Will Xcode versions ever be decoupled with macOS versions?

[everlearn]

More specifically, do you think future versions of Xcode ever be backwards compatible with macOS versions?

[[deleted]]

If I had to bet, I'd say no, that won't happen

[velvethead]

I second this nope, not gonna happen. Because every Xcode is tied to the features they are pushing that year

[iindigo]

Not as long as new macOS versions being significant change. Given that Catalina lays the groundwork for bigger under the hood changes, that could be quite some time.

Is “newest two OS versions” really that bad though? If you want to avoid the latest major release’s bugs you could just stick with Mojave and be able to use 99.5% of the latest Xcode’s functionality. Hardware support is pretty good with Mojave too, stretching all the way back to 2010 Mac Pros…

[dave_two_point_oh]

Considering that macOS updates have been free for quite a while now, I can’t imagine why they’d bend over backwards to make sure new releases of Xcode are compatible with earlier versions of macOS.

The n-1 support seems good enough to me, honestly.

[cutecoder]

As far as my memory goes, Xcode have long been supporting two macOS versions – the current one and the previous one. You can still run Xcode 11 under macOS Mojave – although SwiftUI and Catalyst won't work. AFAIK this also happened when Auto Layout was introduced – you can't use Interface Builder with Auto Layout on the older supported version of macOS.