safetyobc
Member
Anyone planning on developing programming software for the Mac?
Any PSR500 software for the Mac?
- Thread starter safetyobc
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DonS
Member
Probably depends on your Mac. My Win500 app will run on Intel CPU Macs. I'm not sure about PSREdit.
safetyobc
Member
Thanks Don! I have a 2.2GHz 15.4" Intel Macbook Pro!
I just downloaded it and unzipped it. Then tried to open it and get jibberish. Has this been confirmed?
I just downloaded it and unzipped it. Then tried to open it and get jibberish. Has this been confirmed?
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DonS
Member
Win500 does require some 32-bit flavor of Windows. That means you'll have to have some kind of "Windows emulator" running on your Mac. I'm not sure, but I *think* most recent Macs some with something like that (e.g. "Virtual PC").
mikey60
Member
DonS said:
I seem to remember someone mentioning that they have run PSREdit on a Mac with an emulator. I don't recall where I saw that though.
Mike
safetyobc
Member
Possible you are talking about VMWare or Parrallels? If so I don't have those programs. And if so they are still running Windows. Oh well, I will just load up Win XP SP2 via Boot Camp and run my scanner programming stuff that way.
I was just trying to get away from using Windows all together, but I have to have my prog software.
Thanks!
I was just trying to get away from using Windows all together, but I have to have my prog software.
Thanks!
DonS
Member
Presuming you're wrapping your app with some kind of "copy protection" software like I am, whether your app runs under such an emulator might depend on the underlying CPU. In the case of Win500, an Intel CPU is required.mikey60 said:
rdballenger
Member
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I run it fine on Windows XP, installed on my imac and booted up using BootCamp. works flawlessly. So its not really under a Mac OS, but on a mac machine. look up boot camp on the apple website - you need to have one of the newer intel chips, however.
Amazingly, all of the peripherals, com ports, etc work fine.
Amazingly, all of the peripherals, com ports, etc work fine.
DonS
Member
Yes, the big caveat is that Intel CPU. With that and an emulator, just about all Windows apps will run on a Mac.rdb3141 said:
safetyobc
Member
Yeah, but you still have to have Windows, right?
Emulator = Parallels or VMWare Fusion?
Emulator = Parallels or VMWare Fusion?
DonS
Member
Yes.safetyobc said:
Yes. Anything that makes the machine look like "Windows" to the app you want to run. "Back in the day" that was Virtual PC.
mikey60
Member
DonS said:
Yep, you are correct.
Mike
safetyobc
Member
Yeah, but if it is running on Windows, it is no longer a "Mac" app. It is a Windows App, running on Windows, on Mac Hardware.
It would be awesome if someone would build programming software that would run natively on the Mac, as in run on Mac OS X 10.5
It would be awesome if someone would build programming software that would run natively on the Mac, as in run on Mac OS X 10.5
DonS
Member
Yes, but that would require that a software developer a) have a Mac and b) decide that it's worth his time to write a program for a niche market for a platform that itself has a minor market share.safetyobc said:
safetyobc
Member
If I had the slightest idea where to start writing a software program for the Mac, I'd attempt it. Even if it was a simple program to start with. But I have no clue where to start.
Also that market share is growing rapidly.
Also that market share is growing rapidly.
DonS
Member
Not among people who know how to write software, apparentlysafetyobc said:If I had the slightest idea where to start writing a software program for the Mac, I'd attempt it. Even if it was a simple program to start with. But I have no clue where to start.
Also that market share is growing rapidly.
windigofer
Member
FWIW, it's in the beginning stages, but I am working on a program for Linux for the PSR-500 (right now I'm in the stages of interface design and tying together the guts of the program to a workable whole); I'm researching what might be needed to (once it's done) have a MacOS X native version of it. (I'm not making promises on this end--I don't have a Mac to try this out with, whilst I *do* have a Linux box.)
The main difficulty would be that MacOS X needs a driver for the FTDI chip used in the USB programming cable, whereas Linux has this driver natively; one thing that WOULD be useful (and which Mac users can help with) is knowing exactly *how* the USB cable is identified in MacOS X once the driver is installed. (Linux sees it as /dev/ttyusb0; if it's the same in MacOS X, porting may be much easier once I get the guts of the program written.)
The main difficulty would be that MacOS X needs a driver for the FTDI chip used in the USB programming cable, whereas Linux has this driver natively; one thing that WOULD be useful (and which Mac users can help with) is knowing exactly *how* the USB cable is identified in MacOS X once the driver is installed. (Linux sees it as /dev/ttyusb0; if it's the same in MacOS X, porting may be much easier once I get the guts of the program written.)
safetyobc
Member
Keep me posted. As it is now, I loaded XP via BootCamp. The ONLY reason I loaded Windows on my machine is for scanner programming.
windigofer
Member
safetyobc said:
Will do--trust me, being a person going increasingly away from Windows for day-to-day stuff (in my case, Ubuntu Linux, but I *do* have a warm space in my heart for MacOS X
), I know all too well the drought we've had in software development for GRE scanners--we had stuff for the Pro-92, but that's it.Wish me luck in getting this done--this may not be on the same release schedule as Win500 or Butel's software or 500Edit, but I'm hoping to get something good out for the *nix users (and yes, MacOS X counts as a member of the BSD family
). This will *definitely* be my first attempt at getting stuff out for multiple platforms, but all in all, it's an educational experience :3
windigofer
Member
mikey60 said:
Indeed, and that's one of the minor complicating factors in writing non-Windows software for OS's that use multiple families of processors. (Even in the Linux world, we have separate builds for AMD and Intel, much less PPC and Sparc; MacOS X has the situation in that one has to be careful to make sure one's programs *will* work on both PPC and Intel (and this has its own kinks, namely, the fact that PPCs and Intels have different "endiness"). Even with Intel versus AMD, there's a lot of optimisations you can make and which sometimes HAVE to be made.)
Fortunately, Apple does provide a fair amount of info to developers on how exactly to port *nix (including Linux) software to MacOS X with a minimum of pain--and fortunately if one is taking this stuff into account in the design phase (instead of trying to port an already-written app) it does get much easier.
On the bad end, this is also why the software package I write will likely take longer than, say, development for Windows-only; I have to make sure the source--and the compiled code--plays well with multiple platforms
(Including AMD and Intel on Linux, Intel and PPC on MacOS X...)This will be getting better in future as most stuff (in both the Linux world and the MacOS X world) standardises on Intel and AMD, but for now, it is a kink developers have to deal with...
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