We can build plugins for ARM on an Intel Mac but we can’t test them there - we need a real M1 to test M1.
Likewise, we can build Universal binary on an M1 but we can’t test x86 there - we need an Intel Mac for testing x86.
Is there any way around two machines and double-duty testing for the next ~10 years or so? How are you handling this?
Despite the fact that i have two machines, right now i’m only building universal binary versions.
My experience: Testing and debugging under rosetta on my M1 works - but is somewhat unstable. I didn’t try to sort or fix the occasional debugger crashes because for me it happens only rarely and mostly does its job.
So i guess if you want to be on the safe side you’ll need two machines. If you can live with some irregularities you can do all on a M1
So does that mean you are not using two machines - and taking your chances that everything works for your users? Any problems so far?
I’ve had “hit and miss” experiences with VMs (never sure I could trust the results). I would like to assume that if it works in Rosetta it should also work as native Arm (same translators?) - but I don’t know how risky that assumption is.
I’m using two machines. But so far i had not one issues with my universal builds under rosetta. So i’d assume it runs pretty stable. Theoretically all would go well if i just use the M1 for development. But as i said there’re some occasional debugger crashes which could lead to some problems if you need it right in place where it quits.
I also wouldn’t rely on VM testing only, though i’m doing my Win builds mostly there. I remember some issues which only appeared on real win machines but not in VMs back in the IPlug1 times.
Just choose both systems (Any Mac) and only build your plugin and enjoy 
That would be nice but I’m not building plugins for my use - I am building for all Mac users - many of whom are now splitting off to M1. So it seems, for at least for next several years, anyone supporting all Mac users will need to support both x86 and Arm.
Xcode provides the ability to build “Universal Binary” on both Intel and Arm machines but we can only truly test each on their respective hardware. That means that regardless of build ability we still need two different machines for proper testing (intentional move by Apple? - why no emulators like iOS?).
That is expensive and doubles the maintenance and testing effort for Mac support without necessarily increasing the Mac population. I’m sure many other developers besides me find this a hard pill to swallow. I was just wondering, in this thread, if there was any shortcut for this and it seems the answer is No.