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What iOS Can Learn from Unix

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Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#11

Post by rcoh »

fournm wrote: post #9

From a user perspective, intents are more useful and cover almost everything they're talking about. Most people really don't want to think about the how, they just want to share something to Facebook somehow. Having a standard way to just hook the Facebook app for it is what they really need. It is a shame that we can't get more app functionality sharing in place, but really I don't know if we necessarily want to bri…

Intents are useful, but could be better. A standard way to hook into the Facebook app is fine for Facebook but what about when the space is more fragmented? Should app authors have to integrate with every document viewer or Mail App?

Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#12

Post by rcoh »

jpinkerton88 wrote: post #4

I would like to see this done well. However, with Apple trying to protect and cater to the "every-day user", I wonder if we will ever see something like this, because of the security implications that come with it.

We think that the key is to provide a limited and controlled interface between the apps (which is what we're trying to do). We'll see how it goes :-)

Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#13

Post by Navarr »

rcoh wrote: post #11
fournm wrote: post #9

From a user perspective, intents are more useful and cover almost everything they're talking about. Most people really don't want to think about the how, they just want to share something to Facebook somehow. Having a standard way to just hook the Facebook app for it is what they really need. It is a shame that we can't get more app functionality sharing in place, but really I don't know if we necessarily want to bri…

Intents are useful, but could be better. A standard way to hook into the Facebook app is fine for Facebook but what about when the space is more fragmented? Should app authors have to integrate with every document viewer or Mail App?

Standard way to hook into the Facebook app is a "Share Intent" which can be picked up by any other social network application; such as Google+, my text messaging app, Google Hangouts, and so many others. Even allowing "copy to clipboard" and "Pin" and whatever else. Almost every Android app creates a Share Intent listener to pull in data.

If there's a document viewer, it'll listen in for the file types it supports when you try to open a file (I think its a VIEW intent). It's all very impressive and very, very useful.

Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#14

Post by alayne »

Navarr wrote: post #13
rcoh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intents are useful, but could be better. A standard way to hook into the Facebook app is fine for Facebook but what about when the space is more fragmented? Should app authors have to integrate with every document viewer or Mail App?

Standard way to hook into the Facebook app is a "Share Intent" which can be picked up by any other social network application; such as Google+, my text messaging app, Google Hangouts, and so many others. Even allowing "copy to clipboard" and "Pin" and whatever else. Almost every Android app creates a Share Intent listener to pull in data. If there's a document viewer, it'll listen in for the file types it supports wh…

Unless they've changed it, you'll have to use the FaceBook SDK to do anything more than post a URL. FB's intent support is bad.

Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#15

Post by rcoh »

Navarr wrote: post #13
rcoh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intents are useful, but could be better. A standard way to hook into the Facebook app is fine for Facebook but what about when the space is more fragmented? Should app authors have to integrate with every document viewer or Mail App?

Standard way to hook into the Facebook app is a "Share Intent" which can be picked up by any other social network application; such as Google+, my text messaging app, Google Hangouts, and so many others. Even allowing "copy to clipboard" and "Pin" and whatever else. Almost every Android app creates a Share Intent listener to pull in data. If there's a document viewer, it'll listen in for the file types it supports wh…

Ah, yeah. I was talking about iOS in particular. Android intents are pretty sweet -- a couple the missing bits to make them great in my mind are -- App discovery: tell me about apps that can use my content if I don't have any? -- Action curation: What do users think are the best app for this action?

Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#16

Post by bitwize »

Small isolated components lead to communication overhead and can cripple performance.

They offer certain advantages, too, but this is no different from any other software-engineering tradeoff.

There's a reason why the winning kernel is a monolithic kernel, and the winning init system is one large God-daemon that replaces many smaller legacy daemons.

Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#17

Post by rcoh »

bitwize wrote: post #16

Small isolated components lead to communication overhead and can cripple performance. They offer certain advantages, too, but this is no different from any other software-engineering tradeoff. There's a reason why the winning kernel is a monolithic kernel, and the winning init system is one large God-daemon that replaces many smaller legacy daemons.

There's a difference between the performance you want in your kernel and the performance you need sharing to Facebook. It seems like creating monolithic mobile apps is premature optimization.

Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#18

Post by nraynaud »

I think they avoid a lot of features because they are immediately used for spam. Like the tray icons for windows, the start menu entry, the desktop icons, the chrome plugins, the menu icons in Mac OS X, the notifications etc.

The marketers are a plague, they destroy everything.

Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#19

Post by residualmind »

This is why I'm still not able to wrap my head around some developers' fascination or love for iOS. Or actually apple at all, since the Apple ][ tbh. Especially when it is becoming more clear that they target the "consumer" range. Unless it's only for profit. But love? Off topic, sorry. Android intents.

Re: What iOS Can Learn from Unix

#20

Post by kunai »

jpinkerton88 wrote: post #4

I would like to see this done well. However, with Apple trying to protect and cater to the "every-day user", I wonder if we will ever see something like this, because of the security implications that come with it.

It's a fallacy that the every-day user doesn't want or need a filesystem.

They do need a filesystem and interoperable components. What they do NOT need is a hierarchical based filesystem that limits you to a directory trees. It's an organizational nightmare, and unless you've ever used git before it's a literal hell for the average user.

Instead, a flat filesystem with smart names, tagging, and metadata is the way forward. Subdirectories will be relegated to those who want them.

As for security, that excuse is nonexistent when Apple has the final authority to application interoperability and analysis. If an implementation is flawed, they can reject it at will and tell the developers to improve it.

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