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The linked Twitter post does bring up a good point: I wish Apple would make it easier for third parties to build tooling for the iOS/OS X development environmen

by austinz 12y ago

The linked Twitter post does bring up a good point: I wish Apple would make it easier for third parties to build tooling for the iOS/OS X development environment. Stuff like alternative IDEs, Xcode plug-ins, tools for instrumentation/debugging, alternative simulators. Some of this already exists out there (e.g. AppCode), but most of it is really dependent upon the often-buggy first-party tooling. Better support for third-party tooling would ameliorate the pain developers feel when Xcode doesn't work well. I don't even see any downsides. A thriving third-party tooling ecosystem would only serve to lure more developers, resulting in more applications and increased hardware and software revenue. It's not like Apple currently makes money selling its development software to developers.

rgbrgb 12y ago
Definitely take a look at the Alcatraz package manager fro XCode[1]. I discovered it recently and it's heavily improved my experience! [1]: http://alcatraz.io/ http://alcatraz.io/
jfoster 12y ago
Could lost desktop & laptop sales be a downside? I think it's easy to under-estimate how many developers have purchased a Macbook Pro or Mac Mini primarily so that they could develop for iOS.
- blisterpeanuts 12y ago
  I would say yes. I just bought a Mini and an Air, just for iOS development :) Well, I also got the Air because it's such a fantastic laptop, after years of using corporate Dell bricks.
ghshephard 12y ago
I think we can be reasonably certain that Apple will not support, and, wherever possible, will actively discourage the development of third party primary development environments. They learned their lesson with CodeWarrior, and aren't going to let third parties take a leadership role in their development environment.
- gdwatson 12y ago
  For the sake of someone who has never developed on a Macintosh and only saw CodeWarrior in action a few times, could you explain what happened and how Apple responded?
  - rsynnott 12y ago
    It became the de facto development platform for MacOS, then when Motorola bought it they started de-emphasising MacOS support, eventually dropping it. Apple responded by putting a lot more work into their own development tools.
axman6 12y ago
The problem for Apple is that doing that would then hold them back; they would be required to not break other people's code with new releases, and I feel they would like to be able to completely reqrite large parts of Xcode as often as they like without worrying about outcry when they break someone else's code.

by austinz 12y ago

rgbrgb 12y ago

Definitely take a look at the Alcatraz package manager fro XCode[1]. I discovered it recently and it's heavily improved my experience! [1]: http://alcatraz.io/ http://alcatraz.io/

jfoster 12y ago

Could lost desktop & laptop sales be a downside? I think it's easy to under-estimate how many developers have purchased a Macbook Pro or Mac Mini primarily so that they could develop for iOS.

blisterpeanuts 12y ago
I would say yes. I just bought a Mini and an Air, just for iOS development :) Well, I also got the Air because it's such a fantastic laptop, after years of using corporate Dell bricks.

ghshephard 12y ago

I think we can be reasonably certain that Apple will not support, and, wherever possible, will actively discourage the development of third party primary development environments. They learned their lesson with CodeWarrior, and aren't going to let third parties take a leadership role in their development environment.

gdwatson 12y ago
For the sake of someone who has never developed on a Macintosh and only saw CodeWarrior in action a few times, could you explain what happened and how Apple responded?
- rsynnott 12y ago
  It became the de facto development platform for MacOS, then when Motorola bought it they started de-emphasising MacOS support, eventually dropping it. Apple responded by putting a lot more work into their own development tools.

axman6 12y ago

The problem for Apple is that doing that would then hold them back; they would be required to not break other people's code with new releases, and I feel they would like to be able to completely reqrite large parts of Xcode as often as they like without worrying about outcry when they break someone else's code.