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> Apparently they've integrated the open file dialog with their access control, so any such dialog will automatically permit the app to access the target file/f

> Apparently they've integrated the open file dialog with their access control, so any such dialog will automatically permit the app to access the target file/folder. The pop-ups only appear when an app wants to access specific folders in the background. This is brilliant and would stop e.g. malware which encrypts documents or nosy apps in their tracks! This pattern is called "powerbox", an idea from object capability security. I'm sure there are plenty of other usability improvements in there if you study those ideas (more so the more important security is to your application). Applying it to the web is getting easier with Mark Miller's JS standardisation work and (also his) https://agoric.com/ https://agoric.com/ and https://ocapjs.org/ https://ocapjs.org/

im3w1l 7y ago
I've never heard about this powerbox thing, but webpages have worked like this - being able to access only files from a file picker - for decades, so I'm sure that's where they took the idea from.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  It's not surprising considering Powerbox has no API and I think this might be one of the few official mentions of it: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Security/Conceptual/AppSandboxDesignGuide/AppSandboxInDepth/AppSandboxInDepth.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40011183-CH3-SW17 https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Se...
  - thingification 7y ago
    Ah! So given the language (explicitly using the word powerbox), it does seem a very good bet that whoever introduced this at Apple was at least aware of the work, and perhaps directly inspired by it.
- thingification 7y ago
  I don't know the answer to that historical question (shaky data point: though I know Brendan Eich is a bit of a capability convert, I believe that's relatively recent thing: last decade or so?). Regardless of the answer, I'd agree if you said that the world seems filled with people reinventing capability ideas not as effectively as they could, because they don't know that that's what they're doing and so are cut off from the ideas that have developed in the small cap community over the decades. This isn't really about files, though. Capability UI patterns are about composing all kinds of authority in a usable way. I'm sure we'd all agree that accessing files isn't the best or ultimate description of the interesting things that people do with computers now. This is an area that's waiting to be rediscovered by the rest of the world.

im3w1l 7y ago

I've never heard about this powerbox thing, but webpages have worked like this - being able to access only files from a file picker - for decades, so I'm sure that's where they took the idea from.

saagarjha 7y ago
It's not surprising considering Powerbox has no API and I think this might be one of the few official mentions of it: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Security/Conceptual/AppSandboxDesignGuide/AppSandboxInDepth/AppSandboxInDepth.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40011183-CH3-SW17 https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Se...
- thingification 7y ago
  Ah! So given the language (explicitly using the word powerbox), it does seem a very good bet that whoever introduced this at Apple was at least aware of the work, and perhaps directly inspired by it.
thingification 7y ago
I don't know the answer to that historical question (shaky data point: though I know Brendan Eich is a bit of a capability convert, I believe that's relatively recent thing: last decade or so?). Regardless of the answer, I'd agree if you said that the world seems filled with people reinventing capability ideas not as effectively as they could, because they don't know that that's what they're doing and so are cut off from the ideas that have developed in the small cap community over the decades. This isn't really about files, though. Capability UI patterns are about composing all kinds of authority in a usable way. I'm sure we'd all agree that accessing files isn't the best or ultimate description of the interesting things that people do with computers now. This is an area that's waiting to be rediscovered by the rest of the world.