Hmm, so Gambit/Chicken Scheme are now fine again if you use them as interpreters, but beware of compiling the Scheme code down to C. This is bizzarro land - the interpreter will use more CPU time and therefore more battery power, one of the reasons Flash isn't included.
Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
41–50 of 52 posts
Re: Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
games are selling a lot of iPod touches.
Yes, but that doesn't mean Jobs likes games on his beautiful slab of glass. His initial reaction to them, back in the early days of the SDK (pre-release and right after release) was basically one of disgust.
The BBC Micro Men docu-drama touches on this aspect of the Spectrum vs BBC Micro competition in eighties Britain.
Sinclair is disgusted that his amazing machine is popular because of pointless games and Chris Curry is depressed because his machine has so few games and so becomes more niche.
Funny how history repeats itself
Re: Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
#43Well, RJDJ/Trippy is an app that I've had on my iPhone for years (2?) now, and it includes the Puredata language interpreter, so I don't see how this is new news .. surely there have been exceptions to the Interpreter rule, just that people may not have noticed them ..
Re: Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
That one didn't work for me, but I got an answer on sjobs@apple.com, for what it's worth.
What'd he say?
Well it was about the announcement of WebM, his reply was basically the one he'd given about Theora (http://hugoroy.eu/jobs-os.php) but shorter and less involved: that WebM is likely subject to existing patents, just like h.264, and that the talk about free-as-in-beer (on top of free-as-in-freedom) is likely a wish. I asked a followup question (on whether Apple would consider the idea, and if Apple's existing patent protection re h.264 wouldn't cover most of the threat landscape in WebOS) but didn't get any further reply.
YMMV
Re: Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
#45I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
If we don't like parts of the deal as it stands and they altered one of those parts for the better, do we really want to pray that they don't alter it further? Witty quote and all, but it seems out of place here.
Perhaps you think the parent post is abusing HN guidelines unfairly? It would be a shame if I had to leave in a garrison of redditors here.
Re: Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
#46The title and blurb is misleading. You need permission from Apple on an application by application basis. Interpreted code is to be used in a "minor way" for "minor features". Thus, writing an entire iOS app in an interpreted language (such as Lua) does not seem likely to be allowed. I'm not a lawyer though. Of course, Apple is fickle and contradicts itself often. Indeed, I would not be surprised to find Titanium get…
Why go to all the work to embed an interpreter when it only has "minor" uses? I can't see any reason to embed something as large as Lua in a mobile app if you aren't going to make good use of it - I would think this would include only something like parsing/interpreting algebraic expressions, e.g. for a calculator. I guess since it's on a case by case basis though, it could mean anything, and they could decide it mea…
Well, consider a "Core Wars" game. The players program their entities using an interpreted language but the game overall is in Javascript, Objective C, or C++. That's the kind of thing they're talking about. It's minor in the sense of interactions with the API, but it may seem major in another sense that programming entities is the purpose of the game.
Re: Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
#47IMHO this doesn't help at all. The core issue is that I can't make an app that runs on multiple platforms. I know that cross platform is against Apple's best interest, but I just don't care. I won't be writing Apple applications.
C++ doesn't run on multiple platforms? How about Javascript? The core issue is that you choose not to make an app run on multiple platforms using the toolset that APple feels is in their best interests.
That's not a slight against either of you. Your point to Apple is that their platform will live without your app. Their point to you is that the other developers will divvy up the billion dollar cheque they're already written.
Re: Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
#48Correct me if I'm wrong. But this refers only to unsupported interpreted code right? Ruby for example, is OK according to this section?
Re: Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
If we don't like parts of the deal as it stands and they altered one of those parts for the better, do we really want to pray that they don't alter it further? Witty quote and all, but it seems out of place here.
Perhaps you think the parent post is abusing HN guidelines unfairly? It would be a shame if I had to leave in a garrison of redditors here.
What? I didn't mean "out of place" as in it shouldn't be allowed to be posted here. Just that it didn't seem applicable to the situation.
Re: Hello, Lua. (Apple opens door to interpreters on iOS devices)
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. And the blog's explanation of beign used for game scripting as a minor feature falls short: can anyone imagine what Half Life would be like without scripted events?
Imagine Half Life without 3d graphics. Now you see why scripting is a 'minor' feature.
Imagine Half Life without 3d graphics
Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year 2009