I will apologize in advance for the nitpick - but this is not an appropriate analogy. There were no "existing apps" that would run on the Mac - only DOS and Apple II software (and a handful of other command line "UIs"). The mouse was an entirely new peripheral/ paradigm debuting with the Mac (commercially, that is). In order to get developers using the mouse as opposed to keyboard-only, 'traditional' applications, they left the cursor keys off the keyboard. Nonetheless, Steve and others railed over apps that were essentially command line programs put in a window. That said, Steve J was *not* trying to keep existing programs from running on the Mac - there were no existing programs that *could* run on a Mac.
This is substantively different, in that Apple is keeping existing apps that could run on iPhone/iPods/iPads off these devices. Steve is right that certain keyboard/mouse programs will not transition nicely to the touch metaphor, along with other disadvantages for small or embedded systems. I would add to this discussion that everyone sees this as Steve slamming Adobe and trying to wipe out the market for Flash. I don't see that - Adobe is a great company with good engineers that has produced some amazing software in its history. Since taking over stewardship of Flash, they have done a lousy job of improving it or pushing it in new directions - basically everything so far has been along the path already established at Macromedia before the acquisition. I see this as Steve saying "Wake up, guys - apply some of the Adobe's unique strengths to take Flash in a new direction and capitalize on the new platforms, not continue development along an arc defined five or more years ago." The question is whether Adobe takes up the challenge, or watches while what was once a breakthrough technology becomes diminished to the point of obscurity. On Apr 29, 9:58 am, Karsten Silz <[email protected]> wrote: > On Apr 29, 6:22 pm, Reinier Zwitserloot <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Half the flash websites use > > mouse-over effects, which is going to be impossible or rather awkward > > on a touch device, and so on and so forth. > > The whole "No existing Flash apps on the iPhone/iPad" sounds similar > to the first Mac which didn't have cursor keys. Steve jobs left them > out just to make sure that none of the existing apps would run (which > relied on these keys for control) and developers had to write apps > from scratch, taking full advantage of the Mac. About two years > later, they were added when there was enough good Mac software. Now > it doesn't sound that Flash will have the same fate - at close to > 200,000 apps right, you could say there's enough software now. > -- 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.
