Monday 16 March 2009

JavaScriptCore and iPhone

I'm really surprised that while Apple use JavaScriptCore within the iPhone platform, they don't expose it to application developers (even though it is available to Mac Desktop developers!. That seems very last century. :)

Application development can be a lot quicker when using scripting approaches, but the SDK only allows you to use scripting technologies provided by Apple. I really hope Apple expose the JavaScriptCore engine in the next update to iPhone, that should unlock a whole lot more creative Apps for the iPhone platform.

Meanwhile, we're continuing to use Lua within the Intermorphic applications for Mac/Windows desktop and Windows Mobile. I've recently been evaluating JavaScriptCore and SpiderMonkey, with a view to using JavaScipt as an alternative to Lua for our applications and engines. The reason? Mainly that a lot more people are familiar with JavaScript than Lua! Reasons not to? Mainly down to licensing pain. And Lua is a great scripting language; Lua is actually very similar to JavaScript.

Is it just me, or were the GPL licenses designed to be some kind of IP virus?

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