M1 Macs and LC 9.6.8 RCs and 10.0.0 RCs

[Mark Waddingham]

On 2022-06-21 12:18, matthias rebbe via use-livecode wrote:
>> Am 21.06.2022 um 11:56 schrieb Mark Waddingham via use-livecode 
>> <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>:
>> Why?
>> 
> 
> First, it's more convenient for the developer.

I think the end user is more important (in this case) ;)

> The Intel only and Apple only builds are smaller ins size than the
> universal build.

True - universal builds are double the size essentially (well, resources 
in copy files are *not* duplicated) - however how important is that 
really?

There's a high chance a user might download an app twice from a page 
offering two architectures - because they aren't necessarily sure which 
one they need - at which point, you've lost any advantage in splitting 
them (and just caused user consternation). [ Similar argument holds when 
users upgrade their machines, and restore from a full backup - which is 
what the majority of users do ].

Besides, if size is a real concern here then there are a couple of 
tweaks we could do to reduce the size of universal binaries (and indeed, 
Android APKs) which would see the size difference between universal and 
non-universal drop to maybe 3-4Mb (and probably only 1-2Mb when 
compressed - i.e. transmission size). [ This would be a *much* better 
use of time, than adding an edge-case option to the S/B, IMHO ].

> So if i want to build those single platform apps to offer the smaller
> sized apps  i have to run the standalone building process twice,
> right? And before i run the 2nd build process i even have to switch
> the settings, right?
> That's not very convenient.

Offering two separate downloads to users is not very convenient to them 
;)

> And btw why did this option exist in previous LC versions for an
> Universal app with PPC and Intel support?

Well that was getting on for a decade ago - so can't really remember 
what the exact rationale was back then. However, I dimly recall that 
universal PPC+Intel binaries would not run on some earlier versions of 
'MacOS X' which we still supported (and people still had!) at the time - 
so you actually *needed* to offer a separate PPC download if you still 
needed to support those really old 'MacOS X' versions.

These days that's not a problem as there's been a 32-bit -> 64-bit 
architecture switch since then which means all the macOS versions we 
currently support work correctly with universal binaries containing 
slices the OS does not understand.

Warmest Regards,

Mark.

-- 
Mark Waddingham ~ mark at livecode.com ~ http://www.livecode.com/
LiveCode: Everyone can create apps