The Joel on Software Discussion Group

Related with today’s events....

1. Learning Carbon
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Carbon-Inc-Apple-Computer/dp/0596001614/
2. Carbon Programming
http://www.amazon.com/Carbon-Programming-Kevin-Bricknell/dp/0672322676/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b/
3. Cocoa Programming
http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-Programming-Mac-OS-2nd/dp/0321213149/
4. Step into Xcode: Mac OS X Development
http://www.amazon.com/Step-into-Xcode-Mac-Development/dp/0321334221/
5.  Beginning Xcode
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Xcode-Programmer-James-Bucanek/dp/047175479X
6. Quartz 2D
http://www.amazon.com/Quartz-2D-Graphics-Mac-Developers/dp/0321336631/
7.  Cocoa Programming for Dummies
http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-Programming-Dummies-Erick-Tejkowski/dp/0764526138/
8. Learning Cocoa with Objective-C
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Cocoa-Objective-C-Duncan-Davidson/dp/0596003013/

... few links in case anyone was considering some sort of an IDE Switch!

Or maybe this one: Beginning Mac OS X Tiger Dashboard Widget Development
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Tiger-Dashboard-Widget-Development/dp/0471778257/

Will javascript/DHTML/etc work or do you have get your hands dirty with Carbon?

Widgets are developed with Javascript. You're good to go - if Apple opens this up for developers.

I'm under the impression that the iPhone uses a full version of Safari, so all the dhtml stuff should simply "work"

Reality may dictate otherwise.

1: no (carbon is dead to new devs)
2: no (ditto)
3: maybe (never checked it out)
4: yes (good book)
5: no (wrox)
6: no (iPhone supports CoreAnimation/CoreGraphics/OpenGL)
7: no (for dummies!)
8: no (nice, but severely outdated)

Widgets will be the best development environment for simple apps on iPhone, with Cocoa taking up the slack for larger apps.  It's going to be fun :)

Hm. I took some of these books 4 years ago and they served me well. Buying books is not a destination - it's more like a journey! ;)

What makes you think Apple will open this up for development?

they should also open up their Apple TV platform too.

"What makes you think Apple will open this up for development?"

They basically already said so.  What good is a net-connected smartphone without additional software?  What's the point in running OS X?

uuum - http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-iphone-is-not-a-smartphone/

They wouldn't have mentioned "widgets" in the keynote if they didn't intend for it to be developed for.  That would be a big mistake.  Hopefully this "first-party only" is just that one analyst's idea, and not Apple's.

According to MacInTouch, Apple representatives called iPhone a "closed platform", and indicated that there would be no public SDK, though interested parties could call Apple developer relations for more information. I take this to mean that iPhone can run third-party software, but only from selected Apple partners. Bummer.

I find it a bit conflicting that the keynote highlighted iPhone's support of OS X APIs (explicitly mentioning Cocoa, Core Video, etc.). Why do that unless you wanted to get developers interested in large?

That is infuriating.  Maybe the devs can convince them to change their mind by June?

Is the closed nature because of Apple or Cingular? Don't they require approval of apps in their walled garden?

"Dashcode" is going to be included with Leopard, an IDE for Widgets:

http://developer.apple.com/leopard/overview/dashcode.html

I agree that it would be somewhat silly to have all this technology and the development framework available and not be able to use it on your new flagship platform.

>> They basically already said so.  What good is a net-connected smartphone without additional software?  What's the point in running OS X?

We're all developers here.  Did we really fall for the "it runs OS X" line?

Ya, we did fall for it runs OS X.  What is OS X bit BSD Unix.  Is it to hard to believe that the phone is running Unix with a modified OS X GUI for a phone.  Why develop a whole new OS when all you have to do is port the one you have and strip it down a little.  This is not windows you know.

NeXTStep ran in 4 megabytes of RAM on a 68030.  OS X is a heavier variant of NeXTStep but y'know... figure it out.