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Comment by e1g | Hacker News Reader

The Nitro engine is available only to the new WKWebView component, but that component has a bug [1] which prevents it from loading local files. This means that Cordova must continue using the old UIWebView, which means no Nitro boost at least until 8.1 or possibly later (however long it will take to fix that bug).

[1] http://www.openradar.me/radar?id=5839348817723392

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This bug, which continues to cripple HTML5 apps on the App Store but not ones accessed in Safari, seems almost too perfect to be unintentional.

But Safari doesn't load local files, so the bug wouldn't be noticed there. Makes perfect sense.

The point of including WKWebView in the iOS 8 SDK is to make it accessible to non-Safari apps. They must have actually tested this new component.

I don't doubt that there is probably an explanation that makes sense, but based on what we know, the least malicious explanation is that they forgot to test WKWebView with local files, which doesn't make sense.

"They must have actually tested this new component."

Honestly, with Apple sometimes I wonder. Safari had so, so many bugs when iOS7 launched that I no longer believe they spend a meaningful amount of time testing Safari before launch.

I agree completely. IOS7 screwed over html5 devs so hard. IOS8 is just as bad. Putting overflow:hidden on a text area in IOS8 Safari makes it so the user can no longer scroll within to edit the text at the top. It also causes it to draw extremely weird on the screen (you see the border appear way above it). Putting a height of auto on an input is causing Safari to pop the keyboard open when trying to scroll (the page and happen to touch that element). File uploading is completely messed up too (http://blog.fineuploader.com/2014/09/10/ios8-presents-seriou...). We also have issues clicking buttons when the app is using a cache manifest and saved to the home screen. I will be having a few drinks over the next few weeks.

I'm not sure what apple gains here. "Native" apps suck, so developers continue pushing web apps, which work just as well on android. Doesn't sound like the greatest lockin plan.

You _could_ run a local webserver, but that may not be worth it speed wise. Depends on your code.

Has anyone tried loading from Blob URLs? That might be a way to make Cordova work.

Wow. What a downer.

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