Google Pulls Plug On Programming For the Masses

theodp writes "Google has decided to pull the plug on Android App Inventor, which was once touted as a game-changer for introductory computer science. In an odd post, Google encourages folks to 'Get Started!' with the very product it's announcing will be discontinued as a Google product. The move leaves CS Prof David Wolber baffled. ' In the case of App Inventor,' writes Wolber, 'the decision affects more than just your typical early adopter techie. It hurts kids and schools, and outfits like Iridescent, who use App Inventor in their Technovation after-school programs for high school girls, and Youth Radio's Mobile Action Lab, which teaches app building to kids in Oakland California. You've hurt professors and K-12 educators who have developed new courses and curricula with App Inventor at the core. You've hurt universities who have redesigned their programs.' Wolber adds: 'Even looking at it from Google's perspective, I find the decision puzzling. App Inventor was a public relations dream. Democratizing app building, empowering kids, women, and underrepresented groups — this is good press for a company continually in the news for anti-trust and other far less appealing issues. And the cost-benefit of the cut was negligible-believe it or not, App Inventor was a small team of just 5+ employees! The Math doesn't make sense.'"

no surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

App Inventor was the Visual Basic of mobile dev. It allowed any untrained monkeys to churn out malware infested apps in 5 mins.

Open Sourcing != Pulling the plug.

[Anonymous Coward]

from TFA:

"With the winding down of Google Labs, Google will discontinue App Inventor as a Google product and will open source the code. Additionally, because of App Inventor’s success in the education space, we are exploring opportunities to support the educational use of App Inventor on an open source platform."

From the horses mouth...

[itchythebear]

Quoted from the original source at Google:

With the winding down of Google Labs, Google will discontinue App Inventor as a Google product and will open source the code. Additionally, because of App Inventor’s success in the education space, we are exploring opportunities to support the educational use of App Inventor on an open source platform.

source [googlelabs.com]

Re:It has been seen before

[oakgrove]

Not sure why you went on an off topic rant against Google's other products but in the case of App Inventor, Google has agreed to open source the whole thing. Which is great because as good as AI is, it leaves a bit to be desired. Honeycomb support in particular. Kudos to Google for not just taking their toys and going home but freely giving them away to benefit the rest of us and ultimately ensuring that App Inventor will always be an available tool no matter what happens behind the scenes.

Re:It has been seen before

[Hognoxious]

The summary is extremely misleading, to say the very least.

Whenever I see something submitted by theodp, I make a bet with myself about whether it'll consist of:

Taking something out of context
Wild exaggeration
Just plain old lies