Apple's App Store Guidelines Now Allow Executable Code in Educational Apps and Developer Tools (macstories.net)

An anonymous reader writes: Apple made several changes to the App Store Review Guidelines during WWDC last week, including an easing of the prohibition against downloading and executing code on an iOS device. The ban on executable code remains intact, but rule 2.5.2 now also provides that: "Apps designed to teach, develop, or test executable code may, in limited circumstances, download code provided that such code is not used for other purposes. Such apps must make the source code provided by the Application completely viewable and editable by the user.

Comments

Re:What does Apple not allow?

[serviscope_minor]

Deeply stupid and annoying is what Apple's rules are.

You're not allowed an interpreter in your app for which you can download or just write code. Technically yes, game of life is banned. In practice unless they catch you you're fine.

The fucking huge massive exception is JavaScript in a web view of some sort. And a web view can be connected to your app via some API so. And it can be hidden. So what everyone who wants downloadable code does is embed a hidden JS interpreter: completely legal under the rules nd you won't get booted for it.

So, it doesn't remove downlaodable code, it just makes it shitty and annoying because instead of embedding a nice simple LUA interpreter which gives identical results on all platforms you have to use two perverse and stupid APIs on different platforms if you want portability AND deal with any other platform differences that happen to come up in the JS interpreters.

Because fuck you, that's why.