PopClip Leaving the Mac App Store
Nick Moore (via andy4222):
PopClip’s almost 13-year journey on the Mac App Store has come to an end.
The reason? I can’t update PopClip with new features on the Mac App Store any more. This is due to Apple’s sandboxing policy. […] The review team did also clarify that if I removed new features from the update, it would be accepted without sandboxing. […] Staying on the App Store without the possibility of meaningful updates would mean the death of PopClip.
It’s not clear to me why Apple doesn’t want to allow the accessibility APIs in the Mac App Store, given that they are already protected by TCC permissions that the user must grant. Sandboxed apps in the store are allowed to get full disk access, record the screen, etc.
Previously:
Update (2024-03-22): Doug:
the only granularity is allow or don’t and once you have it you can read the contents of passwords fields and all kinds of other trouble. they really need some permission granularity but those HIServices apis haven’t changed for real in years.
TextExpander faced this same problem back in 2012:
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2012/06/22/textexpander-4-leaves-mac-app-store/
I filed a feature request for an entitlement for CGEventTaps back when Sandboxing was introduced. I lobbied Ivan Krstić after his session on Sandboxing at WWDC. If I recall correctly, the main objection was that Apple had no means to limit entitlement requests, just to review developer justifications for their use.
Perhaps it's time to try again, as now Apple has an "upon request" entitlement for FinanceKit, cf: https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/746770