iOS?

zeuner
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Re: iOS?

by zeuner » Post

I proposed a way of getting started with running on iOS without App Stores and Jailbreaks, and instead of any (even scathing) criticism of my proposal, the thread just gets flooded with talks about App Stores and Jailbreaks. It's really a pity.

Couldn't we just focus on the technical side and discuss what might be issues when porting Minetest to iOS platforms? I mean, when someone takes the result and does something in violation with license terms with it, then he'll know he'll be risking legal troubles. But for everyone else, this would just be one more option to do something great with the Minetest platform.

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Re: iOS?

by sfan5 » Post

As someone who has ported Minetest to run on iOS the challenges are as follows:
  • same OS integration as on Android: asset extraction, text input, rendering setup
  • Fixing some bugs and missing features with Irrlicht's port
  • Getting all the libraries built
  • Integrating the entire source with Xcode (could probably be avoided)
The biggest non-technical issue here is ownership of an Apple computer.
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Re: iOS?

by sorcerykid » Post

Kudos to sfan5 for taking the time to document the technical difficulties with porting to iOS. That is extremely insightful.

zeuner
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Re: iOS?

by zeuner » Post

v-rob wrote:
Sun Feb 21, 2021 02:12
sorcerykid wrote:
Sat Feb 20, 2021 19:10
I'm curious if anybody the reason for this? There's nothing in the LGPL 2.1 License Agreement that forbids releasing open-source software on iOS, as long as the source code is provided free of charge.
AFAIK, the iOS App Store itself refuses to allow LGPL, not vice-versa, so it's out of our hands.
Are there any up-to-date sources for this being the case?

There is a lot of information to be found on why different open source licenses (including LGPL) won't work on the App Store. But these are about 10 years old and refer to a very old App Store ToC document. The ToC have changed a lot since then.

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Re: iOS?

by c56 » Post

zeuner wrote:
Sat Mar 20, 2021 01:51
v-rob wrote:
Sun Feb 21, 2021 02:12
sorcerykid wrote:
Sat Feb 20, 2021 19:10
I'm curious if anybody the reason for this? There's nothing in the LGPL 2.1 License Agreement that forbids releasing open-source software on iOS, as long as the source code is provided free of charge.
AFAIK, the iOS App Store itself refuses to allow LGPL, not vice-versa, so it's out of our hands.
Are there any up-to-date sources for this being the case?

There is a lot of information to be found on why different open source licenses (including LGPL) won't work on the App Store. But these are about 10 years old and refer to a very old App Store ToC document. The ToC have changed a lot since then.
here are the terms of service https://developer.apple.com/support/terms/
if you mean terms of service
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zeuner
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Re: iOS?

by zeuner » Post

c56 wrote:
Sat Jun 26, 2021 20:51
zeuner wrote:
Sat Mar 20, 2021 01:51
v-rob wrote:
Sun Feb 21, 2021 02:12


AFAIK, the iOS App Store itself refuses to allow LGPL, not vice-versa, so it's out of our hands.
Are there any up-to-date sources for this being the case?

There is a lot of information to be found on why different open source licenses (including LGPL) won't work on the App Store. But these are about 10 years old and refer to a very old App Store ToC document. The ToC have changed a lot since then.
here are the terms of service https://developer.apple.com/support/terms/
if you mean terms of service
AFAIK, the iOS App store terms never explicitly said they disallow LGPL-licensed code. But the terms and the LGPL license requirements have been interpreted to be incompatible, e.g. here: [1]. However, the sources that provide in-depth explanations on why there would be a legal incompatibility were written some while ago, when older terms were in place. So I'm wondering whether they still apply.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3341852

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Re: iOS?

by c56 » Post

zeuner wrote:
Tue Mar 07, 2023 18:43
c56 wrote:
Sat Jun 26, 2021 20:51
zeuner wrote:
Sat Mar 20, 2021 01:51


Are there any up-to-date sources for this being the case?

There is a lot of information to be found on why different open source licenses (including LGPL) won't work on the App Store. But these are about 10 years old and refer to a very old App Store ToC document. The ToC have changed a lot since then.
here are the terms of service https://developer.apple.com/support/terms/
if you mean terms of service
AFAIK, the iOS App store terms never explicitly said they disallow LGPL-licensed code. But the terms and the LGPL license requirements have been interpreted to be incompatible, e.g. here: [1]. However, the sources that provide in-depth explanations on why there would be a legal incompatibility were written some while ago, when older terms were in place. So I'm wondering whether they still apply.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3341852
it seems like the discussion is about a library not a application so i really do not know
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zeuner
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Re: iOS?

by zeuner » Post

A less controversial way to get started might be to target WebAssemby/emScripten, allowing iOS users to participate from a web browser.

There is already Minetest-WASM ([1]). It can also run on mobile devices (tested using the Fennec Browser on Android), but it would be much more useful if the Android native version with controls that don't expect a keyboard would be ported to WebAssembly (suggested here: [2]).

Of course, input from iOS users would be very useful here since there might be specific things to consider here.

With iOS users being able to at least participate in Minetest, maybe there can also be some more traction towards a native version.

[1] https://github.com/paradust7/minetest-wasm
[2] https://github.com/paradust7/minetest-wasm/issues/25

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Re: iOS?

by Nininik » Post

What about launching a petition to the app store so that they accept minetest
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Re: iOS?

by mmmsued » Post

Some educational material (german): multimediamobile.de and minetest-modding.weebly.com

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Re: iOS?

by rubenwardy » Post

mmmsued wrote:
Thu Mar 07, 2024 15:47
Maybe this gives a little hope: New options for distributing iOS apps from alternative app marketplaces
This only applies to the EU, and Apple is maliciously complying - charging app devs $0.10 per install
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Re: iOS?

by mmmsued » Post

rubenwardy wrote:
Thu Mar 07, 2024 16:34
mmmsued wrote:
Thu Mar 07, 2024 15:47
Maybe this gives a little hope: New options for distributing iOS apps from alternative app marketplaces
This only applies to the EU, and Apple is maliciously complying - charging app devs $0.10 per install
Yes, only EU - I wanted to mention it, but unfortunately I forgot. At least something is happening, who would have even thought that was possible some time ago ...
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Re: iOS?

by Nininik » Post

maybe, maybe we might do a petition for apple to accept open source? I mean, it is for the greater good of open source.
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