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Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

david.dev

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Re: Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

#261

Post by rs23296008n1 »

At least Apple in this case actually provided a reason and list of APIs it is unhappy with. Armed with this you could either in theory or actuality chase through the maze of your app's dependencies. If this happened to me I'd then have a fighting chance of moving forward.

On the other hand, plenty of rejections I've anecdotally encountered are far less obvious and boil down to "we say so". Then you get banned while you still wonder. Google have done this a few times to others I know.

Strange times.

Re: Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

#262

Post by michaelmrose »

kjksf wrote: post #61
outworlder wrote: post #11

> I did write back to Apple trying to explain that I am using Electron and I can't really change any of these public-framework usage Yeah. So? By linking a framework that's using private APIs, this becomes your problem now. And Electron's problem, by extension. Go bug them, not Apple.

How short are memories. I remember how Microsoft was vilified for supposedly having secret Windows APIs that allowed Microsoft apps to get better performance. That was mostly made up and even if such APIs existed, any program could have used it. Even at the height of corporate arrogance Microsoft didn't dream of banning developers for using undocumented APIs. Apple seems intent on becoming more evil than Microsoft ev…

I think perhaps your memory is short if you think that this is worse than anything Microsoft ever did. Did we forget them funding, to the tune of millions of dollars, a felonious pump and dump scheme designed to defraud investors and destroy competitors with fraudulent lawsuits.

In a completely fair world a substantial number of executives would probably be in jail.

Re: Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

#263

Post by matt4077 »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #167
kjksf wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How short are memories. I remember how Microsoft was vilified for supposedly having secret Windows APIs that allowed Microsoft apps to get better performance. That was mostly made up and even if such APIs existed, any program could have used it. Even at the height of corporate arrogance Microsoft didn't dream of banning developers for using undocumented APIs. Apple seems intent on becoming more evil than Microsoft ev…

Apple wants to own the user's machine. They want to make it so their computers run only the software they approve. This is already true for iOS and it's only a matter of time before it also becomes true for macOS. It's the opposite of a free system. Giving up software freedom for "ease of use" seemed like a fine deal at first but then Apple started making decisions that don't quite align with what neither users not d…

Two stereotypes, each about a decade old. The rumors about the impending doom of freedom on MacOS is as old as Mac OS X. At this point, it's the slowest conspiracy in history.

People don't prefer MacOS because they are idiots who need "ease of use". There just is no other system developed with something approaching taste. Windows is for those people that put plastic covers over their furniture, ruining in the process of trying to protect it. Linux is for servers.

Re: Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

#264

Post by comex »

verroq wrote: post #186
biggestdecision wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because in the past, developers have obfuscated their use of private APIs rather than removing them. They are threatening to ban people who abuse the platform. They aren't going to ban anyone making an honest effort to eliminate their use of private APIs.

Where as on Windows there is no such issue.

As far as I know, the Microsoft Store has a similar-sounding check for "unsupported" APIs. I don't know the details though.

[1] https://tedwvc.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/finding-the-kernel32...

[2] https://github.com/golang/go/issues/21805

Re: Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

#266

Post by saagarjha »

drenvuk wrote: post #230
belltaco wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how the general consensus on here is against Microsoft's abuse of private APIs in Windows to help Word and DOS against WordPerfect and DrDOS, 20+ years ago. But Apple doing it right now in a much worse way is considered acceptable and defendable.

I don't think anyone here considers Apple's abuse of private APIs vs developers an ok thing. I will never subject myself to their app store if I can help it.

I'm fairly sure a number of App Store developers browse Hacker News.

Re: Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

#267

Post by saagarjha »

drewbug wrote: post #259
saagarjha wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would assume that a quick grep through your project for the symbols mentioned would tell you where the issue is.

what if the function calls are generated with macros or something?

grep the generated binary.

Re: Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

#268

Post by fooey »

lacker wrote: post #203
Razengan wrote: post #18

As a user I am glad. As is custom for all Electron discussions, someone must point out its flaws. Why the dislike, you ask? A picture is worth a thousand 64-bit words: https://imgur.com/a/XnCOHUD And mind you, GitHub Desktop is taking that much just for showing a mostly empty window! while Fork and Tower are displaying a lot more UI, more controls, trees, custom drawing, more text, and have overall more features (bes…

As a user I think Electron is great. It means many more apps have a Mac version. Compare to games, where Electron typically isn’t feasible, and observe how many games don’t have a Mac version. A little extra memory usage is fine by me. I can understand how people disagree, and that’s fine, just don’t use Electron apps. No need to ban them from the platform.

Yes, this is the thing.

The option isn't electron vs native, it's electron vs nothing.

Re: Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

#269

Post by saagarjha »

jolux wrote: post #256
heavyset_go wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is at the height of their arrogance towards developers. Yep. I've migrated away from macOS after using it for a decade over to Linux, and the developer experience is first class.

is it possible to write a GUI app that looks native in all common desktop environments yet?

Sure, if you write the GUI portions in the native toolkit and factor out the backend into your cross-platform language of choice.

Re: Electron apps cannot be submitted to the Apple store

#270

Post by saagarjha »

babesh wrote: post #180
thomascgalvin wrote: post #22

The basic concept isn't too disturbing; Apple packages private APIs that have no guaranteed behavior or expectation of support. If you depend on those APIs, it's very possible that your app will break in a future OS update. This is conceptually no different than calling something in the sun.* packages in Java. For years it was ok, and then ... it wasn't. This, however, is draconian: > Continuing to use or conceal non…

Also letting an app use those private APIs can be a security hole.

Ideally anything that is theoretically callable by an application should not pose a security hole. The only issue with private API is that it breaks from release to release.
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