Samsung copied Xcode?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=15445800&postcount=1080

by coloneltcb • 14 years ago

50 60 14 years ago

forums.macrumors.com

agscala• 14 years ago

There are a few similarities, but really a lot of these features that any capable IDE should have

katabatic3• 14 years ago

Features are one thing - yes, nearly all IDEs have lots of the same features. But that looks like they copied XCode 4's appearance directly. It's a pity the screenshots are so low resolution - hopefully some higher resolution shots of the Samsung software will turn up.

But even in this example it's easy to spot lifted design elements:

* The centered tab selector buttons in the title bar of each pane

* The overall styling of the widget pallet, including the round-rect selection

* The arrangement of the primary toolbar and its assorted option buttons, which clearly mimics XCode.

* The colors and gradients

jmduke2• 14 years ago

A screenshot of Eclipse that I grabbed off Google Images: http://img.brothersoft.com/screenshots/softimage/e/eclipse_i...

I don't use a lot of IDEs, but I honestly can't see any substantial distinctions between any of the three. (And no, I don't consider centering a pane a distinction.)

keithnoizu• 14 years ago

And que the return of the look feel wars of the early 90s.

mmariani• 14 years ago

Hey Samsung!

Why don't you guys get rid of those copy machines and hire some talented people?

I'm sure that would be a lot cheaper that what you'll have to pay for Apple. ;-)

electic• 14 years ago

It is really sad to see Samsung throw away any brand capital it had as an innovative company. People respect you trying to innovate even if it might not be the best solution. People want to associate themselves with innovators.

Disappointing.

taligent3• 14 years ago

This is Samsung's raison d'être.

They've been doing this with the Japanese companies (Sony, Panasonic, Sharp) for years now and have now set their sights on Apple.

It's a bad reflection on South Korea itself as between Samsung, Hyundai and the cultural copying they have the reputation as wannabe Japanese. Which is a real shame as it is a wonderful country with plenty of home grown talent.

randomfool• 14 years ago

Or maybe they cloned Visual Studio. Or Flash Builder. Or whatever. All of the IDEs with a design surface are largely the same.

Seriously- this is an IDE for televisions.

gilini2• 14 years ago

Agreed. Qt Designer used to look pretty much the same as well.

Actually, I don't know why this court nonsense is still making the news.

taligent3• 14 years ago

Just went all the previous QT Designer screenshots in Google Images. And not a single one looks similar to either Xcode or the Samsung IDE.

And the court nonsense is still news because the case isn't over yet and this is demonstrating a pattern of copying by Samsung.

fredoliveira2• 14 years ago

If you've used Xcode before, you'll recognize things they copied that are not the norm in other IDEs. The object library, IB screen, the layout buttons on the toolbar (the entire toolbar, really). Sure, it's just an IDE, but heck if it doesn't look strikingly similar to Xcode.

edit: cmelbye in this thread has a good comparison: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4378379

ajross• 14 years ago

Other than the placement (but not iconography: those come straight from the 1980's VCR) of the Start/Stop buttons, I'm actually not quite sure that I see much. Can you elaborate? What's an "IB screen" (if it's the visual layout thing, I gotta say you're off by about 15 years trying to attribute that to Apple).

But fair enough: let's say they cloned it. Now what? What corrective action should be taken? What if Eclipse did the same thing (as, of course, Eclipse basically did to VC++)?

You're trying to make some kind of moral point, so it would help your case if you spelled it out.

I'll spell out my position: cloning a UI is fine. There is a long history of this in the technology industry, and we're all richer for it. Condemning someone for cloning your favorite candy maker's recipe is nothing but base fanboism, and hurtful to all of us.

shn• 14 years ago

I think this is just a prank.

calciphus2• 14 years ago

Man, XCode looks a lot like Eclipse.

taligent3• 14 years ago

I take it you've never used XCode or Eclipse. If you did you would know that they are world's apart as far as IDEs are concerned.

calciphus2• 14 years ago

Actually, used both quite a bit. But the UI and project layout (the subject of this post) are very similar, as they are with most IDEs.

Case in point: http://ostatic.com/files/images/JUnit-[2].png

MetalMASK• 14 years ago

I cannot see a clear evidence to support the claim (that "samsung copied Xcode"). If you can reach that claim from the screenshot, you can make the same claim for netbeans, eclipse, intellJ,...etc (as the author admits him/herself, any capable IDE looks similar).

If the claim is on the icon design along, the claim could stand stronger; but I guess it's not "catchy" enough to claim "Samsung copied XCode's icon design".

Why don't people make such claims on open-source projects? Is it because open-source project has no money for other people to sue off?

Zarathust• 14 years ago

About every IDE that support dockable panels can be customized to look like this. They can also be reorganized to look entirely different.

Quick, find the patent for dockable panels and sue everyone!

csarva• 14 years ago

Well, since you mention it.. this happened back in 2000 when Adobe sued Macromedia over "copied" IDE elements (before eventually buying them out..).

http://www.pcworld.com/article/18000/adobe_sues_macromedia.h...

jonhendry7• 14 years ago

Xcode's panels aren't movable, like Visual Studio's are. There are panels that appear in certain places, and can be hidden, and their sizes adjusted. But it's not like VS where you can grab something tear it off, stick it on the other side of the window, etc.

And I haven't seen any pictures that suggest Samsung's IDE has any configuration other than one that mimics Xcode's appearance.

But it's more than just the arrangement of functional areas. It's the appearance of the functional areas. The widget palette looks just like Xcode's, with icons on the left and lengthy descriptive text. That's different from the inspector on Delphi/VS, where there's a dynamic list of attributes for the selected UI widget in the UI editor, and each attribute that is editable has a place to edit it.

aristidb• 14 years ago

Next pundits will say even MATLAB copied Xcode...

No, I'm pretty sure Samsung did not explicitly copy Xcode there. Although it's a pretty stupid move to create their own IDE in my opinion. I think the standard these days is to build on top of Eclipse.

chmod775• 14 years ago

Edit: As I said, it's not even Java: http://www.imaso.co.kr/data/article/15%283%29.png

<Edit2>

Apparently it's made by Samsung. I see some Samsung logo on this website:

http://www.imaso.co.kr/?doc=bbs/gnuboard.php&bo_table=ar... From what I understand it's a SDK for Samsung Smart TV's

http://www.imaso.co.kr/data/article/17(2).png

</Edit2>

>Some probably shooped image with a small resolution

>Some asian language

>No proof it's made by Samsung

>2 lines of description posted in a in a mac forum

This sounds totally legit.

I want to remind you guys of the current top post at the front page: http://day4.se/how-we-screwed-almost-the-whole-apple-communi...

Don't believe everything. We do not even know if Samsung made it or if it has anything to do with android.

cmelbye5• 14 years ago

If you look at one of the first sentences:

    I present you the development environment for Samsung's smart TVs.

I don't know why you're looking for Java/Android clues.

moondowner2• 14 years ago

Legit hi-res screenshot!

I agree with all your points. It's definitely a lookalike copy of XCode, but there's no proof that it's made by Samsung nor that it's used for Smart TV.

All I can see from it is that it's some-sort of a JavaScript/HTML5? IDE.

stephan83• 14 years ago

I had to build a couple of Samsung TV apps, and that indeed looks like their IDE. It's Javascript (you can use HTML or Flash). Not much of a threat to Apple though, it is the worst platform I have ever developed for.

Try it for yourself: http://www.samsungdforum.com/

neya• 14 years ago

Funny, I have seen this forum layout somewhere...OMG! Macrumours has copied PhpBB!!

cmelbye5• 14 years ago

For comparison...

Samsung's IDE: http://www.imaso.co.kr/data/article/15%283%29.png

Xcode: http://cl.ly/Ijas

Of course, as Samsung apologists will tell you, this was a pure accident on Samsung's part. Everyone knows there's only one way to design an IDE. Anyone designing one will eventually end up with a carbon-copy of Xcode.

Gigablah• 14 years ago

As someone who has extensively used Xcode, I can assure you it's not a "carbon copy".

And hey, here's a screenshot of Visual Basic: http://i.msdn.microsoft.com/dynimg/IC158544.gif

jonhendry7• 14 years ago

If you think Visual Basic looks anything like Xcode, you're either detail-blind, or you've never used Xcode.

cmelbye5• 14 years ago

You can't be serious. Have you ever used Visual Basic? If you have, you'd know that it's toolbox, properties editor, etc. is nothing like Xcode's...

moondowner2• 14 years ago

Indeed there's a Samsung IDE:

http://www.samsungdforum.com/Devtools/Sdkdownload

(they offer SDK Download for Eclipse, and SDK Download for Samsung IDE).

I haven't downloaded it but I'm assuming it's the one in the screenshot.

shomyo• 14 years ago

Silly apple fanboys :/

thezilch• 14 years ago

Garbage. Alert, alert, developer modifies his IDE to be cross-platform familiar and become more productive!

    A few minutes ago I snapped this screenshot of what
    the official downloadable TV SDK looked like
    (the Samsung IDE version; not the Eclipse version):

http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3526... [0]

[0] http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=15447288&post...

cooldeal• 14 years ago

It's funny that there are a lot of people who think doing the below is okay, but copying some GUI elements is not.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p5akC0fNzZQ/Tfdnlsy7e0I/AAAAAAAAAY...

katabatic3• 14 years ago

I don't think that's OK - carbon copying Windows95 is just sad :)

cmelbye5• 14 years ago

Who specifically are you referring to? I haven't seen anyone endorse ReactOS yet at the same time vilify Samsung.

georgemcbay• 14 years ago

Samsung is clearly addicted to copying Apple. And I say that as someone who doesn't like Apple.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4353925

lsiebert• 14 years ago

Honestly, I saw that and thought visual studio. The example code colors are very visual studio like.

olgeni• 14 years ago

Enough is enough.

Samsung: I'm willing to go to all thermonucular over this.

nivla• 14 years ago

What's with a lot of fanboism posts lately??? Heck the linked post doesn't even offer a clear picture of either of the IDE's. IDE's often look similar and its no secret. This is because developers often have to use different IDEs for different tasks and relearning a drastically different IDE is just a waste of time and resource. If I have to be in OP's shoes, I would find even Xcode to be a direct clone of Visual Basic's IDE!!!

jonhendry7• 14 years ago

The amount of detail-blindness I'm seeing here is astounding.

No wonder so many UIs are terrible.

plugger• 14 years ago

I think if there were patents in relation to Xcode Apple Legal would have acted on it. If the UI layout isn't patented then is there really an issue?

Samsung copied Xcode?

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