Composability is what makes something greater than the sum of its parts. The iPad, I found, is so constrained as to be useless. I know of very few people who are still using their iPad regularly after 6 months or so precisely because of this (and the star trek wow factor has worn off). Ironically, composability is why I still carry around a 15-year old TI92 calculator instead of an iPad, even though my peers look at…
iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
41–50 of 144 posts
Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
#42As someone who spends almost all day either in vim/commandline mode or web browsing, I want to make the point about the unix pipe point, and that with gui's this is impossible. Its not even the fact that it would require a lot more effort to sort and format a list of 100,000 names into our predefined pattern, but more the fact that the power of the command line is lost. I find as I'm programming, I gravitate towards…
Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
#43It's not anti-Unix or anti-programmer...it's all about being anti-freedom. All these companies want to do is turn your computing experience into a locked down, controlled, monitored experience. They want to turn your limitless and powerful computer into a home appliance...like a blender or electric razer. No way to customize, no way to modify, no way to organize thoughts your way. No hacking or "jailbreaking" into yo…
"All these companies want to do is turn your computing experience into a locked down, controlled, monitored experience." Oh, bullshit. Do you really think there is someone siting around at Apple dreaming up new ways to take away your freedom? No. There fucking isn't. I'm a huge believer in small, composable components. And I know that developing against closed platforms sucks . Being able to dig down into the source…
> Oh, bullshit. Do you really think there is someone siting around at Apple dreaming up new ways to take away your freedom?
Yes - more precisely they are working out new ways to charge you for it.
We're slowly being led into paying incrementally for utility computing on a device we actually paid up front for.
Only a fool buys something then pays to use it.
Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
#44It's not anti-Unix or anti-programmer...it's all about being anti-freedom. All these companies want to do is turn your computing experience into a locked down, controlled, monitored experience. They want to turn your limitless and powerful computer into a home appliance...like a blender or electric razer. No way to customize, no way to modify, no way to organize thoughts your way. No hacking or "jailbreaking" into yo…
"When you're young, you look at computing experience and think, There's a conspiracy. The companies have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The companies are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the companies are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth."
--- original quote ironically enough came from Steve Jobs
Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many of those people you know with iPads are what we would call normal people? I only ask because it seems to me that most of them wouldn't mind at all that one couldn't be productive on the iPad since surfing and a few games are mostly what they use it for.
80% I'd say. It seems to go like this: 1) They bought it with a purpose in mind but it didn't work quite as well as they were hoping (khan academy, mapping, general use, recipes in kitchen, streaming video). 2) The games last a while but they are mainly novelty rather than immersive or lasting so it's back to the XBox. 3) then the web browsing gets frustrating as streaming video is choppy over WiFi and impossible ove…
> then the web browsing gets frustrating as streaming
> video is choppy over WiFi
Ah, those magic frie^H^H^H^H iPad users. Since when web browsing is all about streaming video, and since when it is choppy over WiFi?Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
#46As someone who spends almost all day either in vim/commandline mode or web browsing, I want to make the point about the unix pipe point, and that with gui's this is impossible. Its not even the fact that it would require a lot more effort to sort and format a list of 100,000 names into our predefined pattern, but more the fact that the power of the command line is lost. I find as I'm programming, I gravitate towards…
"The output of the last action can become the input to the next." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automator_(software)
Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
#47I despise articles like these because they try to put products like these in impossible situations that suits no one else except to drive traffic. Yes your iPad is anti-programmer the same way that a wheelchair is anti-stairs.
Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
My friends have had a very different experience. It's much more comfortable to hold on the couch, at the cafe, in bed, or on the plane/car than being on a laptop.
IMHO I think that's wierd. I'd never consider using a computer in any of those places personally. I consider them all "downtime".
Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
80% I'd say. It seems to go like this: 1) They bought it with a purpose in mind but it didn't work quite as well as they were hoping (khan academy, mapping, general use, recipes in kitchen, streaming video). 2) The games last a while but they are mainly novelty rather than immersive or lasting so it's back to the XBox. 3) then the web browsing gets frustrating as streaming video is choppy over WiFi and impossible ove…
> then the web browsing gets frustrating as streaming > video is choppy over WiFi Ah, those magic frie^H^H^H^H iPad users. Since when web browsing is all about streaming video, and since when it is choppy over WiFi?
YouTube, BBC, Xvideos, Xhamster, Pornhub, Youporn, Dailymotion, Netflix...
It's always choppy over WiFi in London from experience as there's so much interference from the amount of WiFi networks around and contention from the overcrowding.
(for ref, I borrowed an iPad for a week and played with it).
Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer
#50Some of these mechanisms are new, and the possibilities have not yet been fully plumbed. Some have been around for a while.
But iOS is just getting started. People said the iPad was a "read-only" or "consumption-only" device, but, over time, we have seen tools come out that are great authoring tools for various types of content. The same thing will happen (and already has happened, but is growing over time) with cross-app workflows.
As far as the title, "anti-Unix and anti-programmer," taking the first part, well yes it doesn't provide a built in command line for programmers, if that's what he means, although it does happen to be built on UNIX, and it benefits from the maturity of UNIX (and gives back, with OSS tools like LLVM).
On the second part, the tools it does provide for programmers are truly wonderful - the Objective-C language, the frameworks, an amazing compiler with static analysis (if you don't know what this gives you, the answer is pure joy), the development environment (though Xcode 4 had a rocky rollout, it has proven itself to be a sweet update), the patterns that are used and encouraged, and the architectural choices, are all very well thought out.
Programmers coming from other mobile platforms have told me that they left behind a lot of pain, and found a lot of power on iOS.
"Anti-programmer" is a very odd way to describe a platform that makes programmers who get into it happy with their coding experience, makes them money, and gives users a great experience while keeping their private information secure from abuses by ill-intentioned programmers.
I can't help but be baffled by where he is coming from. I love UNIX, the command line, and composing commands, but then I love cooking in the kitchen too. Different environments come with different tools.
If we want to compare just mobile development environments, iOS is one that has clearly been developed with a careful deliberative process intended to preserve good battery life, protect user data, and avoid painting itself into any architectural corners. There are constraints. There always are.
But iOS is growing, with very exciting (for programmers) features with every update, including deep stuff that goes down to the core architectural level of how your data flows in your program, in ways that promise a very, very happy life for iOS programmers on multiple core devices. The future is very bright for iOS programming.
The "anti-freedom" charges, the locking out of certain features, you get the same stuff on any platform. Just try to publish an app that abuses the Android logo in any Android market. Not that you would want to, but then, I wouldn't want to publish an app that steals user data, and that's exactly the kind of thing iOS does not give me the "freedom" to do... and that's a good thing. All the mechanisms for preventing abuse could have been done in a much more heavy-handed way, such as by being tied to a central email account that you use to authenticate to dozens of critical services you depend on in your life, that can be yanked and shut down at any time, with a very tenuous appeal process. As developers we are lucky to have a platform that has done things in such sensible ways.