macOS Compiling for Intel only-Why would Apple allow it?

[atszyman]

So I finally upgraded to Xcode 2.1 last night and just started playing around with it a little bit. From what I heard in the keynote I was under the impression that you could compile for PPC only or hit a checkbox and compile for Intel and PPC. Much to my surprise I find that you can compile for Intel only, PPC only, or both.

Why would Apple even bother with allowing Intel only compiles? If they had only left PPC only or both as options they could guarantee that PPC apps would be around for awhile during the transition and after a few years open it up for developers to drop PPC support once the Intel Macs have gained a foothold. It seems that this opens the door for developers to push the transition timetable more than Apple since apps could prematurely be pushed to Intel only...

 

[wordmunger]

What if you had an app that only worked on intel? Or maybe an app that was intel-specific -- like some kind of monitoring app for Intel CPUs? I don't know, I'm making it up, but why restrict programmers? If I'm writing an app that could work on both platforms, then I'm the one who's an idiot if I only compile it for Intel. But if I have a good reason for making it Intel only, then I'd be inventing all sorts of new curse words to describe the shortsightedness of Apple for not allowing me to compile it that way.

 

[Linkjeniero]

Xcode is not the only app developers can use to compile programs for Mac OS X. If Apple crippled Xcode like that, all they'd accomplish is making the developers who want to make a intel-only app (for whatever reason they have) look somewhere else. Or even worse, maybe the developers would compile for both platforms, but the PPC version would be non-functional. That is not good for Apple. Besides, wordmunger is right: is it's so easy to compile for both, what idiot wouldn't? This option is probably for apps that are very processor specific.

 

[ewinemiller]

Say I'm still developing and testing, and I'm on an Intel Mac. I've seen large apps that take several minutes to hours to build. If I'm not going to run it on a PPC right away, why waste my time and/or (someday in the future) battery compiling a PPC version.

Also, Apple uses XCode, they probably don't need to compile Rosetta for the PPC.

 

[atszyman]

I guess there were good reasons for it. It just seemed like Apple could have had a little more control over the transition by allowing only universal binaries for a certain period of time. Especially since Metrowerks has a ways to go in getting a compiler for Intel running because they sold their Intel libraries to Nokia...