macOS binary distribution story

[rrbutani]

what

Couple of things of note about distribution macOS binaries:

1. code signing. requiring students to disable gatekeeper won't fly and explaining the "right click, shift + open" trick or the xattr commands seems pretty cumbersome; we want to be as close to "download and double click" as possible
2. universal binaries
   • it'd be nice to not have to explain to students to pick the right ARM vs. x86 binary and to not require ARM macOS users to use Rosetta

(relevant to code signing, etc.: _)

• unfortunately I think you do have to pay apple for developer program membership in order to get a certificate...
• maybe the shift + open thing is acceptable; LC3Tools isn't signed either

(relevant to universal rust binaries: _)

Ultimately I think we're going to want to distribute a .app on macOS so that users don't have to open a terminal to chmod +x. This isn't a concern on Windows and I feel okay about having Linux users need to do this (we can offer a nixpkg so that there is at least some streamlined Linux installation route).

steps

• [[ steps ]]

[[ What steps will we need to take to implement this feature? ]]

where

branch: feat-

[[
This should be:

• N/A if this feature is not currently being worked on
• feat-<feature-name> if this is being worked on in this repo
• org/repo#<branch-name> if this is being worked on in another repo
  ]]

open questions

[[
Unknowns and questions about the design/implementation of this feature.
This is kind of a catch all for anything that doesn't fit in the above categories.
]]