Maybe disallowed but definitely not enforced. There’s an app called Pythonista that has allowed you to run arbitrary python code for years.

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trillic 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I haven't been in the App Store ecosystem in a while, but the restriction is generally on running new Machine Code, all machine code needs to be signed on iOS. Interpreters get around this limitation, only the interpreter code that is compiled AoT and signed is actually running.

This tracks as the reasoning behind a lack of other browser engines, nobody can get comparable performance without a JIT, which would be compiling net new machine code that wasn't shipped with the binary.

The best way to handle this I would imagine within the current bounds of Apple's restrictions would be WASM.

	▲	wat10000 13 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Apps don't get removed for breaking that rule, though, because they can't break it in the first place. The system won't allow you to mark a freshly written page as executable.

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_moof 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Years ago I watched a bunch of people stop an apartment building from being built. They did this by employing a legal concern that they didn't actually care about, but that they knew would stop the development in its tracks. It worked.

That was the day I realized that for a lot of people, rules aren't actually rules. They're tools that they can use to stop something they don't like, no matter what the rule is really about.

I think this is a disgusting attitude, but it's unfortunately the way a lot of people operate.

So it might be that Apple has this "no external code" rule to stop things they don't like, and the category of "things Apple doesn't like" doesn't actually include every app that runs external code. It includes a lot of them, but for whatever reason Apple chose not to codify the details. Crummy if true, but I wouldn't be surprised. Every regulator I've ever dealt with leaves themselves an "I know it when I see it" escape hatch that lets them ban whatever they want.

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awakeasleep 12 hours ago | parent [-]

If you read the actual rule the exceptions are relatively well defined. Stuff like pythonista falls into their educational/coding app exception as they define it

	▲	NotPractical 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The entire rule is as follows: Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not read or write data outside the designated container area, nor may they download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app, including other apps. Educational apps designed to teach, develop, or allow students to test executable code may, in limited circumstances, download code provided that such code is not used for other purposes. Such apps must make the source code provided by the app completely viewable and editable by the user. There are not "exceptions"; there is one exception, and that's educational apps. But it's unclear why Pythonista is educational while the apps mentioned in the article are not. In fact, Pythonista is even listed in the "Productivity" section in the App Store.