32 bit applications on macOS

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Created Jun ’17

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Apple recently announced that most likely 32 bit applications won't be possible in the future of macOS: https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=06282017a

Currently we compile both 32 bit and 64 bit versions and merge them together via "lipo" afterwards. Thus the resulting application offers the user the 32 bit checkbox in it's information panel.

The question is if this will still be possible in the future? The application will still be of 64 bit but but offers a 32 bit mode. On the other hand we have doubts that the 32 bit compilation will be possible in general.

Any ideas?

Kind regards

Christoph

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Answer 1

john daniel OP

Jun ’17

The announcement you linked to didn't say anything like that. It said that High Sierra would be the last OS to support 32-bit apps without "compromise". No one knows what "compromise" means. But in any event, this is talking about running 32-bit only apps, not building them. Apple hasn't said anything about changing, or maintaining, that capability. In could be a non-issue since Xcode is perfectly capable of building and signing architectures that cannot execute on the Mac, like ARM.

But why do you care? The only way to even run a 32-bit only app is with a really old machine on 10.6.8 that maybe has some special kernel flags. I have an app that I try to maintain 32-bit mode with, but I can't test it. In the last build I acccidentally left some array-style indexed dictionary keys in there and broke the build. I posted a beta as soon as someone complained, but that was weeks ago and they refuse to tell me if the beta worked or not. Why do I bother? Why do you?

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