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As a solo developer, I haven't found any use for Xcode Cloud. I just build my app on my laptop and submit to App Store. It just takes few minutes. How would Xco

As a solo developer, I haven't found any use for Xcode Cloud. I just build my app on my laptop and submit to App Store. It just takes few minutes. How would Xcode Cloud make things easier? Of course, it could automatically build and test my app after every commit to VCS, but I build and test the app on my laptop anyway to see how it works, so I don't see any benefit.

tonyedgecombe 3y ago
>I just build my app on my laptop and submit to App Store. I wonder how much longer that will be the case. Looking at the trends for pretty much all software I'd be surprised if Xcode doesn't end up completely in the cloud.
- vaxman 3y ago
  Their need to sell future (high-end) machines to developers should keep that from happening. Microsoft OTOH, may do it.
hkpack 3y ago
It is obviously for those who want to have CI approach. You can build and deploy websites and services manually as well, however a lot of people choose to have CI/CD systems instead.
- sdflhasjd 3y ago
  Right, but would you want a separate CI platform just for iOS? Maybe if you were only developing iOS and macOS apps it would be attractive. I'm also not convinced Apple will continue to support or how much Apple churn it will introduce. It also doesn't have a proper web interface and Xcode is already one of my least favourite tools, so I'm not keen on the prospect of relying on it even more than I already do.
  - beeboobaa 3y ago
    > Right, but would you want a separate CI platform just for iOS You already don't have a choice. The iOS build tooling only runs on MacOS. So your current options are: 1. Run all of your CI infra on MacOS (literal insanity) 2. Have dedicated mac minis just for building iOS apps (waste of $$$ and additional maintenance hassle) 3. Use a build cloud (somehow even more expensive than option 2)
    - sdflhasjd 3y ago
      What I meant by platform is GitLab/GitHub/Teamcity/etc. You can at least use the same CI platform for all your builds, you "just" need some macOS runners/build agents to do iOS builds. Xcode cloud is another platform that basically nothing integrates with - an additional shit option to add to the existing pile of shit options.
      - basicallybones 3y ago
        I'll take the opposite position. A few weeks ago, I migrated my CI/CD pipelines from GitHub Actions to Google Cloud Build, which was a meaningful improvement for me. But I left my mobile pipelines on GitHub Actions due to the lack of MacOS environments in GCB. I have not yet looked into the details, but this new Xcode Cloud free tier might be a godsend for me. GitHub Actions sucks, and their on-demand MacOS runners are crazy expensive. This will let me flip over to Xcode Cloud for Apple builds, save the $0.16/min I spend on GitHub Actions MacOS runners, and probably have a much better experience overall. The web stack gets built on GCB and deployed to GCP, and the mobile apps would get built on Xcode cloud and deployed to the App Store.
  - isodev 3y ago
    > separate CI platform just for iOS? What else is there? For web things I already have some GitHub actions taking care of the work.
    - kojoru 3y ago
      Github Actions totally has MacOS runners: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-github-hosted-runners/about-github-hosted-runners/about-github-hosted-runners#supported-runners-and-hardware-resources https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-github-hosted-runne...
outcoldman 3y ago
Integration with TestFlight and AppStore submissions is the key. No need to manually set the build version. And no need to go through the steps on uploading the app. And I have all my personal apps on TestFlight and install them on my Mac via TestFlight, to make sure they are uptodate, I also have scheduled build every week to submit to internal testing on TestFlight.
- isodev 3y ago
  Yup this mostly. After a "git push", Xcode Cloud takes care of building and submitting the test flight build. Even if it's just a couple of minutes, it quickly adds up (and also helps with context switch).

tonyedgecombe 3y ago

>I just build my app on my laptop and submit to App Store. I wonder how much longer that will be the case. Looking at the trends for pretty much all software I'd be surprised if Xcode doesn't end up completely in the cloud.

vaxman 3y ago
Their need to sell future (high-end) machines to developers should keep that from happening. Microsoft OTOH, may do it.

hkpack 3y ago

It is obviously for those who want to have CI approach. You can build and deploy websites and services manually as well, however a lot of people choose to have CI/CD systems instead.

sdflhasjd 3y ago
Right, but would you want a separate CI platform just for iOS? Maybe if you were only developing iOS and macOS apps it would be attractive. I'm also not convinced Apple will continue to support or how much Apple churn it will introduce. It also doesn't have a proper web interface and Xcode is already one of my least favourite tools, so I'm not keen on the prospect of relying on it even more than I already do.
- beeboobaa 3y ago
  > Right, but would you want a separate CI platform just for iOS You already don't have a choice. The iOS build tooling only runs on MacOS. So your current options are: 1. Run all of your CI infra on MacOS (literal insanity) 2. Have dedicated mac minis just for building iOS apps (waste of $$$ and additional maintenance hassle) 3. Use a build cloud (somehow even more expensive than option 2)
  - sdflhasjd 3y ago
    What I meant by platform is GitLab/GitHub/Teamcity/etc. You can at least use the same CI platform for all your builds, you "just" need some macOS runners/build agents to do iOS builds. Xcode cloud is another platform that basically nothing integrates with - an additional shit option to add to the existing pile of shit options.
    - basicallybones 3y ago
      I'll take the opposite position. A few weeks ago, I migrated my CI/CD pipelines from GitHub Actions to Google Cloud Build, which was a meaningful improvement for me. But I left my mobile pipelines on GitHub Actions due to the lack of MacOS environments in GCB. I have not yet looked into the details, but this new Xcode Cloud free tier might be a godsend for me. GitHub Actions sucks, and their on-demand MacOS runners are crazy expensive. This will let me flip over to Xcode Cloud for Apple builds, save the $0.16/min I spend on GitHub Actions MacOS runners, and probably have a much better experience overall. The web stack gets built on GCB and deployed to GCP, and the mobile apps would get built on Xcode cloud and deployed to the App Store.
- isodev 3y ago
  > separate CI platform just for iOS? What else is there? For web things I already have some GitHub actions taking care of the work.
  - kojoru 3y ago
    Github Actions totally has MacOS runners: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-github-hosted-runners/about-github-hosted-runners/about-github-hosted-runners#supported-runners-and-hardware-resources https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-github-hosted-runne...

outcoldman 3y ago

Integration with TestFlight and AppStore submissions is the key. No need to manually set the build version. And no need to go through the steps on uploading the app. And I have all my personal apps on TestFlight and install them on my Mac via TestFlight, to make sure they are uptodate, I also have scheduled build every week to submit to internal testing on TestFlight.

isodev 3y ago
Yup this mostly. After a "git push", Xcode Cloud takes care of building and submitting the test flight build. Even if it's just a couple of minutes, it quickly adds up (and also helps with context switch).