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Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

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Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#51

Post by ben1040 »

jakewalker wrote: post #37
tomjen3 wrote: post #32

Does anybody have the links to the actual rules, since this press release, through welcome, is extremely light on details. If not, can we please not post something this light on content to HN in the future? Maybe instead wait for somebody who knows something to blog about it? I would hate for this to become a place to just post press releases.

https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guid... You need to be an iOS Developer to login. Unclear if it's under NDA or not, but I'm sure this document will leak out eventually. There are 22 categories of potential violations, and most rules end in "will be rejected."

You know, while Apple's rejections seemed to be arbitrary at times, I was surprised that my reaction to reading this was that the vast majority of these rules are pretty sensible. A lot of them come down to "your app must not crash or be full of bugs, it must do what it says it does, and it cannot be malicious." For all the hoopla, I expected this list would read like a crazy list of charges handed down by a kangaroo court.

The thing on here which I really strongly disagree with is the ban on making apps that replicate functionality shipped with the phone. If users want an alternate mail client that supports IMAP IDLE for example, it should be up to the user to download that.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#53

Post by kylechafin »

Now that MonoTouch appears to be in the clear on iOS...

It sounds like C# is going to be a viable language for 3 major mobile platforms this Fall. Windows Phone 7 supports C# by default. MonoTouch brings it to iOS and MonoDroid takes it to Android.

It sounds like there will be some really neat opportunities to reuse C# libraries across all three platforms, while dropping a native platform UI on top of them.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#55

Post by loewenskind »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #44
loewenskind wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you develop for? Don't say Android unless you mean rooted Android. In which case you could also develop for jail-broken iOS. EDIT: As explained below, my point isn't that Android isn't open today but that it's their (or the carrier's) platform.

What are you talking about? Target the Dalvik VM and Google doesn't care what you do, what language you do it in, or what tools you use to build it. Sure there are some parts of the system that you can't access without root privileges, but that's an entirely different issue.

But it's their platform. Maybe they don't care today but how do you know they, or the carriers wont care tomorrow? That risk seems at least as big as Apple going back on today's announcement (for the record, I would view both small).

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#56

Post by mquander »

lurch_mojoff wrote: post #27
jacquesm wrote: post #21

So, how about all those people that were supporting apples' right to run their app store the way they see fit and who said that there is no point complaining about it? I think this proves that complaining about stuff like this is well worth the effort, assuming that that - and not some backroom pressure - is what caused them to back off. They mention it in their release so I figure it must have been a major factor. e…

The thing is most of the complaining about this was not the constructive "hey, Apple have you considered so-and-so", but rather the whiny "waaaa... Apple are Nazis" kind. And as you point out there is no evidence that it is the complaining that made Apple reconsider. It could very well be something entirely different, e.g. the FTC probe.

What kind of constructive arguments, exactly, need to be marshaled against it? "Hey, Apple, have you considered that a blanket ban on third-party development tools fucks over developers who use third-party tools?" Why, yes, I suspect that they did consider that.

It's not like there is some equal subtle list of pros and cons that need to be weighed, here.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#58

Post by togasystems »

Hopefully the fulfill this promise of being more open. They accidentally leaked financial records of many app developers to their competitors. Nothing has been said about this.

Link to story: http://togapit.com/apple-leaks-sensitive-developer-data/

On another note, I believe they are relaxing the rules due to epic's involvement. A lot of there code uses Lua.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#59

Post by lurch_mojoff »

jacquesm wrote: post #29
lurch_mojoff wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is most of the complaining about this was not the constructive "hey, Apple have you considered so-and-so", but rather the whiny "waaaa... Apple are Nazis" kind. And as you point out there is no evidence that it is the complaining that made Apple reconsider. It could very well be something entirely different, e.g. the FTC probe.

Plenty of it was very constructive, it pointed out why the choice of tools should be left to the developer and how not relaxing this restriction would make it easier for people to develop for android than for the Iphone. If the FTC probe (or the rise of android) has anything to do with it then I doubt we'll ever know, but I'm all for taking this on face value and believing them when they publicly admit to listening t…

Well, it looked plenty for very small values of plenty, from where I stand. There were some very well reasoned arguments against the restriction - arguments like the fact that many libraries and game engines require the flexibility that scripting allows; or like the fact that there are languages and environments that are more conducive of tackling certain types of problems. Those, however were drowned in a sea of petty complaints like "I know language XYZ and now Apple are making me learn their sucky ObjC" or "Apple just want to prevent you from porting your app to a competing platform, them Nazis", or dramatic pronouncements that Apple have turned their back on the hacker crowd and thus are stifling innovation.

And I'm not saying we shouldn't believe Apple when they say they've listened to the developer community. I am saying that such decisions usually factor in a broader spectrum of reasons. At the very least, there are may examples of Apple not budging on issues, regardless of the huge ruckus.

I'm also not saying we shouldn't complain. I am saying we should cut on the drama, try to understand Apple's rationale for their decisions, and figure out a way to meet them midway. Or as Apple say in the intro to the App Store Review Guidelines - "If it sounds like we're control freaks, well, maybe it's because we're so committed to our users and making sure they have a quality experience with our products. Just like almost all of you are too."

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