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Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

itunes.apple.com

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Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#321

Post by mmastrac »

wmf wrote: post #317
mmastrac wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The GCC toolchain can link Mach-O binaries without using any code from Apple. Building GCC cross-compilers like this is a pain, but crosstools takes a bit of that away: http://www.kegel.com/crosstool/ Basically, you can generate your own binaries and ship them under the GPL. No Apple needed. I'll ask for more info from someone I know who built an OSX cross-compiler under Linux.

Who said anything about cross compiling? It sounds like he'd be fine with regular GCC+binutils. (I don't see anything about Mach-O support in the ld manual, though...)

I think this would be considered a cross-compiler, even though you are building OSX on OSX. You would be building a version of GCC that targets OSX with a different version of GCC.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#322

Post by Jarred »

A1kmm wrote: post #231

I'm an academic who develops Free / Open Source software and distributes libraries and binaries for the Windows, x86 and x86_64 Linux and Mac platforms along with the source. One important library generates C code based on a domain specific language, links a shared object and uses that; on Windows and Linux, we ship a cut back gcc and libtools to do that; libtools doesn't work on the Mac (at least last time I looked…

Nobody should have to pay for development tools when the company profits substantially from the individual developing for their platform. They're going to raise the price even higher as time progresses, simply because they can. Apple is a monopoly within it's own bustling platform, nobody rivals iTunes on the Mac other than Songbird, and few use Songbird. That's a very similar situation with iLife. And then the way apps are mass marketed to people is being directly controlled by Apple as well now with the Mac App Store. Apple sounds a whole lot like Microsoft in the 90's and early 2000's. However, there's a striking difference between them and Apple, Microsoft kept it more open, they focused on the software side of things and just that. Microsoft focused on owning and maintaining the platform, whereas Apple is focusing on being the platform.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#323

Post by mambodog »

masklinn wrote: post #198
ori_b wrote: post #15

This is somewhat strange pricing - it seems ridiculously cheap if they're trying to make significant profits off of it, but pricey enough to prevent tinkerers who don't really know about coding but feel like trying it from getting a start in xcode.

According to the LLVM lead dev (Chris Lattner on IRC), this is due to Apple's accountant's interpretation of SOX (Xcode 4 is too different from Xcode 3 to be considered an update, they see it as a new product): > it is due to some bizarro accounting rule. xcode4 is sufficiently new that it doesn't count as a free update or something. paid adc members should get free access. yeah, clearly we're trying to monetize it..…

If this is true then I wonder if buying a new Mac or a boxed copy of Mac OS entitles one to XCode 4 and all updates until XCode 5 (which will be years away)?

That is certainly the case with Facetime and the 802.11n update.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#324

Post by teyc »

It may be just JetBrains fault. Apple could get into trouble in EU for "dumping" their products for free to kill competitors. Making a marginal profit may cost them in terms of the number of developers, but saves the hassle of being hauled in front of an EU commission.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#325

Post by yrashk »

noarchy wrote: post #116
tammam wrote: post #85

I think Apple should by Text Mate and charge $4.99 then it would make sense. I like TextMate is much better especially for writing Ruby on Rails

If Xcode isn't worth $4.99, then how outrageous is Textmate's $56 license? I use neither, since free tools are available for what I do, and they get the job done quite well.

You don't need a TextMate license to build some open source package

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#326

Post by donw »

Teckla wrote: post #233
francoisdevlin wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

vim - $0.00 emacs - $0.00

Watching new users try to figure out how to exit these editors: priceless. (This is tongue-in-cheek! I use Vim!)

I only have ten fingers, which is too few to use Emacs. (I kid, I kid)

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#327

Post by jedsmith »

randylahey wrote: post #292
kjksf wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you really saying that you can't afford to pay $5 from your own pocket for XCode 4? What price, other than $0, would be acceptable for a tool that took years of effort by a team of programmers and cost Apple tens of millions in programmer's salaries to develop?

The point is not that it's $4, or $10,000 or $0.25. The point is that now that money has to come from somewhere. This throws up a sizeable obstacle for anyone looking to do development on the platform and will especially hurt FOSS. If you can't see this, I don't really know what to say. Apple literally makes billions of dollars on software, you'd think they'd throw the developers that literally helped build their eco…

No, cue the you're assuming you won't get Xcode 4 with Lion rabble. Seriously. Don't jump to conclusions yet.

Can you clarify the $5-hurts-FOSS argument? I don't mean to sound crass, but there are people who pay more than $5 for coffee. If a one-time charge of $5 to build OS X versions of your FOSS project is a, as you say, "[sizable] obstacle" to entering FOSS development, that's a genuine surprise to me. Especially since Xcode 3 is still absolutely free. If I were a committer on your project I'd buy it myself and donate it, for crying out loud.

They anticipated this, undoubtedly, and put the button right there: "Looking for Xcode 3 because $5 is too much? Here it is!" You're really only paying for the improved GUI. Does your FOSS project use Xcode as its primary development platform, or is it just using the compiler toolchain?

This revolt to $5 is absolutely stunning. Even more worth thinking about is that all the commenting about it on HN equates to far more than $5 in billable time...how many copies could the revolting have purchased?

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#328

Post by montagg »

kjksf wrote: post #282
A1kmm wrote: post #231

I'm an academic who develops Free / Open Source software and distributes libraries and binaries for the Windows, x86 and x86_64 Linux and Mac platforms along with the source. One important library generates C code based on a domain specific language, links a shared object and uses that; on Windows and Linux, we ship a cut back gcc and libtools to do that; libtools doesn't work on the Mac (at least last time I looked…

Are you really saying that you can't afford to pay $5 from your own pocket for XCode 4? What price, other than $0, would be acceptable for a tool that took years of effort by a team of programmers and cost Apple tens of millions in programmer's salaries to develop?

It's just better business to make the price $0. $5 doesn't seem expensive. It just seems... odd.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#329

Post by fingerprinter »

I haven't seen this in the comments yet (might have missed it), but I had always assumed that I was ALREADY paying for Xcode w/ my $99 developer connection fee. $5 is a small amount, for sure, but just seems like yet another way that are trying to squeeze me.
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