This is not about calling Jobs out for not adding more features to the iPhone. This is akin to if I had said you couldn't use any other editor than TextMate to program in Rails. Or that you had to run it on OS X server. That would have been some lame, fascist shit.
> This is akin to if I had said you couldn't use any other editor than TextMate to program in Rails.
Well for starters let me say I admire your perspective on Rails development greatly. And speaking as someone who is greatly enamored of code generation, I am not a fan of restrictions on "original" programming languages.
My only question about your response here is your choice of comparison. The choice of text editor does not appear to me to parallel the imposition of an entire cross-platform compatibility layer like Flash.
I realize that in a certain sense it seems to be about dictating tools for self-expression, but where things like Flash compilers are concerned it also very much about proprietary companies attempting to control developers by owning the platform.
So... If I had to draw a lesson from Rails it would be that if we developers find ourselves having to choose which behaviour we want from a proprietary platform vendor or choosing which proprietary platform we are beholden to, maybe we should step back and ask ourselves whether we really want to be beholden at all.
Maybe what we really ought to be doing is sucking it up and developing for web standards where "Worse is Better."
