Mac v PC AD version

[jackamus]

Does the PC version of AD have the same features as DrawPlus8 or are they only the same as the Mac version?

[Callum]

Hi Jackamus,

Affinity Designer will have some features that DrawPlus has but it doesn't have all of the features. We don't plan on adding the remaining DrawPlus features to Designer.

The features are the same across operating systems.

Thanks

Callum

[jackamus]

OK. I'll stick with DrawPlus8 for the time being.

[jackamus]

On 9/28/2018 at 8:56 AM, Callum said:

Hi Jackamus,

Affinity Designer will have some features that DrawPlus has but it doesn't have all of the features. We don't plan on adding the remaining DrawPlus features to Designer.

The features are the same across operating systems.

Thanks

Callum

Having installed Parallels so that I can use AD and DP8 on the same file I still cannot understand why DP8 features and tools are not going to be used for AD. One reason for this was that OS make it difficult. OK I accept that for the Mac version of AD but why can't DP8 features and tools be used on the Windows version of AD?

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, jackamus said:

Having installed Parallels so that I can use AD and DP8 on the same file I still cannot understand why DP8 features and tools are not going to be used for AD. One reason for this was that OS make it difficult. OK I accept that for the Mac version of AD but why can't DP8 features and tools be used on the Windows version of AD?

DrawPlus relies heavily on features which are specific to Windows. The core functionality of AD is implemented as ‘platform agnostic’ code, and then there is a UI layer on top to cater for the particular platform (Mac or Windows). This gives us feature parity and shareable files, which we would not have if the Windows version’s tools differed from those of the Mac version.

[jackamus]

I understand that but I'm trying to think outside the box so to speak. If there is a serious OS incompatibility between Mac and Windows why not offer the Windows AD with DP8 features. There must be many programs Mac/Windows programs that vary slightly in the way they work. I use a Mac version of a 'SolidWorks' reader that is different from the Windows version.

[Alfred]

2 minutes ago, jackamus said:

why not offer the Windows AD with DP8 features

There’s already a Windows program with DrawPlus features. It’s called DrawPlus!

[jackamus]

OK I saw your emoticon! But you know what I mean - DP8 doesn't have all the AD features. I would have to use both to get the drawing I require.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, jackamus said:

If there is a serious OS incompatibility between Mac and Windows why not offer the Windows AD with DP8 features.

1. This would create significant cross-platform & inter-app file sharing problems (including for the iPad versions) because there would no longer be a single 'native' Affinity file format that all the six (& soon to be seven) Affinity apps could support.
2. The Affinity apps are built on an entirely new & different code base from the Plus apps, optimized in ways not possible using the old Plus code base, so there is literally no code in the Affinity apps that could support the missing/different Plus app features.
3. As the staff have explained more than once, to add the code to the Affinity apps to support them would likely take years to complete, & probably would work no better than exporting to an interchange format from the Plus apps & importing that into the Affinity ones, which can be done now.

In short, it just isn't feasible.

[jackamus]

OK so simply converting from DPcode into the AD code is not feasible.

What is wrong with separately developing the same DP features for AD? You have already done that most of the AD features . Thesmissing DP features are very useful!

 

[R C-R]

12 minutes ago, jackamus said:

What is wrong with separately developing the same DP features for AD?

They hope to add at least some of those features, but it requires major changes to the core Affinity code, in much the same way they are making changes for the much anticipated 1.7 versions to support things not possible in the 1.6 & earlier ones.

Keep in mind that the core Affinity code is already extremely complex, in part because it is designed to run on three different operating systems while maintaining as much feature parity among them as possible; to use their built-in API's to do this where possible; to support a very carefully designed native file format with some unconventional features; & to offer a wide range of color space, vector, raster, & text features.

Every new added feature makes the code that much more complex, introduces new possibilities for bugs that have to be found & eliminated, & must not conflict with any existing ones. That takes time, sometimes lots of it.