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Building on macOS (Apple Silicon)

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for building the canonical C++ reference application for maplibre-native-slint on macOS with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4).

The reusable Slint API lives in src/, but the authoritative backend wiring currently lives in cpp/.

System Requirements

  • macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
  • Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2/M3/M4)
  • Xcode Command Line Tools
  • Homebrew
  • Rust

Step 1: Install Dependencies

First, ensure Xcode Command Line Tools are installed:

xcode-select --install

Install Homebrew if not already installed:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install the required system packages:

brew install cmake pkg-config clang-format
brew install bazelisk webp libuv webp icu4c jpeg-turbo glfw
brew link icu4c --force

Step 2: Install Rust

Slint requires the Rust toolchain. Install it using rustup:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y
source ~/.cargo/env

Step 3: Clone and Prepare the Project

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-native-slint.git
cd maplibre-native-slint

# Initialize and update submodules
git submodule update --init --recursive

Step 4: Build the Project

The default desktop build now prefers WebGPU (wgpu-native). Metal is still useful as a fallback/comparison path on macOS.

# Configure with CMake. This will also download and build Slint automatically.
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -G Xcode .

# Build the project
cmake --build build

If you specifically want to compare against the Metal path:

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DMLN_WITH_METAL=ON -DMLN_WITH_WEBGPU=OFF -G Xcode .
cmake --build build

The build process can take 10-15 minutes on the first run. Subsequent builds will be much faster.

Step 5: Run the Reference Application

After a successful build, the executable will be located in the build/Debug directory.

./build/Debug/maplibre-slint-example

This will launch a window displaying the map. You can interact with it using your mouse to pan and zoom.

After that, the most important files to inspect are:

  • src/maplibre.slint
  • cpp/map_window.slint
  • cpp/main.cpp

Troubleshooting

  • Build Fails: Ensure all dependencies are installed correctly and that your Rust environment is set up (source ~/.cargo/env).
  • cmake command not found: Make sure you have installed cmake via Homebrew and that your shell can find it.
  • Linker Errors: If you encounter linker errors, try cleaning the build directory (rm -rf build) and re-running the build process from Step 4.