Igor Delovski Board

[delovski]

JoS: Windows vs MacOSX sales numbers

"I was quite surprised MacOSX sales were as high as 11% as the
MacOSX CD sales are so minimal.

From a business point of view, was it worth the extra time and expense to
develop a MacOSX version? So far, probably not. But in the long run I hope
it will be. Also it spreads my risk a bit and it has been interesting to learn a
bit about MacOSX."

[Bjanko Novac]

Tips for porting Windows-based software to Mac OS X...

Since we've never done a migration like this, I'd like your advice on a
number of issues that are keeping me up at night:

Have you used any particular software tool to port components built in
Visual C++ to "Objective C"?

[David]

At JoS: Macs: Just a thought

"When you get inside an app like Photoshop, the interface is the same,
except you get smoother, more precise mouse feel, precise cursor location,
artifactless selections, etc. (I see the lips curling down as people read this,
thinking "No one can tell the difference in the mouse feel! He's just making
that up!" Well, no, I'm not. I have done A/B comparisons on this issue for
years in a working environment, and what I say about those things is the
truth.)"

Ha, Ha: "... smoother, more precise mouse feel" - so, I'm not the only one
with that feeling, even with Microsoft mice on both platforms!

[delovski]

IndieGamer: Choosing Mac Development platform

"Something with a G4 in it is probably a safe minimum.

BTW, there are some significant glitches between the Intel and PPC Macs;
there's basically no way around it unless you've got both to test on. I'm
having a world of pain with it right now trying to get around a CoreAudio
bug on Intel."

[delovski]

Rick Schaut: The Beginning of the Endian

"That said, life for Word will actually get quite a bit easier. Why? Because
Word's files are always written in Intel byte-sex. Given the number of
unsafe byte-sex bugs I've had to fix over the course of my career working
on Word, I'm actually looking forward to the day when I can forget about
them almost entirely."

[delovski]

MacMojo: On being a Macintosh girl at Microsoft

"I spent all week at WWDC watching people look carefully at my badge.
At MacWorld Expo, I worked at the Microsoft booth every day, answering
questions and telling people about our software. A lot of people use our
products, but they sometimes forget that they’re using Microsoft products.

I spend a lot of time reminding people that we’re the biggest all-Mac
development org. I remind them of the history of Excel and PowerPoint, two
apps that started out on the Mac and were only later ported to Windows. It’s
amusing to me that I have to do this both within Microsoft and when I’m at
various Mac-related events."

[delovski]

Google Groups: windows message pump equivalent?

"I am looking to develop an application in Cocoa using Xcode that is
based on an existing app I have written for Windows. The Win32 app uses
a WindowProc() method to process the incoming windows messages from a
USB HID device (using custom Windows messages). I would like to know
how something similar would be implemented using Cocoa?"

[delovski]

Google Groups: Using XCode to build Windows apps?

"I cheated a bit for Qt, and built Qt itself on a "real" Windows machine,
then copied the libraries & header files over. I found this page useful;
it describes building Qt/Windows apps on Linux, but it's basically the
same on Mac OS X: http://silmor.de/29 "

[Ike]

Cross Platform DB Engine for PC & Apple Mac

"I might be using C++ & the TrollTech Qt API for the dev work."

[delovski]

Slashdot: Cross-Platform Development For Windows and OS X

"An anonymous reader writes to let us know about an article in
RegDeveloper detailing the use of Qt, Trolltech's cross-platform C++
toolkit, for development across Windows and Mac OS X."

[delovski]

Enumerating all windows

"I'm trying to enumerate all the windows on the desktop, but when I use:
GetNextWindow(window) I only get the windows in my application, not the
other windows like FireFox, Finder, Emacs, etc.. How can I enumerate all
the windows, just like with the Win32 API function EnumWindows()?"

[delovski]

JoS: programming in os x

"I want to make a small CRUD application for OS X, that would obviously
require me to store some information between sessions...I do not want to
use a database server, so I could use flat files, or serialization - on a pc I'd
use access to store the info in a db, not sure if there's an os x equivalent
or if I can get jdbc drivers for access that'll run on a mac."

[delovski]

JoS: Win or Mac for a new uISV?

"I’m planning to start my own uisv soon (couple of months) and as part
of my search for ideas & markets for a future app I have doubts about the
target market for my app."

[delovski]

RegDeveloper: Mono on the Mac: Time to look beyond Linux?

"So what’s the bottom line here? On the Mac, Mono is ideal if you need a
powerful, efficient scripting language or want to create command-line tools
that are portable to Linux and Windows. But if you’re looking to build great-
looking GUI applications which are indistinguishable from native Cocoa apps,
then I think we’ve still got some way to go."

[Ike]

JoS: Anything wrong with wxWidgets?

"I've done a few things in wxPython. Several people at our company use
wxPython exclusively, some like me only occasionally. It's better than TkInter
in my estimation and a whole lot easier than .NET."

[delovski]

theappleblog - Why do software companies support the Mac?

"According to Mr. Brady, Adobe’s sales in its last financial year (2006) 'were
77% Windows and 23% Mac. In some markets, such as the creative professional
space, the Macintosh percentage is even higher.' "

[delovski]

makingtheswitch - When did I become such a tool?

"Moving my family computer from Windows XP to some form of Linux.
A symbolic gesture more than anything - but one that will force me to
do those things I so sorely miss."

[Ike]

Slashdot:

1. Microsoft Common Language Runtime To Be Cross-Platform

"The biggest Mix '07 announcement made on opening day of this week's show
was one that Microsoft didn't call out in any of its own press releases: Micro-
soft is making a version of its Common Language Runtime available cross-
platform. The CLR is the heart of Microsoft's .Net Framework programming
model. So, by association, the .Net Framework isn't just for Windows any more."

2. Why Microsoft Will Never Make .NET Truly Portable

"Just days before Microsoft claimed to be making parts of the .NET CLR
'available' to other platforms, NeoSmart Technologies had published an
article bemoaning and blasting Microsoft's abuse of it's developers by pretending
.NET was a true cross-platform framework when they're doing everything
in their power to stop it from being just that."

[delovski]

JoS: cross platform gui toolkit

"What are the options?

Java.
Perl/Tk.
Anything/WxWindows.
???/Qt.

Anything else?"

[delovski]

Slashdot: VM Enables 'Write-Once, Run Anywhere' Linux Apps

"A startup will soon launch 'a kind of holy software grail,' according to an article
at LinuxDevices. The dual-licensed technology is claimed to enable more or
less normal Linux applications to run - without requiring recompilation - under
Windows, Mac, or Linux, with a look and feel native to each."

[Ike]

JoS: MacOSX security

"Generally speaking, what keeps a MacOSX host secure, besides the 3%
market share that makes it a less fun target for virus writers? Admin/user
modes? Good, integrated firewall? Other utilities?"

[delovski]

ubuntuforums: Equivalent to Windoes API for LINUX

"GTK puts all of its controls inside of "sub-windows" referred to as "containers".
It does this in order to let GTK auto-arrange and resize controls when the
user resizes the window. Under Windows, your app does any resize/
reposition of controls itself (typically when you get a WM_SIZE message), if
that behavior is desired.

This makes GTK window layout a bit more complicated than doing the same
under Windows, since you need to first divide your window into a bunch of
"containers", and then put the controls inside of these containers. Personally,
I prefer the Windows way. But at least the concept is fairly similiar, so a Win
programmer can deal with it."

[delovski]

JoS: Best option to develop desktop application for Linux

"What is the best option to develop a desktop application primarily for the
Linux platform, but something that can also be cross platform?"

[delovski]

Carbon-dev - Carbon's Dead-End Got You Down?

"Freeing the Developer from OS Vendor Shackles
http://www.zoolib.org/doc/why.html

The gist of it is that by using a cross-platform framework, if an OS
vendor breaks the API you need, you can work around it by revising the
framework, which in ZooLib's case depends only in a minimal way on
each host OS's API.

ZooLib's original inspiration was "Apple's API Du Jour", according to
its creator - it was aimed at insulating his code from BedRock, then
Copland, then Carbon... you get my drift."

ZooLib's Sourceforge page is at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/zoolib/

[delovski]

JoS: Mac mini for dev

"However there is an adapter that lets you connect two monitors and
presents them to the computer as a single widescreen monitor (eg two
1024 x 768 monitors show up as one 2048 x 768 monitor)."

[delovski]

JoS: Porting my application to Linux and Mac Does it worth the effort

"I sell B2B, and since Intel Macs and Parallels/VMWare, the requests for
Mac versions of my software have dropped to absolute zero. And I know
I'm selling the Windows version to Mac owners, they've told me so."

[XNote]

David Alison - A hardcore Windows guy gets a Mac

"Really, since 1984 - my first job doing professional software development,
I have been true blue Microsoft. When I would watch the Mac ads with the
nerdy PC guy and the cool Mac dude I always secretly rooted for the PC guy."

[delovski]

ars, by Peter Bright:

* From Win32 to Cocoa: a Windows user's conversion to Mac OS X

* From Win32 to Cocoa: a Windows user's conversion to Mac OS X II

"That same contempt for norms and standards inflicts third-party applications.
And, really, why shouldn't it? If Microsoft can't be bothered to make Windows
applications that feel like Windows applications, why should anyone else go to
the effort? And even if a developer does want to go to the effort, what's he
meant to take his cues from? Should he copy IE? WMP? Explorer? Notepad?
Office? Visual Studio?"

[delovski]

Brian Hook - Write Portable Code

"Welcome to the official Web site for Write Portable Code! Portable software
development is a hot topic today because of the sheer number of different
computer platforms that software can support. There are countless operating
systems, hardware platforms, and tools to choose from and support, and mig-
rating from one to the other can be a strenuous and frustrating task if you're
unfamiliar with the process."

[XNote]

reddit - The Apple invasion into corporate has started & I can't say if I
am excited or scared....

"Things are changing. There is a whole new level of curiosity and excitement
about getting Apple stamped devices ready to work with our corporate IT.

There are more and more employees demanding access for their Apple hard-
ware. Even the bosses from the top are more open. They are curious and in
some cases even ready to make the changes. I'm sure their experience with
other Apple products had nothing to do with it. "

[Ike]

Google Mac Blog - Platforms and Priorities

"The initial public beta release of Chromium (the open source project for Google
Chrome) builds and runs on Microsoft Windows, but we are actively working
on versions for Mac OS X and Linux as well.
...
For an application that most of us "live in" most of the day, rough edges in
the user experience or operating system integration are like having a stone
in your shoe no matter how well the rest of the product works."

[Ike]

uf - Cross platform GUI development

"1: There must be the option to natively compile the software, under mac windows or linux
2: The programming language must be open-source
3: There must be a good IDE for building the GUI forms
4: The compiled software, must blend smoothly with the GUI interface in Mac Windows or Linux...
5: The development environment is on Ubuntu..."

[Ike]

webmonkey.com - Mac Fans Disappointed in GTK+ Port

"GTK+ is cross-platform toolkit for application development. It’s most heavily
used in the GNOME environment on LINUX, but it will run elsewhere, including
OS X. If there’s a GTK+ app (like GIMP, shown above) that you’ve been missing
on OS X, this is probably your best bet."

[delovski]

NUI - C++ API, multiplatform (Mac OS X, iPhone, Win32, Linux),
3D hardware accelerated GUI and more...

"All the widgets can be dressed with the graphic decoration system (colors,
gradients, bitmaps). Using the nui stylesheets, a graphic dressing runtime-
system, it’s easy to make your application look good."