I don't hate objective c / XCode nearly enough to pursue a solution like this even though I like and appreciate ruby. In my opinion the only way this would be the future is if apple started providing support for it.
Oddly, I didn't run away from Objective-C and Xcode screaming. But I have run screaming away from Ruby on Rails a number of times. I do acknowledge that this is likely a personal shortcoming though.
This fear of learning a new tool, language or API boggles my mind.<p>The insight alone from seeing a new corner of the programming world is worth biting the bullet and learning something new.
I think one of the most interesting points about the presentation is the BubbleWrap libraries. The greatest pain I've felt with iOS development are some of the terrible APIs. The amount of ceremony needed to Parse JSON from a web based API request or to access the camera is almost absurd.
Storyboards are just XML. I wonder if it'd be possible to write an HTML/JS-based Storyboard builder and viewer? I wonder if it'd be possible to somehow get the iOS emulator software working "in the cloud", similar to how maybe browserling.com does their VNC-ish stuff? Wish these two things in place, I don't think it'd be too outlandish to be able to replace xcode with a more Linux SSH-based workflow for iOS dev, in the same vein as cloud9 IDE or something. I personally know that I'd love to get back to working from my Windows machine and just editing my code with Eclipse over SFTP, with my code on my linux vps. I have not turned on my $2000 Windows gaming rig in like a month since I started getting into iphone dev. :(
This actually tracks w/ my experiences using MacRuby.<p>The REPL is kind of cool, but then he doesn't remember how to set the label text. There's no statement completion or help for him in the console, so he gives up. He's stuck. He'll spend way more time reading docs and figuring out Cocoa method sigs than just learning the XCode toolset and discovering methods in the editor.<p>That said, overall it's a good talk and I applaud his efforts at explaining the tool - I just think it's not clear RubyMotion is a net positive in terms of productivity.
I refuse to hammer this nail with a hammer. I will use a screwdriver. I will go through great difficulties if need be, so that I can keep on using a screwdriver.
The challenge isn't Xcode or Objective-C but rather the Cocoa Touch API. At the end of the day you still need to contend with the API, no matter which framework you use.