Re: GNUstep WebServices in iOS app?

[Ivan Vučica]

On Monday, June 24, 2013, Niels Grewe  wrote:
> Am 24.06.2013 um 18:08 schrieb Doug Warren <address@hidden>:
>
> > While I'm not qualified to discuss licensing issues, iOS does support frameworks and dylibs.  It's still bundled into the IPA however.
>
> Yes, of course, iOS is perfectly capable of dynamic linking, but it's not exposed for developers to use. Xcode doesn't support creating iOS frameworks out of the box and I have been told that using your own (as opposed to system-provided) dynamic libraries will get you a rejection from the App Store. If that's not the case, please point me to the correct resource, because I'd be very much interested in that.

That's what I heard as well.

I presume it has to do with signing; they *seem* to be resigning binaries (I may be wrong) and encrypting them, and they probably sign only the main binary. 

It is perfectly fine, however, to include scripted code (Python, _javascript_, etc.) that'll be interpreted at runtime. Can that be used to 'dynamically link' something? A creative person can do anything :-)

But, considering the case of VLC for iOS, that might not be everything: Apple, as the distributor (and (L)GPL affects primarily distributors), puts restrictions on redistribution. This is what might conflict with both LGPL and GPL: neither LGPL nor GPL are happy with restrictions upon redistribution. Also, one cannot easily deploy modified LGPLed binary, which goes against the spirit of the dynamic linking idea embodied in LGPL.

I'm not sure, but GPL might be more compatible with App Store than LGPL, as strange as it sounds: just shipping source code for the entire project is enough to give the user a way to deploy a modified version of the program, which should satisfy GPL requirements. (Although certain VLC developers disagreed.) With LGPL and shipping just code for the component -- I'm not sure. Maybe with object files.

Meh.

IANAL. :0)

-- 
Ivan Vučica - address@hidden