Re: [TCLCORE] Mobile platforms

[Steve L. <st...@di...>]

On 31 Jul 2014, at 9:11 am, Kevin Walzer <kw...@co...> wrote:

>> On 7/30/14, 8:48 PM, Kevin Kenny wrote:
>> 
>> P.S.: What is the current situation with scripting languages on iOS? I
>> thought at one point that a difficulty of Tcl/Tk on iOS was that Apple
>> wouldn't approve apps that used unblessed scripting environments. (IIRC,
>> the politics revolved around an attempt to kill Flash-on-iStuff, but
>> Tcl, Python, Lua and suchlike were all caught in the crossfire.) Has
>> that situation been resolved? (Be gentle with me, I'm nearly 100%
>> ignorant of all things Apple.)
> 
> Interpreters per se aren't forbidden, but you can't download or install 
> code from outside the app. So you can package up and install a language 
> as an app, but can't extend the app with installations of outside stuff. 
> See http://pythonforios.com for an example.
> 
> I'm not sure how widely adopted a scripting language that will only run 
> in jailbroken iPhones will be, but becoming a registered Apple developer 
> and distributing apps through the app store takes some financial 
> investment ($100) and jumping through hoops. Perhaps that doesn't need 
> to be our concern.

The value proposition for Tcl on iOS is not as a general purpose interpreter, but for people wanting to deploy via Starkits (or other single file executable deployment).  As you mentioned, as long as the app can't execute arbitrary code it should get past the censors and not require a jailbreak, albeit I've yet to test this.

On 31 Jul 2014, at 9:11 am, Kevin Walzer <kw...@co...> wrote:

> What would be the best way to proceed here? I have no objection to 
> committing the submitter's patch per se; I simply don't have time to 
> take on regular support and testing for iOS myself.

I suggest incorporating into a branch, and put the onus on developers to integrate it within their app.

I can put my hand up for regular testing (where regular isn't frequent) but I'd hope the original author might be willing to maintain the patches.

Steve