Quoting my take on Objective-C from Simon's blog (http:// www.psynixis.com/blog/2010/04/11/the-risk-apple-is-taking-with-its-new-iphone-language-strategy/):
"Objective-C is a FAILED programming language. It would be totally extinct if Steve Jobs wouldn’t pick it and mandate it use since the NeXT and now in the OSX and iPhoneOS platforms. At NeXT time it was still an interesting, innovative language (compared to the competition in its class: early C++, and… nothing else). But times change and Obj- C didn’t. And it was a bad approach to start with — a naive attempt to snatch some pieces of Smalltalk into C. (Hint: dynamic versus static typing, and other incongruencies.) If Obj-C was a language with merits, it would have met some degree of success in other platforms. There’s even a full GNU compiler (gcc-objc) and frameworks (OpenStep) that could be used to port classic NeXT apps to any OS. But the uptake of Obj-C on any platforms where it’s not mandated as the official language, was close to zero. Other, superior languages appeared and developers picked those languages and ignored Obj-C. Except of course, the poor bastards who live under Steve’s heavy boots. Even the likes of Eiffel were massively popular in comparison. Steve Jobs once infamously referred to Java as the “heavy ball and chain”. Well, that’s exactly my feeling if I was an iPhoneOS developer who prefer alternatives like C# (MonoTouch) but was forced to use the monkey dung that Obj-C is. Apple is using the power of their successful platform to chain developers to a clunky SDK that many many devs would avoid if they had a chance. (The only reason why Obj-C is heavily used in the first years of the platform is, of course, absence of alternative options. Now these options are popping everywhere, and Apple knows they are all superior in many aspects, so their only choice to keep lock-in is rule out other tools by fiat.)" A+ Osvaldo On 26 abr, 03:50, wilfred <[email protected]> wrote: > Listening to the last episode right now, in particular the comments on > Apple's decision to ban anything but Objective C based apps from the > iPhone and iPad. Next to me, on top of a pile of books, there is a > book opened up on a page that has some ties with what is being > discussed. It's part of an open letter to Steve Jobs, dating from > 1996: > > "Dear Steve, > .... > Drop Objective C. There's no money to be made supporting yet another > object language. Use C++ with SOM and you;ll get all the same benefits > without the headaches. If you don't like C++, use Smalltalk with CORBA > - it will also give you the same results. > ...." > > It's part of Robert Orfali's book on Distributed Object Computing. I > think it's pretty hilarious, looking back. Rather than scaring > developers off - as the authors expected - Objective C is now being > used to scare people away from targeting anything but Steve's > platform. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group > athttp://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
