Great post on Jerry Daniels Blog

[Bob Sneidar]

I think I know what's bugging you all. I have learned so many dev languages in the past, but none were really like the high level compiler style. Most were interpreted and then semi compiled, like Hypercard, the very old Excel macro language, dBase, etc. I did dig into Pascual for a bit, but when I got to the point where I could start to learn to develop Pascual for the Mac OS graphical interface, the various libraries and API's made me dizzy. 

Well the thought of having to learn yet another language, and the threat of it going the way of the dodo is enough to send me running around naked screaming like a little girl. (Actually it's not that hard to invoke that response from me but that's another story. ;-) My point is, if you are a small developer who wants to make a living at it, Revolution seems like the goose who laid the golden egg. It seems to promise real cross platform development in real compiled apps that can be marketed. And so it can. 

So what happens if Jobs tries to turn the entire Apple OS into a glorified iPad, and then force developers to use an app store like mechanism to sell their products? Well let your poor hearts be at rest. All humanity will have to go insane before that happens. Really guys, if RunRev had never developed the iPhone SDK, do you think we would be having this conversation? We would be blissfully ignorant of this what-if scenario and would probably have gotten a lot more work done. 

The thing is, Apple could have made a device just like the other devices for the sake of development compatibility. But then we wouldn't have the iPhone, or else some other genius company would have done it and been in the same boat Apple is in, which is how to allow other people to write software for it without creating really big security risks. Apple did what Microsoft SHOULD have done many years ago, and that is take security seriously. They came up with a model that allows developers to relatively easily develop apps for the device without compromising the security of the iPhone. And it has stood the test pretty well don't you think?

The downside is, if you are going to develop for theiPhone/iPad you are going to have to learn to develop in the Cocoa environment. EEEK! Another development language, and it's a monster! I sympathize with you. But this is no different than it has been up until the Rev SDK. And this has been going on for... well... ever. It broke my heart when Apple announced they would no longer support Hypercard. More still when Excel went to Visual Basic. And I really got good at procedural dbase, and was willing to take on Visual until Microsoft announced they would no longer support Visual Foxpro on the Mac. 

I hate it, but I understand it. To develop for the iPhone/iPad, we are either going to have to learn Java or C++ or some such ungodly thing, or else not. If Apple relents and backs down from their position, we can all get snot slinging drunk and cry on each other's shoulders for joy, next time there is a Rev convention, but until then it is what it is. 

Bob