Comments on: Runtime wars (2): Apple’s answer to Flash, Silverlight and JavaFX

By: Does “A VC” have a blind spot for Apple? « counternotions

Does “A VC” have a blind spot for Apple? « counternotions — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:55:31 +0000

[...] we have covered previously in Runtime wars (2): Apple’s answer to Flash, Silverlight and JavaFX Apple’s answer to Adobe’s propriatery Flash is open HTML5. In fact, Apple has been by [...]

By: Google Chrome: Bad news for Adobe « counternotions

Google Chrome: Bad news for Adobe « counternotions — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:17:37 +0000

[...] we pointed out months ago in Runtime wars (2): Apple’s answer to Flash, Silverlight and JavaFX, Apple has been furiously adding “expressive” flair to WebKit. Just like Chrome, both [...]

By: Kontra

Kontra — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:48:39 +0000

I’ll go out on a limb and predict that a considerable number of iPhone Cocoa Touch apps we’ll soon see could have been done in Ajax.

In fact, as JavaScript execution speed approaches native, HTML 5 brings local data storage to WebKit and JS/UI frameworks become even easier to work with for development, this trend may accelerate. To the extent that Apple controls both the hardware and the OS, what if it decided to speed up JavaScript with hardware assistance and allocated much greater memory?

By: andre dupont

andre dupont — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:37:56 +0000

What to think about SquirrelFish which makes javascript 1.6 times faster then on webkt 3.1. And what ti think about sproutcore, the javascript framewrk used to build MobileME. That fits nicely in this strategy. Maybe Apple really wasn’t going to release an iPhone SDK and planned to slowly unfold and improve its webstandards/webkit strategy but was caught by surprise. The interest in iPhone apps was just to strong and to sudden.

By: The new UI wars: Why there’s no Flash on iPhone 2.0 « counternotions

The new UI wars: Why there’s no Flash on iPhone 2.0 « counternotions — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:52:02 +0000

[...] Internet Applications in the browser, and now with Adobe AIR on the desktop as well. As we have discussed previously, unlike Adobes’ Flash, Microsoft’s Silverlight and Sun’s JavaFX, Apple [...]

By: Kontra

Kontra — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:38:12 +0000

Troy: I have my doubts that Webkit can serve the same function as Flash.

WebKit isn’t trying to replace or, even, compete with Flash per se. It’s Apple’s way of ensuring that there’s a ubiquitous x-platform rendering engine/runtime not controlled by a competitor. As you know, WebKit not only powers Safari, but also Adobe AIR, Nokia smartphones, Google Android, etc., which is a testament to Apple’s hope and ability to get wide traction.

By: Troy

Troy — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:27:30 +0000

I’ll be contrarian.

Though biased, I have my doubts that Webkit can serve the same function as Flash. They overlap but.

Flash for one, isn’t a single runtime. There are mobile, web, desktop, with variable capabilities.

Flash was designed to stream, code, assets (animations). It was built for a networked world, where as anything based on XML can get bloated quickly. Unlike Java..also designed for a networked world, it starts up quickly.

The latest version of Actionscript (based on ECMAScript) is fast and approaching the maturity of other languages.

Adobe is also open sourcing much of the technology so it’s not really as propritary.

The Flash player (4MB) isn’t a fraction of Quicktime typically bundled with Itunes.

The authoring tools for creative professionals are still dominated by Photoshop, Illustrator etc that tightly integrate with Flash. Until such time that competitors, and culture shifts people off of that (hard as design agencies set the bar and stardize) it won’t really

By: Luis Alejandro Masanti

Luis Alejandro Masanti — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:53:32 +0000

The intriguing part is if SVG could be controlled from JavaScript or other language (ECMAscript compliant?) to be able to develop the kind of animations, interactions and the like as Flash.

By: Daveed

Daveed — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:26:20 +0000

Yes, it’s possible that the iPhone SDK would be LLVM based. I’ve played a little with LLVM and it’s definitely a well-engineered bit of software. The “VM” part is almost an understatement: It includes an interpreter, a JIT compilation (VM) system, and a traditional code generator/optimizer (plus link-time optimizer). It seems reasonably well documented, and fairly easy to use.

They (the LLVM project) have already ported GCC’s gcc and g++ to it (i.e., you can use GCC’s front ends with LLVM’s code generation). More importantly, Apple is working on Clang, which is a C/C++/Objective-C front end that aims at being GNU compatible. Clang hooks into LLVM. However Clang (and LLVM) aren’t “encumbered” by the GPL. That could be very significant for Apple, FSF, and many open source projects (e.g., it could significantly diminish the influence of FSF).

By: sueorkin

sueorkin — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:31:23 +0000

Wow, that’s a lot to consider.

- Sue Orkin