[MAC] Universal Binary: one package for both Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard)

[Gamester17]

I read that it should be possible to build a "Universal Binary" package (using the Tiger 10.4 XCode SDK I think?) that is compatible with both Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Would it be possible to make a such "Universal Binary" package of Boxee (and XBMC)?


The question about builds for 10.4 and 10.5 are pretty simple.

Is the XBMC 10.5 build using anything that is 10.5 SDK only. I suspect not. If it's not using 10.5 SDK only features, then why target the 10.5 SDK in the first place?

In that case, there's one build that targets the 10.4 SDK which is present on all 10.5 systems. Then it works on 10.4 and 10.5 systems. The MacPort stuff can also be built targeting the 10.4 SDK.So if Boxee maybe just moved to always using Xcode version 2.5 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Xcode) which is the latest SDK for building 10.4 binaries (instead of Xcode 3.0 which is the SDK for 10.5 only binaries) then the binary should work for both Tiger and Leopard? Otherwise XCode 3.x can target the 10.4 SDK, and it can also use a 2.5 compatible project (though the 10.4 SDK is not automatically installed under Mac OS X 10.5, you need to manually select it from the XCode dmg installer).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Xcode#Xcode_2.5
Xcode 2.5
Xcode 2.5 was released on 31 October 2007 and thus 5 days after Xcode 3.0.

Notable changes in Xcode 2.5 include: Xcode 2.5 can be installed on both Mac OS 10.4 and Mac OS 10.5.
Xcode 2.5 does not support Mac OS 10.5 Leopard-specific features.
On Mac OS 10.4 Xcode 2.5 will upgrade (replace) previous versions.
On Mac OS 10.5 Xcode 2.5 will install in a separate location.
Since Mac OS 10.5 can have multiple versions of Xcode, it can help smooth the transition from Mac OS 10.4 to Mac OS 10.5.

PS! I also read that it is even possible to build a "Universal Binary" package that supports both Intel and PPC (32-bit and 64-bit) as well as Tiger and Leopard (as long as the source code and all libraries it depends on supports that too of course), an all in one package that any Mac user can download.

Checkout:
http://groups.google.com/group/sqlitejdbc/browse_thread/thread/80e478747bc4b350
http://www.entropy.ch/blog/Mac+OS+X/2007/10/30/Leopard-Four-Way-Universal-Binaries.html
http://guides.macrumors.com/Universal_Binary
http://guides.macrumors.com/Universal_Binary_Games

[vulkan]

a universal binary is more in order to get ppc and intel packaged together in a single binary (will run on both platforms).
a 10.4 version should also run on 10.5 so that is more the way to go.
its on our task list but i am really not sure when such a version will be available.

xcode version we use is 3.1

-vulkan.

[Gamester17]

but I am correct that Xcode 3.1 can target the 10.4 SDK right to build binaries compatible with both Leopard and Tiger, right?

[vulkan]

it can produce both.
if the assumption is that leopard can run tiger compiled code then there's no point in creating both. tiger would do.
but all of this is still subject to testing of course.

[Jacquesdav]

It wasn't indicated anywhere that the Mac build was Intel only. clarity folks, it works wonders. Please advise me when an PPC build is ready for testing. Otherwise this experienced beta-tester will have little to do.

Thx.

[Gamester17]

PowerPC build is not in the 'near future' Boxee roadmap as far as I know (they have limited resources and still got to develop and maintain Boxee for the three other major platforms first). A couple of third-party developers are working on a Linux-PPC (32-bit) port of XBMC, if and when that gets done someone else should be able to take that and port it to Mac OS X PowerPC. So IMHO I suspect that you will see 'final/gold' versions of Boxee for x86 (Intel/AMD) on all platforms before you will see any PPC or ARM versions of Boxee released as Alpha.

[Gamester17]

To compile XBMC for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) checkout:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35435

Note! This is still only for x86 intel-based processors ;)

[Gamester17]

Development to port XBMC for Linux (the framework Boxee is based upon) to PPC (PowerPC) have begun and source code patches for that is available, however these developers are only focusing on XBMC for Linux, not XBMC for Mac (and no one on Team-XBMC even own a PowerPC based Mac), thus outside developers are needed to port XBMC to PPC so that is can be compiled and run on all PowerPC based Mac's out there.

For more information please see these threads in the XBMC forum:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34439
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32320
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35435

Any C++ programmers our there who might be interested in this? :confused:

PS! Once XBMC for Mac has been ported to PowerPC by third-party developers then I am sure Boxee will soon follow.