tcMenu - menu designer 2.1 has been released

We have now released version 2.1 of the menu design software TcMenuDesigner. For all users it is now downloaded from GitHub instead of acquiring from the App Store. We notarize for Mac, package for Linux, and have an extended validation certificate for Windows deployments. So it should be quite easy to install for most.

We initially thought getting it in the App Stores was what people wanted. However, most people seemed either neutral or negative to tcMenuDesigner being installed from the App Store. Further, even really popular developer apps with many users struggle to achieve a rating of 3. Now I know why, it’s really hard with a complex like tcMenu Designer to ensure something won’t break when it auto upgrades, so you end up just not updating it very often, because the risks are too great, with the user unable to revert to a prior version.

From this point on, we recommend people move to the new 2.1 packaged release, reporting any UX / UI / Generator problems found either in the designer 2.1 thread on the forum or on GitHub as an issue. There should be no missing features in version 2.1.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the store concept, the app store is the perfect place for most apps aimed at consumers, and in the next month or two you’ll probably see our embedCONTROL app for IoT control of menus appear there, as it completely suits app store deployment, but the complex file system security models and inability to upgrade do not suit development applications.