Windows 10 automatically optimises the UI depending on the target device on which the binary is running, so there is zero (or very little) extra work required.
Most good developers I know spend as much time polishing and optimizing the UI, as they do writing the app itself. They could easily use an auto layout and be done with it, but they know that the extra effort is what it takes to go from good to great.
Microsoft however, seems to have an almost institutional aversion to quality and style.
Given the choice between one awesome app exclusively for a tablet UI and the same app married with an average UI that can run on everything from a 4 inch smartphone to a 60 inch HDTV, they'd go for the mediocre every single time.
Microsofts dedicated pursuit of the lowest common denominator is one of the reasons why Windows has bombed on tablets and smartphones.
The apps available in their mostly barren store are, just like their average Windows counterparts, not anything to be impressed about*. The majority are half a**ed efforts with little polish, style or anything beyond minimal effort.
And Microsoft, forever trapped in the prison of their own mediocrity, doesn't understand that the very factor that make iOS apps so great: The dedication to detail and high standards of the individual developers, is the same thing that will prevent them from jumping into Microsofts one-click-porting scheme.
*Obviously I'm not talking about ALL Windows apps. There is a lot of great software available for Windows, just like there are a lot of great developers. I'm talking about the average app, where the standards seem to be higher among iOS/OS X developers.
2. Despite the hype around Swift, there's currently orders of magnitude more Objective-C code out there than Swift code.
3. Swift is not ready for prime time yet. There are still a lot of C-based APIs that are impossible to use without putting an Objective-C shim in the middle, it still takes forever to compile, and the syntax hasn't stabilized yet. Swift is not yet suitable large, serious projects, however fun it may be to hobbyists.
4. Even if Swift were ready yet, Apple hasn't released the source. The only way for Microsoft (or anyone else) to implement Swift on another platform right now would be to reverse engineer it, which would probably run into all sorts of legal issues.
If you guys want to make fun of MS for something, why not put up an article about their new "Edge" browser, which seeks to distance itself from the horrible reputation of IE by changing the name, but then undermines that making the icon so similar to the old IE icon that you barely notice the difference?
I think people are overestimating how quick Apple is going to update its lower level libraries.
That wouldn't do anything unless Apple decides to break the external ABI or API. The reason Apple prohibits developers from using private APIs is precisely to let Apple update lower-level libraries without breaking apps.
Hey, it's better than their usual technique of skating to where the puck was yesterday (more accurately two to five years ago).
I do see their logic. They hope to boost app numbers for the platform. With the Windows phone they were begging developers to put anything in the store, thinking it would help. It's a last ditch effort to save the phone and tablet.
Hopefully Windows 10 is not the embarrasement Windows 8 was. If Windows 10 is useable, I wouldn't mind developing an app or two in objective C. My .NET/ WPF skills have faded. I jumped ship after realizing Ballmer was captaining the Titanic. Hopefully Microsoft's new leadership won't produce crap like the previous administration, but I'm not holding my breath. Microsoft has a tendency to promise great things and deliver fatally flawed products. The scary thing has always been that the flaws were blatantly obvious, which lead me to the conclusion, the leadership at Microsoft was clueless. Is Satya Nadella different? We'll see.
Hopefully they had Miguel de Icaza of MonoTouch/Xamarin fame to work on a lot of this. He's just too damn brilliant. Xamarin's ties to Microsoft seem pretty tight now. And the types of things promised in the keynote are right up Miguel's ally.
Apple needs at least a little competition to keep them from becoming as lazy, arrogant and sloppy as Microsoft became.
The Beatles needed The Rolling Stones; Diane Sawyer needed Katie Couric. Microsoft will you be Apple's Katie Couric.
Developing in Objective-C on windows in order to run iOS apps seems an act of desperation. The question is why would developers want to take the time to do so. I don't care to run iOS applications on Windows. I have an iPhone and an iPad to do it. It's not like I'm going to rush to purchase a Surface device because it now runs iOS applications. I suppose some developers might want to get perhaps a slightly greater percentage of sales by making an application run on an Xbox or stick PC. It would seem that only a small percentage would want to take the time and effort to do so.
However, it would further solidify Apple as the dominant platform to develop on and further marginalize MSFT.
With Apple moving to Swift, will Microsoft be able to keep up? Especially with the watch now rocketing off of the launch pad? As the watch enters the market as the first wearable computer with mass appeal, more and more developers will be moving over to iOS.
MSFT should focus their efforts on their server platform. They missed the boat much like Intel. It's over for Wintel. They are still entrenched in business, and should be all they can to preserve that hegemony. But both companies are devoting obscene amounts of resources in breaking into mobile. Unless they take steps to preserve the data center, they will be losing that market also. Porting Objective-C to Windows isn't going save MSFT any more than bribing Xiaomi is going to save Intel.
This marks the beginning of the end for Microsoft as an OS vendor.
If by "the end" you mean maybe at last marginalized in the Enterprise in 20-30 years, maybe. Windows 10 will be a key inflection point for them for good or ill.
IBM's arguably been dying since Windows 3.1 came out and they still employ hundreds of thousands and have enough resources for initiatives like teaming up with Apple to provide front ends to their big server stuff.
These behemoths continue on inertia alone for a looong time and can still make some noise (or even turn themselves around or morph into new kinds of enterprises - even much smaller RIM, errr, Blackberry, may make a go of it as a software/services provider) - and MS as a multi-platform software supplier's becoming one of their major segments. I think they have like 60 iOS apps and about 40 on Android, plus all the Office stuff for Mac.
Windows, btw is already only their 3rd largest business.
Comments
Most good developers I know spend as much time polishing and optimizing the UI, as they do writing the app itself. They could easily use an auto layout and be done with it, but they know that the extra effort is what it takes to go from good to great.
Microsoft however, seems to have an almost institutional aversion to quality and style.
Given the choice between one awesome app exclusively for a tablet UI and the same app married with an average UI that can run on everything from a 4 inch smartphone to a 60 inch HDTV, they'd go for the mediocre every single time.
Microsofts dedicated pursuit of the lowest common denominator is one of the reasons why Windows has bombed on tablets and smartphones.
The apps available in their mostly barren store are, just like their average Windows counterparts, not anything to be impressed about*. The majority are half a**ed efforts with little polish, style or anything beyond minimal effort.
And Microsoft, forever trapped in the prison of their own mediocrity, doesn't understand that the very factor that make iOS apps so great: The dedication to detail and high standards of the individual developers, is the same thing that will prevent them from jumping into Microsofts one-click-porting scheme.
*Obviously I'm not talking about ALL Windows apps. There is a lot of great software available for Windows, just like there are a lot of great developers. I'm talking about the average app, where the standards seem to be higher among iOS/OS X developers.
1. Objective-C isn't deprecated.
2. Despite the hype around Swift, there's currently orders of magnitude more Objective-C code out there than Swift code.
3. Swift is not ready for prime time yet. There are still a lot of C-based APIs that are impossible to use without putting an Objective-C shim in the middle, it still takes forever to compile, and the syntax hasn't stabilized yet. Swift is not yet suitable large, serious projects, however fun it may be to hobbyists.
4. Even if Swift were ready yet, Apple hasn't released the source. The only way for Microsoft (or anyone else) to implement Swift on another platform right now would be to reverse engineer it, which would probably run into all sorts of legal issues.
If you guys want to make fun of MS for something, why not put up an article about their new "Edge" browser, which seeks to distance itself from the horrible reputation of IE by changing the name, but then undermines that making the icon so similar to the old IE icon that you barely notice the difference?
Really, it was just a joke!
I think people are overestimating how quick Apple is going to update its lower level libraries.
That wouldn't do anything unless Apple decides to break the external ABI or API. The reason Apple prohibits developers from using private APIs is precisely to let Apple update lower-level libraries without breaking apps.
Hey, it's better than their usual technique of skating to where the puck was yesterday (more accurately two to five years ago).
I do see their logic. They hope to boost app numbers for the platform. With the Windows phone they were begging developers to put anything in the store, thinking it would help. It's a last ditch effort to save the phone and tablet.
Hopefully Windows 10 is not the embarrasement Windows 8 was. If Windows 10 is useable, I wouldn't mind developing an app or two in objective C. My .NET/ WPF skills have faded. I jumped ship after realizing Ballmer was captaining the Titanic. Hopefully Microsoft's new leadership won't produce crap like the previous administration, but I'm not holding my breath. Microsoft has a tendency to promise great things and deliver fatally flawed products. The scary thing has always been that the flaws were blatantly obvious, which lead me to the conclusion, the leadership at Microsoft was clueless. Is Satya Nadella different? We'll see.
Hopefully they had Miguel de Icaza of MonoTouch/Xamarin fame to work on a lot of this. He's just too damn brilliant. Xamarin's ties to Microsoft seem pretty tight now. And the types of things promised in the keynote are right up Miguel's ally.
Apple needs at least a little competition to keep them from becoming as lazy, arrogant and sloppy as Microsoft became.
The Beatles needed The Rolling Stones; Diane Sawyer needed Katie Couric. Microsoft will you be Apple's Katie Couric.
Too darn funny. Nice job.
However, it would further solidify Apple as the dominant platform to develop on and further marginalize MSFT.
With Apple moving to Swift, will Microsoft be able to keep up? Especially with the watch now rocketing off of the launch pad?
As the watch enters the market as the first wearable computer with mass appeal, more and more developers will be moving over to iOS.
MSFT should focus their efforts on their server platform. They missed the boat much like Intel. It's over for Wintel. They are still entrenched in business, and should be all they can to preserve that hegemony. But both companies are devoting obscene amounts of resources in breaking into mobile. Unless they take steps to preserve the data center, they will be losing that market also. Porting Objective-C to Windows isn't going save MSFT any more than bribing Xiaomi is going to save Intel.
This marks the beginning of the end for Microsoft as an OS vendor.
If by "the end" you mean maybe at last marginalized in the Enterprise in 20-30 years, maybe. Windows 10 will be a key inflection point for them for good or ill.
IBM's arguably been dying since Windows 3.1 came out and they still employ hundreds of thousands and have enough resources for initiatives like teaming up with Apple to provide front ends to their big server stuff.
These behemoths continue on inertia alone for a looong time and can still make some noise (or even turn themselves around or morph into new kinds of enterprises - even much smaller RIM, errr, Blackberry, may make a go of it as a software/services provider) - and MS as a multi-platform software supplier's becoming one of their major segments. I think they have like 60 iOS apps and about 40 on Android, plus all the Office stuff for Mac.
Windows, btw is already only their 3rd largest business.