WebAppKit - create web applications using Cocoa • Hacker News Board

Re: WebAppKit - create web applications using Cocoa

#41

Post by SeoxyS » Mon, Jul 25, 2011, 6:11 AM UTC

btrask wrote: post #21

SeoxyS wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm thinking about the fact that neither JavaScript on V8, nor Cocoa are equipped with HTTP networking. So the framework supplies that part. A big part of node, when used for a web app, is that it supplies an HTTP server. Same with this.

Cocoa (and CoreFoundation) actually make it pretty trivial to write HTTP servers already. I was completely surprised by how painless it was when I did it recently. Not quite as easy as Node.js, but on the same order of magnitude, IMHO. (Edit) Here's an article that describes the basics: http://macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2006/11/14/how-to-write-a-...

Yeah, I've done that before. It's not too bad, but there's still a lot of boilerplate that could be made away with.

Re: WebAppKit - create web applications using Cocoa

#42

Post by whattssonn » Mon, Jul 25, 2011, 7:49 AM UTC

jad wrote: post #23

Genuine question: what is the appeal here? I write iOS apps for a living, and appreciate what Objective-C and (especially) Cocoa have to offer, but why would anyone choose to use Objective-C when there are so many other great alternatives available? To consider just one example of the pain Objective-C developers like me have to deal with on a daily basis, why would I want to write: NSDictionary *d = [NSDictionary dic…

Warning... cynical comment, disguised as humor.

Let's bash Objective-C, like Java. Oh wait... Objective-c is "cool". Never mind.

Re: WebAppKit - create web applications using Cocoa

#43

Post by kluivers » Mon, Jul 25, 2011, 8:48 AM UTC

While I do like the thought of using CoreData and code I've written for other apps on the web, the following sentence immediately made this thing much less interesting: "WebAppKit runs exclusively in garbage collection mode to minimize the memory management burden." I've never liked garbage collection, if you find memory management a burden, you're doing it wrong. And now that Apple introduced ARC even Apple recommends against using the GC.

Re: WebAppKit - create web applications using Cocoa

#44

Post by oemera » Mon, Jul 25, 2011, 10:03 AM UTC

My question would be: Can those web applications can only run on Safari with Mac OS X? If yes: Isn't this contrary to what a Browser wants to do? To Run Web Apps in any Browser.

If it cross compiles down to html/js/css it's just fine but the Readme isn't giving much information.

Re: WebAppKit - create web applications using Cocoa

#45

Post by okal » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 4:53 AM UTC

zemariamm wrote: post #10

okal wrote: post #7

Isn't this what Cappuccino[1] already does with Objective-J? 1. http://cappuccino.org

Not really , Cappuccino focus consists in bringing the whole Cocoa/Objective-C style to front-end development (actually you can run Objective-J on the server too). On the other hand, WebAppKit goal seems to be using Objective-C in the backend

Thanks for the clarification. Didn't read it as closely as I should have.

>(actually you can run Objective-J on the server too) Node, I assume?

Re: WebAppKit - create web applications using Cocoa

#46

Post by mvzink » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:22 PM UTC

cpr wrote: post #22

mvzink wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fragile? Compared to what? Not going to argue with verbose though, and I also wouldn't choose it for web apps.

It's C , for heaven's sake. ;) Compared to any dynamic / memory-safe language in history. Oh, I don't know--Perl, Python, Ruby, Javascript, Lisp, Haskell, oh, and Java, I s'pose.

I can't bring myself to think of C as being fragile. Fragile is exactly the word I use for Perl, Python, Ruby, and Javascript. Lisp and Haskell, and maybe Java, are the only ones on your list I would say are more robust than C or Objective-C. I guess it's a difference of opinion, or maybe just bad experiences with other people's code.

Besides that, you mention dynamic-ness and memory-safety: these are exactly the two places where Objective-C is miles ahead of C! I don't even know what to say.