No Third Party iPhone SDK

[Ashley Aitken]

Hi Dave (et al.),

Dave, I don't want to get into an argument with you (or anyone else)  
over this (a lot of which probably comes down to semantics).   
However, from what I've read and heard the iPhone does run OS X  
(literally).

Now the definition of an operating system is pretty clear technically  
speaking.  The Mac OS X product is a lot more than an operating  
system, it has the Finder, desktop applications, and a whole lot more  
than a core operating system.

Clearly, OS X on the iPhone doesn't have the Finder or a whole lot of  
other stuff that we associate with Mac OS X (e.g. Mail.app)  .   
However, I think you'll find the core operating system is the same in  
both cases.

This, however, is not the case I believe for Windows CE (and other  
variants of Microsoft's PDA and phone operating systems).  They are  
completely different than Windows at the core.

I think Apple probably took everything out of Mac OS X they didn't  
need (or that wouldn't work or fit) on the iPhone, including the  
Finder, and added a new GUI library and other stuff.

I'm only guessing but I am confident we'll find the Mach OS, a BSD- 
personality layer, and possibly more of the higher-level layers in  
Apple's OS stack, including Quartz (PDF imaging model) inside the  
iPhone OS X.

It was the logical thing for Apple to do, rather than to have another  
operating system to maintain and develop. This way they can also  
leverage a lot of the code (not GUI obviously) they have in Mac OS X.

Of course, none of this means you can drag Terminal or Mail.app over  
to the iPhone and have it run (even with a compile).  However, it  
would mean large chunks of Mail.app could be used with minimal (if  
any) changes.

If it does support Objective-C development, which I seem to remember  
seeing somewhere, then I would guess Foundation Kit would be the  
same, but Application Kit would be different, with a different set of  
widgets etc.

See my other post with regards to Apple providing a SDK and opening  
the iPhone for third-party apps.

Just my 2 cents, of course.

Cheers,
Ashley.

PS If this is true, which I think it is, it is still quite amazing.   
Who'd of thought of OS X running on a phone!  I guess with some  
phones now supporting Java SE it should have been expected.