| Re: Message From RSI VP of Engineering [message #27277 is a reply to message #27225] |
Wed, 17 October 2001 09:18   |
John-David T. Smith
Messages: 384
Registered: January 2000
|
Senior Member |
|
|
"Pavel A. Romashkin" wrote:
>
> I am certainly for this. Mainly because I am sure that if the support
> for OSX continues in any form, it will eventually include all the native
> features of OSX, including Aqua. I am *speculating* that many of these
> features are there already, and taking them out would be more of the
> effort than leaving them in. For one, I expect graphics already being
> (mostly) ready in the native OSX form. So, using existing Unix libraries
> to cut down on the cost of implementation might sustain the OSX version
> long enough to make it after a while what we all thought it will be.
I think the real situation is this: RSI ran into a lot of work porting
all of the drawing/widget code to Aqua, which is an entirely different
API than either earlier MacOS, or Unix/Motif. It offers some
significant advantages, but represents a pretty major display code fork
(although with the option of eventually dropping MacOS <=9). So I doubt
RSI would start with the abandoned OSX fork, try to strip out the Aqua
interface stuff, and replace it with a X11/Motif subsystem. Instead,
they'd start with their Linux or Solaris port, and try to migrate it
over to the BSD layer of OSX + a proprietary X-server, without much more
than a recompile and some fiddling.
Although obviously something is better than nothing, people should
realize what they'd be getting with such a product: an undersupported
and "ugly duckling" IDL knock-off, made explicity to silence the
critical masses. Their basic lack of commitment to the Mac platform
would probably remain. On the other hand, I, like Pavel, am hopeful
this attitude might change with time, and having some Mac development
remaining would of course help.
JD
|
|
|
|
comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive
Members
Search
Help
Login
Home
