iPhone SDK 4 enforces which languages can/cannot be used to write code
Apple is reaching new standards in term of paranoid control over development (iPhone and iPad). From the iPhone SDK 4.0 beta agreement:
3.3.1 – Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
So programmers now can’t even choose their programming languages? What’s next?
How about people stopping to write software for those platforms?
Apple should at least stop using words like innovation and freedom. There’s nothing innovating in this crap. Choosing a programming languages is at the core of Computer Science. It’s so bad even Adobe is looking fresh.
John Gruber nails it:
So what Apple does not want is for some other company to establish a de facto standard software platform on top of Cocoa Touch. Not Adobe’s Flash. Not .NET (through MonoTouch). If that were to happen, there’s no lock-in advantage. If, say, a mobile Flash software platform — which encompassed multiple lower-level platforms, running on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry — were established, that app market would not give people a reason to prefer the iPhone.
It’s shit. I already started a iPhone project which I’d like to finish, but I won’t continue to comply to this kind of crap.
Great discussion on Hacker News


