Re: Apple embedded OSes

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Jeffrey,

> Just an FYI in case you have not hit this wall (yet?)... The exec
> family, posix_spawn and friends are _not_ available on all Apple
> platforms. Be sure to check availability before using them.
> 
> For example, the iPhone/iPad SDKs has them, but the WatchOS and TvOS
> SDKs lack them. To further complicate matters, you have to include
> <TargetConditionals.h> before you can check for the SDK.

There are 3 questions:

1) Do you think it is technically possible to support the iOS variants
   in Gnulib?

2) Do you think it makes sense for the GNU project to support the iOS
   variants?

3) Do you think we need to document that Gnulib doesn't support the iOS
   variants?

My take on these questions would be:

1) For an OS that does not have files with file names, it's pointless to
   even think about open(), exec(), and so on.

2) Anyone buying and using these devices has surrendered their entire
   freedom and privacy to Apple. There is no point for GNU to help make
   these devices more widely spread by porting software to it.

3) I would think that the communities of POSIX / C users and iOS / Swift
   users are disjoint. Hence no need to document.

Your take?

Bruno