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The mac is trying it‘s best to catch up. Should you build your app with AppKit, SwiftUI or UIKit+Catalyst "Optimized for macOS"? I can‘t tell you. Thankfully I
by kall 5y ago
The mac is trying it‘s best to catch up. Should you build your app with AppKit, SwiftUI or UIKit+Catalyst "Optimized for macOS"? I can‘t tell you.
Thankfully It‘s still a relatively straightforward process to create and compile an app with Xcode, which is the only option anyway. It‘s also a 30 GB download, but at least it‘s free.
- anaisbetts 5y agoVS Community Edition and VS Code are also free, and are certainly sufficient if you want to build a desktop app
- kitsunesoba 5y agoApple is pretty clearly gearing Catalyst as a vehicle for existing iOS devs to get their stuff running on macOS quickly. The canonical way to make a Mac app is still AppKit, or if your use case is simple enough SwiftUI (which is still AppKit under the hood). AppKit is still maintained and isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
- kall 5y agoThe question mostly arises when you want to build a greenfield cross platform app. I chose SwiftUI, but feel like I might regret not going Catalyst. I think Apple doesn't usually blunder around like Microsoft with these things, but actually pulls through long term strategies. We are in an awkward transition imho. AppKit/UIKit are super mature technologies, SwiftUI is the future but kinda lacking and Catalyst is either a shortcut to speed up Mac/iOS convergence or a backwards attempt to get more advanced iPad apps. It's all fine as long as SwiftUI is actually the future. If any of the others are relevant in 10 years, more than Obj-C is now vs Swift, I'll be disappointed. I don't believe SwiftUI is technically 100% AppKit under the hood, but effectively is, for now.