pages mentioned above) and Redlers (Mellel) are more or less license of the development of their products.

I would prefer more openness as well, but that's their decisions and I'm having high hopes that they will positively surprise us sooner or later with some great updates of their product.

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-10 06:22:46
by Hamid
MacSailor wrote:...I'm having high hopes that they will positively surprise us sooner or later with some great updates of their product.
That seems more likely:
Nisus Writer Pro 2.1 is currently in private beta. We do not have a timetable for its release, but we hope to have it out before the release of OS X 10.10. It will be a free update to all who have purchased a license for Nisus Writer Pro 2.x. Lastly, iCloud support is available to those who purchased from the Mac App Store, per Apple’s rules. If you upgrade to OS X 10.10 this fall iCloud Drive should be available to everyone.
Nisus® Software Newsletter August 31, 2014 http://www.nisus.com/news/newsletter/nl140831.php

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-10 09:01:39
by Timotheus
I didn't know that. That's excellent news!

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-11 11:59:37
by greenmorpher
2.1 from 2.07 doesn’t sound like a big upgrade -- maybe just an update to keep up with Apple;s OS changes. Tgey did announce that X.6.8 would no longer be supported which leaves me out.

That's fine except for the fact that the tables function is still not what it should be in my view. Apart from that, I don’t need anything more.

But heavens, that was private beta 5 months ago! Is Nisus down to one engineer working part-time or something?

cheers, geoff

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-12 00:07:37
by Tacitus
greenmorpher wrote:2.1 from 2.07 doesn’t sound like a big upgrade -- maybe just an update to keep up with Apple;s OS changes. [...SNIP...]
But heavens, that was private beta 5 months ago! Is Nisus down to one engineer working part-time or something?
cheers, geoff
I think you're underestimating the changes to Nisus which are needed to keep up with changes in OSX. For example, I have no doubt that the need for sandboxing will have caused some pretty extensive code rewrites with the added complications that will bring.

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-12 02:30:42
by ptram
At the same time, sandboxing means Continuity, that may be nice for users of both desktop and notebook Macs. And – don't you smell iPads, when reading "iCloud"?

Paolo

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-12 03:08:51
by ngazidja
Let's not forget either that Apple has a good track record of discontinuing software and walking away, leaving people (such as me) with files they can no longer open (Claris Works, Apple Works, iWeb, etc.). I'll stick with Nisus, thanks.

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-12 23:54:25
by greenmorpher
ptram wrote:At the same time, sandboxing means Continuity, that may be nice for users of both desktop and notebook Macs. And – don't you smell iPads, when reading "iCloud"?

Paolo
iPads? Is anyone till using them? Talk about behind the wave! :)

cheers, geoff

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-13 06:57:27
by ptram
greenmorpher wrote:iPads? Is anyone till using them? Talk about behind the wave! :)
Well, I know of a writer (or two) who have purchased the thing. :)

Admittedly, Apple no longer supporting RTF is sort of a boycott for many text editor developers. And a disaster for future archiving: reading binary DOCs will not be always easy (or even possible), while RTF content will be always accessible, being just plain text with a lot of control code. Even Nisus compressed format will be easy to access, being just zipped RTF.

Paolo

Re: Future viability of Nisus

Posted: 2015-01-13 11:32:29
by loulesko
I used my iPad for a few articles last year. It wasn't bad, but every time that I sat down to my laptop I moved through my assignment much more quickly, mostly because there's no cutting and pasting frustration. Additionally, I had no idea how much I rely on using comments for notes, sort of an advanced TK, especially because Nisus' comments hold links.

I'm interested in Paolo's comment about Apple not supporting RTF. Was this an announcement or and observation?

Thanks
Lou