Delay in catapult release is creating HUGE stagnation in development and adoption

General Discussion
#1

We are a development team that specializes in blockchain development in Pakistan. We do a lot of work on Ethereum and are looking at nem for some applications that we have in mind. But one of the greatest blocks in doing so is the delay in catapult release.

Obviously we do not want to develop software built on the current release which would be rendered useless once catapult releases.

We find it futile to spend time and effort on developing software such as advanced mobile wallets, exchanges, application specific apps, etc since nem has announced that catapult will be launched soon (actually it was to be launched last year - so it should be due to be out really soon now).
All efforts will be laid waste once catapult launches and hence it does not make any sense for the community to develop better software for nem.

So in a way the catapult delays are leading to a huge stagnation in business and tech adoption. Hope Catapult is released soon on the public network so development teams can start building awesome applications on it.

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#2

There was no delay. It was released for private chains and that was the plan for 2017. Public release is and was always supposed to be 2018, not sure exactly when.
Why are you assuming everything will be futile ?
Why are you so sure that the APIs will be THAT different ?
Why aren’t you having the same problem with ETH where some major changes are coming ?

#3

I am not assuming that it will be THAT different - the nem team has been saying that it is a total rewrite and the feature set announced are totally different from the current one.

Also the core sdk is in java and the new one will be in c++ , so if we do dev work in in java, we cannot be sure that the new sdk will have some sort of a java sdk which will provide the same interface that is currently used.

Frankly dev work is expensive and no serious developer can invest time and money on an api without being sure it will work with a radical re-write of the platform.

Maybe some assurance of backward compatibility from the developers of nem will help. I could not see any such assurance - maybe there is and I do not know about it. Anyone?

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#4

I can’t image that API will be incompatible. New features and bug fixes of course will be but API should be backward compatible. Only NIS code will be rewrite.

#5

Hi! Have found this; not sure if it’s still valid and the post is quite old, but I would say that it is a must to support the current NIS APIs for a while. Every single tool and solution is based on this today.

#6

Thanks. As you said - this is quite old (from 2016) so we cannot use that as a basis to make a decision on using the current sdk for development work. It is a big re-write in a totally different language so we need to be certain. Any other links anyone?

Also there would be an issue of support and bug fixes - There would be less support for the current codebase after the release of catapult.

No development team would like to invest hundreds of thousands of $$ to develop software that becomes obsolete within days of launching it!

The core dev team should clarify the current position and/or release some beta version on the public testnet to developers so that it can be tested and developers can start developing on the new codebase. If it is going to be delayed further, then it should be known so that the community can start building applications on the current codebase OR There should be some firm date announced so we all can wait and use some other blockchain for solutions that our clients need.

This uncertainty is dangerous since it is leading to stagnation in development and thus further avenues of adoption remain un-explored.

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#7

I’m in the same boat you are, I also plan to develop some (smaller) blockchain based application and will probably do that based on NEM. Although my account on the forum is new, I’m following NEM for a while. My experience is:
They are quiet about the development, features and timelines but the result until now always had a high quality and was beyond my expectations. The developers are highly experienced and every aspect, up to now, is always thought out well.
I do understand that it is time critical to wait for valid Catapult details and timelines. I for myself decided (98% sure) to go with NEM. I will use the standard NIS APIs for my core functions (and it’s wrappers that are availalbe in different languages).
I can’t imagine that those won’t be available in the Catapult release. I will delay any additional features and start with the implementation once more details are known about Catapult. I also hope for some advanced features to be available that I can use without having the need to implement everything by my own.

But this may just apply for my projects. Depending on the size of your projects I understand the requirement of additional information, which will be made available, but not right now.

I feel more comfortable to (trustfully) wait and know that something solid is coming instead of always getting hyped by solutions that make big buzz but if you look at it it’s crap and you know it will stay crap.

Don’t know if it helps, just my 2 cents - eh Xemmies (or what is the smallest amount called?).

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#8

Hello.

When they are saying that the NIS legacy API requests will be supported they mean
that this API requests https://nemproject.github.io/
which are language agnostic will be supported.

#9

That is correct. But the language agnostic ones have very limited application and cannot be used on the client side at least since many api calls need the private key to be sent over with the api call which is insecure. Even on the server side there are many security related issues which prevent developers from using a lot of them.

There is no word on the core sdk backward compatibility. The core sdk is the sdk that most developers would want to use - at least on the non-js client side - esp for native mobile and desktop apps.
The core sdk is in java right now and i cant seem to find any guarantees from nem if that will remain the same.

Also there is going to be an issue of support and bug fixes for the current version once catapult launches.

So I guess it is best to stay away from investing in nem applications for the time being and use neo or ethereum or lsk or some other platform till catapult is released. So that our applications do not become obsolete within days of we releasing it!

Catapult can change that and bring back developers but it all depends when it will be released. If other platforms release better versions and associated toolsets before that then it might be difficult for nem to compete at that stage.

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#10

You’re over-dramatizing this.
As a developer I’ve worked with tons of 3rd-party APIs and I could never be sure they wouldn’t change. It’s the nature of working with 3rd-parties.
If I use mailchimp to send emails, I can’t be sure that the APIs won’t change next week in some slight way or next year in major ways. I expect them to tell me about it in advance and I predict that is exactly would the nem devs will do. What more can you ask ? Development of the public chain has obviously not finished yet. Once it has, I’m confident they will lay out all the details and provide a clear guide on how to upgrade legacy apps.
If you don’t plan to maintain your app, don’t use 3rd-party APIs, it’s that simple.
And for the record, just beacause you don’t know about changes coming to say ETH doesn’t mean they won’t come. They got some major upgrades in the works and you have no clue what that could entail.