From: David Masover <ninja@...>
Date: 2010-07-17T15:46:33+09:00
Subject: Re: client-side Ruby on iPad/iPhone?

On Friday, July 16, 2010 10:35:17 pm Jeff Pritchard wrote:
> I've seen jRuby and IronRuby, and really want to use them since i really
> really hate javascript

Do you really know JavaScript well enough to hate it? It's possible you're an 
exception, but most people who hate JavaScript don't seem to know it 
particularly well.

> none of the client-side ruby solutions I've found
> will work on mobile devices.

I know I've seen a few -- I definitely saw an irb prompt on Android at one 
point:

http://blog.headius.com/2009/08/return-of-ruboto.html

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the iPad/iPhone developer 
agreement now limit implementation languages to an Apple-sanctioned list?

http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/iphone_agreement_bans_flash_compiler

So there may well be an iPhone implementation of Ruby, but you'll likely be 
violating the agreement, and I'd be very surprised if your app made it to the 
App Store.

Of course, Rhomobile has a response:

http://rhomobile.com/2010/04/09/iphone-4-0-sdk-rules/

Having read both, I don't see how they can be -- the agreement says that apps 
must be _originally_written_ in that list of languages, not that it must be 
compiled with an approved compiler, which is what Rhomobile seems to think it 
means. Even if Apple turned around and released a clarification, explicitly 
allowing Rhodes, I don't think I'd trust them at this point.

So, if iPhone matters to you, do Web apps. If cross-platform matters to you, 
do web apps. If you insist on Ruby on the client, do Android or Moblin.