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Codejedi: Getting back on top of OSX
Sat, 25 Nov 2006

I'm not really sure if you can call Apple 'the little guy' anymore, with their iPod bringing in the masses but I imagine an OS with a single-digit share of users must be teeny. Stores and other developers insist I'm an idiot but I'll always try to wave the flag for OSX, Linux, and FreeBSD. I hope that I'm doing my part, just as those who support Codejedi -- the small guy in the mobile world, do their part.

When lightning wiped out much of my gear a year back, it took our the monitor I was using on my Powermac G4; that was okay since I essentially use the machine remotely, but it definately got in the way of things. I used another monitor and it turns out the video card in the Mac was going funky but with some quick repairs its back in order on another monitor I've got... which led to moving the machine, which led to wireless, which led to purchasing an 802.11 card and finally led to the revelation that OSX 10.2 (Jaguar) that I use will not support my wireless network. Garg!

Now, I can disable WPA security in my network to allow the Mac on, but forget that -- security is important to Codejedi and to me, and to keep out those vengeful neighbourhood kids :) I could jaywalk on my neighbours open wireless network (theres a half dozen of them around), but that wouldn't be right. So I could struggle on.. but screw it, time to upgrade. I tend to keep my OS version on my build machines older than others, since it helps keep application compatibility high. But an offer has presented itself so I can get a dirt cheap OSX 10.4 halfway modern machine. So why not? It'll drop into my network and just go, and no more hasseling with OSX 10.2 problems. But moving to 10.4 presents some work...

Moving to OSX 10.4 (Tiger) means that Shadow Plan users mired in OSX 10.2 or 10.3 will have to upgrade their OS to use the application, or be stuck with my previous official release until they do. Thats okay, but I prefer to support 'everyone'... but I suppose a time must come when you draw a line, and that time is usually when 80-90% of prospective users have already made the jump. I wish I knew what the take-rate was for Apple's OS versions.... anyone know where I can find out?

Tiger presents some new technologies and much needed upgrades to the OS, so that will be handy perhaps... though as a developer I tend not to use OSX like other people; I access it remotely, and have a few machines always on to do my email and other activities. Certainly I don't use spreadsheets or iLife tools like other folks might, and my favourite game is the developer toolset :P It would be cool to use this machine as a DVD player for my TV and maybe someday, but for now it'll likely just be a build machine for Intel and PowerPC builds of ShadowPlan (Shadow Desktop specificly.) The tricky phrase to catch there is Intel and PowerPC -- OSX 10.4 can be used on the traditional "G" series Macs (G4s, G5s, etc), and the newer Intel platform machines (Core Duo's, etc.) It can get 'interesting', since the new Intel machines have to use an OS compatability layer to run G-type applications on them, and as we all know, a middleman will always introduce its own set of bugs into the mix. The challenge to overcome then is porting all the Codejedi codebase to work in both Intel and PowerPC environments, and make it transparent to the user. Thankfully Apple has done most of the work in hiding it from the user, so I can just work on building the two types of the application and merge them into one 'universal binary' that everyone can run. I'm sure that will introduce weird issues on its own (compatibility of all the toolkits I depend on in both build types), but its likely better than building PowerPC builds on an Intel machine that I'll have, and then having people run them on their Intel machines in the OS compatibility layer. I think I'll also be upgrading all my dependant toolkits to newer versions to get new features, but requiring some work...

So all told, the next release of Shadow Plan is under way, and not too far off.. but this whole bidniz with trying to get my Powermac G4 up to snuff, and now stumbling into a deal to trade it up for an Intel machine sure eats time.

Of course, as a developer and tinkerer, can't wait :) Good times in the wee-hours.

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