- You linked me to a source control repository instead of a product page.
- There's a download button, but it seems to want to give me source code.
- reading comments here, it seems that the source is actually only compilable on a Mac.
In short, you have not produced an App. Even if I wanted to use your product, and had the right system to use it on, I couldn't.
If you want this to be software the people use, you'll need to register a domain name and build a site for it. That site will need to describe what it does (which, incidentally, your github description fails to do), and provide me with a prominent Download button that links to an installer or at least an executable.
Once you do that, please post it back here, and I'll be happy to give you feedback.
Have you never downloaded apps from SourceForge, Google Code, GitHub, etc? It's really not that unusual or difficult.
There's a download button, but it seems to want to give me source code.
No, the download button gives you PNGSquash.tar.gz, which contains PNGSquash.app, the application, not source code. Since you are opening it on an operating system other than OS X, it opens like a directory when double clicked. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APP_(file_format)
reading comments here, it seems that the source is actually only compilable on a Mac.
Yes, it is a Mac app - at the top of the page it says "Description: A PNG compressor app for OS X." And no, it does not require compiling if you download the binary (the huge "Download" link next to the logo).
In short, you have not produced an App.
Yes he has. Witness all of the comments from folks who have used it.
Even if I wanted to use your product, and had the right system to use it on, I couldn't.
You could learn to do it in a few seconds: http://guides.macrumors.com/Installing_Applications_in_Mac_O...
That site will need to describe what it does (which, incidentally, your github description fails to do)
Again, at the very top of the page: "Description: A PNG compressor app for OS X."
provide me with a prominent Download button that links to an installer or at least an executable.
That is already the case.
Here, for a counterexample, is the homepage for a different open source software product:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html?from=getfi...
You'll notice some key differences. That page describes exactly what the software does and how it will benefit me as a user. It includes a prominent link to an installer right off the page.
That's what the public face of a software product should look like. That's the message I was trying to convey to the original poster. Dropping potential users off at Github is a dead-end for most of them. An explanation as to why can be found here:
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/03/07/how-to-successfully-comp...
I have registered a domain name (http://pngsquash.com), but it currently just redirects to the github page because I thought that was adequate.
Definitely put up a real site for this if you care about it.
Although I guess I can just chain the 4 compressors myself on the command line...
A similar tool is ImageOptim http://pornel.net/imageoptim/en , an open souce GUI for the following PNG / JPG optimizers: AdvPNG, OptiPNG, PngCrush, JpegOptim, jpegtran, and optionally PNGOUT.
Just curious about PNGOUT - did you get permission to bundle it with your app? Their license http://www.advsys.net/ken/utils.htm#pngoutkziplicense seems pretty restrictive: "Redistributing, repackaging, or reusing the PNGOUT or KZIP executable is prohibited without the express consent of Ardfry Imaging, LLC, and a formal business agreement."
Is this good or bad? One possible speedup I could use is to compress more than one image at a time, although the progress indicator would probably have to become asynchronous.
Just curious about PNGOUT - did you get permission to bundle it with your app? Their license http://www.advsys.net/ken/utils.htm#pngoutkziplicense seems pretty restrictive: "Redistributing, repackaging, or reusing the PNGOUT or KZIP executable is prohibited without the express consent of Ardfry Imaging, LLC, and a formal business agreement.
No I didn't, thanks for pointing this out. I'll remove it for now; didn't realize their license had that restriction. That's pretty lame :\.
Also, I think that having it finish quicker is >> correctly indicated timeline.
Feature suggestion: Tell me which of the 4 compressors gave the best result.
Also, since the point of testing 4 png compressors is to get the smallest size possible, why not use "smallest" as the default setting?
This is a good idea, but I can't technically do this currently. The compressors are run one after another (it's essentially like "pngcrush infile outfile && optipng outfile && advpng outfile && pngout outfile"), so there is no real "best result", it just gets a bit smaller each time.
Also, since the point of testing 4 png compressors is to get the smallest size possible, why not use "smallest" as the default setting?
That's a good point, I've just committed the change :)
Thanks for the suggestions!
I like PNGSquash and I think I'll use it to optimize all my images. The only features I'd like included that ImageOptim does have are the ability to drag a folder into the window, so I don't have to pick out the pngs from a project I'm working on, and an auto-updater. Growl support would be nice as well.
For an auto-updater framework I like Sparkle a lot: http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/
Also, I agree with weaksauce's comment, you could just have the user download and install pngout separately, just tell them to drag it to /usr/bin and look in that folder for it, that's the usual location for it anyways. ImageOptim does this already.
