4 ms·

How is this a catch-22 situation? It is some kind of dilemma, sure, because you have to decide between making your life easier by using powerful and convenient

How is this a catch-22 situation? It is some kind of dilemma, sure, because you have to decide between making your life easier by using powerful and convenient platform-exclusive APIs or staying more independent by trying to use as much generic, cross-platform foundations as possible, even though this makes your job more difficult and consumes more effort. But it is by no means some kind of contraption from which there is no possible escape route - which is what a catch-22 entails, as far as I understand it. It's an engineering trade-off, just like all those other trade-offs that we as engineers have to evaluate and eventually decide about all the time. It seems to me like someone wanted to use the well-known "catch-22" moniker as a catchphrase (pun intended) here ;-)

jjeaff 7y ago
I suppose it is a catch 22 because there are plenty of apps/businesses out there that would not be able to exist were it not for the apple ecosystem. Usually demonstrated by the fact that for their specific functionality, they require a native app, and their identical Android application makes almost no money compared to the iOS app. Not saying all apps are like that. But there are quite a few that for whatever reason, only make money on iOS.
- close04 7y ago
  > there are plenty of apps/businesses out there that would not be able to exist were it not for the apple ecosystem That's not a catch-22. A catch-22 [0] is when you have contradictory requirements that are all needed but eliminate each other [Wiki example: How can I get any experience until I get a job that gives me experience?]. A hard choice or a single choice aren't a catch-22. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22_(logic) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22_(logic)
  - basch 7y ago
    The phrase they were looking for was faustian bargain, although even then, Apple's APIs are not all or nothing (but if you use some, maybe just use them all cuz youre stuck either way?)
tempodox 7y ago
It's much more clickbaity this way.

jjeaff 7y ago

I suppose it is a catch 22 because there are plenty of apps/businesses out there that would not be able to exist were it not for the apple ecosystem. Usually demonstrated by the fact that for their specific functionality, they require a native app, and their identical Android application makes almost no money compared to the iOS app. Not saying all apps are like that. But there are quite a few that for whatever reason, only make money on iOS.

close04 7y ago
> there are plenty of apps/businesses out there that would not be able to exist were it not for the apple ecosystem That's not a catch-22. A catch-22 [0] is when you have contradictory requirements that are all needed but eliminate each other [Wiki example: How can I get any experience until I get a job that gives me experience?]. A hard choice or a single choice aren't a catch-22. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22_(logic) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22_(logic)
- basch 7y ago
  The phrase they were looking for was faustian bargain, although even then, Apple's APIs are not all or nothing (but if you use some, maybe just use them all cuz youre stuck either way?)

tempodox 7y ago

It's much more clickbaity this way.