Realigning the Azimuth

So, the iPad’s been unveiled at last. Quite frankly, I’m kind of impressed. Not necessarily in the hardware, which is essentially an evolution of the concepts originally demonstrated ~3 years ago with the original iPhone, but the application possibilities which a device of that scale offers.

I’ve not played with the beta SDK enough (and even if I had, I can’t talk about it), but looking at the increased resources & resolution available, I can already see how two of the prototypes I have lying around (one a game, the other an application) will benefit.

As it stands, I feel it’ll be a great secondary device – being larger than an iPod touch/iPhone means its easier to read/view movies/etc, and being smaller than a laptop means it’ll be possible to easily manage it in a cramped space… like say economy-class on an flight.

That being said, the appeal of it being a replacement device for non-technical people can’t be ignored. The platform design greatly reduces the risks of infection that many of us geeks have had to clean up over time, which means that our various non-geeks will find themselves more empowered than ever.

Which will be great. But there are a few things which I am concerned about going down this path – in particular the consequences of the way things are currently done within the App Store eco-system more than anything. In particular, I can’t help but feel that the potential exists to cut off an entire new generation of programmers from rising.

Being in my late 20’s, I like many of my peers grew up with various 8-bit microcomputers. One of the biggest things with machines in those days was simply the fact that unlike modern machines, they powered up into (typically) a BASIC language environment. That of course meant that anyone with a scrap of curiosity could play around within that environment and learn the basics of computer programming, which might result in the decision to head into a certain career (as it did in my case).

In an environment with solely iPads available – this simply won’t be possible, as the current guidelines with the App Store prevent these types of applications being approved, with the most high-profile example being the approval & near-immediate removal of the initial release of Manomio’s C64 emulator when it was discovered end-users were able to access C64 BASIC.

With these restrictions in place, it’s unlikely we will ever see an equivalent to tools such as Kodu Game Lab (available for Windows PC’s or the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games), or other programming environments such as Logo.

At the moment, the only way to work around it would be to implement those environments as web applications – but at least for now, I can’t help but wonder that even with the advancements in HTML5 (Canvas, Offline Applications) will it ever be a compelling environment for these types of uses.

If those particular restrictions were relaxed, I think it would go quite a great deal towards ensuring that kids might have the opportunity to have a chance to play with coding at an early opportunity.

But regardless, things have changed, and things will certainly be heading down another path in the near future. I sincerely hope that as the gatekeeper’s Apple realise this direction isn’t entirely the best and does some rethinking of the rules down the line…