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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-14T06:56:42+00:00

A recent post by John Gruber notes that the following legalese: 3.3.1 — Applications

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A recent post by John Gruber notes that the following legalese:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.

Has been revised as follows:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

And makes the following observation:

My reading of this new language is that cross-compilers, such as the Flash-to-iPhone compiler in Adobe’s upcoming Flash Professional CS5 release, are prohibited. This also bans apps compiled using MonoTouch — a tool that compiles C# and .NET apps to the iPhone.

Does this in fact ban the use of Monotouch for the IPhone?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Update –

    This changed recently. MonoTouch should no longer conflict with
    the agreement. Any statements below are purely historical!

    Yes, it seems pretty clear from their license agreement now that if the original application is written in C# then it would be violating the license:

    …Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine…

    They even hammer it in a little further:

    Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited

    Kind of a bummer, MonoTouch and the Flash CS5 -> iPhone converter are very cool.

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