[lstamour]

That last restriction (Safari requiring Xcode) isn’t always a limitation, though. Most CI platforms support Mac for publishing apps to that platform. For instance, GitHub: https://link.medium.com/63hjdbRBQgb and the Safari Web Extension command line parts are documented at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safariservices/saf...

Plus, you probably still need a Mac or a virtualized Mac (for automated tests, for example) because you’ll want to test your extension with Safari to ensure it works correctly.

[contriban]

I don’t get your comment. You just confirmed that, indeed, you need a specific computer to publish Safari extension, which isn’t the case for Firefox and Chrome extensions.

It is a limitation and it’s completely unnecessary for the end user.

If they’re so lazy to have a extensions-specific store they could at least offer an automatic wrapper that they run before publishing. I should not need XCode anywhere in my build to publish web extensions.

[lstamour]

But you need Safari to test the extension and Safari only has these extensions on a Mac? This is Apple’s way of avoiding their store getting cluttered with extensions that haven’t been tested to work on Safari. And yes, it also encourages developers to buy Macs. It can do both…

[saagarjha]

Have you ever looked at the Mac App Store? It is a literal dumpster fire.

[simondotau]

Can you explain what you mean by “literal dumpster fire” because this doesn’t align with my own experience. I’ve used it for purchasing a number of apps recently and I saw nothing eyebrow-raising. So long as the app you want has been uploaded to the store, it works perfectly fine.

[saagarjha]

The App Store is OK for the apps you know are on it and you search for them directly. But the rest of the store is just junk and scams, mostly.

[simondotau]

That’s true of pretty much any App Store that isn’t strictly invitation only. If you have an app follows Apple’s rules, it gets listed. Whereas Steam, by comparison, exercises editorial control over all of its content. The solution for a better Mac App Store would require Apple to be similarly dictatorial about content.

In that sense I agree with you; personally I think it was a mistake of Apple to have the Mac App Store so closely mirror the iOS App Store. They should have made it a more aggressively curated experience.

[herpes]

Could you give me an example of this please? I'd love to see what you're referring to.

[saagarjha]

Here's one article about it: https://www.howtogeek.com/281849/dont-be-fooled-the-mac-app-.... It's still pretty bad.

[brutal_chaos_]

I think the confusion here is need to own vs need to use.

[jfrunyon]

You need to own it in order to use it, and you need to use it in order to publish an extension for Safari. No confusion.

[tehbeard]

And before anyone claims u can just buy time on a cloud Mac... The cost for these and requirement from Apple for a min. period of 24 hours rental (something to do with Mac stadium?) mean you're funneled towards making the $2000 "investment" in a iDevice.

[lstamour]

If you can't afford to cross-browser test, and you don't have a Mac, I'm not sure why you're building an extension for a Mac-only browser then? Someone has to test it on a Mac, register for a certificate with Apple, etc. In the end, buying a Mac is the easy part?

And there are services like https://www.browserstack.com/docs/automate/selenium/add-plug... where you can basically rent Mac VMs on cheap monthly plans. Or GitHub Actions, as I pointed to earlier, has a free tier with free minutes on an automated Mac terminal.

[contriban]

I can’t believe what I’m reading.

On one side Apple says they now offer a compatible API, on the other side you’re telling me dropping a minimum of $800 on a computer (+$100 annually) to release a free extension is the easy part.

BrowserStack would be a good solution to test it, but unfortunately you also need a lot of preparation and XCode-specific knowledge to even get to a testable point, which you don’t get unless you own a Mac.

The browsers that Apple claims to be compatible with don’t require anything more than WinZip.