tequila bomb

Apple Relaxes iOS Interpreted Code Clause…

Under the radar of this week’s WWDC news is a small but very significant change to the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement. The change is in the oft-controversial section 3.3.2. Here is the last sentence of the old copy:

No interpreted code may be downloaded or used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Documented APIs and built-in interpreter(s).

Here is the new copy:

Unless otherwise approved by Apple in writing, no interpreted code may be downloaded or used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Documented APIs and built-in interpreter(s). Notwithstanding the foregoing, with Apple’s prior written consent, an Application may use embedded interpreted code in a limited way if such use is solely for providing minor features or functionality that are consistent with the intended and advertised purpose of the Application.

While explicit approval from Apple is still required, these new terms seem to acknowledge that there’s a difference between an app that happens to have non-compiled code, and a meta-platform.

Bingo! The upshot of this is that respected, successful systems which have shown themselves able to be the framework, or foundation of quality products are somthing Apple do want in the App Store.

Unity, for example.

I suspect we’ll now see more Scratch based apps also.