
John Gruber on Flash Player for iPhone - nickb
http://daringfireball.net/2008/09/adobe_speaks_of_flash_player_for_iphone
======
jacobscott
Key point of the article is insightful and generally applicable. The stronger
Android is, the more likely features which everyone want but Apple resists
show up on the iPhone.

I'm also patiently waiting for Linux to catch up to OSX in usability/UI.

~~~
msie
"I'm also patiently waiting for Linux to catch up to OSX in usability/UI."

That gave me a chuckle. The first thing that the Linux world should do is
decide on one UI to use but that will never happen. It is philosophically
impossible.

~~~
ii
As it was "impossible" for Apple to decide when all they had was the old
Macintosh toolbox and NextStep UIs, but they did it. They made Carbon/Cocoa to
look reasonably consistent despite huge internal differences.

Linux can do the same with Qt/GTK+/etc. It certainly possible to have high-
level UI consistency between multiple toolkits, especially when they all share
the same lower-level stuff (X11/Cairo).

~~~
iron_ball
"Philosophically." With Apple, they had mechanisms of corporate governance to
simply declare a standardization plan and follow it, and require developers to
follow suit.

Linux, not so much.

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tlrobinson
_"Think about it: If there were a Flash player for the iPhone, you could write
games and other software in Flash rather than in Cocoa Touch. And you could
sell games and apps directly for the Flash player, completely circumventing
the App Store. Does this sound like something Apple would allow?"_

But...

    
    
       No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an 
       Application except for code that is interpreted and run by 
       Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).
    

Built-in interpreter(s), eh? Maybe something like the JavaScript interpreter
in MobileSafari?

I see a loophole. Of course that doesn't matter since Apple seems perfectly
willing to reject apps they don't like for arbitrary reasons.

~~~
fdb
Well, Apple can do what they want. It's the others that need to adhere to
these rules.

~~~
simonw
Therein lies the problem: there are no published rules. You only find out that
you've broken them after you've completed development of your app and
submitted it to the app store. Say goodbye to several months of your life.

~~~
cstejerean
Seems like a gamble and some people are winning big. Gambling is not for
everyone though.

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codeLullaby
The Flash Player in development for iPhone is not a port of existing
standalone one. As they put it,the new player in development is something in
between Flash Lite and Flash Player for desktop.

So this is going to be a watered down version of Flash Player. Chances are
that Apple will approve a Flash player which is targeted only to render flash
content on web pages as it will make the browsing experience on iPhone closer
to that on desktop.

~~~
cpr
No, chances are (as John so eloquently argues) that Apple will do no such
thing, as it would seriously water down the whole iPhone UI experience. Read
the article!

~~~
codeLullaby
There is a difference between running swfs on phone interface and rendering
flash elements on webpages.

Allowing swfs to run directly on phone interface definitely interfere with
iPhone UI experience,but rendering webpages along with flash elements in it
only makes the browser experience closer to what is expected from the browser
app. Its a good thing for Apple.

~~~
cpr
Unless you believe, as I do (and I think Steve Jobs does), that Flash is a
business trojan horse, and is ultimately anti-open-standards and flies in the
face of internet searchability, accessbility, etc.

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mattmaroon
On the other hand, would Adobe spend however much it costs to develop this
product without assurances from Apple?

~~~
unalone
Yes. Adobe is an arrogant company and it has a history of attempting to force
Apple's hand by ignoring what Apple's going currently. Whether it actually
works is another question entirely.

