Ubuntu Looks To An SDK, Improved App Development

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Looks To An SDK, Improved App Development

Canonical and the Ubuntu development community hope to improve application development for developers targeting Ubuntu 13.04...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTIxNjU

[mark45]

I only hope they don't push the Python sh#t, the core apps like software updater and software center are written in a scripted language. Canonical, get serious please and hire devs who're not afraid of pointers.

[ShadowBane]

I only hope they don't push the Python sh#t, the core apps like software updater and software center are written in a scripted language. Canonical, get serious please and hire devs who're not afraid of pointers.

I really don't know what you have against python. It is a full-featured and widely used language with excellent library support.

[mark45]

Yes it is, but being a scripted language it sucks for anything except scripts, not full featured sophisticated stuff.
A script spends extra time & CPU cycles on launching & initializing an interpreter, feeding it the stuff and executing under-optimized compiled code, part of the code will be interpreted anyway (Java doesn't compile anything either) - and all this extra effort happens any time you launch a scripted app. For small scripts it almost doesn't matter, but for big apps like the software center it's obvious - of course not anyone notices it, some people are so stupid they won't notice an elephant in a room.
To a great extent same is true about Java, except that Java uses a lot more memory.

[GreatEmerald]

Uh huh. That extra second you spend launching the app obviously matters so much.

[sacridex]

THEY HAVE TO PUSH VALA!
Sry for the caps. But srsly, Vala is the only sane choice in my opinion.
Its easy to use(as easy as Java, C#), yet it does not run in a runtime environment, it is converted to C+GObject Code and then compiled and is therefore supported on all platforms with GObject libs.

Hopefully there will be a good IDE pushed, Geany would be great!

[bwat47]

Uh huh. That extra second you spend launching the app obviously matters so much.

the Ubuntu software center is horrifically slow in real-world usage.

[curaga]

I really don't know what you have against python. It is a full-featured and widely used language with excellent library support.

If you have actually used Ubuntu, you will notice how incredibly laggy their Python apps are. Startup time in particular.

Does not give a good image of Python.

[RealNC]

You worry about Python? How about worrying about not being able to run Ubuntu software on non-Ubuntu distros instead? If Ubuntu introduces an SDK, this will in effect mean that it's not a Linux distribution anymore. It will be more like a new operating system, and software targeting it will not run on "normal" Linux distributions, including Debian.

[frign]

You worry about Python? How about worrying about not being able to run Ubuntu software on non-Ubuntu distros instead? If Ubuntu introduces an SDK, this will in effect mean that it's not a Linux distribution anymore. It will be more like a new operating system, and software targeting it will not run on "normal" Linux distributions, including Debian.

This is _exactly_ what I wanted to point out, too. We do already have the big problem that some Ubuntu Software packages don't work in other distros (due to, let's call them, "Ubuntu-Hacks").
If Canonical really decided to go this way, I would have nothing left for their Operating System. On the other hand, it is enlightening to hear that Arch (even though I don't like it very much) is constantly growing on a free software-basis without too immediate corporate interests fulfilled, which provides a great alternative to Ubuntu.