Making the .exe file

This is a dumb question but how can I make the game contents compile into an .exe and also the format that Mac OSX uses? I would also like to add an icon for my game upon completion.

Thanks,
Ryan

Unfortunately, you'll need to install BlitzMax on a Mac, and then grab your code and compile it over that Mac to get a Mac executable.

As for the icon thing, I haven't done it personally, but I've seem a bunch of posts on how to do it. Do a search in the forums!

Ah thanks the icon thing was a minor question. So really, I have no way to make a MAC friendly app without having axcess to one.

Not really, no...

Although technically you can run PearPC (a software mac emulator) on a PC, but it is very slow since it will do a software emulation of all the OpenGL stuff.
You can compile your programs in it, but can't really run them... Plus you'd still need the apple operating system to install as well, so it'll cost you as well.

Supposedly there's also hacks to run OS X on a PC through VMWAre with a P4 or Athlon 64 CPU (for SSE2+SSE3 support), but the same applies there.

Of course, I'm sure that there'll be some people on these forums with a Mac that would be willing to compile your code for you if you ask them to...

I would have thought some bright spark would have started a Mac compilation service.

Well I hope that they find a way to create the mac files with a future version of Bmax. I don't personally like to give my code out.

Buying Blitzmax then compiling code for other people is open to abuse. Doubt BRL would be happy about it either.

There won't be one I think ... simply because BM relais on native compilers to the platforms and does not have its own.

If you want something like that, you will have to get RealBasic ...

How about BRL offer the service?

The problem is: How the heck can any one intend to sell something for a system he can not even support nor does he/she understand the system?

And if it is not sold, then there is not that much of a use of a service ... Asking friends would be enough in that case.

Hmmm, that's interesting. I agree that having the system is the best answer.
However, what sort of feedback have people got on compiling their games on Win, Linux and Mac? Is it trial+error or, generally, is it successful on each?
Bmax was supposed to hide the multi-platform aspects away from the programmers so what do people need to look out for?

Windows is most likely not that much of a problem. Mac is ok too as long as you keep in mind that only OSX.3+ is supported (the page mentions .2 but 1.18+ haven't been compileable on it anymore due to some newer xcode bindings)

Linux is Linux ... don't expect it to work especially if GUI is involved ... Too much "configurability" and even more user own hack in possibilities or just too few standardized components that are available on any installation.

When transferring a BlitzMax program from Windows to Mac, I usually find several little issues that need to be tweaked. The processing/data aspects seems to work fine, but the visual aspects have some differences: GUI font sizes, gadget appearance and behavior, etc. The non-GUI graphics seem to need less adustment, but I've run into a couple issues here and there. BlitzMax is a huge step toward cross-platform development, but it isn't completely seamless.

I think that it's best to cross platforms several times during development so that minor adjustments can be made and to uncover any major problems before things get too far along. And that's just the problems that you'll encounter on your own systems - others will doubtless encounter other issues when running on their machines, so you'd need to be able to make fixes for them during public testing and after release. I don't consider it practical to release a program for a platform that you don't have easy access to.

This opens up a question. I take it that you buy the program for use on your computer, so if you install it on a firend's mac to compile you would be breaking the agreement. So is it true that you can only compile on computers that you own?

I had the impresion that the licience was for one of each. Ie I could have one mac (power Pc version) one Mac (intel version) and one win version. Could be wrong tho. (Most things I post turn out to be so :()

Yes, YOU could have ... but not if its the system of someone else ...

Who says they haven't got support or understanding for the system?

It takes too long and isn't particularly intuitive. Rollout proceedures are next to impossible to automate, require 4 different machines and a lot of manual supervision (making sure all four machines checkout the correct branch, and get bundled properly together on a network share).

There is no room for errors at all (unless you want to start all over again).

Yeah. Like tonyg said, there really isn't much point in providing binaries that might not even work.

...If you know someone who has a Mac.

I haven't come across a real-life Mac in probably the past decade or so. Granted, their popularity has increased quite a bit in recent months, but it still seems to be limited to mac-based islands here and there, rather than massive mainstream deployment.

I never plan to sell any of my games. I just make games for pleasure and simply want to give people something well designed/drawn to play.