It won’t. Although I appreciate the ability to have all documents in one database for large research-indexing programs such as DEVONthink, when I’m working on a particular writing project, I think of it as a discrete writing project and want it represented that way on disk, with only the relevant files there in my window. (And I want to choose which projects I put into Dropbox and so appear in our iPhone/iPad version, too, of course.)
I have multiple DevonThink databases, too, for much the same reason. Some topics belong together, some don’t.
Katherine
To be fair, L&L did give statements such as “by the end of the year” two years ago, so folks that had expectations had them for valid reasons, not just assumptions. Calling those folks “butthurt” is pretty offensive and unnecessary.
Yes, L&L have apologised, and yes, folks keep coming here and complaining anyway. That doesn’t make it okay to denigrate them - patience and respect go both ways.
As a rule of thumb, a customer who decides to leave and takes the time to tell you why, no matter how upset or uncivil he may sound, is an opportunity to learn what you did wrong. You may, in turn, decide to learn something or not. Anyway, it’s better than when they silently leave and you just have no clue why they did it, and never hear from them again. 
Indeed, we did get that very wrong. I also thought 2.0 would be ready in 2009 (it came out in 2010) and that the next major version would be ready in 2013. Ha. The reality is that, all too often, a feature you think will take a day to code can end up taking two weeks. (Over the past year I’ve spent probably three months on and off just planning and drawing and writing about and rewriting about and drawing again ideas for a Compile overhaul that will make it more intuitive to the average user, for instance.)
We’ve always been very open about allowing users to come here and leave negative feedback if they want. As long as it’s polite, though. Someone dropping by just to insult our users or tell us that we’re liars or have no excuse and have no clue or are inflicting terrible atrocities on humanity, not so much. We’re just a small group of people trying to deliver the best software we can with the resources we have available. Sometimes, things take a lot longer than we’d like, than our users would like.
I perfectly understand how users feel, though. I’m a casual gamer, and I just found out that the next instalment of one of the few games I like playing - Uncharted - is being delayed for another year because the developers want to get it right. The developer in me says that this is perfectly understandable and reasonable - development takes time and I want them to get it right; the user/gamer in me wants to stamp his feet and shout at them to bloody well hurry up.
Fortunately, the vast majority of our users are absolutely fantastic and have been incredibly supportive throughout - just look at the responses to the recent blog post.
And internally, beta-testing is going well. The sync code has proved to be pretty solid so far, and we are trimming off a few rough edges that are becoming apparent with use while fixing bugs. Tammy is doing a sterling job. We’re not there yet, but it’s so close we can taste it, and I hope that users will appreciate that they really are getting Scrivener on a mobile device when they see it…
Well, it is good to hear that it is that close and going well.
Admittedly, for my own part I would have been very happy with “you can sync to and from the computer, thus seeing everything there, and you can write/edit what’s there” and save anything else for a version 2. However, I understand other folks maybe were looking for more than that and that the sync code was the biggest issue anyway.
Regardless, hooray that it will be done soon. I have Scrivener on my desktop but have done almost all of my writing on my iPad in because that is what I can easily take with me. But now it is revision time and I need me some Scrivener. 
Peace and happy (solid) coding!
So excited about the prospect of it being imminent. I’m hoping to travel overseas mid-year for a holiday but want to continue with some writing work, and Scrivener iOS will be the difference between taking my laptop or just taking my iPad.
Not sure if this is the right place to be popping this up, but can anyone provide clarify on the possibly of Scrivener iOS being able to play along with BookendsOnTap? Being able to write, and insert BE citations through BookendsOnTap, would be absolute writing nirvana!
Would really appreciate some guidance in this regard!
I was one of the people who asked for an iOS version back in 2010, when I got my iPad 2 (I still have it). I’ve tested almost every single app for writing, as well as a lot of OS software, both for Windows and Mac. I also asked for a Windows version, back in the days, because I was forced to use a Windows computer on my day job. Five years later, I simply gave up and I do all my writing on my Mac, on Scrivener. I have lots of different projects. I even use it to edit long complex academic books (that’s my day job). I also was able to convince my boss to acquire at least a few Macs for my department, so I expect that we have a few new Scrivener users soon (I’ve showed them how I use Scrivener, and they’re willing to give it a try) and I’ll be able to use Scrivener on that computer as well (finally). I’m thrilled to know that the iOS version is closer to be released.
So, in the end, all I can say is thank you, and keep going. I’m sure Scrivener for iOS will be great, and will become the new standard for writing on iOS once that large amount of consumers (the iOS consumers) get to know it. 
Thanks, cor_stellae, and thanks for recommending Scrivener to your boss, too!
Just to give a quick update: we’re still testing internally at the moment. After Ioa had been testing lots, I jumped in and did some heavy testing a couple of weeks ago, and our tests revealed a lot of bugs that needed fixing (which is not surprising at the early beta stage). Nothing major, just lots of little things, like toggling annotations not working when there’s no selection, or not being able to turn off text highlights because of a broken button, some minor UI flashes, that sort of thing. Just enough minor stuff that would, accumulatively, interrupt the flow of beta-testers for serious writing, so Tammy is currently concentrating on fixing all of that before we move onto another round of heavy internal testing.
At the same time as she’s squishing bugs, Lee is busy implementing sync in the Windows version now that it’s been tested between the Mac and iOS versions (it made sense to write the sync code on one desktop platform first and iron out the conceptual kinks there rather than implementing it untested on both platforms at the same time).
One day all of this will just be a memory and new users will have no idea how long we took to get our iOS version out. What’s exciting, though, is that it does feel like using Scrivener on an iOS device - stripped down, but with the core of Scrivener intact. (Of course, as soon as 1.0 is finished, Tammy will have to start implementing things like styles to fit in with our future desktop version, ha.)
Great to hear it’s going well. I started in 2010 with Scrivener on Windows for my first NaNoWriMo and have used - and enjoyed it every year since. As my network or writers grows, I find most are also Scrivener users - Mac and PC. If not, I try to persuade them to switch. I have been impatient at times to see the IOS version, but do appreciate the challenges and effort involved.
Very excited to hear the Windows version will get sync soon!
That was what I wanted to hear.
And I understand your gaming reference on the waiting v development (and not just because I’m a gamer). As a Scrivener user, I probably don’t use 90% of it’s functions (love the binder, ability to move chapters/scenes via drag and drop, corkboard, and snapshots, and all the compile features…that’s about it - I had just been using Word and the small set of features I just mentioned make it leaps and bounds better than what I was used to!). So, for the iOS, I’m like “just give the basic frame! I will be happy! Just get it FASTER!!” But I’m also a web developer (PHP/MySQL - Javascript/Jquery, CSS, and HTML on the design side) - which is no where near the level of program development, but it does take time: developing, debugging, etc. I used to freelance in it a bit (I’m not a “pure” web developer in my current job - it’s one of many hats I wear, along with Technical Writer and Ad Developer), but I discovered people didn’t want to pay me for the extra work I put in whenever I changed something at their request. “All you have to do is x!” They would almost scream in me at frustration.
I was like, “Yes, that’s all you and your customers are going to see, but ‘all I have to do’ is edit the already existing code to play nice with the code I will be adding, develop said code, and re-debug everything…and, oh, by the way, your site is huge so I have to make sure it is properly implemented on your entire site…why I don’t I ask you to go ahead and do it and save some cash? All you have to do is read some books or take a class…”
When I first started out, I always said it would take less time than it ended up taking…like I said, what you all do is in a whole other league, but I understand the frustration of people not understanding how long these things take, and also the mistake of underestimating how much time you’ll need. Still do it occasionally…
Not trying to compare myself to you all - people learn I ‘know code’ for web development and assume I could make a computer program. That’s a whole other beast I have no desire to tame…
I have been waiting for Scrivener for iOS also.
I would love to be part of the beta testing team. Is that a possibility?
Short version of Sparrowhawk’s post:
Y’all are all writers, here, right? Anyone ever missed a deadline because writing three stupid paragraphs turned out to be more involved than oral surgery? Yeah, this is like that.
Katherine
I once spent two days fiddling with one line.
Then went back to the very first line – without the comma.
Then went back to the very first line, with a comma? That’s perfecting, not fiddling. 
I love how writers can obsess over a single word or punctuation mark. Shows we care. Made me want to read your work.
Yes, but you should have seen what happened when someone tried to tell me it didn’t matter.
Did you go nuclear? 
I wasn’t my usual bright and sunny self, no.
One suggestion - try working for live TV. There, if it isn’t ready in time, it’ll never be ready. (Although that makes live TV a very bad comparator for anything that aims to be really good - such as, for example, Scrivener.)