Re: Why, there IS a ballistic app for Windows Phone!
I think you're being hypercritical of another's product. And while I can't understand what on Earth is holding Jonathan from correcting his reverse wind input - I'd be the first to admit and remind that his app rocks, is very convenient to use, and established a good reputation. Your app appears nice from the screenshots you posted, so let it stand on its own.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">2) It could have used haptic (vibratory) feedback instead. My app does that when starting and ending the LOS set. As soon as the user feels that initial buzz he knows he can aim the device. A second buzz confirms it is set.</div></div>
How does it work if the device is mounted in that KAC mount on the rifle?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I'm also not a fan of cramming everything possible into an app for a mobile device. While charts and databases are nice for analyzing ballistic potential, that's something I'd rather do on a larger screen and have never even seen the need to bring a laptop or tablet to the range. Also, my design goals with Ballistica were to make it accurate and fast to both load and provide a firing solution.</div></div>
I am a huge fan of having everything at hand, <span style="font-weight: bold">particularly when it doesn't take any extra physical weight and space</span>. If I don't need something from that set - I don't use it, no big deal. The real problem is when I need something right here right now - and it's not there because either myself or somebody else found it cute to be "minimalistic" and not to include what he thought "unnecessary". <span style="font-style: italic">Example: my iPhone stores a large library of books. Do I need all of them when I travel? No. Is it more convenient to read from the iPhone screen than from a real book? No. But the convenience of having access to any of those books makes up for these inconveniences, and it costs me nothing to carry that library with me - so I keep them there.</span>
I find it exceedingly convenient that I can use that one small device for many purposes, in the field and in the hotel room, without the need to lag my 17" laptop. I can view charts, graphs, compare performance of different rounds, and the next morning use the very same device in the field in HUD mode to quickly figure the correction for different targets. And I'm very happy that Shooter also offers me these required capabilities.
Your design philosophy is different, and it's fine. Just don't try to make this difference into a virtue, and your tastes - into universal standard or measuring stick.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Performance-wise, when launching, resuming, loading a saved profile, calculating a firing solution for a single distance or a drop chart, everything runs faster than Ballistic does on an iPhone 4 (which is the latest iPhone I could compare it to).</div></div>
We've already been there in a different thread. It's nice to be faster - but since we're talking a few seconds most, who gives a damn? So your program is a second or two (or three!) faster, enjoy your programming skill. Ballistic FTE on 3GS is fast enough for me, thank you. I measured it on iPhone 3GS (the slowest): for 338 Lapua, including every correction and going to 2000m with 25m step - it took 4 seconds from the moment I pressed "Calculate Trajectory" till the complete table appeared on the screen.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Not to pick on Ballistic for iOS too much, but I also feel that the inclusion of both a Zero Atmosphere and a Current Atmosphere are a) unnecessary for anyone using a 100-200 yard zero and b) have caused more confusion than good results (judging by the number of posts on that subject on the 'Hide).</div></div>
I for one applaud the author for including that capability. If you don't need it - don't use it. Just pretend it's not there for you. And IMHO anybody who's confused by it shouldn't be let near the rifle until that confusion is removed.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Also, another source of confusion was the inclusion of an option to choose between "Army" or "USMC" mils. IMO, the author should have known that rifle scopes are based on the standard definition of a milliradian and left it at that.</div></div>
1. That's one of the very few options that I don't find useful. So I set it to USMC, pretend it's not there any more, and use the program happily every after.
2. Trigonometric definition of one "mil" - that coincidentally is the one USMC uses - is approximately 1/6283th of a circle (as circle is 2000pi milliradians), which is about 3.438 MOA. The Army however used to use 1 mil = 3.375 MOA (1/6400th of a circle). The shape and size of the dots of the Mil-Dot reticle also differed between the Army and USMC. Check
here for some details (it also lists which scopes had Army dots, and which ones - USMC). <span style="font-style: italic">Caveat: the current Army manual uses 1 mil = 3.438 MOA ratio, thus adopting USMC/trigonometric standard, rather than their old one.</span>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Another nitpick is that, unlike with Android or Windows Phone, iOS users have to quit the app and go to iOS' global settings, find the app settings for that particular app and change settings there, rather than from within the app itself. Apple obvious does many things right since they have about $100 billion more in cash than I do, but that is still an odd thing. </div></div>
It's Apple design. Android doesn't have a separate "Setting" and allows config changes from within the applications. It isn't that one is better than the other, just different philosophies. I found that I can successfully use both, without complaining about either one.
You can pick nits all you want. In the end - you like Windows Phone, so you wrote a program for it to do what you think a ballisticomp should do. Enjoy. I wouldn't touch a Windows Phone with a 10-ft pole, so I use FTE on iPhone, and Shooter on Android (and KAC Bullet Flight on both). To each his own.