Objective-J and Cappuccino Released

Wizard Drongo writes "280 North, who earlier this year released 280 Slides, a revolutionary new type of web-app written in Objective-J using the Cappuccino framework (both of which they also wrote), have today made good on their promise to open-source the language and framework. From their about page: 'Cappuccino is an open source application framework for developing applications that look and feel like the desktop software users are familiar with. Cappuccino was implemented using a new programming language called Objective-J, which is modeled after Objective-C and built entirely on top of JavaScript. Programs written in Objective-J are interpreted in the client, so no compilation or plugins are required. Objective-J is released alongside Cappuccino in this project and under the LGPL.' You can download the framework, tools, documentation and more on their website."

Comments

Hmmm....

[Otter]

I'd say that the Objective-J name is confusing given the existence of a J language, but I guess Microsoft has already muddied those waters with J++ and J#...

Re:Hmmm....

[zoward]

Confusing (and unappealing) names seem to be part of the software landscape. The important part of the announcement is that they open sourced the language and framework. Free software gains another set of tools. This is a Good Thing. Props to 280 North.

Re:Hmmm....

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

I really wasn't sure if you were talking about Java, or another language simply called J that I had never heard of. Turns out there is a language named J that I've never heard of before. I can't imagine too many people would be confused. Most people have never even heard of J++ or J#,let a lone J.

Re:Hmmm....

[MBCook]

Would you have preferred Visual Objective-J++.Net 3.0b MSDN Edition?

The name is not bad. The main thing it does to me is imply Objective-C heritage which is what it is supposed to do. The J could be confused with Java though. Objective-JS would have cleared that up, but then it doesn't sound nearly as close to Objective-C.

This is all the fault of that decision long ago to name JavaScript after Java for marketing reasons.

I'd suggest Objective-ECMA, but that sounds like the test for a skin rash.

PS: What's with the "nod" tags today?

Re:Hmmm....

[LotsOfPhil]

I think most people have heard of J. I have never used J and know nothing about J, but I have heard of it. So, even though Objective-J was just released, I am as proficient in Objective-J as in J. Again, I think most people reading this are now in the same situation :)

Re:Hmmm....

[H0p313ss]

I have never used J and know nothing about J

Rest assured that those who have and do mostly run away screaming...

*looks askance at those who like J*

Those who do *NOT* run away screaming are probably likely to prefer developing Java in notepad, think perl is a good application framework and partake in usenet arguments about usable GIMP is.

What? Me bitter?

And for their next trick:

[PrescriptionWarning]

they'll make yet another online spreadsheet application! I can hardly contain myself!

Re:And for their next trick:

[MightyYar]

If it's as cool as their online presentation application, I'll actually be a tiny bit excited. The newest browsers actually run 280slides.com pretty well. Safari is acceptable and Chrome actually screams.

For the love of God, please don't run it in IE.

Re:And for their next trick:

[Paradise Pete]

they'll make yet another online spreadsheet application! I can hardly contain myself!

Years and years ago, when I was working for a mainframe timeshare outfit and was teaching myself to program, one of the technicians said to me "Why do you want to do that? All the software anybody needs has already been written."

You remind me a little of that guy.

Re:And for their next trick:

[mweather]

You can't deny that every single spreadsheet is just a re-implementation of VisiCalc.

Re:And for their next trick:

[aproposofwhat]

For the love of God, please don't run it in IE.

I just tried that, and it's hellishly slow in IE6, but runs like shit off a shovel in Firefox 3.

I haven't tried Chrome yet, but I'm guessing the shovel in that case will be chrome as well.

One thing that did piss me off was the "Download and Present" slide, which reminded me that Powerpoint 2007 format is "an ISO standard". While true, such statements are prone to making me quite irate :P

Re:And for their next trick:

[Jack9]

This framework and language offers nothing new nor a compelling reason to use them. So your comparison is bad and your point is an attempt to look clever while failing to understand the wasted time and effort. I worked for years as a sysadmin, in a company with much more (experience and talent than these guys) while attempting to do what this framework is still trying to do. It takes about 1/10th the time and effort to create a BETTER flash app to anything that can be developed with these heavy JS frameworks.

Breakfast

[alstor]

OJ and Cappuccino...goes well with Java in a Bistro? Who makes these names up? I guess it's better than having Caml with Curry, or waking up with a Brainfuck.

Objectivism

[argent]

Maybe they could call it Objectivism.

Or Atlas.

*shrug*

The Library is the Story

[iluvcapra]

A reimplementation of the NextStep/Cocoa classes in JavaScript, and extremely close modeling of the Cocoa app development process. The way you write an Objective-J Cappucino application is almost identical to the way you develop an Objective-C Cocoa application.

Re:The Library is the Story

[iluvcapra]

As an ObjC junkie, i must assent that the lack of namespaces is a major fail, and a lot of us are still scratching our heads about why Apple didn't add them in ObJC 2.0 (particularly if they were taking the time to add godforsaken "attribute" dot-notation).