Comments on: Apple’s API Advantage

By: Moscho’s Blog » Blog Archive » Finding a worm in the Apple? Secret APIs in Mac OS X

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 18:52:14 +0000

[...] shareware developer and volunteer Mozilla contributor Robert Accettura responded to Hyatt’s defense with skepticism. "Should Apple be deciding what other software [...]

By: Jim Battle

Jim Battle — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:53:21 +0000

It could be a nefarious plot, but I think there could be a more benign explanation.

Commercial products, unlike Firefox, have tough schedules they must meet. Sometimes developers will take a shortcut to get the job done, or things that should be done before release don’t get done. That could be the case here. Say the developer wants to add a certain function, but it isn’t convenient from the public APIs. Well, just as a place holder, he sneaks in the use of some undocumented calls, fully intending to “do it right” later, but later never comes. Or say there is no way to do it, so a new API is created and used, but the bureaucratic steps to make that API a public API never happens, due to a lack of time.

By: Tristan Nitot

Tristan Nitot — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:44:24 +0000

Manual trackback: http://standblog.org/blog/post.....idden-APIs

By: Cyrille Berger

Cyrille Berger — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:59:55 +0000

It’s also worth noting that the EU don’t act if they don’t receive a complaint. For Microsoft, in the Windows Media Player case, they act after a complaint of Real Network, and in the recent case, it was after a complaint of Opera.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:43:31 +0000

“It’s worth reflecting that if Microsoft was doing this, they’d likely be hauled before a judge…”

Microsoft is a monopoly in the OS browser space, Apple is not. While I wish Apple would not keep secrets related to their code that is part of any Open Source endeavors, this doesn’t even register on the “doing evil” scale compared to Microsoft so making this comparison is misleading. Time for a reality check.

Bill.

By: Louis Wheeler

Louis Wheeler — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:01:48 +0000

You seem to be making the assumption that those API’s will never be documented.

Apple says that it intends to release A new version of Safari with Webkit 3.0 which is reported to be extremely fast. Very often, the FOSS developers express paranoia about Apple using open source.

Do you remember the fuss because the FOSS people thought that the last version of webkit, which is built on open source, was going to forever be locked up inside Apple. A few weeks later, Apple released it.

Did the endless complains cause Apple to release it earlier than usual? I doubt it. Apple is not obligated to give the FOSS anything, nor can FOSS set Apple’s timetables.
So, be patient.