How exactly does runrev for ipad/iphone work?

Chipp Walters chipp at chipp.com
Thu May 6 22:39:56 EDT 2010


Randall,

Hopefully the following can lend some perspective to you on this situation.

Previously, I misspoke. RevMobile compiles Rev code to an iPhone standalone,
which then can be run on the Mac only iPhone simulator. If you sign up for
RevMobile, you must also purchase a $99 Apple developer license and of
course have a Mac to run it on.

The key here is that RevMobile compiles to an iPhone compatible binary, just
like the latest CS5 Flash application does (or did, as Adobe has formally
pulled the plug on supporting the iPhone compiler). And just like Flash CS5,
the newly compiled code successfully bypasses the PREVIOUS license
limitation of no interpreted code-- even though many games evidently use Lua
scripts within them. Not sure what Apple thinks of that:
http://blog.anscamobile.com/2010/04/lua-the-lingua-franca-of-iphone-games/

So, while Rev (and Flash and many other dev platforms for iPhone) compile
directly to a binary, they are still in violation of the NEW SDK 4.0
recently released license which now states:

"Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or
JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written
in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the
Documented APIs"

So, now binary and compiled apps not originally written in Objective-C, C,
C++ will not be accepted by Apple. Platforms which deliver Javascript (web
browser) apps, like PhoneGap are still allowed. A legal interpretation of
the SDK 4.0 as currently written pretty much puts Flash, and Rev, and many
others, out of the business of app development for iPhone/iPad.

So, originally Apple wanted to discourage interpreted languages, like
Revtalk, Actionscript, and others from access to the iPhone. Of course all
the companies understood the rules, and many, like Rev, spent major
resources, and time  trying to comply by creating compatible standalone
binaries. Not an insignificant task. And none of them, or their customers,
or their customers customers had any notion the rules would or even could
change.

As soon as Jobs saw the new Flash CS5 (in the form of Flash CS5-- of which
I'm told there are already a hundred of so apps in the AppStore under the
previous SDK license), he rewrote the license to make sure none of these
applications could now be used. I say Jobs and not Apple, because if you
have followed this closely, you would know Jobs is the one behind it all.
Whether or not you agree with him is up to you.

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 7:04 PM, Randall Lee Reetz
<randall at randallreetz.com>wrote:

> Really?  It takes a rev stack and converts all content into OBJECTIVE C
> source.  Inserts it into the apple blessed ipad IDE, and then compiles an
> app in the apple blessed IDE?  How would apple know or care where the app
> spent its early years?  I don't think that is how revmobile works.  Not
> exactly.  Am I wrong?  Does a revmoblile user have to have a mac running the
> apple blessed IDE?



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