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I have no idea about other platforms, but on Linux it's extremely easy to set up a cross-compilling environment for building macOS, Windows and Android applicat

I have no idea about other platforms, but on Linux it's extremely easy to set up a cross-compilling environment for building macOS, Windows and Android applications. I'm not exactly sure if I want to have the applications I use be written by people who can't even bother to do one-time setup of their compiler toolchains if there's no ready-made script on GitHub that does it automatically, like there are for Electron.

jcelerier 8y ago
how would it work on macos ? If you have graphical apps you have to link against the various Cocoa frameworks, and those are (legally) only available on mac machines
chocolatebunny 8y ago
cross-compiling isn't the major issue. It's the toolkit. Yeah a cross-compiling C/C++ environment is fairly straightforward to do especially if you just want to do a commandline utility that can be done with the C or C++ standard library. But having any sort of GUI toolkit (such as Qt).
kodablah 8y ago
I have a Qt app and don't have a mac. Can you point me to where I can create the self-contained dmg or app file w/ all the icons and such on Linux that works on mac? I am familiar w/ Qt's mac tooling that is only shipped with the mac install, but if "it's extremely easy" on Linux, I'd really like to know.
- seba_dos1 8y ago
  https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross for the compiler and libraries. You might be even able to simply install Qt there using MacPorts, so no manual compiling or unpacking the SDKs into osxcross's rootfs should be needed. A properly configured CMake project will make an .app file for you automatically (although if you'll want to bundle dependencies as dynamic libraries instead of using frameworks, you might have to fix linking paths with a script like https://gist.github.com/artm/3668431 https://gist.github.com/artm/3668431 - that was the hardest thing to figure out for me) macOS icon file can be created with png2icns, Windows one with icotool. Overall, the whole process is easily scriptable. I'm making small games in C with Allegro 5 and I'm using only GNU/Linux. It wasn't hard to make scripts to automate the whole process of making builds for Windows, Linux and macOS. Android was a bit more tough, but manageable - I wanted to have it all done with CMake instead of Android Studio though, so that probably made it harder. The hardest was "HTML5" build with Emscripten, but it works now. It's a pity that iOS is off limits for that though...
  - jcelerier 8y ago
    > https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross for the compiler and libraries. yes, I know osxcrooss but it is not legal to use if you aren't developing on apple hardware which makes it a bit cumbersome. Grep for "Authorized Test Units" in the xcode license linked in the repo. It literally says (section 2.2, Permitted Uses and Restrictions): "Install a reasonable number of copies of the Apple Software on Apple-branded computers"
    - seba_dos1 8y ago
      It's likely enough that such a statement will be considered void when tested in EU court (as you can safely reverse engineer software for interoperability purposes) that I don't care.
      - jcelerier 8y ago
        > (as you can safely reverse engineer software for interoperability purposes) but here you're not reverse engineering, you're copying proprietary software for which you don't have a license. Reverse engineering is allowed if you have the right to use the original software ; you certainly don't have the right to reverse-engineer e.g. a software that you would find on a CD somewhere in a park without a license attached.
        seba_dos1 8y ago
        Well, when it comes to me, I have a Mac for iOS builds anyway. It's far easier to build on Linux though, so I do it that way. I probably wouldn't care anyway, sorry Apple.
  - kodablah 8y ago
    I'm afraid this doesn't replicate macdeployqt. There are many quirks that are not being taken into account here. My Qt app does not use cmake, it uses qmake. I have certain static compilation needs. Also, I said I didn't have a mac, so how do I get the OSX SDK? Your original statement about "extremely easy" is clearly false (you even mentioned a "hardest thing" which is custom per-OS scripting). I hope it's clear that this is why Electron is popular. I don't see how this can be seen as extremely easy from anyone's perspective and it's the mindset that drives people towards Electron.

jcelerier 8y ago

how would it work on macos ? If you have graphical apps you have to link against the various Cocoa frameworks, and those are (legally) only available on mac machines

chocolatebunny 8y ago

cross-compiling isn't the major issue. It's the toolkit. Yeah a cross-compiling C/C++ environment is fairly straightforward to do especially if you just want to do a commandline utility that can be done with the C or C++ standard library. But having any sort of GUI toolkit (such as Qt).

kodablah 8y ago

I have a Qt app and don't have a mac. Can you point me to where I can create the self-contained dmg or app file w/ all the icons and such on Linux that works on mac? I am familiar w/ Qt's mac tooling that is only shipped with the mac install, but if "it's extremely easy" on Linux, I'd really like to know.

seba_dos1 8y ago
https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross for the compiler and libraries. You might be even able to simply install Qt there using MacPorts, so no manual compiling or unpacking the SDKs into osxcross's rootfs should be needed. A properly configured CMake project will make an .app file for you automatically (although if you'll want to bundle dependencies as dynamic libraries instead of using frameworks, you might have to fix linking paths with a script like https://gist.github.com/artm/3668431 https://gist.github.com/artm/3668431 - that was the hardest thing to figure out for me) macOS icon file can be created with png2icns, Windows one with icotool. Overall, the whole process is easily scriptable. I'm making small games in C with Allegro 5 and I'm using only GNU/Linux. It wasn't hard to make scripts to automate the whole process of making builds for Windows, Linux and macOS. Android was a bit more tough, but manageable - I wanted to have it all done with CMake instead of Android Studio though, so that probably made it harder. The hardest was "HTML5" build with Emscripten, but it works now. It's a pity that iOS is off limits for that though...
- jcelerier 8y ago
  > https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross for the compiler and libraries. yes, I know osxcrooss but it is not legal to use if you aren't developing on apple hardware which makes it a bit cumbersome. Grep for "Authorized Test Units" in the xcode license linked in the repo. It literally says (section 2.2, Permitted Uses and Restrictions): "Install a reasonable number of copies of the Apple Software on Apple-branded computers"
  - seba_dos1 8y ago
    It's likely enough that such a statement will be considered void when tested in EU court (as you can safely reverse engineer software for interoperability purposes) that I don't care.
    - jcelerier 8y ago
      > (as you can safely reverse engineer software for interoperability purposes) but here you're not reverse engineering, you're copying proprietary software for which you don't have a license. Reverse engineering is allowed if you have the right to use the original software ; you certainly don't have the right to reverse-engineer e.g. a software that you would find on a CD somewhere in a park without a license attached.
      - seba_dos1 8y ago
        Well, when it comes to me, I have a Mac for iOS builds anyway. It's far easier to build on Linux though, so I do it that way. I probably wouldn't care anyway, sorry Apple.
- kodablah 8y ago
  I'm afraid this doesn't replicate macdeployqt. There are many quirks that are not being taken into account here. My Qt app does not use cmake, it uses qmake. I have certain static compilation needs. Also, I said I didn't have a mac, so how do I get the OSX SDK? Your original statement about "extremely easy" is clearly false (you even mentioned a "hardest thing" which is custom per-OS scripting). I hope it's clear that this is why Electron is popular. I don't see how this can be seen as extremely easy from anyone's perspective and it's the mindset that drives people towards Electron.