Apple Computer has expanded its open-source operations, cheering volunteer Web browser coders who had raised complaints against the computer maker.





Apple also released the WebCore API (application programming interface) called WebKit into open-source development. Hyatt said Apple would begin tracking bugs in public, and announced the launch of a public mailing list, [email protected], and a public IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel, #webkit on





"It's a great thing," said George Staikos, a software consultant, KDE developer and spokesman for the open-source group. "Congratulations to Apple on opening up more code and moving to work closer with the community. I think it's a very progressive move, and I hope it will allow us to more easily work together to align our code bases again."

Respondents to Hyatt's blog expressed delight and some surprise that Apple had opened up its code so thoroughly.

"This is amazing! I'd never expect to see anything like this, especially from Apple--outstanding work!" wrote one commentator. "I'm very impressed that you did this," wrote another. "You basically addressed all the concerns the KDE people had, which is much more than you needed to do."