homebrew-freecad fix building a mac app bundle using deps based around homebrew

[ipatch]

Proposal description

presently building freecad using homebrew works with simply running brew install freecad however that produces a freecad binary to be launched for a CLI, and at some point in the past freecad development there was cmake var introduced with the below name,

FREECAD_CREATE_MAC_APP

which i toggle on / invoke using cmake via a CLI with, -DFREECAD_CREATE_MAC_APP=1

however as i've documented in the homebrew-freecad tap the CMakeLists.txt file that is used for constructing this app bundle does not properly produce a relocatable app bundle. ie. FreeCAD.app. there are several ongoing issues in the repo / tap related to creating the app bundle which I'll link below,

• freecad mac app bundle ie. FreeCAD.app runtime issue, cannot find the runtime dependency pyside2 homebrew-freecad#278
• building freecad with --with-macos-app homebrew-freecad#142
• mac app bundling using cmake on m1 failure due to install_name_tool homebrew-freecad#348
• [email protected] mac app bundle, ie. FreeCAD.app runtime issue with part design creating a body homebrew-freecad#585

Deliverables

once i've updated the CMakeLists.txt that works with the above mentioned cmake var, and can confidently say everything works as it should, I'll submit a PR to the upstream / main freecad repo to fix the build process so somebody building freecad on macos using homebrew can properly build an app bundle just by enabling the above mentioned cmake var. and also upload the newly created app bundle built around freecad v1.0.0 tarball release in the repo to use the newly created app bundle. ie. FreeCAD.app

Timeline

i think i can update the CMakeLists.txt file and possibly the associated python script for assembling the app bundle in approximately a month's time or less. 🤞

Risks and mitigation

the only risk see at this point is me not being able to complete the work within a month.

Compensation

i would hope to be compensated $1000 USD for the work described above.

About you

Chris Jones
ipatch

I have be working with the homebrew-freecad tap for some time now, and consider myself extremely experienced with matters related to freecad and homebrew.

yes, i've contributed to the homebrew-freecad tap extensively over the past couple of years.

yes, i've solved several tasks related to building and packaging freecad in relation to macos and homebrew.

[yorikvanhavre]

The better the homebrew build works, the better for FreeCAD. I'm all for funding this!

[chennes]

Thanks for the submission: the 2025 grant process is going to be slightly different than the 2024. We are switching to a quarterly approval system. That will have two main consequences: first, the submission deadline for Q1 is now March 1, and all submissions will be considered by the committee then (though the larger FreeCAD community will of course continue to discuss the proposal here in this issue), and second, we are going to have a fixed budget for the quarter, so this grant will be competing for a slice of a set funding amount. That budget has not yet been determined, I will let you know here when it has.

[chennes]

The FPA has now voted to approve a budget of €20.000 per quarter, for a total of €80.000 in funds to be allocated by the grant program over the course of the year. This value may be revised in Q3 if donations significantly differ from the FPA's financial projections.