Basic SDL3 macOS Project Setup (First Attempt: Failure)

Here are the notes from my initial, unsuccessful attempt to set up a macOS project using SDL.

Installation

I initially followed the installation directions from the SDL3 wiki. However, the wiki page no longer exists, as it was deleted: github.com/libsdl-org/sdlwiki/commit/e7f66042.

I installed SDL 3.1.8 by copying the SDL3.xcframework and shared directory into /Library/Frameworks.

Build

I created a CMakeLists.txt file following the example from the CMake documentation: wiki.libsdl.org/SDL3/README/cmake#including-sdl-in-your-project.

I successfully ran CMake to generate a Makefile, but encountered this error when running make:

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ld: can't map file, errno=22 file '/Library/Frameworks/SDL3.xcframework/macos-arm64_x86_64/SDL3.framework'

I found another guide on building a project on macOS: wiki.libsdl.org/SDL3/README/macos. However, I wondered if there was a way to build the macOS app without creating an Xcode project.

Another issue was that the version of CMake I was using (3.19.4) did not support xcframeworks. Related issue: github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/issues/9479.

I am unable to easily install a more recent version of Xcode because it requires a newer version of macOS.

I also cannot download an older version of SDL3, specifically SDL3-3.1.2.dmg, as it is missing from the releases on GitHub.

I attempted to download the SDL3 source code and build from that, but encountered another error regarding the version of CMake:

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CMake 3.24 or higher is required.  You are running version 3.19.4

The requirement to use CMake version 3.24 or higher was added approximately six months ago: github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/commit/37881b31.