Does anyone have a copy it got taken down. Would be really cool to learn from.

Edit: nm my so already grabbed it like a boss

A source map is a file that maps minified code (such as ES5 or any Javascript) to the original source code (e.g. ES Modules, Typescript, etc). This makes it easier for developers to debug problems. Source maps aren’t unique to Frontend web development, but the scenario in the article is.

Imagine if I asked you to fix an English subtitle typo in a film that was subtitled in a language you’re unfamiliar with (maybe Mandarin). At first you wouldn’t understand anything in the film, other than the pretty pictures, and struggle to find the correct segment to fix. But later I provide you with an English subtitle file and timestamp for the movie, so you could go find the actual place to fix the issue. This is kind of what source maps are like, they allow us to map from compiled code to the original, making it easier for us to debug and context switch less, saving a lot of time. They also allow us to better understand the original intent, since it’s the actual source.

The source code is the original source at the time it was recorded for the Apple App Store on the web. But will quickly become out of date as changes are made frequently by Apple.

@devxyn@sh.itjust.works will explain 👇

Germany for example. There was just the Modern Solutions case and the ruling was that using a hex editor to get hardcoded MySQL passwords from a binary is considered hacking

Comments and full-length names make the source way more accessible.

Nah it’s more complete with comments and all. Here’s a link to a random svelte file:

https://github.com/rxliuli/apps.apple.com/blob/main/src/components/pages/SearchResultsPage.svelte

Once the code is minified it's basically unreadable by humans it's useless this is far more readily available to anybody who may be curious about the work being done

There's lots of content sitting just below the surface on github. Any time you make a PR on a repo, even if it gets closed or "deleted" by the repo owner, the actual link to the file itself stays there forever if you save it. Github's own dmca repo even has warez links on it, sitting there for years.

Yep, it’s got a DMCA takedown now

You could argue that since it's publicly available and this repo only archives it that... I don't know man Copyright law is confusing.

we love svelte

I mean... They kinda distributed it themselves /s

Or even sue them

Because source maps show how shitty your organization's code and overall engineering practices are.

depends.

if we're talking about a personal website nobody will care. if you are a multibillion company and there's the risk that literally anyone can create a 1:1 clone of your services... yeah that's a bit of a trouble

Payload size

if you think your source code is that precious and unique and special, go ahead and worry about it haha

Just to save on wasted bandwidth for the client (and your server) is why I would disable them.

Here it is https://github.com/rxliuli/apps.apple.com

It’s how the web worked before minifiers, so kinda but not really.

You just have comments and original variable/function names.

I’m sure someone will argue this helps scrapers or hackers, but really it’s not that big of a deal.

It's sensational news.

It gets the bottom 50% thinking Apple fucked up, and they can now ask ChatGPT to just copy the App Store because that's all that is holding them back from being a temporarily embarrassed millionaire: Source Maps...