Publishing an X11 based application to the App Store

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jan 20, 2021, at 18:37, filhol wrote:

> On 21 Jan 2021, at 01:19, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
> 
>> Another worthwhile consideration for you or anyone else thinking of attempting this is whether it is appropriate to bundle an X11 server with your app. What if the user already uses other X11 apps with another X11 server, like the one from MacPorts or the one from Xquartz.org? Will they interfere with one another?
>> 
>> If you want to distribute a binary of your app that uses X11, I might suggest bundling all of the third-party libraries that you link with, including X11 libraries, but don't bundle an X11 server. Require the user to provide their own. Then they're in charge of which one to use and making sure its launchd plist is loaded properly.
> 
> Okay but I would be very surprised if this would be comply the App Store regulation.
> I do not want to enter a new fight with even less chance of success than the following one.
> A colleague and I we fought 2 months for publishing a scientific C++ app not developped with Xcode and with an embedded Python inside the bundle.
> The ultimate fight was that Apple discovered a private API within the thousands of APIs of the official Python distribution and rejected the app. This private API “which can ruin the user experience” (!!!!) contains only one line of code and is never used. We argued with the Resolution Center and finally we tried to reduce the number of APIs (which is somewhat risky). The app was accepted … today ! Two months of efforts, many trial and errors … It's Okay because I'm retired and my time doesn't cost anything!
> 
> All the best and thank you for your explanations.

Right, again, I don't know if you can distribute an X11-based app on the app store. I was referring more to if you want to distribute a binary at all, for example as a download from your web site.

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