hoakley August 4, 2020 Macs, Technology, Updates

Cirrus version 1.10 has an improved interface and is a Universal App

Cirrus version 1.10 has an improved colour scheme for its log browser, which matches that used in Mints. It also brings some internal changes with macOS version detection which fix minor bugs, and an important correction to its Help book. But most of all this is the first full release as a Universal App, superceding both 1.9 and 1.9u. This should run natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, on all versions of macOS from El Capitan to Big Sur beta 3.

It’s now available from here: cirrus110
from Downloads above, from its Product Page, and via its auto-update mechanism.

If you’re running an Intel Mac and have any problems, please let me know. I’ll leave the Intel-only version 1.9 available on its Product Page in case you’d prefer to revert to that.

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1

JR on August 4, 2020 at 7:45 pm

Hi,

This comment may be due to my lack of knowledge, but does that mean universal apps carry extra baggage if you will, and if so, is there a way to only get your intel or apple silicon version of it or are we stuck with both regardless of which platform we have?

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  hoakley on August 4, 2020 at 8:30 pm
  
  Thank you.
  Yes, Universal Apps are bigger as they contain binaries for both platforms. I’ve just checked how much that comes to in Cirrus, and the difference between the last Intel-only version and this Universal App is 300 KB, which amounts to 2% of the total app size. That single version runs on all Mac hardware and all versions of macOS supported by Cirrus.
  The alternative is to have one for Intel-only pre-11.0, another for Intel-only 11.0, and a third for Apple Silicon. I would opt for the three because the two Intel-only versions would be quite different, in that the 11.0 version doesn’t need the dylibs, so would be smaller still.
  You can read about this here.
  I hope that you’ll agree the cost of the extra baggage is worth the simplicity and portability.
  Howard.
  
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3

JR on August 4, 2020 at 9:58 pm

Thanks,
I did read your articles and have a better understanding of the App structure. How long do you think Universal apps will be available since going forward that will be the only way for a person that owns an intel mac to keep the software up to date.
JR

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  hoakley on August 4, 2020 at 10:09 pm
  
  Several years at least.
  Apple has stated it intends replacing its entire range of Intel Macs with Apple Silicon within the next two years. So in 2022 there will probably still be some users buying new Intel Macs. Even the meanest support for them should continue for another three years after that, so Universal Apps should continue to be released and updated until at least 2025.
  In practice, a lot will depend on demand. Some apps will go to separate releases, I’m sure. If I’m still around in 2025, I would want to offer full support for both architectures, and if Universal Apps remain the best way to do that, I see no problem in continuing their support after that too.
  For most apps, it isn’t any real effort for the developer, and as I’ve shown the extra size required can be negligible. So why not? I still try to support El Cap as much as I can, and really love it when I get a question from someone who’s still able to run the latest release of one of my apps on their ‘old’ version of macOS.
  Howard.
  
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