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Cocoa-Like JavaScript Framework Announced
TwilightSentry writes "Ars Technica reports that a group of developers has created an Objective-C-like extension to JavaScript along with a class library mirroring Cocoa. They've used these to release an impressive demo app called 280 Slides. The article notes, 'Whereas SproutCore seeks to "embrace the platform" by giving a Cocoa-like development model for developers already using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to make a web app, Cappuccino and Objective-J take an entirely different approach. "Since Cappuccino runs entirely on the client, at run time, we're never actually generating HTML or CSS," says Boucher. "When you build an application in Cappuccino, you don't need to ever deal with HTML or CSS. All of your interface is designed in Objective-J and Cappuccino. Cappuccino focuses on application architecture more than anything else, like building applications that know how to save and open documents, or copy and paste. We also built a powerful graphics engine into Cappuccino, so you can make rich applications like 280 Slides."' The developers plan to release the framework and preprocessor as open source. No mention is made of a specific license."
A couple of weeks ago one of the developers of 280 slides was interviewed by Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur on their net@night podcast.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
To extend the meme, now I'll start development of C-Objective Kernel Editor (COKE). that will be followed by Linux Apache Tkl/Tcl Extensions (LATTE) which, of course, demands Folding On AMD Machines (FOAM). Sorry, but I'm too tired to come up with an acronym for marshmallows. ~
Invenio via vel creo
Slashdotted already. Don't you people have better things to do?
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Who wants to bet how long it will be before Google buys up the guys who made that presentation app?
It could certainly be a bit faster, but it's still damn impressive.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Well, the nice thing about Objective-J is that it's a strict superset of JavaScript. At any time you can simply write pure JavaScript and it will run just fine. You don't even technically need to use Objective-J to use Cappuccino (our framework), but it makes it MUCH easier. As far as using Ruby or anything else, everything we do in the application is pure client side. The only interaction with the server is via XMLHTTPRequests. We'll be able to distribute Cappuccino/Objective-J as a simple download.
There may be some initial delays when you open up new UI elements (since we delay loading to improve initial performance). Our images are taking longer than usual to load. If you use the app for more than a few minutes (i.e. after you've initially loaded most of the UI), does the issue persist? It shouldn't. The best explanation I could offer is that Firefox 2 on Linux does have some performance issues of its own. FF3 would probably help a lot. That being said, I use it on my macbook pro with FF2 all the time without issue.
You are missing the acronym that best describes a combination of Cocoa and Java(Script):
CAFE MOCHA - Cocoa-Alike Framework Extension Mirroring Objective C for HTML Applications
Unfortunately browsers don't provide much (or really any) information about many non-english input methods. On the plus side, copy/paste does work with any unicode character (if it's any consolation). This is definitely a problem, and a shortfall of one of our earlier design decisions. We're working on revamping our text system to resolve this, and other issues.
" If you're not trying to write a high-performance scalable computing cluster app, or an operating system, or a fancy computer game, then bloat really isn't an issue."
Spend 20(+) years fixing other peoples code then get back to me on that one.
Need Mercedes parts ?
Where exactly does it "Breaks in places in Firefox?" Let us know and we'll get right on it.
Why would the browser need to tell you about a non-English input method? In my experience of I18N of web apps, this is completely unnecessary, since the input method is invisible to the application (rather like switching keyboard layouts) - all that's needed is for the web app to support Unicode etc. Since JavaScript uses Unicode natively, I can't quite see how 280 North has managed to break Unicode support like this.