Always a good read: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/10/25/are-java-and-flash-doomed-on-the-mac/
James On Oct 25, 2010, at 6:52 AM, Ian Joyner wrote: > Interesting take from Matt. A few things concern me. > > 1) He says "Executive quips always make headlines". Surely, what executives > say should be based on what their technical people have told them and be well > thought out. That is the mark of an agile environment where technical people > are treated with respect. If technical directions are taken without the input > of its technical people, that company is losing its way. > > 2) It is good that Apple stays true to its mission of producing computers for > "the rest of us". The translation being "consumer focused". However, the rest > of us used to be computer novices. This is no longer the case. It is coming > back to a situation where people are knowledgeable in many computing > techniques and programming. These are the new consumers. That is we are > getting back to using computers for computing. > > Yes, producing and supporting development environments is difficult. Apple > probably has its time cut out just with Xcode, Objective-C, and Cocoa. If > Apple just concentrates on this core technology, then it should make it easy > for others to provide other development environments. > > That is because development environments enable us to use computers for > computing. A lot of universities love Apple equipment. Like Java, Ruby, and > Python developers favour Macs. But if Apple ditches these, they should be > provided by other parties (which Ruby and Python mainly are anyway). > > I think of a previous university darling - Burroughs. Universities (and other > schools) are important customers because they train the next generation of > developers. Burroughs was used by many universities and universities produced > a lot of software like WFL (Burroughs ALGOL-like and structured JCL), etc. > But eventually Burroughs focused on their "customers" - corporations (Ray > McDonald, CEO of Burroughs once famously refused to sell Edsger Djikstra 3 > B5000s, not wanting to set up a support structure in Europe). Universities > moved to Unix as more open development platforms, while Burroughs closed off > somewhat, even though they still had superior architectures and OS. Burroughs > lost Bob Barton and his ideas (although where they were left off still > survive at Unisys), but luckily he passed a lot of it onto students like Alan > Kay. > > Thus I think it is good that Apple has been so focused as to bring successful > products, platforms, and strategies to the market. But that focus could also > kill it. Universities teach technologies like Java (Scala), Ruby, and Python. > I'd like to get back to things like LISP and Smalltalk - languages and > environments that are simple for beginners, yet have advanced features for > later years. Apple should not ignore this, and if it can't do it itself, > encourage others to do it. Although wasn't the best way to predict the future > to invent it? Apple has been very successful in inventing the future, or at > least promoting it (from Xerox) with Mac, and now iOS. So what's next? If you > can't invent the future, at least be a part of it and don't get in its way - > get out of the way... is that what Apple is doing?. That's maybe the open > strategy. IBM and Microsoft tried to dominate by getting in the way of the > future. It's not a nice strategy. > > What about WO? Will that be continued to be developed by Apple? Or will it be > opened up and maybe opened up to other languages? > > Ian > > On 24 Oct 2010, at 18:09, Pascal Robert wrote: > >> And Matt Drance take : >> >> http://www.appleoutsider.com/2010/10/22/java >> >>> SJ Speaks: >>> >>> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/frasers/5104179782/> >>> >>> On 2010-10-22, at 7:29 AM, Kieran Kelleher wrote: >>> >>>> I am not advocating anything since I only develop one browser GUI for >>>> web-based apps myself. However I am stating an opinion that the platforms >>>> are diverging at a rate where "in my opinion" (and that is all it is) a >>>> cross-development GUI tool will have difficulty in being ideal and/or >>>> perfect on every platform. For example, are Apple's Human Interface >>>> guidelines identical to Microsoft's, Ubuntu and RHEL? Even at that, we >>>> have new form factors and input devices adding further divergence to >>>> interface interaction (iPad, touch-pad laptops etc.). >>>> >>>> Personally I only need server side java for web-based apps. Ideally I want >>>> my development tools to run on Mac because that is my platform of choice. >>>> As long as I have a WO-compatible JVM on OS X, and I can run my >>>> development tools on OS X, I will, but if the sky fell down tomorrow and I >>>> had to use Parallels and a Linux VM to run Eclipse and get my WO-dev job >>>> done, I would. Life goes on.... >>>> >>>> >>>> On Oct 22, 2010, at 2:12 AM, Jean Pierre Malrieu wrote: >>>> >>>>> I cannot believe that a developper advocates doing three times (MacOS, >>>>> Windows, Linux) the same boring UI job... >>>>> >>>>> Le 22 oct. 2010 à 04:37, [email protected] a écrit : >>>>> >>>>>> Cross-platform development GUIs, IMHO, can never offer true fidelity on >>>>>> any one platform. They will mostly achieve an inferior subset of >>>>>> functionality at best, and possibly only look good on the platform to >>>>>> which they have been biased from the start. This is especially true as >>>>>> the gap widens between advancing high-tech operating systems such as OS >>>>>> X and would-they-ever-give-up-and-go-home-with-their-junk operating >>>>>> systems such as Winblows. >>>>> > > _______________________________________________ > Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. > Webobjects-dev mailing list ([email protected]) > Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: > http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/webobjects-dev/james%40jimijon.com > > This email sent to [email protected] _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. 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