Chicago developer Jonathan "Wolf" Rentzsch has announced that he is putting his highly regarded independent developer conference, C4, to sleep after a four-year run. Though many of the developers who attended the conference are sad to see it go, Rentzsch told Ars that he no longer has the "spirit," given some recent moves by Apple regarding iPhone development and a seeming lack of concern from the developer community.

C4 was inspired by both the MacHack conference as well as a one-time event in Chicago called Evening At Adler. MacHack started in 1986 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and had been a favorite "unconference" of Mac developers for years. Sadly, it folded in 2005 after a brief attempt to change its focus away from the Mac and towards general programming and hacking.

Paul Kafasis, Wil Shipley, and Brent Simmons were part of the Evening at Adler panel

Evening At Adler began as a tech talk scheduled at the flagship North Michigan Ave Apple Store in Chicago by a developer known online as Drunken Batman. When Apple canceled his talk, DB transformed it into a panel talk with 10 well-known Mac developers held at Chicago's Adler Planetarium in October 2005. Mac developers and fans came from all over the Midwest to hear the likes of Wil Shipley, Gus Mueller, Brent Simmons, and Rentzsch himself discuss developing for the Mac platform.

With MacHack gone and with Evening At Adler proving that a single person could organize a small developer conference, Rentzsch launched C4 in the fall of 2006. Though its focus was on independent Mac developers, Rentzsch's unstated goal was to help advance the art of software engineering. "My hope was that developers would care primarily about user experience yet also be passionate about utilizing lingual and tooling advances," he wrote on his blog yesterday. "C4 was my attempt to push on the Apple community from the bottom-up."

The conference quickly became a favorite of Mac developers, many of whom traveled from all over the world to convene in Chicago for a weekend of programming presentations and socializing. Still, Rentzsch began to feel that his goals didn't align with the Mac—and now iPhone—developer community. Though the controversy over section 3.3.1 of the iPhone Developer Agreement was the straw that broke the camel's back, Rentzsch told Ars that it was merely a sign that his passions and those of the Mac developer community in general were not the same.

Section 3.3.1 was updated in the agreement with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 betas, and added a new requirement for iPhone developers to follow. It forbids using any third-party frameworks or translation layers, such as the ability of Flash CS5 to generate an iPhone-compatible binary. It also requires developers to use only the programming languages supported by Apple's native APIs and tools, namely Objective-C, C, or C++. While Apple's stated goal of ensuring app consistency and making sure developers are leveraging the latest features and APIs is arguably a good one, limiting developers to specific languages and development tools can definitely stifle innovation—and anger developers. It especially is at odds with advancing the state of the art in software engineering.

"I had passion for C4 because I have passion about software engineering," Rentzsch told Ars. "The community's reaction to 3.3.1 has stripped me of the passion necessary to put on C4 again." There were many vocal opponents of the move, including Ars. But according to Rentzsch, the reaction among the Mac faithful was mostly to just accept Apple's decision and, in some cases, even defend it. It was that reaction that "broke" his spirit.

The reaction to the cancellation of C4 has been mostly forlorn. "It's a huge loss to the Mac and iPhone development community," developer Jonathan Wight told Ars. "The sessions at C4 were extremely eclectic and the format was very conducive to meeting and socializing with your fellow developers."

Developers Craig Hockenberry and Paul Kafasis chat with Daring Fireball's John Gruber, Macworld's Dan Moren, and others at C4[2].

"I would not have been introduced to what is probably the greatest tech community in the world without C4," agreed Chris Cieslak. "I, the Mac and iPhone development world, and the Chicago tech community will miss C4 dearly."

Despite this, all were sympathetic to Rentzsch's decision and his reasoning behind it. "It's disappointing but understandable," Justin Williams told Ars. "I'm spending my C4 budget on a more open Android phone." Williams had developed two iPhone apps in the past, but ended up selling them to another developer and giving up on iPhone development due to Apple's handling of the App Store.

Delicious Library developer Wil Shipley was even more vociferous in his disappointment. "I'm really saddened to see the end of C4—it's the only indie conference I go to," he told Ars. "But, also, I’m saddened that Apple’s inconsistent and sometimes predatory App Store policies have discouraged one of the leaders of the indie community.

"Computer programmers are an especially libertarian group—we hate rules," Shipley explained. "The more rules Apple passes, the more the best programmers will leave, and the App Store will be full of tens of thousands of craplets from the gold rush programmers who programmed for Windows in the '80s," he said—a scary prognostication indeed.

Asked if he would consider picking up the mantle if the situation changed, Rentzsch said he had no plans for future conferences. He told Ars he just couldn't personally organize another conference, though he was confident that others might be inspired to organize their own.

"I would love to see the community set up and organize something to take its place," developer Colin Barrett told Ars. "I always felt like it was great to meet new people at C4, and there are so many new people in the Apple developer space these days."

Perhaps there is hope for the Mac developer community just yet.