The way I see it, Apple is perfectly within their rights to put whatever restrictions they choose on who/what/how to develop for the iPhad platform. Developers are free to choose to write for whatever platform they choose. It boils down to these items:
Do you want a large, potentially lucrative market and don't mind all the restrictions and cost associated with developing for iPhad (i.e. $99 fee, Apple hardware/software only, Objective-C only, app acceptance subject to Apple's whim, **frequent updates as each new OS release could potentially break your app, etc.), then by all means develop for the iPhad platform.
Do you want a platform for which you can choose your development hardware, software (that is available free), no restrictions on what or how you develop, Java, C++ or C languages supported, and are willing to try and market your app in smaller, more chaotic distribution channels, then go ahead and develop for the Android platform.
I would add Windows mobile development to this list, but I haven't done any development work for Windows mobile so I withhold any comments on where it fits. However, I would assume that it probably fits somewhere in between the two afore-mentioned platforms.
I've already made my choice.
**this one is bound to invoke the wrath of applemmings:
frequent updates as each new OS release could potentially break your app
I'm sorry if this invokes ire, but this is absolutely true. 99% of all updates I've received for the apps that I and my family's 4 other iPhones have installed have been updates to support the features of each subsequent OS release, and in most cases to fix them so they would even work with the new release.
Kids today don't have no desire for accomplishment. They don't want to make anything, or do anything, they just want to have stuff. Stuff which requires only a minimum of effort.
I don't buy this. I heard the same thing from older folks when I was growing up and yet, my generation managed to produce the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and many of today's biggest ego-maniacal douche-bags. I think it's quite natural for young people to not find their way until they are in their mid to late twenties. Often it takes holding their first born child in their arms to shock them into the reality that life is hard and they better get on the stick or their kids won't have the luxury of -
no desire for accomplishment. They don't want to make anything, or do anything, they just want to have stuff. Stuff which requires only a minimum of effort.
This reminds me of the way things were many years ago when mainframes were still king. There used to be a very clear distinction between system programmers and application programmers.
Systems programmers worked on issues dealing with the OS and getting it to talk to the hardware, while application programmers worked strictly on applications - payroll, accounting and the like. In most cases neither had a clue about the others domain of expertise.
Then it seemed we went through a period where the OS provided more and more functionality on it's own so that not much tweaking of OS itself was needed, and all hardware interfaces (drivers) were supplied by vendors, so the systems programmer's job was relegated to more of an administrator/maintainer role.
Higher and higher levels of abstraction were made available to application developers which removed them further and further away from low level programming details and enabled them to, in effect, create applications by wiring together the various APIs.
Very few opportunities were available for systems programmers that enjoyed that experience of working on the "bare metal".
The advent of microprocessor based systems (later to be called PCs), provided an outlet for all the pent-up desires for system programmer types to be able to code to the metal again.
A few lucky systems programmer types were able to land jobs working on OS development and a few went out on their own to try and develop something radically new, but with marketing not being their strong suit, after a few years, through an evolutionary process, the only viable OS left standing with broad acceptance was from MS (please table the requisite debate on why that was for another discussion).
Once again, the system programmers role was quickly becoming one of an administrator with the exception of niche areas like driver development, unless you happened to work for MS (or Sun, or any number of lesser used OSs).
Finally, with the advent of OSS in general, and projects like BSD and Linux in particular, the door was opened again for a few motivated souls who still relished the thrill of working below the API level.
There were opportunities to participate from the ground up on the development of new OSs and the excitement was enough to change the IT industry forever.
The problem is, after a few years, those systems programmers of bygone years are getting long in the tooth and thinking more about their grandchildren, than setting the world on fire with their now 15 year old OS. The sad thing is, most young developers today were educated as application programmers, not systems programmers. A single semester course in OS design and a semester on "C" development is hardly preparation for digging into kernel development.
Today's myriad of rapidly changing APIs and technologies is plenty to keep a young developer challenged (and hopefully employed) without them having to dig into the gory details of OS design.
My hope is that innovation will come to the rescue again as it has in the past (although it seems not as frequently as it once did) and present a new opportunity for fresh ideas for OS design and ignite a new generation of systems programmers to bring us into the 21st century instead of continuing to refine the 20th century OSs we have now.
MESSAGE to aspiring young developers:
C'mon kids. Get off the couch, put down that Wii/Xbox/PS3 controller, and play the most challenging video game you could imagine. Immerse yourself in C, or even better, in assembler and when you think your're ready, pick up a copy of Minux sourcecode (or some other "small enough to get your arms around" OS) and dig in. You're generation is going to need you as us "graybeards" migrate into the background. If you don't, you'll be at the mercy of the corporations to control your computers. I firmly believe that if open source OSs go by the wayside (or become insignificant enough to ignore) due to apathy, corporations won't make the mistake of letting the
Documentation from the vendor or project shows that they care about the details.
No, it shows that if they want to sell their product (or in the case of OSS, achieve wide acceptance), they'd better have decent docs. Corporations don't care at all. If not having decent documentation did not impact the bottom line, do you really think these corporations would expend the significant resources they do to produce the documentation? In any case, many times the best information available (with the possible exception of reference API docs) comes from third party sources such as books and articles.
For a lot of software in Linux distros, only if you're lucky.
I agree completely. The decision regarding whether to use a particular OSS application/component has to include many factors (i.e. how well it's supported, how well it's documented, how stable it is, and many more). However, even for poorly documented software, it may still be more effective to use it rather than purchasing it or writing it yourself.
Pay attention, please. Did I say "put your name behind your comment" ? No, I said identity, as in online identity.
I doubt CmdrTacos mother actually named him that, but there is little doubt on/. as to who his is. I suppose in some respects, your choice to post as Anonymous Coward belies who you are as well:) As I've stated before, if you want to be taken seriously, the least you can do is register (it's free after all) and post under your own identity.
Had they not raised the issue of sexting in this commercial, I probably would never even have noticed it. Maybe it's just me, the only value I see in commercials like that is that it gives me a minute to walk to the fridge for another beer.
I really don't care to debate the point. While it may be difficult, and I've seen some pretty horrendous code, if it compiles, it's understandable. That's common sense. Computer languages have very precise grammers and semantics. In all my years, I've never once told my clients "I can't understand it. It's just too hard". Consider yourself lucky if you have the code. I've even had to reverse engineer code from binaries on occasion. That's hard, but again, not impossible because if the CPU can execute it, it's understandable. And for the record, I worked on some custom mods to Xserver (xfree86) and I didn't find them any more difficult to understand than much of the C code I've seen. In fact, while by it's nature it's very complex software, I thought the code was well written for the most part. Of couse, you have to be comfortable with C (conditional compilation, macros and pointers, etc), as well as the concepts being implemented, but the concepts are fairly well documented on the Internet and in several books.
far better documentation from MS and Apple than Linux has ever had.
Have you ever looked at Amazon or InformIT/Safari or any technical documentation vendor or website? There are enough books and articles on MS and Linux to keep you reading for many lifetimes (Apple not so much, but still plenty by my estimate). It's just a FACT that there are certain things that closed source vendors do not disclose as a matter of trade secret or intellectual property, which is what I believe WrongSizeGlass was referring to. OSS does not have this limitation.
And no, the source doesn't count if no one knows what you intended to do
It absolutely does count, if you know how to read code. You can read documentation all day long, but if it doesn't match the code you'll be lost. When I get involved in a rewrite/upgrade/modification of an existing application (and I've worked on many much larger than most OSS apps, and I've been doing it for over 30 years - so it think I have a clue), I read the docs for a quick overview, but I read the code to find out how it really works. I've spent plenty of time with both msdn.microsoft.com (and developer.apple.com to a lesser degree) over the years and while there are loads of information there, I know "everything" is not there. There are API documentation discrepancies, quirks, or various undocumented oddities that can be frustrating to work around. These issues can only be resolved one of two ways - trial and error or by reading the code. With closed source there is only one way - pray the docs are correct. With open source there are usually two ways and if the documentation is shitty, you can be sure the code is correct. That makes my life as a developer easier.
Get a clue fanboy.
Wow. I'm sure you won him over with that jab. First an outpouring of pomposity and narcissism, then a put-down to finish it off. Good job dude.
Let's put 1,000 lbs worth of guns and ammo on them and control them with a central supercomputer. Then it can do all the warfighting without risking humans.
I've already seen that movie. Unfortunately it didn't turn out so well for humans after all.
I'm sorry if this went past you. Let me explain this to you s l o w l y... iPhad is a play off of the iPhone & iPad platform with a double meaning. Remember "double entendre" from grade school? Say iPhad very slowly several times and maybe you'll get it - but then again maybe not. I don't even know why I'm responding to an AC (that's Anonymous Coward if you need an explanation of that as well), but since you appear to need spoon feeding; if you'll pay attention, posts on/. are initially set to Score:1 and either modded up or down - or ignored (in which case they stay Score:1) - by the moderators. However, I don't post here for the scores. I do it because I enjoy participating in the (occasional) interesting discussions and even the (more frequent) jousting of ideas and points of view. I will say though, posting as an AC will not garner you much respect because it shows you don't have the guts to put your identity behind your comment.
Implementation details! Jeez you'd think this was a peer review. There are as many ways to do this as there are programmers. However, if you really want to go there, I used classes because this is java and at least one class would be required. I don't know that I would agree that this would not lend itself to OO without further detailed analysis - which I will not do. You are free to come up with your own design should you choose.
Typical iPhad response. 3 sequential steps and call it multitasking:)
Oh wait, I forgot, iPhad can only multitask 2 tasks (one builtin app and one 3rd Party app). No, background notifications don't count. If interrupt handling is considered multitasking, then msdos was a multitasking beast (I wrote many TSR apps back in the day).
Full disclosure: I'm writing this on my iPhad so don't peg me as anti-apple (I have 4 more iPhads I'm paying for for wife&kids). I'm supporting Apple more than any shill so I will speak my mind. The last time I made a remark critical of apple I got modded troll so I'm aware of the iGod followers here. If this draws a troll mod, then I say F U moderator.
int main(String[] args() {
new Thread(new Task1()).start();
new Thread(new Task2()).start();
new Thread(new Task3()).start();
Thread.sleep(86400000L);
}
To some degree, you are correct, just as they are higher due to environmental pollution, fast food, and stress (often induced by watching Faux News). However, they are higher to a much larger degree due to big-pharma and the insurance industry.
I'm not so sure about
my taxes are higher due to smokers
since smokers pay enough taxes on their cigs to far outweigh their cost to the system.
Slashdot Mirror
Developers are free to choose to write for whatever platform they choose.
It boils down to these items:
Do you want a large, potentially lucrative market and don't mind all the restrictions and cost associated with developing for iPhad (i.e. $99 fee, Apple hardware/software only, Objective-C only, app acceptance subject to Apple's whim, **frequent updates as each new OS release could potentially break your app, etc.), then by all means develop for the iPhad platform.
Do you want a platform for which you can choose your development hardware, software (that is available free), no restrictions on what or how you develop, Java, C++ or C languages supported, and are willing to try and market your app in smaller, more chaotic distribution channels, then go ahead and develop for the Android platform.
I would add Windows mobile development to this list, but I haven't done any development work for Windows mobile so I withhold any comments on where it fits. However, I would assume that it probably fits somewhere in between the two afore-mentioned platforms.
I've already made my choice.
**this one is bound to invoke the wrath of applemmings:
frequent updates as each new OS release could potentially break your app
I'm sorry if this invokes ire, but this is absolutely true. 99% of all updates I've received for the apps that I and my family's 4 other iPhones have installed have been updates to support the features of each subsequent OS release, and in most cases to fix them so they would even work with the new release.
if you want to play with Apples ball, you have to play by their rules.
I, for one, refuse to play with Apples ball.
Actually, lactose intolerant people often appreciate it when bacteria break down the lactose before they eat the food.
brought memories of an old SNL skit - Pre-Chew Charlie's - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xas2fz_saturady-night-live-pre-chew-charli_fun
Funny how associative memory works....
I'm not worried. If this is truly a "vast and vengeful consciousness" we can easily take it down. Quick, someone call Exxon.
I wonder if they'll run this in the Obits column?
Kids today don't have no desire for accomplishment. They don't want to make anything, or do anything, they just want to have stuff. Stuff which requires only a minimum of effort.
I don't buy this.
I heard the same thing from older folks when I was growing up and yet, my generation managed to produce the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and many of today's biggest ego-maniacal douche-bags.
I think it's quite natural for young people to not find their way until they are in their mid to late twenties.
Often it takes holding their first born child in their arms to shock them into the reality that life is hard and they better get on the stick or their kids won't have the luxury of -
no desire for accomplishment. They don't want to make anything, or do anything, they just want to have stuff. Stuff which requires only a minimum of effort.
douchebags
Now be respectful to your elders young man!
One day you'll get to be a douchebag yourself.
This reminds me of the way things were many years ago when mainframes were still king. There used to be a very clear distinction between system programmers and application programmers.
Systems programmers worked on issues dealing with the OS and getting it to talk to the hardware, while application programmers worked strictly on applications - payroll, accounting and the like. In most cases neither had a clue about the others domain of expertise.
Then it seemed we went through a period where the OS provided more and more functionality on it's own so that not much tweaking of OS itself was needed, and all hardware interfaces (drivers) were supplied by vendors, so the systems programmer's job was relegated to more of an administrator/maintainer role.
Higher and higher levels of abstraction were made available to application developers which removed them further and further away from low level programming details and enabled them to, in effect, create applications by wiring together the various APIs.
Very few opportunities were available for systems programmers that enjoyed that experience of working on the "bare metal".
The advent of microprocessor based systems (later to be called PCs), provided an outlet for all the pent-up desires for system programmer types to be able to code to the metal again.
A few lucky systems programmer types were able to land jobs working on OS development and a few went out on their own to try and develop something radically new, but with marketing not being their strong suit, after a few years, through an evolutionary process, the only viable OS left standing with broad acceptance was from MS (please table the requisite debate on why that was for another discussion).
Once again, the system programmers role was quickly becoming one of an administrator with the exception of niche areas like driver development, unless you happened to work for MS (or Sun, or any number of lesser used OSs).
Finally, with the advent of OSS in general, and projects like BSD and Linux in particular, the door was opened again for a few motivated souls who still relished the thrill of working below the API level.
There were opportunities to participate from the ground up on the development of new OSs and the excitement was enough to change the IT industry forever.
The problem is, after a few years, those systems programmers of bygone years are getting long in the tooth and thinking more about their grandchildren, than setting the world on fire with their now 15 year old OS. The sad thing is, most young developers today were educated as application programmers, not systems programmers. A single semester course in OS design and a semester on "C" development is hardly preparation for digging into kernel development.
Today's myriad of rapidly changing APIs and technologies is plenty to keep a young developer challenged (and hopefully employed) without them having to dig into the gory details of OS design.
My hope is that innovation will come to the rescue again as it has in the past (although it seems not as frequently as it once did) and present a new opportunity for fresh ideas for OS design and ignite a new generation of systems programmers to bring us into the 21st century instead of continuing to refine the 20th century OSs we have now.
MESSAGE to aspiring young developers:
C'mon kids. Get off the couch, put down that Wii/Xbox/PS3 controller, and play the most challenging video game you could imagine. Immerse yourself in C, or even better, in assembler and when you think your're ready, pick up a copy of Minux sourcecode (or some other "small enough to get your arms around" OS) and dig in. You're generation is going to need you as us "graybeards" migrate into the background. If you don't, you'll be at the mercy of the corporations to control your computers. I firmly believe that if open source OSs go by the wayside (or become insignificant enough to ignore) due to apathy, corporations won't make the mistake of letting the
All the action is on mobile devices, and Linux on a mobile device is like pounding a screw.
Umm.. better tell that to the Android developers. Android 1.5 is based on Linux Kernel 2.6.27.
Documentation from the vendor or project shows that they care about the details.
No, it shows that if they want to sell their product (or in the case of OSS, achieve wide acceptance), they'd better have decent docs. Corporations don't care at all. If not having decent documentation did not impact the bottom line, do you really think these corporations would expend the significant resources they do to produce the documentation?
In any case, many times the best information available (with the possible exception of reference API docs) comes from third party sources such as books and articles.
For a lot of software in Linux distros, only if you're lucky.
I agree completely. The decision regarding whether to use a particular OSS application/component has to include many factors (i.e. how well it's supported, how well it's documented, how stable it is, and many more). However, even for poorly documented software, it may still be more effective to use it rather than purchasing it or writing it yourself.
Pay attention, please. /. as to who his is. :)
Did I say "put your name behind your comment" ?
No, I said identity , as in online identity.
I doubt CmdrTacos mother actually named him that, but there is little doubt on
I suppose in some respects, your choice to post as Anonymous Coward belies who you are as well
As I've stated before, if you want to be taken seriously, the least you can do is register (it's free after all) and post under your own identity.
Had they not raised the issue of sexting in this commercial, I probably would never even have noticed it.
Maybe it's just me, the only value I see in commercials like that is that it gives me a minute to walk to the fridge for another beer.
I really don't care to debate the point. While it may be difficult, and I've seen some pretty horrendous code, if it compiles, it's understandable. That's common sense. Computer languages have very precise grammers and semantics.
In all my years, I've never once told my clients "I can't understand it. It's just too hard". Consider yourself lucky if you have the code. I've even had to reverse engineer code from binaries on occasion. That's hard, but again, not impossible because if the CPU can execute it, it's understandable.
And for the record, I worked on some custom mods to Xserver (xfree86) and I didn't find them any more difficult to understand than much of the C code I've seen. In fact, while by it's nature it's very complex software, I thought the code was well written for the most part. Of couse, you have to be comfortable with C (conditional compilation, macros and pointers, etc), as well as the concepts being implemented, but the concepts are fairly well documented on the Internet and in several books.
I never understand why clueless people resort to making up facts to defend their beliefs/leaders/country/software
Physician heal thyself.
A newbie Linux programmer is pretty much fucked if he doesn't have years of prior experience.
A newbie Linux programmer is not likely to be mucking around in the kernel now is he?
far better documentation from MS and Apple than Linux has ever had.
Have you ever looked at Amazon or InformIT/Safari or any technical documentation vendor or website? There are enough books and articles on MS and Linux to keep you reading for many lifetimes (Apple not so much, but still plenty by my estimate). It's just a FACT that there are certain things that closed source vendors do not disclose as a matter of trade secret or intellectual property, which is what I believe WrongSizeGlass was referring to. OSS does not have this limitation.
And no, the source doesn't count if no one knows what you intended to do
It absolutely does count, if you know how to read code. You can read documentation all day long, but if it doesn't match the code you'll be lost.
When I get involved in a rewrite/upgrade/modification of an existing application (and I've worked on many much larger than most OSS apps, and I've been doing it for over 30 years - so it think I have a clue), I read the docs for a quick overview, but I read the code to find out how it really works.
I've spent plenty of time with both msdn.microsoft.com (and developer.apple.com to a lesser degree) over the years and while there are loads of information there, I know "everything" is not there. There are API documentation discrepancies, quirks, or various undocumented oddities that can be frustrating to work around. These issues can only be resolved one of two ways - trial and error or by reading the code.
With closed source there is only one way - pray the docs are correct. With open source there are usually two ways and if the documentation is shitty, you can be sure the code is correct. That makes my life as a developer easier.
Get a clue fanboy.
Wow. I'm sure you won him over with that jab. First an outpouring of pomposity and narcissism, then a put-down to finish it off.
Good job dude.
Let's put 1,000 lbs worth of guns and ammo on them and control them with a central supercomputer. Then it can do all the warfighting without risking humans.
I've already seen that movie. Unfortunately it didn't turn out so well for humans after all.
Like all DARPA projects Transformer TX is unlikely to succeed at all.
Yea, like that crazy idea called ARPANET and those stupid protocols like IP and TCP or the Predator UAV.
I'm sorry if this went past you. Let me explain this to you s l o w l y... /. are initially set to Score:1 and either modded up or down - or ignored (in which case they stay Score:1) - by the moderators.
iPhad is a play off of the iPhone & iPad platform with a double meaning. Remember "double entendre" from grade school?
Say iPhad very slowly several times and maybe you'll get it - but then again maybe not.
I don't even know why I'm responding to an AC (that's Anonymous Coward if you need an explanation of that as well), but since you appear to need spoon feeding; if you'll pay attention, posts on
However, I don't post here for the scores. I do it because I enjoy participating in the (occasional) interesting discussions and even the (more frequent) jousting of ideas and points of view.
I will say though, posting as an AC will not garner you much respect because it shows you don't have the guts to put your identity behind your comment.
Implementation details! Jeez you'd think this was a peer review. There are as many ways to do this as there are programmers. However, if you really want to go there, I used classes because this is java and at least one class would be required. I don't know that I would agree that this would not lend itself to OO without further detailed analysis - which I will not do. You are free to come up with your own design should you choose.
Typical iPhad response. 3 sequential steps and call it multitasking :)
Oh wait, I forgot, iPhad can only multitask 2 tasks (one builtin app and one 3rd Party app). No, background notifications don't count. If interrupt handling is considered multitasking, then msdos was a multitasking beast (I wrote many TSR apps back in the day).
Full disclosure: I'm writing this on my iPhad so don't peg me as anti-apple (I have 4 more iPhads I'm paying for for wife&kids). I'm supporting Apple more than any shill so I will speak my mind.
The last time I made a remark critical of apple I got modded troll so I'm aware of the iGod followers here.
If this draws a troll mod, then I say F U moderator.
This being 2010 I would have expected:
// Task 1: Chewing gum.
// Task 2: Listening to music
//Task 3: Typing to Slashdot
int main(String[] args() {
new Thread(new Task1()).start();
new Thread(new Task2()).start();
new Thread(new Task3()).start();
Thread.sleep(86400000L);
}
class Task1() {
void run() {
while(1) {
chewGum();
}
}
class Task2() {
void run() {
while(1) {
hearMusic();
shakeHead();
hymnALittleBit();
shakeLeg();
}
}
class Task3() {
void run() {
while(1) {
thinkOfWordsToType();
searchForTheSpellingOfTheWord();
liftFingers();
useRightFingersToHitTheRightKeys();
eyeLookAtScreen();
checkForTypos();
checkForGrammarMistake();
}
}
... Obama probably received enough moons today from the tea baggers that going to the moon was not at the top of his todo list.
her Wii Remote fell into her shorts when she fell and got stuck in vibrate mode!
http://www.share-international.org/background/miracles/mi_circles.htm
Or at least maybe the space brothers?
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NewAge/Creme_Maitreya.htm
My premiums are higher due to smokers
To some degree, you are correct, just as they are higher due to environmental pollution, fast food, and stress (often induced by watching Faux News). However, they are higher to a much larger degree due to big-pharma and the insurance industry.
I'm not so sure about
my taxes are higher due to smokers
since smokers pay enough taxes on their cigs to far outweigh their cost to the system.