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Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

researchkit.github.io

81–90 of 113 posts

Re: Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

#81
post #67

It's interesting to see how code is structured when it comes from Apple (or vendors they're working closely with). Surprising some of their best practices aren't followed, such as hard-coding English strings instead of using something like NSLocalizedString() (e.g. https://github.com/ResearchKit/GlucoSuccess/blob/master/Diab... )

Surprising? After learning of apple's goto bug, I'm never surprised to read about apple's failure to follow best practices.

Sure, but that was an isolated mistake, whereas using NSLocalizedString() just becomes habit after a while.

It's jarring when you see hard-coded English strings in any iOS code. Android does a much better job of pushing developers to localizing strings.

One big thing I don't like about iOS is even if you have a base language, you need to duplicate all strings in any subsequent languages. (I often have a "US English" and "Australian English", so trivial changes require changes in two files).

On Android, the language files extend the base file, so you can just override favourite/favorite labour/labor type strings without having to duplicate everything.

(Obviously you can script / auto-generate language files, but that's not the default position).

Re: Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

#82
post #51
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EDIT (To Clarify) Warning I am Strongly Anti-Apple Bias: Apple has a fairly decent Open Source history. http://www.opensource.apple.com There is things to complain about but there are more I am concerned with in regards to Open Source (Oracle). EDIT: I don't like Apple's products or the way the conduct business BUT I think they have done more good for Open Source than bad.

"Apple has a fairly decent Open Source history." To me, this is like calling someone who occasionally eats a vegan diet a "Fairly decent Vegan". No, if you eat meat or cheese on a regular basis you're a terrible Vegan! Just because Apple releases the source code as read-only doesn't really make them fairly decent with open source. To me, if you're not willing to pull commits from outside your walled garden or allow e…

Why is this downvoted?

His points are valid. Apple's business models are hostile towards open source software in most cases.

Re: Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

#83
post #12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Strongly Anti-Apple Bias here" was something you assumed that may or may not be correct.

I think baldfat was talking about themselves. They've got a strong anti-Apple bias, but still think Apple's got a decent history of opensource.

I'm laughing at the irony of my own comment.

Re: Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

#84
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprising? After learning of apple's goto bug, I'm never surprised to read about apple's failure to follow best practices.

Sure, but that was an isolated mistake, whereas using NSLocalizedString() just becomes habit after a while. It's jarring when you see hard-coded English strings in any iOS code. Android does a much better job of pushing developers to localizing strings. One big thing I don't like about iOS is even if you have a base language, you need to duplicate all strings in any subsequent languages. (I often have a "US English"…

I agree with you what you are saying about string localization.

Separately, I find that people tend to assume (for some reason?) that big successful companies that write lots of software will also write quality software. They have the money for it!

But its often not the case. Look at Microsoft in the late 90s.

Look at Apple these past few years.

Maybe the people at the top sometimes feel they no longer _need_ to write quality software, because they are at the top?

The goto fail bug is a singular mistake, but I'm not convinced it was an isolated mistake. I've worked with teams of amateurs that had code quality practices sufficient to prevent such a bug; and yet apple included this in a product, and left it there for a long time before it was fixed. It suggests, to me, organizational issues.

Re: Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

#85
I'm not an Apple fan but this is very professionally done, it reminds me of the work an Orthopedic Sureon had me do for him years ago when I see the layout: http://researchkit.github.io/docs/docs/Overview/GuideOvervie...

The flow is consistent, step 1, step 2, etc.

Something else that Apple makes I'm a fan of, CUPS Printing. It's also very professionally done. If we could only convince Apple to go Linux on everything!

Re: Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

#86
post #26

I hope they will open Swift, like Microsoft is doing with C#.

C# is 15 years old. F# is 10 years old. It's great that Microsoft is in the process of open sourcing their code. However, it gets a little old when they're held up as some example to follow. Objective C has been open source for a long time. How about, let's hope Apple open sources Swift like they did with Objective C. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_Sharp_(programming_language... http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sha…

How about, let's hope Apple open sources Swift like they did with Objective C

To be honest, don't hold your breath. If you research the history of Objective-C you'll realize that it was in fact the first GPL violator. It's only _because_ of the GPL that Apple was forced to open source it, not the other way around.

Re: Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

#88
post #85

I'm not an Apple fan but this is very professionally done, it reminds me of the work an Orthopedic Sureon had me do for him years ago when I see the layout: http://researchkit.github.io/docs/docs/Overview/GuideOvervie... The flow is consistent, step 1, step 2, etc. Something else that Apple makes I'm a fan of, CUPS Printing. It's also very professionally done. If we could only convince Apple to go Linux on everything…

[deleted]

Re: Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

#89
post #51
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EDIT (To Clarify) Warning I am Strongly Anti-Apple Bias: Apple has a fairly decent Open Source history. http://www.opensource.apple.com There is things to complain about but there are more I am concerned with in regards to Open Source (Oracle). EDIT: I don't like Apple's products or the way the conduct business BUT I think they have done more good for Open Source than bad.

"Apple has a fairly decent Open Source history." To me, this is like calling someone who occasionally eats a vegan diet a "Fairly decent Vegan". No, if you eat meat or cheese on a regular basis you're a terrible Vegan! Just because Apple releases the source code as read-only doesn't really make them fairly decent with open source. To me, if you're not willing to pull commits from outside your walled garden or allow e…

To be fair, it's not just "technically viewable", it's also legally forkable and redistributable, along with any changes that might be made to it.

Re: Apple ResearchKit on GitHub

#90
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No license is granted to the trademarks of the copyright holders even if such marks are included in this software. This line was probably required to get some manager at Apple to sign off on this. There are few companies as protective of their trademarks--their _name_--as Apple, and they probably wanted to make sure that an accidental commit from a developer that included an Apple logo or the word 'iPhone' didn't c…

Unfortunately, that single line addition means that this code can't be used with other open source projects. It can't be combined with code released under the BSD, MIT, MPL, GPL or other OSI-certified open source licenses and kept under the same OSI license. This puts it more in the 'shared source' realm than the 'open source' realm.

Why exactly couldn't it be combined with those licenses?
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