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Comment by shepherdjerred | Hacker News Reader

> Many of our customers build and test iOS apps. You can't build iOS apps without a Mac.

Not true.

https://cross-compilers.sjer.red

Sorry for the clearly vibe-coded website. I use this to build a few iOS/macOS apps for personal use.

It started a few years ago (pre-AI) when I pieced together a toolchain for cross-compiling C/C++/Fortran from a Linux host to macOS (used by my former employer at https://p3m.dev/client/#/).

Even signing/stapling/notarization can be done on Linux: https://github.com/indygreg/apple-platform-rs/tree/main/appl...

There's no good reason why these things can't be done on Linux, especially with AI.

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While the article is chock full of technical details, your comment is lacking. The idea seems interesting, but what's missing is details like cross-compilation performance characteristics compared to native, challenges faced, handling xcode upgrades, taking your project for a spin against popular projects on GitHub that use MacOS runners, etc. Saying "here's some vibe-slop so Linux is good enough" just doesn't cut it.

You have really high standards for comments.

My intent was to inform others that you do not need Apple hardware to build software targeting Apple platforms. This is a very prevalent belief as if Apple has some “magic” that cannot run on other platforms.

I did not/have not polished this project because it works for my use cases.

Again, the original version of the project is used by my former employer who uses it in their package manager.

The belief is prevanlent because it used to be true for the longest time.

rcodesign only made that possible circa 2022.

And it still a bunch of hacks that are only made practical because AI can stomach retrying the glue all day until it works.

And I don't see any official Apple support in their docs so this can be broken on a whim.

Just this day there was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50356944

> macOS 27 does not support CoreStorage volumes

They break things on a whim.

No, cross-compiling worked even before AI.

Even if code signing stops working you can still cross-compile code for macOS which eliminates the need for a CI fleet of Apple hardware

To follow up, this project started in 2014: https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross

The fact that the project started in 2014 and it took Apple 8 years to support code signing outside of macOS tells you everything you need to know about how much they care.

cross compiling? yes.

code signing before 2022? nope.

There's little point is cross compilation if you still need a mac to code sign. And that was only possible in 2022 onwards.

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