Why Cocoa source code isn't open? [terribly OT]
Why Cocoa source code isn't open? [terribly OT]
- Subject: Why Cocoa source code isn't open? [terribly OT]
- From: Oleg Svirgstin <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 04:35:29 +0300
Dear all,
Especially those from the other side of the Firewire,
Why are Cocoa frameworks NOT open for public review?
[starting from that point, "framework" is used in its "common world"
meaning, not in the "NeXT/Cocoa" way]
Most of modern frameworks, including PowerPlant, MacApp, MFC etc arrive with
their sources open. It gives incredible benefits, especially valuable in
these days when no documentation can be "on time".
Viewing the code one can save a lot of expensive experts' time - one could
easily get to the place of interest and find out what is going on there and
how to trick the situation to his/her project's benefit.
Not to speak of tremendously rich library of Objective-C techniques, tricks
and patterns...
Not to speak about much higher level of possible suggestions to the
developers of Cocoa.
Not to speak of possible better debugging (if we could see what really
happens, not as assembler but as real source, sometimes even with
comments!!!)
Well, certain problems are obvious, too (protection of proprietary code,
possible rip-offs, keeping some (attribute omitted) users away from making
changes in the code etc) - but are they comparable to the benefits? Well,
the sources might open partially...
Another thing: I have had some experience in passing my code outside. I had
to do a lot of work deleting idiotic comments like "don't forget to buy
milk" or "we had way too much beer last night"... We all tend to dress
differently going on public. (By the way, the cleaning helped me to discover
and correct few lucky bugs waiting to turn into a problem one day...)
Could anybody explain me, WHY is it hidden? Is there a chance to see it open
one day? Or it's hidden for ever? (Please tell me the truth, whatever the
answer will be Cocoa is great, free and much more powerful than any other
thing I know...)
I don't talk about making it another open-source project. Though... A bit of
"open-sourceness" never hurts.
Best regards
Please, don't kill me for my stupid off-topic questions
Oleg
A Local Cocoa Evangelist
PS Is a version of GNU C++ compliant to the C9X standard expected in the
near future?
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