ScratchPad and OS X Mountain Lion

June 19, 2012
2 Comments

One of the security measures within Apple’s new version of OS X, Mountain Lion (10.8), is called Gatekeeper. This is essentially a means of blocking the running of all applications for OS X which are either not downloaded from the Mac App Store or are not signed by a certificate given to the developer by Apple saying that the application is safe. By default, this will be enabled, meaning that ScratchPad will not run.

I have looked into getting a signed certificate for ScratchPad so that it will be considered one of the “safe applications”, but the problem is that you have to fork over $99 a year for a subscription to Apple’s developer program in order to get one. I cannot afford to spend that money at the moment, meaning ScratchPad will unfortunately have to remain unsigned and therefore incompatible with Gatekeeper’s default settings.

ScratchPad will still be able to run on Mountain Lion, but Gatekeeper will have to be disabled in the System Preferences first. For now, as a temporary solution until I can afford to spend the money on Apple’s developer program, I will create and post instructions for disabling Gatekeeper. I will post more here as I learn more about it.

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Alex Seifert
Alex is a developer, a drummer and an amateur historian. He enjoys being on the stage in front of a large crowd, but also sitting in a room alone, programming something or reading a scary story.

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2 Comments
  1. July 3, 2012 8:36 pm  link

    Hey Alex,

    I’m sorry to hear you wont be able to continue to support SP. I wonder if you could charge .99 for it in the app store and also for an iPhone/iPad version supported thru dropbox? I would happily pay for it.

    Best wishes to you,
    Geoff

    • Alex Seifert
      Post Author
      July 4, 2012 3:22 pm  link

      Hi Geoff,

      Thank you for your comment! I will continue to support ScratchPad, but I just won’t be able to certify it with Apple as a “safe application” quite yet unfortunately. I am hoping to fix that at some point in the future, but for now ScratchPad will just have to remain an “unsafe” application for Mountain Lion users.

      I am also looking into creating an App Store version for 99 cents as well as an iOS version which would both sync via DropBox or iCloud.

      Alex

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