Re:Apple’s Bitcode Telegraphs Future CPU Plans
by hundchenkatze on Tuesday June 16, 2015 @03:46PM
(#9728290)
Yeah, according to Apple "If you provide bitcode, all apps and frameworks in the app bundle need to include bitcode."
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documenta...
Due to the concerns above, IMO Bitcode is less about compatibility and more about app thinning. It's pretty easy to go from Bitcode to 4 different variants of ARM; but another entirely to go from Bitcode to x86 and ARM. Currently, developers have to ship binaries compiled for multiple architectures, which increases app sizes. I suspect Apple is just building a workflow that creates a device-specific version of each app, and having developers compile to Bitcode simplifies app submission.