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Build iOS Apps In Ruby - Available Summer '12

mobiruby.org

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Re: Build iOS Apps In Ruby - Available Summer '12

#21

Post by LinaLauneBaer »

Experience taught me this:

In the world of OS X/iOS the frameworks are really important. You have to understand them. You have to work with them. It is not uncommon that you need much more time to get familiar with a framework than to get familiar with Objective-C.

Take Core Data for example: Core Data is an extremely cool framework but you need a couple of days to understand the basics, a couple of weeks to understand the advanced concepts and years to really master it.

Objective-C is a pretty easy programming language.

So a a conclusion: Does it really make sense to replace Objective-C with - lets say Ruby? What do you gain? Lets assume you already know Ruby - then it saves you to learn Objective-C. But 90% of the time you will deal with the frameworks - not with the language. In my opinion it does not really make sense to use Ruby instead of Objective-C because you save so little.

Re: Build iOS Apps In Ruby - Available Summer '12

#22

Post by mcobrien »

LinaLauneBaer wrote: post #21

Experience taught me this: In the world of OS X/iOS the frameworks are really important. You have to understand them. You have to work with them. It is not uncommon that you need much more time to get familiar with a framework than to get familiar with Objective-C. Take Core Data for example: Core Data is an extremely cool framework but you need a couple of days to understand the basics, a couple of weeks to understa…

I already know and use both, but find I'm much more productive with ruby because it's so expressive.

While this project isn't going to do much to simplify my Cocoa code, the rest of my app could be much simpler as a result.

Re: Build iOS Apps In Ruby - Available Summer '12

#23

Post by floydprice »

I'm assuming that you will wrap this all up in ruby objects and expose a cleaner syntax? As orta said the Objective-C syntax is currently cleaner.

From an engineering point of view i have to say that this is impressive, very keen to see what tools you come up with to aid the development process, a TextMate bundle to compile and deploy to the sim would be super sweet ;-)

Re: Build iOS Apps In Ruby - Available Summer '12

#25

Post by cageface »

LinaLauneBaer wrote: post #21

Experience taught me this: In the world of OS X/iOS the frameworks are really important. You have to understand them. You have to work with them. It is not uncommon that you need much more time to get familiar with a framework than to get familiar with Objective-C. Take Core Data for example: Core Data is an extremely cool framework but you need a couple of days to understand the basics, a couple of weeks to understa…

For code that's just gluing bits of the API together I agree you're not going to do much better than Objective-C and really that kind of code makes up the bulk of most apps.

Obj-C really falls down for more complex algorithms, data structures, and text handling. You can do this kind of thing in Obj-C, of course, but the verbosity really gets in the way. A higher-level language like Ruby would be great for this but maybe the new object literals coming in Obj-C will help close the gap.

Re: Build iOS Apps In Ruby - Available Summer '12

#26

Post by damian2000 »

kenver wrote: post #18
iamtoby2003 wrote: post #9

would it save us from the hell of objective c?

Why do you think it's hell? I've been using it for about 2-3 years now and it's really grown on me over that time. I think the most common complaint is that it is too verbose, but that has its advantages too.

what's an advantage of being too verbose? extra exercise for your fingers? ;-)

Re: Build iOS Apps In Ruby - Available Summer '12

#28

Post by agos »

damian2000 wrote: post #26
kenver wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think it's hell? I've been using it for about 2-3 years now and it's really grown on me over that time. I think the most common complaint is that it is too verbose, but that has its advantages too.

what's an advantage of being too verbose? extra exercise for your fingers? ;-)

it has big advantages in terms of readability and is necessary for self-documenting code

Re: Build iOS Apps In Ruby - Available Summer '12

#29

Post by philwelch »

cageface wrote: post #25
LinaLauneBaer wrote: post #21

Experience taught me this: In the world of OS X/iOS the frameworks are really important. You have to understand them. You have to work with them. It is not uncommon that you need much more time to get familiar with a framework than to get familiar with Objective-C. Take Core Data for example: Core Data is an extremely cool framework but you need a couple of days to understand the basics, a couple of weeks to understa…

For code that's just gluing bits of the API together I agree you're not going to do much better than Objective-C and really that kind of code makes up the bulk of most apps. Obj-C really falls down for more complex algorithms, data structures, and text handling. You can do this kind of thing in Obj-C, of course, but the verbosity really gets in the way. A higher-level language like Ruby would be great for this but ma…

Still don't see it. Algorithms and data structures are going to be the most performance critical parts. It's the glue code if anything that should be written in a scripting language.

Re: Build iOS Apps In Ruby - Available Summer '12

#30

Post by LinaLauneBaer »

mcobrien wrote: post #22
LinaLauneBaer wrote: post #21

Experience taught me this: In the world of OS X/iOS the frameworks are really important. You have to understand them. You have to work with them. It is not uncommon that you need much more time to get familiar with a framework than to get familiar with Objective-C. Take Core Data for example: Core Data is an extremely cool framework but you need a couple of days to understand the basics, a couple of weeks to understa…

I already know and use both, but find I'm much more productive with ruby because it's so expressive. While this project isn't going to do much to simplify my Cocoa code, the rest of my app could be much simpler as a result.

Wait... cageface wrote: "but the verbosity really gets in the way" and you write "I'm much more productive with ruby because it's so expressive.". I am not a native speaker but isn't that contradictory?
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