Xcode Will No Longer Run Under Rosetta

Relying on the Xcode Rosetta hack? Then you’re in trouble.

Just saw this in the official Xcode 14.3 beta release notes.

Deprecations

Xcode isn’t supported under Rosetta. See Developer Technote's “Resolving architecture build errors on Apple silicon“ for more information. (92772361)

If you’re an app developer and this means nothing to you, then great!

But if you saw this and those words sent a shiver down your spine, then keep reading.

The Writing is on the Wall

If you’ve been relying on the Xcode Rosetta hack to fix outdated CocoaPod libraries and build processes on Apple Silicon machines then the day will come — sooner than you think — when you’re going to be unable to build and distribute your application.

Especially since each spring Apple begins mandating that developers use the current version of Xcode and library SDKs in order to submit their application to the store.

So what are the ramifications?

Vendors and SDK Developers

If you’re a company or SDK developer who can’t be bothered to ship modern libraries to your customers, then you should be concerned.

Because if your customers can’t build apps due based on your outdated dependencies, then they’re going to drop them and find another supplier.

I’ve lived in the financial world for awhile now, and I’ve repeatedly been frustrated by the number of vendors who supply analytics tools, or credit card processing tools, or check deposit tools who manage, somehow, to never get around to adequately supporting the current version of Xcode and iOS.

And we’re not talking about the small fry. We’re talking about major Fortune 100 companies here, folks.

It looks like that could be about to change.

Clients

If you’re a developer or company that depends on one of those troublesome services (and you know who they are), then you need to get on the phone and ask them point blank what their strategy for dealing with this is going to…