DDSMac, LLC has taken it upon themselves to write a new Dental PM for the
Macintosh OS X platform that does that and more. It’s not just about
the clicks though as it’s more about usability of the software and
the leveraging of what the OS provides.
Apple’s basic philosophy is this… Make it as simple and elegant as
you can, then do it again and again until you can’t distill the
combination of power and simplicity any longer. The iPod is a great
example of this design philosophy. We have striven to do that with
our new application, MacDent Professional, and feel we have achieved
that milestone.
Two years ago when we started development, myself and my development
team took a long hard look at EVERYTHING out there. From Mac-based to
Windows-based products. The first comment from the programmers’ mouth
following these demos were, “That’s so 70’s”.
From a programmer’s and designer’s perspective there are several
factors which come into play when designing and creating software.
First is the interface, second is the underlying data engine and
third are the underlying tools needed to produce the product. The
order listed is not particularly significant, but every piece has to
be there.
Our basic design and implementation is defined below:
1) Apple almost demands a certain sense of perfectionism from their
developers which carries through into every piece of software
designed for the Mac. This is evident in how common menus among
different applications ALWAYS work the same. The user is not left
guessing what and how they are supposed to use something. Drag and
drop works as expected. Contextual clicking works where appropriate.
A rich set of controls is provided by the Apple API (Application
Programming Interface) that allows the programmer to include the
functionality needed within the application. But even beyond that is
the extensibility provided by the fact that every new application
written for the Mac is purely object-oriented. This means that code
can be reused throughout the system and extended in ways that are
very difficult in conventional programming systems. Objective-C was
created specifically for this purpose and melds perfectly into OS X.
I’ll discuss this more below.
As noted above, Apple is stickler for good interface design. I don’t
see this on the Windows side as developers seem to run the gamut and
produce their own interfaces much to the dismay of their users. For
you Windows users, take a good look at iTunes (on Windows) and you’ll
understand precisely what I mean. Compare it to any Windows
application and you’ll see the superiority of the Apple design
philosophy. Our design philosophy mirrors Apple’s precisely.
2) Dental data is an intricate weaving of so many entities and
relationships. Hence there was no real choice but to go with a
database engine that provided such. Even more importantly is we
wanted to retain industry standards so as to provide for easy
upgradability and extension of the system as it grew and newer
technologies come on board. We chose the Postgres SQL engine because
of this. It is an Open Source engine that is non-proprietary and is
constantly being improved by people who really care about good
software. Apple even uses it within their OS for a technology known
as Apple Remote Access.
The prime example of this, is that we can have “partners” access the
data of our application without having to know anything about our
application. In this case it is eClaims and as it goes forward it
will be for third party report generators and the like. In the end it
extends our system like no other. No longer are you strapped by a
system that is defined only by the application’s developers. The
speed of such systems is also a pleasure to behold. Using relational
methods of data interconnection, the data you request is
instantaneously available. Flat file systems as Ekram described
literally “fall flat” when speed is required. Case in point, Postgres
can process upwards of 10000 requests per second. No dental office I
know of will ever need that kind of power.
Being open source, Postgres requires no licensing fees. What this
means to our customers is that you won’t be charged additionally for
the data engine. There are several other products out there that do
impose an additional surcharge for this. In many cases there are
limits on the numbers of users as well. This is fee related and if
you exceed that number you have to pay again. So ask first before you
jump.
3) What tools are available? Are they consistent? Do they mesh well
with the OS? Let’s answer each of these individually first.
a) Apple provides the XCode development environment with EVERY
Mac. You do not have to be a developer to purchase the environment.
It is part of the OS.
b) Apple makes it (XCode) as they do the machine and the OS. The
integration is unlike anything you see anywhere. In a Windows
development environment you are strapped by the individual hardware
vendors and their own CMOS implementations. Every bit of code we
write runs the same on EVERY machine that Apple produces.
c) XCode speaks OS X’s language. The intimation needs to be seen
to be understood. From a developer’s standpoint, it’s WOW! No having
to buy a separate editor or version control package to manage code.
Multi-language support is built in. Testing tools are provided to
check for memory leaks, performance, code analysis, etc.
Apple’s API’s (Application Programming Interface) provides direct
links to the OS. Technologies that are embedded in the OS are also
available to the developers. For example, connection to digital
cameras is but a call of an internal OS function. Synchronization to
your PDA (doesn’t matter what kind) or iPod is seamless and easy to
implement. OS X Tiger introduced something known as Core Image. We
are leveraging that for our Imaging View to provide you with a mini-
Photoshop within MacDent Pro. Searching for data? Spotlight
technology is built-in. Email functionality? All applications have
access to something called AppleScript. We can literally “talk” to
other applications on your Mac and have them do things like create
emails and send them, add your day’s schedule to iCal or a selected
patient or patients to the Address Book. The list goes on and on, but
I think you all get the point.
Remember what I said about usability? That is what it’s really about.
I don’t want to have to waste time fiddling with my computer trying
to get it to work and dealing with incompatibilities. The Mac OS and
Apple’s hardware see to that. MacDent Pro see’s to your office needs
because we are a good Apple citizen.
3 clicks? Most everything in MacDent Pro is accessible with ONE click
or ONE double-click or Right-Click. Three (3) clicks is passé and old
school. Sorry Ekram, but it’s true. Interface studies have
demonstrated that delving down into 2 or more levels begins to
preclude your user from remembering just what they did to get there
ultimately resulting in lost productivity.
www.macdentpro.com
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