While I agree with you Mr Melissinos, I’m not sure if that is what is portrayed in the article. the article sends a different message.
You speak as if Ethan had a choice to develop for the iPhone in Java or ObjectiveC.
I know people have been speaking about Java-to-ObjectiveC convertors but they sounds fairly annoying.
I guess you’re saying he shouldn’t touch the iPhone since it’s not Java and go for Android because it is Java?
not at all.
If anyone I’m attacking the author of the article. I don’t see anything wrong with using other languages - nor with any of the decisions made by Mr Nicholas.
I’m sorry if I gave any impression otherwise.
Replace his employment and tech with Microsoft and C#. Or Nokia and Symbian. We are the ones focused on the fact that it is objective C, not the general audience reading the article. It is not a negative Java article, it is one of a guy who was having trouble making ends meet, found a possible way of making some cash, hit the “app lottery” and won!
“Oh, so Java sucks which is why he developed in objective C!”
“No, there is no Java VM on the iPhone, so he didn’t have a choice.”
“Oh…”
Given his expertise, do you think he would have chosen objective C over Java if it was available to him on the iPhone?
I know 
Hmm perhaps I am biased and other tech-savy non-programmers don’t read like I do as a java programmer.
Given that you replace it with Microsoft and c# - yes I probably wouldn’t care.
But I sure there will be some c# programmers going “hmm”.
//edit
Arg, why do I get the feeling I’m turning into those old, stuck C/C++ programmers I so disliked when I started out with programming.
one system alone wont be the future
thats the same reason why c# can never be the future and java is being subject in all universities at this time.
If you guys are hopelessly hopeless about Java as a platform that enables a lot of people to play your game, just look at how many have played Miners4K (nearly 100,000) and Left 4K Dead (probably tens of thousands by now in just 4 months, not counted on Java4K as most of the clicks bypassed Java4K, but I know this for a fact since Java4K has received 22,000 visitors from mojang.com, and I assume that’s only a portion of the players).
These aren’t HUGE numbers, but they aren’t too shabby considering the limited scope of the audience.
But not all are as talented as Markus
I think the useful lesson to take away from the iphone is that if you’re selling something make it trivially easy for people to give you money.
On the app store it’s a couple of taps and a password (is the password even mandatory?) and you’re done.
Contrast this with a normal internet transaction:
- Pull out your credit card (thereby reminding you of the distressing multi-page statement tomes that are wedged through your letterbox every month)
- Note with annoyance that the card has developed a stress fracture where you pull it out of your wallet, necessitating interaction with some byzantine phone-maze in bangalore to get a new one.
- Find the correct angle to bring the 16-digit card number into relief so that you can see the thing now that the silvering has rubbed off in your wallet
- Carefully type the number in, flicking your focus from screen to carefully-aligned card to check for errors
- Enter the CCV, and inwardly marvel at this astonishing piece of security technology: A number that is not only different, it’s on the back of the card! Ye gods! That’ll keep fraudsters at bay for sure!
- Fill in your name and address, being careful to type it exactly as your bank has it. Can you abbreviate? Does case matter? Who knows, but you’ll have to repeat this whole rigmarole if you get it wrong! If you’re lucky there’ll be one of those postcode-lookup thingies, which is great as long as your address is on it. I used to live at 3/6 Coburg St. The dropdown list would go “…3/4, 3/5, 3/7, 3/8…” FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU…
- You get prompted for your “Verified by Visa”[TM] password in a form that looks nothing like the rest of the page but has nevertheless been plonked right in the middle of it. The sight of this form has inspired hazy memories of violence and hate, but the password eludes you
- Bracing yourself for a full biometric scan, click the “Forgotten your password?” link to confirm your identity
- Get very very angry when the entire confirmation process consists of entering your date of birth
- Enter your password as a sequence of rude words that call into question the ancestry, personal hygiene and sexual predilections of the “Verified by Visa”[TM] initiative
- After being primly informed that your password must be between 8 and 16 characters with at least 1 numeral and 1 non-alphanumeric character, go and have a bit of a lie down until you can unclench your jaw and blood stops squirting out of your eyes
- Confirm your new extremely profane and poorly spelled password, and then promptly forget it as the full realisation sinks in: To be “Verified by Visa”[TM], a fraudster must know either a) your carefully vetted password that is given the full protection of modern cryptographic techniques, or b) your date of birth
- Regain consciousness some time later, force your hands to stop crushing invisible trachea, and complete the transaction
Again the point: Every hoop that a customer has to jump through to give you money will give them time and cause to think “Do I really want this? Can I be bothered? Nah, screw it, I’ll just get it off a torrent/do without”.
Yeah, probably true but if the game is really good then people won’t be discouraged to follow a longer process in order to have the game. Kinda Wii case here; still really hard to buy one but people are ready to do anything to have one. I was lucky enough to buy one online more than a year ago.
This.
So? I’m not contradicting him AFAIK.
Here’s a related article:
Apple’s App Store Nears One Billion Served
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/apples-app-store-nears-one-billion-served/
:o
I suddenly feel like I went to the wrong party ;D
You guys gotta remember, the android is better :).
the android uses java, so JAVA IS THE FUTURE
Does anyone know if there will be a JavaFX mobile store?
Because it will be sure missing out if there isn’t a store…
I hear javaFX sucks. And since it’s a new script I kind of agree. I’m hoping they give that kind of functionality to normal Java soon though.
I would disagree on that, you shouldn’t make up your mind before even testing it. I didn’t like the idea of it first but I starting to like it after finding what JavaFX really is.
I’m just finding it a little young atm.
It does have a new language, but its similar to Java but simpler and more powerful.
I would go on what are the advantages … but you can search…
I hear that it’s better to try a tech out first before dismissing it. You know, I heard that Java is still slow, crappy and is only good for animating ad bars on web pages. 
I dont want to bash against JavaFX but unfortunatly I cannot see any good looking demo yet, could you point out us some nice one ?
Well, all the demos on the javafx website are… lets say not impressive. While some of the flex demos show good looking animated online stores javafx shows an UFO flying around the desktop ;), and that flying UFO didn’t work on my linux.
I seen nice Gui’s, but I haven’t seen any nice games yet. The nicest was pac man… maybe its the performance that’s stopping it. Because I’m having a hard time creating my game atm.
[quote]and that flying UFO didn’t work on my linux.
[/quote]
Its also was really buggy on windows 7.