Slashdot Mirror
Flash Is Not a Right
medcalf notes that game designer Ian Bogost enters the debate about Flash by saying
"[A] large number of developers seem to think that they have the right to make software for the iPhone (or for anything else) in Flash, or in another high-level environment of their choosing. Literally, the right, not just the convenience or the opportunity. And many of them are quite churlish about the matter.
This strikes me as a very strange sort of attitude to adopt. There's no question that Flash is useful and popular, and it has a large and committed user base. There's also no question that it's often convenient to be able to program for different platforms using environments one already knows. And likewise, there's a long history of creating OS stubs or wrappers or other sorts of gizmos to make it possible to run code 'alien' to a platform in a fashion that makes it feel more native.
But what does it say about the state of programming practice writ large when so many developers believe that their 'rights' are trampled because they cannot write programs for a particular device in a particular language? Or that their 'freedom' as creators is squelched for the same reason?"
Um Slashdot has the holier than thou attitude. They think it is their God given right to do whatever they want. They believe in open source software which extends to the idea that they should have control of the iPhone platform and that downloading pirated content isn't stealing.
"My friends, each of you is a single cell in the great body of the State. And today, that great body has purged itself of parasites. We have triumphed over the unprincipled dissemination of facts. The thugs and wreckers have been cast out. -- And the poisonous weeds of disinformation have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Let each and every cell rejoice! For today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directive! We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology, where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thought is a more powerful weapon than any fleet or army on Earth. We are one people. With one will. One resolve. One cause. -- Our enemies shall talk themselves to death. And we will bury them with their own confusion. -- We shall prevail!"
Yes, Apple fans, you missed the whole point of Apple's "1984" commercial. Apple's real plan was revealed, but you all thought it was a joke. You were wrong. That was the plan. There, you see the ideology behind the iPhone and the iPad. It took 25 years to bring it to fruition. The Information Purification Directive is now a reality.
Read the early writings of megalomaniacs to see what they intend. Early bin Laden, early Lenin, early Business Roundtable, early Jobs - they all revealed their master plan well in advance.
You're right! Let's continue this a little more and sue Intel because they do not support a 68k instruction set. Their lack of support seriously impedes the choice of developers who wish to use the 68k instruction set, as well as their CISC instruction set is not an open platform for the user.
Do you think Nintendo and Sony have rules concerning development for their platforms?