Apple has already limited the languages allowed onto the iPhone to these four. Beyond running JS in the safari browser they do not allow end users to have programmatic access to the phone (though the developers license is only $99, a cheap price to pay for a kid to get to develop for the phone, no?).
So its against the terms to put Flash on the phone because this would allow people to program for the phone outside of Apple's control. Adobe has a work around in the works so that a flash program could be compiled to a "native executable", see http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcs5/appsfor_iphone/. It wouldn't allow for running arbitrary flash files off the web but would allow developers to re-use their app code and go through the apple market process. This move by Apple closes a loophole that Adobe was about to take advantage of. It is interesting that the programs must "originally" have been written in one of these languages. I wonder if that would mean you couldn't write code that was used to generated Objective-C code? Processing does something like this where a processing sketch is preprocessed into a standard java classes which can then be compiled. I'd bet Adobe would prefer not to have all their code be exposed like that anyway but does the term "originally written" keep others from doing this? --joshua On Apr 12, 2010, at 10:30 AM, Owen Densmore wrote: > I'm curious what the deeper story is. Google limits their languages to C/C++, > Java, Python and Javascript. Is this similar or just a grudge with Adobe? Or > is it part of the HTML5 spec which offers a considerable simplification re: > plugins etc. > > Although Flash is a variant of JS, is there more to the story? I.e. Does it, > or it's libraries, demand interfaces to more of the hardware than usual? I > confess to not really groking Flash .. It seams to be much more than JS and > some libraries. Air and other frameworks go beyond what I'd consider just a > language. > > I also note Java is not allowed. > > ---- Owen > > > I am an iPad, resistance is futile! > > On Apr 12, 2010, at 9:02 AM, Stephen Guerin <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Apple is dictating apps must be written in approved languages. >> "Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or >> JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written >> in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the >> Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an >> intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited)." >> >> Wasn't newspeak an official language :-) >> >> from wikipedia: >> "Newspeak is closely based on English but has a greatly reduced and >> simplified vocabulary and grammar. This suits the totalitarian regime of the >> Party, whose aim is to make any alternative thinking—"thoughtcrime", or >> "crimethink" in the newest edition of Newspeak—impossible by removing any >> words or possible constructs which describe the ideas of freedom, rebellion >> and so on." >> >> http://www.gizmag.com/apple-iphone-os-4-adobe/14781/ >> http://theflashblog.com/?p=1888 >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
