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by arcanemachiner 171 days ago
Of course. It's just a coincidence that they're placing onerous restrictions on competi- I mean alternative browser engines. Restrictions which, of course, they're not obliged to follow themselves.

I am sure that Apple will make no other efforts to impede others from unwalling the garden. That would be completely ridiculous, and frankly, un-Apple-esque.
2 comments
concinds 171 days ago
Both Chrome and Firefox are already compliant, so I don't see it as onerous, but the full context of the list is indeed an extremely loud and clear "FUCK YOU, WE OWN YOU" to regulators and other browser vendors.
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dagmx 170 days ago
Which of the restrictions do you feel they don’t abide by? It looks like they meet all their own restrictions
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bangaladore 170 days ago
> Use memory-safe programming languages, or features that improve memory safety within other languages, within the alternative web browser engine at a minimum for all code that processes web content;

There is absolutely zero way to satisfy the latter part here. It's at best non-enforceable. If I'm using C++ and use std::span instead of a c-style array, is that good enough?

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dagmx 170 days ago
Why not? The wording is “features that improve memory safety”

It doesn’t say that it needs to provide absolute memory safety. Based on the linked WebKit guidelines, it seems like they meet the criteria.

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bangaladore 170 days ago
That's the commenter, not from the Apple page as far as I can tell.

My point is the requirement is too broad. It cannot be meaningfully enforced.

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dagmx 170 days ago
It’s literally from their requirements page

https://developer.apple.com/support/alternative-browser-engi...

You have to request explicit permission to be able to be a browser on iOS. You can’t just ship an app. I assume part of that process is that you specifically demonstrate that you try your best to use best safety practices.

Again, it’s also not absolute safety. It’s just due diligence review.

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bangaladore 170 days ago
Sorry if I wasn't clear. I meant the WebKit guidelines were from the commenter, not from the apple page.

> or features that improve memory safety within other languages, within the alternative web browser engine at a minimum for all code that processes web content;

This can't be analyzed in any real way, so its just another way that Apple will restrict web engines and claim it was due to "not enough use of memory safety language features"

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