Saddle Up
We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.
This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.
Back in October I posted something to the same effect (albeit less eloquent). I was skewered for it. No big deal, I’m used to abuse. I’m an iPhone developer (ba-da-ching!).
But I am curious to hear what Flash folk have to say after reading Thoughts on Flash. It lays out the exact reasons why Flash will never exist in iPhone OS quite plainly. 90% of the statement is based on logical conclusions and the final 10% on business decisions. Sure, there’s a stick in the eye here and there but nothing nearly as childish as Brimelow, Adobe’s “Platform Evangelist” has been spewing.
This is an effective line in the sand. If you want to be a part of the biggest computing paradigm shift in 30 years, get your shit together and move from legacy tools. Your comfort with a toolset will not (and should not) govern forward momentum. This has happened before and it will happen again.
It’s time to move on.
