

Someone Copied the SNAP Source Code to Github Before Sony Pulled it Down - wtracy
https://github.com/deliciousrobots/gnustep-gui-sony

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mgunes
For context:

[http://blog.deliciousrobots.com/2010/11/27/sonys-changes-
to-...](http://blog.deliciousrobots.com/2010/11/27/sonys-changes-to-gnustep-
gui-library-adding-touch/)

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wmf
This may explain why Sony removed the code; Apple is very touchy about
multitouch gestures and implementing them in ObjC must be particularly
galling.

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rbanffy
I am quite sure Sony owns a lot of patents Apple needs. It's unlikely Sony and
Apple would enter a patent war.

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jluxenberg
Does anyone know why the source was pulled?

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sudont
I’m guessing somebody leaned on Sony, as this was stated to be an all-in thing
for their upcoming product lines, not an " _experimental R &D project_" as
listed now.

There’s a couple of major players, namely Microsoft and Oracle; I wouldn’t be
surprised if Apple was unhappy with this and moved to keep their skill-bank
walled in.

Other than that, maybe a pointy-haired boss wanted something like .NET because
it sounded more internet-y.

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masklinn
> I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple was unhappy with this and moved to keep
> their skill-bank walled in.

I would find this surprising: more companies using obj-c means more people
using obj-c means more people able to code on Apple platforms, which use obj-c
nigh-exclusively.

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rbanffy
Apple has no problem when people write software for their platforms, as long
as it's not portable to other, competing, platforms.

If this effort went through, GNUStep could eventually be used to port Mac
software to other platforms (Windows included) or to run it against controlled
environments that would render iTunes DRM useless, and that's something Apple
won't let happen.

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stuhacking
Nobody is currently preventing this from happening and I doubt there is much
Apple could do to stop it. That is to say, Openstep is an open API that anyone
is free to develop an implementation of.

Of course, this isn't the same as if, for example, Sony directly circumvented
or undermined Apple's security or certification technology.

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rbanffy
> I doubt there is much Apple could do to stop it. That is to say, Openstep is
> an open API that anyone is free to develop an implementation of.

I am not so sure. OpenStep (the spec) is probably safe, but that doesn't make
sure the rest of Cocoa (which implements a superset of OpenStep) is immune
from a patent or IP-related offensive.

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FeathersMcGraw
I'm surprised that in discussions I've seen that nobody has mentioned Google
TV. As a next gen TV framework SNAP would compete directly with it. It could
even be seen as a less resource intensive & closer to the metal response to
the Google TV strategy.

I think it's far more likely that it was shelved due to internal politics or
pressure from Google than any other theory.

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kevingailey
Is there a reason you'd want this? It seems if Sony pulled SNAP that the "next
gen platform" it was to be intended for may not materialize, or may use
another framework? What good could come out of this SDK if there's isn't a
device/platform to use it on? /newbie question

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rbanffy
Sony's modifications would be available for incorporation into GNUStep (as the
ones already released already are).

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binaryfinery
I love "next gen platforms" based on technology from 1986. At least it doesn't
use punch cards, I guess.

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glhaynes
Much of the cutting edge today is based on Unix which has been continuously
evolving since 1969... if you solve problems well from the outset, you often
don't have to re-solve them over and over.

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prodigal_erik
There are few problems for which unchecked pointer arithmetic is a good
solution, and even fewer at the application level. Computers are hundreds of
times faster than they were in the NeXTstep days. We no longer need to risk
undefined behavior just to get a GUI to keep up with a human. Hell, Eclipse is
probably the most bloated Java IDE you could find, and it's only sometimes
intolerable on a six-year-old laptop.

ObjC is basically Smalltalk weakened by some dangerous efficiency hacks we
haven't needed for a decade.

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reid
But your laptop isn't your phone. I don't think Eclipse would run very well on
my phone's relatively weak ARM core: it barely keeps up on my 2008 MacBook
Air.

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stuaxo
Yes, java on phones... what a pipedream !

