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477

answers:

2

If developing for the Windows .NET APIs I can augment my efforts with 100's of commerically available add-on controls, graphing APIs and other usefull stuff. Can anyone point me in the direction of similar commerical software for Mac Cocoa/Objective C development?

Additionally:

Are there enough developers to do this commercially?

The point of my question was really is the Mac developer market mature enough to support commercial developer add-ons. I know there is "Open Source"... which everything seems to default to... mainly because no one has a led the way yet. Problem with open source freeware is one day were all turn into poor thin semi unskilled homeless people who plug free things together. We deserve better!

In case you hadn't noticed in the Mac market people are willing to pay for good stuff.

I have a history of selling development tools. You don't have to just give this stuff away.

Tony

+4  A: 

The Omni Frameworks are used in commercial software, though they themselves are open-source. I doubt there are enough OS X developers to really sustain a small independent closed-source library vendor. You may be able to publish open-source libraries and sell consulting or documentation services.

Steven Huwig
+5  A: 

Most such reusable source code and frameworks that I've seen are free, not commercial. Of those, most are under a BSD or MIT license, which means that you can use them in commercial closed-source software. (A very few come under one of the GPLs, which prohibit this.)

I have a list of these, although it is vastly incomplete now. I have a longer list in OmniOutliner, along with a grand plan for a better website for presenting it.

There's also MacCode, which is a repository of reusable source code and frameworks.

Peter Hosey
GPL and LGPL don't "prohibit" use in commercial software. They impose requirements on licensees that are sometimes contrary to the goals of commercial software developers.
Chris Hanson
Right; I used the wrong adjective. I've corrected it.
Peter Hosey
The LGPL doesn't prohibit use in closed-source software, either. It mandates that the source _of the LGPL component_ be made available, and that substituting that component for an alternative be permitted. The rest of your source can be unpublished.
Graham Lee
I'm not sure I've ever seen Cocoa reusable source code and frameworks under the LGPL. I was specifically referring to the GPLs.
Peter Hosey
http://www.collaboration-world.com/cgi-bin/project/description.cgi?pid=3 Pantomime.framework is LGPL.
Graham Lee