Jack support on macOS is contingent on the --enable-jack flag as it on all other platforms. The --disable-jack-framework flag was added to be able to control the link type on macOS as is decent upon whether jack support is enabled. That made the most sense to me while keeping existing defaults. 

On Aug 28, 2017, at 12:00 PM, pd-dev-request@lists.iem.at wrote:

On 08/28/2017 11:24 AM, Roman Haefeli wrote:
I cannot confirm. The instructions say:

./configure

but without '--enable-jack' no Jack support will be enabled, neither
with weak linking nor without. Or do I miss something?

i think you are right.

looking at the code, it seems that on OSX autotools will automatically
set JACK_FRAMEWORK for you (unless overridden), but the src/Makefile.am
only checks JACK_FRAMEWORK if JACK is also set (which will *not* be set
by default).
i also wonder about the jack=xrun case.

--------
Dan Wilcox
@danomatika
danomatika.com
robotcowboy.com