[Openmcl-devel] Apple To Require Sandboxing For Mac App Store Apps - Slashdot

[Andrew Shalit]

On Nov 5, 2011, at 9:19 PM, Alexander Repenning wrote:

> 
> On Nov 5, 2011, at 12:56 PM, Andrew Shalit wrote:
> 
>> On Nov 5, 2011, at 1:45 PM, Andrew Shalit <alms at clozure.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> We've been looking into this.
>>> 
>>> As far as we've seen, there shouldn't be an issue with CCL-based apps per se.  On the other hand, the entitlements that are available are very limited, so there are many kinds of apps that you wouldn't be able to sell, regardless of what programming language they were written in.  For example, sandboxed apps can only access individual files that are selected by the user with the standard Open dialog; there is no way to gain read or read/write access to a whole folder of files, even if the user chooses the folder.  There is no way to access files in your home directory, or even know where your home directory is.  There is no way to do any generalized file system access.  So you can say goodbye to FTP programs, disk cleanup programs, alternate Finders, etc.
>> 
>> To say a bit more:
>> 
>> No development environments or website construction tools, because there is no way to access all the files in a project, not to mention linking in third-party libraries. 
>> 
>> It's really very limited. 
> 
> 
> Indeed. That would be a crazy constraint. Do you think this would even apply to a bundle? There would have to be some way to deal with folders.

I don't know how bundles are handled.

There is a private area where your app can read and write data to its hearts content.  The problem, though, is when you want to go beyond that area and get stuff from the user or just look elsewhere on disk.  If you are writing a programming tool for kids and the kids want to specify a folder of images to use for the avatars in their game, they can't do that.  They would need to select each avatar separately.  I don't think telling the kids to turn the folder into a bundle is a practical approach!

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