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> So the iOS SDK isn't a batteries included development platform. That's right. It's not. And?

benatkin 4y ago
If you have a requirement of GUI apps and reject the iOS SDK since it's a single native platform and reject things that only build to the web since it's lacking integration with platforms that native apps have, you're left with a bunch of stuff like Flutter, React Native, Qt, and HaXe. None of those have great ecosystems like each platform individually of the web, iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. If you decide to settle for a limited ecosystem like React Native and others, I think it would also be fine to settle for Racket, which as you say, doesn't provide tools for building apps with iOS and Android's native UI components (though non-native UI components can be packaged into an installable mobile/desktop app and the LGPL is no longer an issue since Racket re-licensed almost everything). If you decide you gotta have GUI apps and you gotta have a full ecosystem, going with XCode would be one option. Stanford chose that. I would have liked to think that MIT with their past involvement of open source wouldn't choose such a walled garden. However, this expectation of mine has eroded as I've watched scandals unfold at MIT. If you choose the web, that's clearly great for commercial software, but the students may lose out on important trends like AR & VR. Developing directly for Android might be a good compromise, since at least it's possible to run a fully open source Android device. Here's an example of what I'm talking about with React Native's ecosystem being limited: https://www.twopicode.com/articles/this-is-why-we-stopped-using-react-native/ https://www.twopicode.com/articles/this-is-why-we-stopped-us... Edit: I see that the market's mostly rejected web-based installable mobile apps, though the mobile web is certainly a big thing. I would argue that the market has also mostly rejected React Native and Flutter. It works, but um, yeah... https://www.thecodeside.com/2021/08/03/why-flutter-is-not-your-choice-for-building-the-best-app-in-the-world/ https://www.thecodeside.com/2021/08/03/why-flutter-is-not-yo...
- Turing_Machine 4y ago
  There's clearly a continuum here. The XCode ecosystem is more batteries-included than Racket, though it's not fully so (at least by my definition). For one, it does run on mobile devices (albeit only Apple mobile devices) and it does have standard GUI capability. Racket has neither of those capabilities.

If you have a requirement of GUI apps and reject the iOS SDK since it's a single native platform and reject things that only build to the web since it's lacking integration with platforms that native apps have, you're left with a bunch of stuff like Flutter, React Native, Qt, and HaXe. None of those have great ecosystems like each platform individually of the web, iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. If you decide to settle for a limited ecosystem like React Native and others, I think it would also be fine to settle for Racket, which as you say, doesn't provide tools for building apps with iOS and Android's native UI components (though non-native UI components can be packaged into an installable mobile/desktop app and the LGPL is no longer an issue since Racket re-licensed almost everything). If you decide you gotta have GUI apps and you gotta have a full ecosystem, going with XCode would be one option. Stanford chose that. I would have liked to think that MIT with their past involvement of open source wouldn't choose such a walled garden. However, this expectation of mine has eroded as I've watched scandals unfold at MIT. If you choose the web, that's clearly great for commercial software, but the students may lose out on important trends like AR & VR. Developing directly for Android might be a good compromise, since at least it's possible to run a fully open source Android device. Here's an example of what I'm talking about with React Native's ecosystem being limited: https://www.twopicode.com/articles/this-is-why-we-stopped-using-react-native/ https://www.twopicode.com/articles/this-is-why-we-stopped-us... Edit: I see that the market's mostly rejected web-based installable mobile apps, though the mobile web is certainly a big thing. I would argue that the market has also mostly rejected React Native and Flutter. It works, but um, yeah... https://www.thecodeside.com/2021/08/03/why-flutter-is-not-your-choice-for-building-the-best-app-in-the-world/ https://www.thecodeside.com/2021/08/03/why-flutter-is-not-yo...

Turing_Machine 4y ago
There's clearly a continuum here. The XCode ecosystem is more batteries-included than Racket, though it's not fully so (at least by my definition). For one, it does run on mobile devices (albeit only Apple mobile devices) and it does have standard GUI capability. Racket has neither of those capabilities.