5 ms·

I don't understand why anyone would use this now. It was one thing when Google bought Urchin, which was already incredibly pervasive. But Crashlytics is a rel

I don't understand why anyone would use this now. It was one thing when Google bought Urchin, which was already incredibly pervasive. But Crashlytics is a relatively mediocre solution that doesn't already have market dominance. I guess that probably made them cheaper to acquire, but now that we know that Twitter wants them to spy on everyone's mobile apps, why would anyone use them? There are other crash reporting solutions, and we're not already locked in. It seems like a bad tactical move for Twitter to have telegraphed why they wanted Crashlytics so clearly.

danielsju6 14y ago
I'm curious to know how you think Crashalytics is a mediocre solution. I run AppBlade (a tangentially competitive service which offers open-source [PLCrashReporter based] crash reporting for enterprises) I have customers that opt to use Crashalytics when closed-source isn't a show stopper and have huge respect for Wayne and the team. From what I understand they use Mach Exceptions which are the hairy/scary holy grail for exception reporting in Darwin. Mediocre is using signal handlers which the rest of us mortals do.
- pifflesnort 14y ago
  Mach exceptions aren't the "holy grail", they're private API on iOS. That is why nobody is using them. If you want Mach exception handling, it should only take a couple days (if that) for a qualified engineer to implement, of which there are quite a few available from the Mac OS X olden days. Mach exception handling was explained in _2001_ on the OmniGroup's macosx-dev mailing list: http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/archive/macosx-dev/2000-June/014178.html http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/archive/macosx-dev/2000-Jun... Crashlytics is big on marketing (your use of the phrase "holy grail" came straight from their press release), but they're possibly less than forthcoming when it comes to explaining the realities of their technical solutions. Due to this fact alone, I can't share your respect for Crashlytics' management.
  - danielsju6 14y ago
    Thank you for a detailed response, we're mostly an iOS shop (little OSX experience) few here will touch a private API out of fear of Apple's wrath and Boston based, so it's hard to not get caught by the marketing wake. You've demonstrated knowledge and I'm satisfied with your belief that they are a mediocre solution. Since you seem to have some knowledge in the field and an alternative opinion to engineers here, what is your preference for iOS crash reporting? We're currently reevaluating PLCrashReporter in our SDK but need things to be open-source.
    - pifflesnort 14y ago
      I would suggest also reviewing Google Breakpad. They've added iOS support, and while I haven't reviewed it first-hand, the I do know that the Google Breakpad developers don't fool around. I do not wish to steal the OP's thunder, in that I wouldn't call Crashlytics mediocre myself. They're essentially on par with the other solutions technologically, minus the issue of private API and a tendency to overstate their marketing case.
      - lollymatch 14y ago
        Agreed, by mediocre I meant "ordinary." My original question being, if it's basically the same as other solutions, why would anyone use it now that we know what Twitter is doing with it.
    - ttol 14y ago
      Hi pifflesnort, Wayne here. We're extremely proud of the work that the team here at Crashlytics has put into our crash reporting solution. There are many flaws in PLCR that we've addressed -- our customers, like Twitter, Vine, Square, Yelp, OpenTable, Hipmunk, Delta, Kayak, and others, enjoy the increased visibility as well as the wider net to catch issues that other solutions cannot. We look forward to improving our solution even further - stay tuned ;-)
      - lollymatch 14y ago

danielsju6 14y ago

I'm curious to know how you think Crashalytics is a mediocre solution. I run AppBlade (a tangentially competitive service which offers open-source [PLCrashReporter based] crash reporting for enterprises) I have customers that opt to use Crashalytics when closed-source isn't a show stopper and have huge respect for Wayne and the team. From what I understand they use Mach Exceptions which are the hairy/scary holy grail for exception reporting in Darwin. Mediocre is using signal handlers which the rest of us mortals do.

pifflesnort 14y ago
Mach exceptions aren't the "holy grail", they're private API on iOS. That is why nobody is using them. If you want Mach exception handling, it should only take a couple days (if that) for a qualified engineer to implement, of which there are quite a few available from the Mac OS X olden days. Mach exception handling was explained in _2001_ on the OmniGroup's macosx-dev mailing list: http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/archive/macosx-dev/2000-June/014178.html http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/archive/macosx-dev/2000-Jun... Crashlytics is big on marketing (your use of the phrase "holy grail" came straight from their press release), but they're possibly less than forthcoming when it comes to explaining the realities of their technical solutions. Due to this fact alone, I can't share your respect for Crashlytics' management.
- danielsju6 14y ago
  Thank you for a detailed response, we're mostly an iOS shop (little OSX experience) few here will touch a private API out of fear of Apple's wrath and Boston based, so it's hard to not get caught by the marketing wake. You've demonstrated knowledge and I'm satisfied with your belief that they are a mediocre solution. Since you seem to have some knowledge in the field and an alternative opinion to engineers here, what is your preference for iOS crash reporting? We're currently reevaluating PLCrashReporter in our SDK but need things to be open-source.
  - pifflesnort 14y ago
    I would suggest also reviewing Google Breakpad. They've added iOS support, and while I haven't reviewed it first-hand, the I do know that the Google Breakpad developers don't fool around. I do not wish to steal the OP's thunder, in that I wouldn't call Crashlytics mediocre myself. They're essentially on par with the other solutions technologically, minus the issue of private API and a tendency to overstate their marketing case.
    - lollymatch 14y ago
      Agreed, by mediocre I meant "ordinary." My original question being, if it's basically the same as other solutions, why would anyone use it now that we know what Twitter is doing with it.
  - ttol 14y ago
    Hi pifflesnort, Wayne here. We're extremely proud of the work that the team here at Crashlytics has put into our crash reporting solution. There are many flaws in PLCR that we've addressed -- our customers, like Twitter, Vine, Square, Yelp, OpenTable, Hipmunk, Delta, Kayak, and others, enjoy the increased visibility as well as the wider net to catch issues that other solutions cannot. We look forward to improving our solution even further - stay tuned ;-)
    - lollymatch 14y ago