Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I can't really see Apple doing this, if for no other reason than Objective-C is something they can control, and Ruby isn't. If the core Ruby developers decide they want to add more features, change the language's underpinnings, etc. Apple's left to play catch-up. If Apple wants to add features, then they basically have to fork the language and hope their changes get merged in.

Apple's shown (and been shown) how much of a benefit it is to control your own destiny; even with Ruby being open-source, it's still an outside influence they have to work with or against. Objective-C, for all intents and purposes, is their language, one they can take in any direction they want.



They control MacRuby, and indeed have added new syntax. MacRuby is actually not forwards compatible with regular ruby.


MacRuby is a fork of the language, albeit a friendly one. Just as Rubinius, JRuby, IronRuby, and others are all forks.

I can see Apple replacing Applescript with Ruby, but just based on the fact that MacRuby uses the ObjectiveC runtime, I doubt it's really going anywhere.


So? Apple didn't control GCC, either, when they built OS X on top of it.


Yet Apple is doing everything they can to make themselves independent of GCC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clang




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: