Interview: Whitney Young, Developer of Senuti

I got a chance to ask a few questions to Whitney Young, the developer of Senuti. Here is the interview:

When did you first start developing? How long have you used a Mac, and why did you decide to develop for the platform over Windows?

I guess my first development was on a Ti-83 calculator. I played around with it during math class because I was bored. Clearly nothing all that interesting came out of that.

I’ve used a Mac since I can remember. I used old Apple-IIe’s in school at some point. At home we had an IBM with DOS on it for a little while, but after that it was pretty much always a Mac. I convinced my parents to get an iMac (strawberry) when we needed a computer for our family. The reason I thought it would be better then a Windows machine was that I’d always tinkered around with our Macs in the past, so I knew what was going on and would know how to fix any issues with it.

My initial reason for developing for a Mac over Windows was because I didn’t have a Windows machine. My reason developing for a Mac now is because I still don’t have a Windows machine. If I did have a machine that could run Windows, I’d wipe it clean and install Linux, so I probably won’t be developing for Windows any time soon (unless it’s for work).

How did you first learn to code? What apps do you use to develop?

I first started learning how to program with higher level languages after my Junior year of high school. I always wanted to learn how to make applications for my computer, so I borrowed a C++ book from a friend and taught myself C++ over the summer. I learned Objective-C and Cocoa at the same time because I wanted to make applications that could run on my computer.

I use XCode for Cocoa applications. I don’t really like it that much, though. It leads to a cluttered work place.

I use TextMate (http://www.macromates.com/) for any other development. I love TextMate. It’s the best software purchase I’ve made to date.

How do you decide which apps to create?

I create applications that I will use. If I wouldn’t use it, why would anyone else?

If I think of a good idea, I first think about how often I would use it. If it’s not something that I would use a lot I don’t even bother to write the idea down.

What is your development process? Do you work on an app one at a time? How often and for how long do you work?

I try to work on my projects as much as possible. Being a student, though, it’s hard to find time sometimes. Generally I try to work on one thing at a time, but recently I’ve found myself jumping around a bit.

What do you think of promotions like MacAppADay and MacHeist? Are they effective? Are they a good thing?

To be honest, I haven’t heard of them. After looking them up, I realize why I haven’t heard of them. I don’t charge for my software. These sites are about giving away software at a lesser price or free. I give away free software every day.

Do I think they’re effective? Most likely. I know the reason that my applications have become popular is simply because they are free, so these sites probably help promote the applications a lot by basically giving away the software.

Do I think they’re a good thing? I think there is good and bad in them. MacAppADay’s website is ‘under new management,’ so I’ll comment on what I read from MacHeist. I use one of the applications from the last MacHeist bundle, TextMate. It’s a great application. I’m glad that I paid for it in full. I think the author deserves every cent I paid him because it’s an amazing application that has significantly increased my productivity. Of the other applications, there’s not one that I would use, so it wouldn’t have saved me any money. It’s such a random assortment of applications, that I think few people would use more than 2 of them. Another good thing is that 25% of your purchase is given to charity, which is great. I give a percentage of money generated by Fadingred.org donations to charity, too. This leads me to the bad, though. $200,000 was raised for charity, which means that $800,000 was raised. If each author agreed to give away unlimited licenses for a day (or whatever period the heist is run for) in order to make a quick $20,000, that’s still only $200,000 that MacHeist has to give back to the authors leaving them with a profit of nearly $400,000. I guess that’s not really a bad thing. It’s just not something that I support.

What do you think of Cha-Ching in regards to competition to your app Cashbox? Will you continue to upgrade it?

Cha-Ching looks like an interesting alternative to Cashbox. At this point, it looks better than Cashbox, but I have an extreme update to Cashbox in progress. Whether or not it’s better makes little difference. Choice is great for users. Users having more alternatives to Quicken and Excel is a very good thing.

Which was your favorite app to develop? Which was the easiest?

My favorite to develop is Senuti. There are a lot of challenges with Senuti. I like a good challenge. The easiest to develop is hard to say. iColors is the simplest, but it was one of the first applications that I wrote, so it was hard to me then. I’m in the process of rewriting both Cashbox and Senuti. I’m changing a lot of the code behind the applications. I’ve learned a lot since I started the applications and realize that I made a lot of poor design decisions in the past. They work just fine, but to me there is a lot of room for improvement. There’s always room for improvement which is what makes it fun!

What are your favorite apps to use?

My favorite to use is Cashbox. I use it daily. I’m really looking forward to finishing the next version and using that.

What do you think of Leopard? Will you take advantage of any of the new features for you apps?

Leopard looks neat. I’ll reserve judgement until using it. Apple likes to make a huge deal about new things. It’s hard to say anything until getting your hands dirty.

What are your favorite hobbies? You say on your website you like photography. Tell us a little about that. What do you like to shoot and what sort of camera do you have? Do you have a Flickr page?

I have a D70s which I haven’t gotten as much of an opportunity to use as I would like. It’s a little too cold out these days to go spend a lot of time outside. No Flickr page, sorry. I also like playing guitar and cooking. They’re all just hobbies, though. I’m not really all that good at any of them.

Do you have any plans for upcoming apps? Any chance you’ll give us a sneak peek?

I have plans, yes. I hope you’ll get to see some of them. Can’t give away all of my creative ideas, though.

One plan that I do have is to write a book about how to program. I don’t know when I’ll find the time to write it, but I think that there should be a free resource out there for people to learn how to program. A lot of books do a very poor job explaining the basics of programming. I also think it would be a good experience – trying to put into clear, concise words everything that I’ve learned through the years.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. For anyone interested in Whitney’s apps, you can see what he’s created here.