Ask HN: As an app developer, do you care if an SDK is open source?

3 pointstaylorhughes9y ago1 comments

When integrating a third-party SDK, via Cocoapods/Carthage/Gradle/etc., do you look up the SDK to determine if it is open source before using it?

Does your company have strict requirements around this type of thing?

Does the decision change if it's for iOS vs. Android?

In short, if you were to build a new SDK today, how hard would you fight to make the SDK open source from day 1?

1 comments

1 comments · 1 top-level

Integrating with a closed source iOS SDK is such a hassle, and it's even worse if there's any Swift code involved.

Integrating with an open-source SDK is one line in Cartfile and a little dragging.

Maintaining one also seems like a hassle, currently all I have to do is tag a release and it just works.

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