iOS Any risk in developing interpreter for iOS?

[OmegaRace]

Hi all,

I need an interpreter similar to Lisp for my personal use, and I see no ethical reason to not supply it to other people thru the App Store. But what is Apple's current disposition about people who want to do that? I thought I heard some time ago that they had become more open-minded? My interpreter would not allow much of anything that is fancy.

Thanks.

 

[firewood]

There are at least a half dozen Basic interpreters already in the App store, since they loosened up their rules over a year ago. Many games in the App store include an embedded Lua or Mono interpreter. Apple's current big prohibition is not allowing any downloaded code (except Javascript for a UIWebView) from being run in any interpreter in an iOS app. You have to include the interpreted code with the app as submitted for review, or have the user type their own code into the app.

 

[OmegaRace]

There are at least a half dozen Basic interpreters already in the App store, since they loosened up their rules over a year ago. Many games in the App store include an embedded Lua or Mono interpreter. Apple's current big prohibition is not allowing any downloaded code (except Javascript for a UIWebView) from being run in any interpreter in an iOS app. You have to include the interpreted code with the app as submitted for review, or have the user type their own code into the app.

Would it be OK for my app to allow people to open a source code file that's in an email attachment and review & run that? Thanks.

 

[chown33]

Would it be OK for my app to allow people to open a source code file that's in an email attachment and review & run that? Thanks.

Work it through. Email is downloaded. Email attachments are downloaded. Since downloaded code is prohibited, what's the answer?

If you want to quibble about the definition of 'downloaded', I suggest reading the actual Developer Agreement that spells out the use of interpreters and downloaded programs. It's not hard to understand, and since it's the actual agreement, it's what you will be bound by.

 

[firewood]

Would it be OK for my app to allow people to open a source code file that's in an email attachment and review & run that? Thanks.

If they print out the email attachment, and manually type in the source code from their printout, probably OK.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

If they print out the email attachment, and manually type in the source code from their printout, probably OK.

Why not just use copy and Paste between your app and mail?

I'd count pasting as manual typing.

 

[firewood]

Why not just use copy and Paste between your app and mail?

I'd count pasting as manual typing.

The risk is not in what you would count, but in what Apple's review team would count as "downloading".

 

[OmegaRace]

The risk is not in what you would count, but in what Apple's review team would count as "downloading".

I definitely can't disable cut and paste in the UITextView, because users might want to cut and paste between their interpreted programs.

I will definitely allow sending of code and the code's output...

The goal here is to just let people develop simple scripts while on the road e.g. mock-ups and prototypes. Say you're going off to an interview and you want to write out a heap sort algorithm to make sure you know it. That kind of thing...

 

[firewood]

I will definitely allow sending of code and the code's output...

Apple doesn't seem to have any rules against uploading interpreted code, only against "downloading", however they define that.