

Miguel de Icaza: "As a software developer, I find the iPad inspirational." - acangiano
http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2010/Jan-29.html

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voxcogitatio
Several problems with this article:

1: Critique against mouse and keyboard rings hollow. It's stuck around so far
because it "just works" for a large number of apps. Touchscreens not similarly
proven.

2: Limitations of the hardware is touted as a "great opportunity". Opportunity
how? An opportunity to unleash gosh-darned ugly hacks to get around said
limitations?

3: Written by Miguel de Icaza, known troll/closed source afficionado. Notably,
nothing is mentioned about how hard it is to develop on an entirely closed
platform (see iPhone troubles). Considering who the author is, not surprising
in the least. Generally i try to avoid ad hominem but in this case the
author's own bias gets ahead of dispassionate analysis.

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robotron
I can see why this post was downvoted but you've got some good points.

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davidw
Sure, but the personal attack 'known troll' bit is over the line.

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bmalicoat
I was having a hard time figuring out why I needed an iPad. Even after
watching the keynote (besides the 'new, shiny' lust) I had no real reason to
want one. Then I realized the 3rd party opportunities for this thing are
insane. Yes, there have been tablets in the past but there has never been what
basically amounts to a cheap, 10" piece of glass that can recognize all your
fingers and an array of gestures. I am very excited to see what other inspired
developers do with this device.

~~~
rayvega
Maps and mapping technology are ones that do sharply stick out as more than a
natural fit for the tablet form factor combined with touch screen compared
with today's mobile devices. This space has plenty to gain in innovation with
the iPad.

~~~
arethuza
Watching video from online (iPlayer etc.) would be my ideal application for
this - an iPhone is too small, a laptop is too clunky and uncomfortable and I
hate watching video sitting at a desk.

Another thing that might be a hit is multiplayer games. I was playing an air
hockey game with my son on his iPod Touch and it was surprisingly good. With a
bigger screen that could really be an interesting thing to watch.

Lots of board games might work pretty well on something like the iPad as
people could sit round it.

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Spikefu
WTF?

I'm seriously confused here. Is this the same guy who thumbed his nose at
Microsoft and instigated the creation Mono?

If so, isn't he at least a little conflicted about the closed nature of the
platform?

~~~
pohl
Funny, I never took it to be nose-thumbing so much as fellatio. He's the Pied
Piper of Hamelin who led a small army of open source programmers straight to
their language and APIs just when the townsfolk were at the peak of panic that
they were losing the mindshsre of developers. (...developers, developers,
developers,...) That's an act of deep love, not defiance.

Well, as deep as as a quid pro quo seeker might feel, anyway. He certainly
never came off as an idealist.

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davi
Funny, I just started thinking along similar lines.

I was underwhelmed initially by the iPad as well. Then I remembered this
painting program I wrote back in the '90s for my Mac IIsi, and how _cool_ it
was (geometrical forms with palette animation) -- and then I started thinking
about a touch-based version of this program -- maybe with networking -- and
then I turned to my wife, and said, "You know that new thing Apple just came
out with?"

~~~
stcredzero
When a bunch of devs are underwhelmed at first, but then start to see
possibilities in moments of calm -- this is a sign of a game changer.

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jacquesm
So, reading that I am supposed to come to the conclusion that absence of
choice is now a good thing?

No keyboard, no mouse, _only_ a multi-touch capable screen and this will
somehow liberate software development?

I really don't get it. If it was in addition to the usual input suspects, then
sure, that would enable lots of stuff.

But to be able to type, use the mouse for precise on-screen pointing without
getting your hand in the way of what you're doing, those are things we already
had.

Now you lose those and in return you get interaction with your hands on a
relatively small screen.

On screen keyboards are nice, but even a lengthy email would be pretty
cumbersome that way.

Choice is good, lack of choice is not 'fascinating', it is limiting.
Limitations will drive creative people to come up with ways around those
limitations but for now this is what you've got to work with.

Another thing I don't understand from the article is this sentence:

"but the specter of having a small user base for my experiments always
discouraged me."

Why does that matter? Not everything is about how many people adopt it. If you
can make a small group really happy that counts for something too.

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rbanffy
It's not a general-purpose computer (much like an iPhone or an iPod). It's a
browser and e-mail and e-book reader you can use while on the bus. For
reading, it's less cumbersome than a netbook.

But there's that keyboard dock. That should make composing long-emails (or
using the iWork suite) less of a painful experience. Since it doesn't allow
connecting a mouse, I will wait until there is emacs ported to it ;-)

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megaduck
emacs is an extensible Lisp runtime, and Apple has shot down all such
applications in the past. I don't think they're going to change their tune for
the iPad.

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rbanffy
I would not hold my breath.

