2 ms·

How much does Objective C matter outside of Apple's ecosystem? It doesn't need to. Apple has demonstrated the agility of a wholly owned, vertical stack. The pa

How much does Objective C matter outside of Apple's ecosystem? It doesn't need to. Apple has demonstrated the agility of a wholly owned, vertical stack. The pace of change has qualitatively changed since the days of language standards set by plodding standards bodies.

fpgeek 15y ago
It depends on what your ambitions are. I'd agree that it doesn't matter much to Apple that Objective C isn't standardized (and not standardizing may be an intentional part of Apple's business strategy by increasing porting and switching costs). But that also means that, no matter what its true potential is, Objective C will never be more than what Apple makes of it. It won't be seriously used outside of application areas Apple is interested in. It won't develop new features Apple doesn't care about. And if Apple decides to go in a different direction and/or runs into serious trouble, well that's it. Apple has changed the world, but, unlike some other, standardized languages including the ones above, Objective C never will. If we lose the full potential of future great languages because they are limited by a single company and/or a single implementation, we will all be poorer because of that.
- cageface 15y ago
  I used to think so but I've come around to the idea that the language is just part of the platform. Learning the Apis and idioms is always more work than learning a new syntax anyway.
  - fpgeek 15y ago
    I guess this is where we're actually parting ways. I agree that learning a platform, its APIs and idioms is important, non-trivial work, but... As you might guess from my username, I'm a fan of more than a few languages where (at least I believe) the differences go well beyond syntax. That means I want standards because I want to know what I can (or could) take with me to another platform and what I can't.

2 ms·

How much does Objective C matter outside of Apple's ecosystem? It doesn't need to. Apple has demonstrated the agility of a wholly owned, vertical stack. The pa

by cageface 15y ago

fpgeek 15y ago
It depends on what your ambitions are. I'd agree that it doesn't matter much to Apple that Objective C isn't standardized (and not standardizing may be an intentional part of Apple's business strategy by increasing porting and switching costs). But that also means that, no matter what its true potential is, Objective C will never be more than what Apple makes of it. It won't be seriously used outside of application areas Apple is interested in. It won't develop new features Apple doesn't care about. And if Apple decides to go in a different direction and/or runs into serious trouble, well that's it. Apple has changed the world, but, unlike some other, standardized languages including the ones above, Objective C never will. If we lose the full potential of future great languages because they are limited by a single company and/or a single implementation, we will all be poorer because of that.
- cageface 15y ago
  I used to think so but I've come around to the idea that the language is just part of the platform. Learning the Apis and idioms is always more work than learning a new syntax anyway.
  - fpgeek 15y ago
    I guess this is where we're actually parting ways. I agree that learning a platform, its APIs and idioms is important, non-trivial work, but... As you might guess from my username, I'm a fan of more than a few languages where (at least I believe) the differences go well beyond syntax. That means I want standards because I want to know what I can (or could) take with me to another platform and what I can't.