Re:Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
by gtufano on Sunday January 06, 2013 @02:28PM
(#5017378)
Objective-C is not "managed". iOS apps are sandboxed, but obj-c is very near to C (and most of the Foundation API are pure C). Also, ARC is not mandatory and there is no garbage collector on iOS.
Re:Do We Really Need Another Smartphone OS?
by slurry on Sunday January 06, 2013 @02:49PM
(#5017463)
Nonsense. If my Objective-C app is sandboxed, it is "managed". Saying ARC "is not mandatory" is another way of saying it is "enabled by default". There is little formal computational difference between ARC and a conservative garbage collector.
Fact: Objective-C is "managed".
I think it is a mistake. A modern operating system, particularly on mobile where power management and security are concerns, needs a mature well-optimized managed code environment to write middleware and more complicated applications in - hence Objective-C with automatic reference counting on iOS and Java/Dalvik on Android.
HTML5 for all uses under the sun is going to either underperform users' expectations or drain power, or both; and letting unmanaged C applications in is a recipe for disaster.
I would like to be excited about this, but I do not think the architecture as presented makes any sense.