Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
WordPress for iPhone source now available
When I first heard that the iPhone WordPress app was open source I thought that was cool, but what about the SDK NDA (that's nondisclosure agreement, which means you won't share any information you're told with anyone)? It would seem that the fine folks at WordPress aren't too worried about that bothersome NDA because they are now sharing the source code of the app via their SVN server. It'll be interesting to see if Apple releases the legal hounds upon WordPress or not. If they do it means that Apple is still considering the iPhone SDK NDA serious business, but if they just let WordPress distribute the code I wage we'll see plenty of other devs posting iPhone code of their own.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matt said 2:17PM on 7-24-2008
Wordpress has such a big community of fans and users. If apple took them on, it would make a lot of people mad. It would be a stupid decision and just make apple look even more power hungry.
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Tom said 2:30PM on 7-24-2008
I think Wordpress is hoping an intrepid young hacker creates a Cydia version so that there is no more worries.
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1010 said 2:51PM on 7-24-2008
So what ?
I don't get this jailbreaking thing.
WordPress is a free iPhone app, what does installing it through Cyndia will add ?
Tom said 3:03PM on 7-24-2008
1010: Because of the Non Disclosure Agreement, Apple will likely remove Wordpress from the App Store as Wordpress made their application Open Source (which is not allowed per the NDA). Thus, if Apple decides to do so, another Open Source option (an app built for jailbroken phones) will be available, and encourage users to harmlessly jailbreak their phones.
Jim Danner said 2:44PM on 7-24-2008
What proprietary Apple information is in WordPress's code anyway? It's their code, not Apple's.
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moo083 said 2:47PM on 7-24-2008
Yes, but it was created with the iPhone SDK, and the iPhone SDK is required, so you can't distribute code....
Jim Danner said 3:49PM on 7-24-2008
Well I don't know how the SDK works exactly, but does it really write code for you? I'd think that the creativity (the original work) in this code is really by WordPress, so Apple can't have any say over that.
I don't get what you mean by "and the iPhone SDK is required". Required for what?
Perhaps Apple has written in the NDA that the source code of apps made with the help of the SDK must remain secret. That's ridiculous and it will not stand up in court. You can't legally demand that someone else keeps his creative product a secret.
Brad Larson said 4:33PM on 7-24-2008
You need to use Apple's APIs in your code for an iPhone application. By releasing your source code you reveal those API objects and calls, thus violating the terms of the NDA.
I'm waiting to see how this plays out. If they have no problems with Apple over this, then I might be free to finally release the code to Molecules.
flipmo said 2:45PM on 7-24-2008
Maybe this will open up an opportunity for Adium: http://trac.adiumx.com/wiki/AdiumForiPhone
I really want to see Adium + the notification system by Apple on my iPhone
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mannymix said 2:46PM on 7-24-2008
Wordpress isnt the first one to be open source though, the barcode decoder app creator has allowed his source to be downloaded via his website too. So it will be interesting to see what happens to both of them
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Nate said 2:47PM on 7-24-2008
I'm glad that someone's taking the risk. I hope to see other apps go ahead and distribute their code to the community.
I think it's interesting for Wordpress to wage it's bet on it's community to protect them from legal persecution.
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John said 2:50PM on 7-24-2008
BoxOffice was actually the first to open source their iPhone app, I believe. Its source has been available here for a few weeks: http://code.google.com/p/metasyntactic/
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Fritz Laurel said 3:23PM on 7-24-2008
Looks like it's no longer there...
Fritz Laurel said 3:29PM on 7-24-2008
Wait -- maybe it is. It's just not setup as a download.
CaptSaltyJack said 3:01PM on 7-24-2008
Whoosh! Downloaded before it gets locked down by Apple lawyers. ;)
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Aron T said 3:46PM on 7-24-2008
Effing NDA...
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alex said 3:57PM on 7-24-2008
@moo083: They are publishing their source code. The SDK is used (among other) to create the binaries from the source code and not the source code itself. No reason one should not be able to distribute source code.
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Dusty Chalk said 4:41PM on 7-24-2008
I'm not sure I understand -- how does sharing the source code for one's open source app violate the Apple NDA? They're not redistributing the SDK, they're not exposing any non-public API's (the keyword here being non-public -- I.E. you can discuss, utilize, and publish the resulting code of, anything that is visible via searching site:apple.com... presumably). In fact, since the sign-up process is automatic, I would think that anything that's available on the apple.com site -- even signed in -- is fair game.
I'm not a lawyer, though, so don't mistake this for legal advice. Just asking questions.
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sholt said 9:14AM on 7-25-2008
> They're not redistributing the SDK, they're not exposing any non-public API's
iPhone API's are not currently public.
Nobody said 6:44PM on 7-24-2008
Why they will care when Telefónica de España is sharing IPHONE source code from 3 months ago?
Ok, Telefónica is a great Apple partner but is sharing many things including frameworks in openmovil forum, when other developers have to be closed to the NDA.
Telefónica is sharing as an example an MMS application, that show you that they plan to bill for the data and for the mms, they bill twice for an MMS.
But it's ok, they will not be demanded by Apple.
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