Check out Jerry's new videos -- REV to ObjC -> iPhone

[Richard Gaskin]

Chipp Walters wrote:

 >> On May 10, 2010, at 9:56 AM, Chipp Walters wrote:
 >>> The issue isn't whether Apple wants to outlaw reusing code
 >>> libraries. They don't. They want to outlaw cross platform
 >>> development.
 >
 > On May 10, 2010, at 11:59 AM, Bob Sneidar <bobs at twft.com> wrote:
 >> Really?? That is what Apple wants?
 >
 > Here's the guy Steve Jobs likes to point out is his mouthpiece,
 > on the subject.
 >
 > http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/middleware_and_section_311

And from Mr. Jobs himself; the public spanking he gave Adobe linked to 
from the front page of apple.com applies to all cross-platform developers:

     We know from painful experience that letting a third party
     layer of software come between the platform and the developer
     ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the
     enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow
     dependent on third party development libraries and tools,
     they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and
     when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We
     cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when
     they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

     This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross
     platform development tool. The third party may not adopt
     enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all
     of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access
     to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we
     cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using
     our innovations and enhancements because they are not available
     on our competitor’s platforms.
<http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/>

To the degree that those arguments apply at all to iPhone OS, they could 
also apply to OS X as well.

But fortunately they don't hold much water under closer examination, as 
has been pointed out across the blogosphere and as many of us know from 
personal experience:

1. Without such cross-platform tools a minority OS might never have any 
apps at all across entire categories that are useful to its customers.

2. When an app that was written in Objective-C breaks, the motivation to 
address it promptly is only as strong as the sole developer's personal 
interest in it, but when a cross-platform tool has a bug there are 
thousands of developers demanding an immediate fix from the vendor of 
the tool they made it with.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Rev training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
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