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I don't know, Objective C seems a relatively minor issue to me. (although I have to admit I don't know Obj-C either) Right now, developing for the iPhone seems

I don't know, Objective C seems a relatively minor issue to me. (although I have to admit I don't know Obj-C either) Right now, developing for the iPhone seems scarily similar to developing for a game console in the amount of politics and bureaucracy involved.

j2d2 18y ago
I also can't help but feel like developing for the iphone is like developing for a soon-to-be-obsolete technology. I don't know when we should expect to see android phones, but I'm drawn to the openness of it and see an opportunity to become an expert before everyone else.
- pxlpshr 18y ago
  "those who want to write great software, control the hardware." Hence Apple's focus on controlling the entire process... The same shift has occurred in gaming with consoles taking over as the development platform of choice. So, I see the best cell phone apps existing on the iPhone for this very reason and furthermore, produced by significantly smaller studios. The iPhone SDK + iTunes distribution is a garage-programmers delight for anyone seeking to capitalize. The problem with Android is the burden of designing around hundreds upon thousands of hardware combinations that exist in an open market. It also completely ignores the entire experience from distribution to installation on the phone; point A to point B can have a lot of barriers which has prohibited a sizable phone software market in the past. Apple has solved this too.
  - davidw 18y ago
    > The problem with Android is the burden of designing around hundreds upon thousands of hardware combinations that exist in an open market. For many people, that's an opportunity, not a problem. The width and breadth of the current cell phone market indicates that variety is something that the market values, and a one-size-fits-all phone is never going to conquer that large a share of the overall market. Also, consider the many vertical and niche applications that will only be possible on a platform like Android, where you have more control.
Tamerlin 18y ago
The only thing that makes learning Objective-C difficult for me is availability, because AFAIK I can't compile Obj-C code on anything but a mac, and I don't happen to have one. Other than that, I agree... it's just another programming language, and from my experience spending a little bit of time learning it when I worked for a company that provided me a mac, it's a pretty nice language. (That was v2. I hear v3 is significantly improved.) Some day I might add a mac to my computer lineup, but for now it's not feasible, largley due to financial constraints... meaning that although I'm not exactly struggling to make the mortgage payments, my budget is finite, and I have other priorities besides yet another computer at the moment :)
- MaysonL 18y ago
  gcc + gnustep is available for many non-Mac machines
  - davidw 18y ago
    And the emulator? Developing cell phone apps without an emulator is... not an easy thing.
jcl 18y ago
I was a little surprised at the article's comment that some programmers thought Objective C doesn't have the speed and flexibility of Java. Is this true? Based on my limited understanding of Objective C, it compiles to native code plus message passing, while Java compiles to bytecode -- which should give both languages similar performance. The Language Shootout bears this out, on PCs, at least: http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/debian/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=objc&lang2=java http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/debian/benchmark.php?test=...

j2d2 18y ago

I also can't help but feel like developing for the iphone is like developing for a soon-to-be-obsolete technology. I don't know when we should expect to see android phones, but I'm drawn to the openness of it and see an opportunity to become an expert before everyone else.

pxlpshr 18y ago
"those who want to write great software, control the hardware." Hence Apple's focus on controlling the entire process... The same shift has occurred in gaming with consoles taking over as the development platform of choice. So, I see the best cell phone apps existing on the iPhone for this very reason and furthermore, produced by significantly smaller studios. The iPhone SDK + iTunes distribution is a garage-programmers delight for anyone seeking to capitalize. The problem with Android is the burden of designing around hundreds upon thousands of hardware combinations that exist in an open market. It also completely ignores the entire experience from distribution to installation on the phone; point A to point B can have a lot of barriers which has prohibited a sizable phone software market in the past. Apple has solved this too.
- davidw 18y ago
  > The problem with Android is the burden of designing around hundreds upon thousands of hardware combinations that exist in an open market. For many people, that's an opportunity, not a problem. The width and breadth of the current cell phone market indicates that variety is something that the market values, and a one-size-fits-all phone is never going to conquer that large a share of the overall market. Also, consider the many vertical and niche applications that will only be possible on a platform like Android, where you have more control.

Tamerlin 18y ago

The only thing that makes learning Objective-C difficult for me is availability, because AFAIK I can't compile Obj-C code on anything but a mac, and I don't happen to have one. Other than that, I agree... it's just another programming language, and from my experience spending a little bit of time learning it when I worked for a company that provided me a mac, it's a pretty nice language. (That was v2. I hear v3 is significantly improved.) Some day I might add a mac to my computer lineup, but for now it's not feasible, largley due to financial constraints... meaning that although I'm not exactly struggling to make the mortgage payments, my budget is finite, and I have other priorities besides yet another computer at the moment :)

MaysonL 18y ago
gcc + gnustep is available for many non-Mac machines
- davidw 18y ago
  And the emulator? Developing cell phone apps without an emulator is... not an easy thing.

jcl 18y ago

I was a little surprised at the article's comment that some programmers thought Objective C doesn't have the speed and flexibility of Java. Is this true? Based on my limited understanding of Objective C, it compiles to native code plus message passing, while Java compiles to bytecode -- which should give both languages similar performance. The Language Shootout bears this out, on PCs, at least: http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/debian/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=objc&lang2=java http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/debian/benchmark.php?test=...