i don’t own an Apple Silicon Mac, only an MacBook Pro 2018 16 GB (x64 Intel). I understand the Objo dev that he don’t support Mac Intel as Dev Host anymore.
So I tried to get in touch with Objo Studio Windows - installed under Parallels Win10 on my Intel Macbook. I was surprised how fast the Studio startet and also to work with it in the VM Machine on MacBook Pro.
Tested the demo of physics2d-box Objo Demo and it loads very fast , compiled in only a few seconds and also run fast - including very fast startup of the he debugger.
I think doing the same with XOJO (running win version under Parallels on an older MacBook Pro 16GB) would be an nightmare of slowness.
I plan to buy an M1,M2 Mac - used of course - next year. Until than, could I use Objo Studio under Parallels Win10 running on Intel MacBook Pro.
Question: If I would buy an Objo License - to also build apps , not only run them , can the Objo Studio Windows Version (running under Parallels on Intel MacBook Pro) build x64 Mac apps? I can see that in the build options ARM Mac and X64 Mac is selectable.
Sure, maybe the build must bei code signed by hand for adhoc (running local) but that would be OK for me. I don’t want to use Apple Store - only local hobbies usage of the app.
Yup, I am doing the same on my old Macbook Pro 15" from 2017, the touch bar one for testing purposes. Under same Parallels there I also have Ubuntu running. ARM copy of Ubuntu runs within UTM and Windows 11 ARM in VMWare Fusion on my main computer, M2 Max Macbook Pro 16".
But i run them rarely, I am doing the same thing now while developing in Objo Studio what I’ve been doing for several years now in 4D: I do all development on my main computer, M2 Mac, both Objo Studio and 4D are so good that you really do not need another computer or virtual machine to develop on another platform, let’s say I am 99% confident what I develop on macOS will work on Windows and, in Objo case, on Linux too. I fire Windows virtual machine only to check interface elements for 4D apps I work on, for Objo I almost never do that since it uses Avalonia so by definition it should look the same on all three platforms.
You can build, but not publish.
For building and publishing I use GitHub action I wrote which allows me to build on all three platforms without having to install, maintain and update Windows or Linux. You can find it here, it is public repository, so anybody can use it:
Check these two repositories to see how to use it from your projects:
Yes, you can definitely build for macOS from Windows Objo Studio. However, you cannot cryptographically sign an app for macOS from Windows. You need macOS for that. That is an Apple restriction. So you could ad hoc sign to run a macOS on a device you own but in order to bypass Apple’s Gatekeeper on a different Mac you need to build on macOS.
Practical takeaway: a Windows user can build, test-in-a-folder, and hand-deliver an unsigned .app, but it will trip Gatekeeper on other people’s Macs. A distributable macOS release needs a Mac at the end of the pipeline - either the same project opened in Studio on a Mac (which signs, notarises, and produces the DMG) or an external pipeline that performs the Apple signing.