MacPorts XCode Installation

[macports at raf.org]

> Il lun 7 mar 2022, 12:38 Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> ha scritto:
> 
> > On Feb 26, 2022, at 12:04, Haren Samarasinghe wrote:
> >
> > > After reading the installation guide [1], quite a few people that I've
> > introduced MacPorts to have thought that a full XCode installation is
> > required. They're uncertain of doing this due to the large amount of space
> > it requires.
> > >
> > > In reality, I'd say that the majority of ports only require the command
> > line tools. In the scenarios where XCode is required for a port, the user
> > is normally alerted to this.
> > >
> > > I was planning on changing the docs [1][2] to show that XCode isn't
> > required, but I wanted to first check whether this would be an acceptable
> > change.
> >
> > Yes that's a good idea.
> >
> > If the port you're installing (and its dependencies) are available as
> > binaries, you do not need Xcode and you do not need the command line tools.
> > MacPorts will just install the binaries. MacPorts will probably print
> > warnings about Xcode and/or CLT being missing but in this case they can be
> > ignored.
> >
> > If the port (or its dependencies) are not available as binaries, you'll
> > probably need either Xcode or the command line tools. If you don't have
> > them installed, you'll get warnings, and then probably a build failure.
> >
> > Some ports need Xcode to build. These are (hopefully) marked with
> > "use_xcode yes". If you try to install such a port and you do not have
> > Xcode installed, MacPorts will tell you to install it.

On a related note, the other day I was on my brother's
10.14 mac, and I needed to migrate its macports from
a version for 10.13. There are instructions at
https://guide.macports.org/#installing.xcode that say:

  2.1.1. Install Xcode on OS X 10.9 or Later
  Download the latest version of Xcode from the Apple developer
  website or get it using the Mac App Store.

But the latest version of XCode is incompatible with 10.14,
and the Mac App Store won't install it (or any other version).
So those instructions might need an update.

https://trac.macports.org/wiki/Migration says:

  Install the latest version of Xcode that is compatible with your OS.
  Open the Xcode application once after installation and follow any prompts.

But it links to the page above, not to a page showing
the latest compatible versions of XCode for each macos
version.

I'm sure I've seen such a list in the past, but can't
remember where it is, and I can't seem to find it today.
Is it somewhere prominent and I'm just not finding it?
It would be great if either of the above pages linked to it.

Ah, this has a great compatibility chart:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcode#Xcode_11.x_(since_SwiftUI_framework)

I know this thread is about letting people know that XCode
isn't always needed, but I think the instructions for getting
the right XCode for old macos systems could be better too.

cheers,
raf