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I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this way - with a few exceptions, like SMS and phone cal handling, you can write an app to do anything on the iPhone if
by eddieroger 9y ago
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this way - with a few exceptions, like SMS and phone cal handling, you can write an app to do anything on the iPhone if you're so inclined. There are always going to be the Power Users who want more out of the system but won't code, but my experience with my iPhone has been that if I ever ran up against a wall I wanted changed, I could write an app to do so, even if I didn't publish to the store.
- wolfgke 9y ago> you can write an app to do anything on the iPhone if you're so inclined. Is it now possible to allocate executable memory (e.g. for development apps or writing a JIT compiler)? Is it now possible to write apps that have root permissions?
- eddieroger 9y agoWhy would I want an app, even one I write, to have root permissions? Do you operate your computer as root all the time? I know I don't, if for no other reasons than I sometimes make mistakes, and I'd to write an app that can wipe out my phone just because I made a mistake.
- wolfgke 9y ago> Do you operate your computer as root all the time? Not all the time, but sometimes - both under GNU/Linux and Windows - I want to/have to run an application with root/admin permissions.
- Retric 9y agoThat's often a sign of poor OS design not really a goal on it's own.
- wolfgke 9y agoYou are not a hacker. :-(
- CamperBob2 9y agoThere's definitely a vanishingly-small proportion of hackers around here, relative to the reputation the site tries to encourage. Lots of people who might be branded "prescriptive social engineers," but not many hackers.
- Retric 9y agoAnd you are probably not an engineer. As a passenger I suspect you would expect different standards from an Aircraft autopilot than a cellphone. But, there is a lot to be learned from system that just work.
- wolfgke 9y ago> But, there is a lot to be learned from system that just work. From the hacker ethics by Stephen Levy: > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hacker_ethic&oldid=783532696#The_hacker_ethics https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hacker_ethic&oldi... "Access to computers—and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works—should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative! Levy is recounting hackers' abilities to learn and build upon pre-existing ideas and systems. He believes that access gives hackers the opportunity to take things apart, fix, or improve upon them and to learn and understand how they work. This gives them the knowledge to create new and even more interesting things. Access aids the expansion of technology."
- sigjuice 9y agoWhat are some examples of applications that you typically run as root?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- wolfgke 9y agoBesides the usual suspects that you run as root because of the "limitations" of the OS, like installing applications/binaries etc.: All the kinds of debugging/tinkering tools needing special permissions, such as Wireshark, attaching a debugger to a running process, tools for generating and handling raw network frames (a capability that I need surprisingly often), ... This is what spontaneously comes to my mind. But if I reflected for some time probably more things would come to my mind.
- dkersten 9y agoThese are the kinds of tasks that I would expect to require root access. I don't want some random rogue application sniffing my network packets or attaching debuggers to other processes. While peoples use cases certainly vary, I've also never needed to or cared to do these things on my phone, so lack of root hasn't bothered me. YMMV.
- wolfgke 9y ago> I've also never needed to or cared to do these things on my phone, so lack of root hasn't bothered me. You are not a hacker.
- dkersten 9y agoThere are many definitions of hacker and sniffing packets on your phone or attaching debuggers to apps on your phone are only one narrow definition of many.
- 9y ago
- jakobegger 9y agoIf you want to do these things, you need to jailbreak it. But the iPhone is probably the wrong phone for you if you are into these kinds of things. The iPhone offers a safe environment for you to play in. Root access is fundamentally incompatible with that idea. If you want a device that lets you shoot yourself in the foot, get something else.
- kbutler 9y agoYou can make changes for yourself, but you can't effectively make changes for others. You can improve your immediate environment, but you can't improve the world for everybody.
- Twisell 9y agoIs there anything that would prevent someone to clone your project and then compile and install it on he's own device?
- bluejekyll 9y agoThis is a great question. I'm actually surprised that there isn't a tool available for doing this easily today...
- jbg_ 9y agoI'm not sure if you were being sarcastic, but there is: it's called Xcode.
- bluejekyll 9y agoLOL! I meant more like a one click thing for regular users to use, not people familiar with development tools.
- eddieroger 9y agoI can publish an app, and then I can make the world better for other people. The comment I replied to was focused on one user's experience, so I answered it similarly. Look at email clients - Apple ships one, but the market suggested that people wanted alternatives, and we have them. The world was made better for everybody.
- visarga 9y agoIf you want to grab the system audio stream to apply DSP effects such as dynamic compression on it, is it allowed by XCode? Last time I checked it was not allowed, presumably because a user could rip music from iTunes to mp3 - yet by banning it they are limiting interesting audio effect apps.