Zdziarski Pans SDK, Begins Working On a Solution

by Eric March on March 9, 2008 at 11:51 am

We’ve all heard various takes on the SDK from various sources, including my own rather rose-coloured painting, but the real bottom line is much better drawn by the experts who know the ins and outs of development for the iPhone and iPod touch — specifically, those entrenched in the jailbreak scene and who have no vested interest in the success of the SDK. To that end, one of the OGs of the iPhone hacking scene, author of iPhone Open Application Development and the ever-popular NES.app, and the rockinest geek you’ll ever meet, Jonathan Zdziarski has chimed in with his thoughts on the SDK — and it has convinced him that we need jailbreaking now more than ever.

Lets take a quick inventory of what Apple has accomplished with their SDK restrictions: 1. They have banned NullRiver’s installer app, as well as PXL and other installers, essentially locking out any third party distribution channels, which in my opinion is unfair competition. 2. They have guaranteed themselves full control over the accessories market by limiting the ability of third-party software from using the accessories interface. This means no GPS, keyboards, or other accessories without inking special deals with Apple. 3. They have secured themselves potential contracts with game manufacturers such as Nintendo by banning the many emulators already available for the iPhone, which are legal to use in many cases. It seems that now, more than ever, does the community need to support the open source tool chain and the ability to freely write and run software for the iPhone.

With that said, I have begun work (and made significant progress) in writing a patcher to build a set of compatibility libraries for the iPhone “open” source tool chain. Due to the dismay of many developers, it appears that Apple has restricted many important frameworks and features of the iPhone APIs that are available using the open toolchain. They’ve also made it clear that many types of applications, including my NES.app emulator, will not be welcome on iTunes. This compatibility library is targeted to allow people to continue building applications using the free, open tool chain so that they will run on the new iPhone firmware, once released.

Head on over to Jonathan’s blog for the full article. It’s an interesting read.

(Source: zdziarski.com)

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