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Developers Weigh in on Move to Intel
by , 3:20 PM EST, March 31st, 2006
When Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced last June that Macs would be moving to Intel processors, some accused him of oversimplifying the complexity of the transition. While Apple lists over 1,000 Universal Applications on its Web site, two notable developers -- Adobe and Microsoft -- are missing from the list, and some firms have struggled with the task, according to eWeek's Daniel Drew Turner.
Mr. Turner noted that developers who created Mac OS X-native applications in Cocoa and used the Xcode environment aren't having much difficulty, nor or those who work in Java. For example, Zimbra vice-president John Robb said that his company has seen few problems with making their open-source server and client products work in Intel Macs.
However, as Mr. Jobs acknowledged last June, developers that never moved beyond Carbon applications, which run in both Mac OS X and OS 9, are having a harder time since Classic support has been dropped from the new Intel Macs. In addition, companies that use CodeWarrior rather than Xcode, as both Adobe and Microsoft do, must move their applications' code bases to Apple's environment in addition to ensuring that the software runs on Intel processors.
Steve Gully, president of cross-platform development firm Atimi Software, told Mr. Turner that many of his clients see the move to Universal Binaries as a chance to also fix bugs and add features, as well as optimize performance.
Brent Simmons of Ranchero Software, which developed NetNewsWire, added that the use of assembly code in such applications as games or graphics tools makes them much tougher to port. For example, there are endian programming issues that could cause Microsoft Entourage to corrupt an e-mail database, or Adobe Photoshop to mishandle an image.
"The Photoshop folks have to go through and make sure they've accounted for [endian issues] in every single place," Mr. Simmons said. "That's a big job."
Observer Comments
Yeah, or there’s RealBasic which does the same for those who want to use BASIC.
But the problem with all these alternative programming environments is that they will always be behind Apple’s own tools, particularly with each new rev of the OS.
Personally, i don’t like multi-platform programs because they are often constrained to the lowest common denominator. Apple has so many innovative Mac-only tools that you will always be better off sticking with Xcode.
Companies can be profitable by offering only Macintosh software. The question is, do you want to do one thing really well, or support the world and dilute the quality of your product? …And take on all the customer support headaches common on other platforms (e.g. Windoze) but largely absent on the Mac!
YMMV.
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