Stencyling Around

Making a Java app look “native” on Mac is a hard problem on many levels. I’m not talking about slapping the “Aqua” look and feel or setting the system property to make the menu bar go to the top. I’m talking about the 10 million “little things” that make a Mac app feel like one. Architecture-wise, you also end up with a mess of if-statements and refactor your code using an AbstractFactory or some other pattern to keep things clean.

I spent a good night tackling some of these “little things” and Googling around, and while each one is tiny, they add up to a much better experience, and I guarantee that you Mac users out there will find StencylWorks to be one the most Mac-friendly Java programs out there and easily the best feeling Mac game creator out there, barring Unity3D, which is a native Mac app.

For those of you who haven’t figured it out by now, I do have a MacBook Pro, which has let me do this and a lot more, so to all Mac users out there, you’re covered well and won’t feed any my users dog food like I’ve seen some others do just to rush the product out the door.