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Building and shipping Mac and iOS apps without opening Xcode

scottwillsey.com

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Re: Building and shipping Mac and iOS apps without opening Xcode

#61

Post by sdicker »

kxxx wrote: post #41

I've been building and testing my iOS app just for fun via Linux only. Surprisingly, it's very easy. This works like a charm: https://github.com/xtool-org/xtool You do not need to upload to TestFlight or the App Store; you can just install the app locally to your iPhone via usb -- even from Linux! When in doubt, just ask your coding agent of choice to help you create and upload a Hello World iOS app. It's really easy…

I’ve been doing the same except that my linux installation is via WSL on Windows. I’ve been using sideloadly to move my IPA over to my phone. Works great.

Re: Building and shipping Mac and iOS apps without opening Xcode

#63

Post by hetspookjee »

mvkel wrote: post #60

In my experience, the better long-term choice if you're going to vibe code an app is to use Expo. Its basis is React, so the code output quality is much higher than Swift because there is much more React code in LLM training data. Everything is in the command line, and debugging is a breeze because it's a web view. But once it's compiled to native iOS, it feels like any other native app. Expo + Fastlane = fully autom…

Some parts when creating a new app cannot be automated right? Eg registering the app itself for example.

Re: Building and shipping Mac and iOS apps without opening Xcode

#64

Post by GaryBluto »

kxxx wrote: post #41

I've been building and testing my iOS app just for fun via Linux only. Surprisingly, it's very easy. This works like a charm: https://github.com/xtool-org/xtool You do not need to upload to TestFlight or the App Store; you can just install the app locally to your iPhone via usb -- even from Linux! When in doubt, just ask your coding agent of choice to help you create and upload a Hello World iOS app. It's really easy…

Does the iPhone need to remain tethered if it is transferred via USB?

Re: Building and shipping Mac and iOS apps without opening Xcode

#65

Post by isodev »

In addition to the challenged Xcode, just using Swift seems to require a lot more tokens for both coding and dealing with build/platform quirks. Probably not super significant on indie scale but for anything more robust, it builds up quickly.

React Native and Flutter seem to be much more predictable for the bots (and more fun for humans, since they have actual hot reload).

Re: Building and shipping Mac and iOS apps without opening Xcode

#66

Post by swiftcoder »

mulmboy wrote: post #52

I went to build an open source app from GitHub and was pretty surprised that it requires Xcode and that Xcode can't really be installed without an apple id. I do not want to make one and I certainly will not sign my computer into one. I did end up somehow installing Xcode via some shady download and was on my way. But the whole ordeal left a very sour taste.

Running a Mac without an Apple ID feels like an exercise in masochism. I wasn’t aware one could even still it through first run without

Re: Building and shipping Mac and iOS apps without opening Xcode

#67

Post by everfrustrated »

mulmboy wrote: post #52

I went to build an open source app from GitHub and was pretty surprised that it requires Xcode and that Xcode can't really be installed without an apple id. I do not want to make one and I certainly will not sign my computer into one. I did end up somehow installing Xcode via some shady download and was on my way. But the whole ordeal left a very sour taste.

Heck you can't even compile against many of the Mac APIs without a cert unlocked by a paid developer account.

Re: Building and shipping Mac and iOS apps without opening Xcode

#69

Post by drakythe »

GaryBluto wrote: post #64
kxxx wrote: post #41

I've been building and testing my iOS app just for fun via Linux only. Surprisingly, it's very easy. This works like a charm: https://github.com/xtool-org/xtool You do not need to upload to TestFlight or the App Store; you can just install the app locally to your iPhone via usb -- even from Linux! When in doubt, just ask your coding agent of choice to help you create and upload a Hello World iOS app. It's really easy…

Does the iPhone need to remain tethered if it is transferred via USB?

Dev apps need to be re-loaded every week (or two?) last time I did sideloading. The idea behind a dev app, in Apple's mind, is that it is for limited testing, so they have an expiration when not signed/installed through the App store.
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