v6.0.0 changes

[knov]

Today we announced v6.0.0 for our Maps SDK for iOS.

While there are no changes to public APIs in this release, we are treating this release as a SEMVER major change because of updates to our installation process.

Distribution Updates

Standard installation methods still apply – we will continue to support SDK installation via CocoaPods, Carthage, and manual integration. However, you are now required to authenticate installation with a new access token. For more information about this new process, view our installation guide.

Carthage and CocoaPods users will now need to define a local ~/netrc file configured with a Mapbox access token that with Downloads:Read scope.

Developers who prefer to install the SDK manually will need to first authenticate with their Mapbox account through this page.

For more details on how to authenticate SDK installation, please see our new installation guide.

Licensing Updates

Starting today, new binary releases of GL Native are licensed under the Mapbox Terms of Service. The Mapbox Maps SDKs repos will continue to be public and licensed under BSD-2.

For more information about additional changes included in this release, view the changelog here.

If you have any questions about how this change may impact your use of the Maps SDK, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Mapbox Support to connect with the Mapbox mobile team.

[halset]

Is there a way to build a version of Mapbox iOS SDK with some modifications to the core mapbox-gl-native code?

[nnhubbard]

@halset I have been told by Mapbox support, that no we cannot. You have to go back to v5.9.0.

[halset]

@nnhubbard Okay, thanks 😢

[username0x0a]

A couple of serious questions related to this change:

• How's the SDK auditable now as part of it (Core) is closed source?
• How can one get rid of the telemetry that is now part of the product?
• How can one retain own modifications made to the Core part of the platform SDK when it's now considered internal?

Comparing this move to Chrome/Chromium is more or less ridiculously invalid as Chromium project on its own is fully compilable, standalone, working product, only making Chrome a fork containing some Google-specific extras, while Maps SDKs are useless without the Core. These steps were obviously made to introduce a harder vendor lock-in followed by questionable points, just some of them mentioned above, most concerning about no idea what's in the actual binary blob. You could at the very least be honest enough and address/explain these steps explicitly – many of us reading these lines can imagine anyway.

[ferdicus]

Thanks for the announcement, it would be great to hear more about "the why" behind these changes, otherwise it obviously leads to speculations.

[nnhubbard]

@knov This is sad that there is no response to community questions about this. Could someone be so kind as to at least answer some of these questions?