News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by pflats on Friday November 22, 2013 @10:43AM (#6781377)
"Apple’s iOS7 support of JavaScript inline with your Objective-C code validates JavaScript as the leading (and only) non proprietary language that is supported within the iOS development environment by the device manufacturer."

Since when is Objective-C proprietary? Apple's given it a few non-standard extensions (i.e. blocks) but that doesn't make it a proprietary language. GCC and Clang are open source.

Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by blub on Friday November 22, 2013 @03:38PM (#6783555)
It's not really, but there is no point in using it outside Apple platforms. I mean I spent time learning the thing and those skills are completely useless when not working on iOS and not really needed on the Mac in my case.
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by duaneb on Friday November 22, 2013 @08:54PM (#6784879)
Well "not being used elsewhere" is different from "proprietary."
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by bananacurve on Friday November 22, 2013 @10:51AM (#6781446)
Technically true, but Cocoa is proprietary. Is ObjC widely used for anything else?
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by eonil on Friday November 22, 2013 @11:03AM (#6781522)
Check out Apportable.

And proprietary doesn't mean narrowly used. Also open doesn't mean widely used. Bringing Cocoa was a good trial, but doesn't make the text correct.

Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by lambda on Friday November 22, 2013 @12:09PM (#6782052)
Well, when people talk about ObjC development on Mac and iOS platforms, they generally mean ObjC plus Cocoa or Cocoa Touch.

It's true that ObjC itself isn't what's proprietary, but Cocoa and Cocoa Touch are.

Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by randomdata on Friday November 22, 2013 @12:29PM (#6782201)
I suppose it is fair to say Objective-C plus Cocoa Touch is proprietary, but why is Javascript plus Cocoa Touch not proprietary in the same context?
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by lambda on Friday November 22, 2013 @01:14PM (#6782561)
You're absolutely right, I had forgotten that that was the original argument.
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by bananacurve on Friday November 22, 2013 @11:12AM (#6781604)
No it does not make the text correct, people often conflate ObjC and Cocoa. Thanks for mentioning Apportable.
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by mikestew on Friday November 22, 2013 @12:23PM (#6782161)
Cocoa isn't ObjC, it's an Apple-specific framework. Granted, that's a bit of a nit-pick considering the answer to your 2nd question. But ObjC was around before NeXT showed up.
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by ketralnis on Friday November 22, 2013 @11:56AM (#6781956)
Does OpenStep count? It's a clone of NeXTstep, which is what Cocoa is itself a descendent of
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by lgg on Friday November 22, 2013 @02:36PM (#6783205)
OpenStep is not a clone of NeXTstep, it was the application layer of NeXTstep ported to other kernels. GNUStep is a clone.
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by ketralnis on Friday November 22, 2013 @04:54PM (#6784019)
You're right, sorry
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by mmariani on Friday November 22, 2013 @12:47PM (#6782352)
Cocotron [1] is another alternative that can target Windows and even Linux with some exceptions.

[1] http://www.cocotron.org

Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by mattschmulen on Friday November 22, 2013 @11:18AM (#6781663)
True on proprietary. I don's know of any impactful use cases for ObjC. However there are some good things about this. The spec can move fast, focus on success in use cases, and also make it easy to conform to 'nice' HIG. In many cases it's nice to not have to worry about these things and just focus on the end app use case. In the end when it comes to iOS and OSX its still Steve Jobs word were just playing in it.
Re:Apple’s iOS7 Native JavaScript Bridge by chrisdevereux on Friday November 22, 2013 @11:24AM (#6781706)
Or, for that matter, C and C++