

[C4 release]; - dchest
http://rentzsch.tumblr.com/post/592949476/c4-release

======
harpastum
For those not familiar with Objective-C, the title is an allusion to manual
memory management (i.e. no garbage collection).

When you are done using an object, you call its 'release' method. Once
everyone using the object has called 'release' on the object, it is
deallocated.

Depressingly poetic.

~~~
scrod
No, it's reference counting, which by definition is not manual memory
management. Rentzsch used this notation because he, like most Mac developers,
uses Objective-C, a language that has had any significant pertinence to the
iPhone only for the last few months.

~~~
devinj
You manually count references. It has plenty of the downsides of manual memory
management, even if some silly technical distinction puts it into the camp of
the vastly superior (in terms of programmer time) solutions offered by higher
level languages (Java, lisps, Python, Ruby, Perl, C#, etc.).

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bonaldi
"but I can count the total number of software engineering advances they’ve
made on one hand."

I was just thinking the other day about the number of software engineering
advances they've made that I wish would fan out:

\- Hypercard

\- Dylan

\- MPW Shell (thank god for BBEdit)

\- Newton OS and its soups

\- Interface Builder (as opposed to code-generating IBs)

\- WebObjects (especially the tools)

Sure, that's barely more than a single hand (and is less if you rule out NeXT
things), but really, how many software engineering inventions do you want from
a single firm?

~~~
MWinther
I miss Hypercard. I would love to see something on that on the iPad. Of
course, as things stand, it doesn't seem likely.

~~~
jhancock
You'll have it by Q3...HP-Palm says its webOS tablet will be out then ;)

~~~
MWinther
Does webOS have hypercardish software?

~~~
jhancock
sort of...webOS, or more specifically, the mojo and ares framework/tools
provide javascript libraries for doing hypercard-like things. The Palm Pre's
main UX is very hypercard-like. Now that Ares is out, ares.palm.com, you get
nice visual dev tools similar to what you had in hypercard.

------
tptacek
Wow. That's big. No mitigating platitudes for that one. C4 is (was?) a great,
great conference.

~~~
durin42
I'm wondering if we can't capture some of what C4 was without the Mac focus
and keep some of that magic alive, but I'm not yet sure.

It really was a great thing - I'll miss it greatly if nothing rises from the
ashes.

------
miccotech
"But unlike previous issues such as the senseless iPhone SDK NDA, the majority
of the community isn’t riled by 3.3.1"

I think the previous issues have already weeded the field. Those developers
prone to righteous indignation have already left. There's another group of
apple-fanboys who will never complain. There's a third group that are getting
more and more fed up and looking to port to Android, but they're still working
on iPhone apps because there's a market. Just like most issues, there's a big
quiet middle between the two extremes that is too busy to blog about their
ambivalence.

------
treblig
Honestly, I wasn't terribly broken up about 3.3.1. I certainly see the pros
and cons, and I had kind of let it go.

But if this is the fallout, it's not worth it.

------
credo
My understanding is that C4 was a Mac development conference.

So I'm not sure why section 3.3.1 of the iPhone developer agreement (and the
absence of "outrage" from iPhone developers) should prompt C4 to release
itself.

~~~
bretthoerner
Do you know any developers that use non-MS languages on Windows?

Do you think they might be annoyed if MS said "nothing but C# is allowed"?

Would they not still be called "Windows developers"?

~~~
DerekL
Microsoft doesn't have any restrictions like that for Windows. But Xbox 360
development is restricted, like other game consoles. You have to get their
permission to sell games on disc or through Live.

~~~
simonsquiff
Except you can use any language or tools you want to develop your 360 games.

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quux
Dammit! This pisses me off more than Section 3.3.1 itself!

