[HN Gopher] Apple App Store frontend source code archive
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Apple App Store frontend source code archive
        
       Author : redbell
       Score  : 157 points
       Date   : 2025-11-03 21:27 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | AbstractH24 wrote:
       | Just came here to post this.
       | 
       | Curious if it was done intentionally or simply due to hurrying.
        
         | phillipseamore wrote:
         | The web version of the App Store? It's always been web and
         | webview based, there used to be a preferences/default command
         | to enable web inspector for App store, Music and more Apple
         | apps on MacOS.
        
         | rxliuli wrote:
         | It appears to have been an accident now - they fixed the issue
         | two hours after I posted on Reddit.
        
           | AbstractH24 wrote:
           | Curious if you get any sort of takedown notice.
        
             | rxliuli wrote:
             | Haven't received it yet.
        
         | isodev wrote:
         | It's not a bug! Websites are supposed to have human-readable
         | markup and scripts.
        
       | dzonga wrote:
       | sourcemaps should be enabled -- that's how people learn.
       | 
       | a lot of people learned to code on the web via viewsource - now
       | we are obfuscating the code
        
         | zerr wrote:
         | Probably due to usage of fat front end frameworks which also
         | include whole business logics.
        
       | andoando wrote:
       | App store uses svelte? :o
        
         | zote wrote:
         | Apple Music uses Svelte too
        
           | qn9n wrote:
           | And Apple Podcasts
        
         | ranger_danger wrote:
         | And the Windows 11 start menu is just React Native. Strange
         | times indeed.
        
           | hebelehubele wrote:
           | What the fuck. Does that mean alternative start menus (e.g.
           | Stardock Start11) are provably faster & lighter on resources?
        
             | Chabsff wrote:
             | Not by virtue of that alone.
             | 
             | A choice of tech stack can never be enough to prove
             | anything. It only establishes a lower bound on resource
             | usage, but there is never and upper bound as long as
             | while() and malloc() are available.
        
           | dlivingston wrote:
           | It's pretty clear to me that JavaScript is becoming the de
           | facto standard for UI/UX programming, regardless of platform,
           | and regardless of web vs. native targets. Even GNOME has
           | JavaScript bindings. [0]
           | 
           | [0]: https://gjs.guide/
        
       | OCTAGRAM wrote:
       | There was Cappucino by ex-Apple employees, and actual Apple devs
       | had SproutCore. So where did they go? Why some unknown libraries?
        
         | frou_dh wrote:
         | Unsurprisingly there are many frameworks/initiatives that end
         | up falling by the wayside over the years, e.g. MacRuby was
         | being lined up to supersede Objective-C for app development at
         | one point.
        
         | afavour wrote:
         | It's using Svelte, I wouldn't exactly call that unknown. Why
         | maintain your own library when a third party one does exactly
         | what you need?
        
       | nacozarina wrote:
       | hilarious --- great score !
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | As a frequent user of the backend (Connect), I am skeptical that
       | this is source that you _want_ to reproduce (unless you 're a
       | scammer).
        
       | burntice wrote:
       | Dumb question but Apple's apps are buttery smooth. I just assumed
       | they were using swift and not a web stack to render their UI. Am
       | I completely wrong?!
        
         | cyral wrote:
         | This is the source for the web version of the app store
        
       | zb3 wrote:
       | In case you want to save sources with the ability to fetch all
       | possible lazy chunks, last year I made a tool to do exactly that:
       | https://github.com/zb3/getfrontend
       | 
       | (note it won't work on apps.apple.com because apple has removed
       | these sourcemaps)
        
       | zb3 wrote:
       | Damn, I was about to clone this but it's now taken down :(
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-11-05 23:01 UTC)