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iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

blog.dbpatterson.com

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Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

#111

Post by aplusbi »

dasil003 wrote: post #104
josteink wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people at Apple just want to make damn good products. They are proud as hell of those products. They work very hard to make them that damn good. It's very hard to read the rest of your comment and not have you mentally pre-positioned as a fanboy. I'm not saying this to be a troll, but because comments like this really do stand out. Would you give any other company this sort of slack you are now giving Apple? If s…

Thought experiment: Is it possible to think Apple makes the best technology products without being a fanboy?

I think the key difference is the implication that Apple's sole intent is to make good products. The people at Apple just want to make damn good products. is very different from Apple makes damn good products.

Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

#112

Post by jcizzle »

lurker19 wrote: post #103
_pius wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't pipe iPad apps. Yes you can, through custom URL schemes. http://handleopenurl.com/

That's not part of ios, that is a library. I can't add that to someone else's app on the device. Apple should integrate it into iOS. The user of the device should be able to compose apps, not only cooperating app writers.

It is part of iOS and has been since iOS 2.0. Every application developer gets to pick their own URL scheme and what any arguments passed to it do. This web site is just showing you the URL schemes for various applications.

Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

#113

Post by natch »

lurker19 wrote: post #103
_pius wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't pipe iPad apps. Yes you can, through custom URL schemes. http://handleopenurl.com/

That's not part of ios, that is a library. I can't add that to someone else's app on the device. Apple should integrate it into iOS. The user of the device should be able to compose apps, not only cooperating app writers.

You could not be more wrong. Not only is it part of iOS, it is part of UIApplication, the class on which any iOS app is built. Why even bother commenting, if you're just going to make stuff up?

I'm guessing you didn't even click on the web link, which, you will notice if you do, does not lead to any library. It's just a site (which I've never visited before this myself either... don't need to, to write or use inter-app URL launches) that hosts an informal registry of protocols along with information on what they launch.

Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

#114

Post by josteink »

dasil003 wrote: post #104
josteink wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people at Apple just want to make damn good products. They are proud as hell of those products. They work very hard to make them that damn good. It's very hard to read the rest of your comment and not have you mentally pre-positioned as a fanboy. I'm not saying this to be a troll, but because comments like this really do stand out. Would you give any other company this sort of slack you are now giving Apple? If s…

Thought experiment: Is it possible to think Apple makes the best technology products without being a fanboy?

Oh absolutely. I have no doubt about that. In fact, saying anything else would be absurd.

However I think it's fair to recognize the difference between someone merely (very) happy about their Apple stuff and someone who seemingly is personally insulted when it is suggested that Apple is (shock!) a normal corporation following a normal corporation's need and desire to profit, doing some ethical comprosises on the way.

And looking at snprbob86's post here, it's full of seemingly personal feelings when discussing this topic. It's almost this short of saying "Dear sir. You have defiled my lovers honour and I challenge you to a duel".

I have to say he/she seems like the glorious, crowning achievement of the Apple PR-Department which is hellbent on making Apple-Products a matter of personal honour and identity. And it's very freaky to observe from the outside.

Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

#115

Post by dasil003 »

So only programmers deserve nice things? Look, I get the danger the app-storification of software, and honestly it scares me more than Microsoft ever did, just because it's so appealing from a consumer perspective.

But barring the removal of direct distribution and the UNIX shell, I say more power to Apple in terms of re-inventing the consumer computing experience. What the author doesn't seem to understand is that great design and usability can never be achieved solely by adding features. Things need to be taken away as well. I can personally vouch that taking these things away is a huge win for someone like my mom who will never understand or be comfortable with filesystems. For her, the limitations of iOS take her from a place of constant fear to a place where she can actually explore and figure things out like us geeks take for granted.

It might be uncomfortable to think that tech devices are no longer primarily for geeks, but that chasm has been crossed, and we have to acknowledge that programmer devices are increasingly going to be distinct from the mass market devices.

Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

#117

Post by cbs »

rimantas wrote: post #40
mas644 wrote: post #8

It'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…

And why exactly my tablet should be different from razor or blender? Or my TV or my car? For many this is just a tool, not goal. lack of will by the masses to understand their technology There are many many many more fields besides IT. If anyone: be it waitress or accountant will be required to understand IT it will not end well. They want you to be dumber. No. I don't feel any dumber because I don't know how to fix…

>There are many many many more fields besides IT. If anyone: be it waitress or accountant will be required to understand IT it will not end well.

I don't think thats the issue at hand. I think they're putting an upper limit on what is possible that happens to require more knowledge.

I don't know a whole lot about cars either, changing breakpads is probably my upper limit right now. But if I wanted to do some more work, I could pull into a friends garage, grab a copy of the maintenance book specific to my car's model and get to work. Why? Because the car didn't come from the factory with the hood welded shit.

Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

#118

Post by Apocryphon »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #92
glhaynes wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the theory that comes from a cursory glance, someone could make an OS that's portable, composable, open, free, changeable and tinkerable, etc. and that's easier to use than any system that's available today. That'd be great. But in practice, as systems exhibit more of those traits more strongly, they, as a general rule, become less and less of a coherent, unified whole and more of the internal workings become expo…

I disagree, and I would use desktop linux as the counter example. A distribution like Ubuntu is nowadays opinionated on user-experience questions while still maintaining the ability to easily swap out the DE for something else if the user so wishes. That this hasn't happened on mobile just means we haven't reached the point of interchangeable hardware. I just worry that patents are the primary reason for this, and th…

I wonder if the rise of Chrome at the expense of Firefox is a counter-counter example. FF has grown bloated and more chockfull of features. Chrome, on the other hand, has retained a unified and coherent structure.

Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

#119

Post by bsphil »

snprbob86 wrote: post #31
mas644 wrote: post #8

It'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…

"If it stops working, I'm free from worry because the Apple store makes everything better."

You should've just said 'I love Big Brother.'

Re: iOS is anti-Unix and anti-programmer

#120

Post by Apocryphon »

andosa wrote: post #58

I couldn't agree more. Some people say that iOS is not meant to be a programming device and that it is great for what it's meant to be, e.g. reading and watching content, but I disagree. Just a few examples. - The lack of user facing filesystem means I have to jump through wierd hoops when doing simple stuff like managing my pdfs. An example, I get a pdf and open it in iBooks. A few months further on, I want to read…

Could you achieve the same things on an Android tablet? On the Touchpad? On the Playbook? I'm not sure if that is an inherent issue with iOS, or rather functionality that mobile OS's in general have not yet bothered to implement, as tablets are still marketed towards common consumers, not power users.
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