I'm getting MAC!

Wicked - someone is giving me their old MAC (g3) for free and will be sticking os x on there for me too.

So I'll be able to create max mac stuff now - yee-hah. Anything I need to know?

hahahahaha... ahhh, so innocent...

tell him gman

:)

--Mike

Lucky you, getting a free Mac.

That will be good for Boiled Sweets, now you can appeal to the Mac community :D

Yep, that is definietly a good thing to have!

For any of my Mac compilations, I need to find someone who has a Mac and persuade them to let me use it to run mysterious software.
Suffice it to say, it hasn't happened.

I'll happily test it

Mac's rock! Good luck with it!

Wouldn't that be two Macs now? Or can BlitzMax compile for both Intel and PowerPC on either one?

It's called a universal binary so the same app can run on either Intel or PPC architecture. You don't need both types of processors to compile it as a universal binary.

I know what it's called, but I've noticed a lot of people saying their most wanted feature in BMax was universal binaries, so I wondered why they wanted it, if it already had it.

EDIT: The most recent discussion I can find on universal binaries ( apart from this thread ) is three weeks old and has a bunch of people saying that BlitzMax does not have the ability but might in the future. Have I missed an update?

As far as I know Blitzmax at present cannot make universal binaries and you need to do a hack/workaround and have both macs.

This is unfortunate. I would very much like to have a powerpc mac, not one of the new ones. Mainly because of expense.

That sibly bloke's a cunning creature, and it would not suprise me if he managed to get blitzmax compiling universal binaries from one particular kind of mac.

Ok, thanks for the info. I wouldn't really mind if it was a PPC or Intel Mac I bought, but I wouldn't possibly have room for both, so I'll have to wait to see which one will be best for BMax if/when it can compile for both.

I am in the same situation. I do know with xcode and a powerpc mac, you can compile a universal binary for both. I am hoping that Blitzmax will do just this soon.

PowerPc macs are cheap as chips on ebay, and I'm going to pick one up as soon as hear blitzmax can do universal binaries.

If Blitz research had a donate button that sort of helped ease the passage of tricky code/general improvements like this, then I'm sure it'd get used.

Welcome to Mac Land :-)

I have a G3 machine too, it's plenty good enough for developing software, although the overall gfx/cpu speed is not enough for the final intended audience - not even any hardware acceleration here. But then I have the much faster G4 to use for real testing.

I kind of had the impression that Max is now on 4 separate platforms, Windows, Linux, Mac PPC and Mac Intel, and that you'd need to have that specific platform hardware in order to compile that particular binary on that machine. So your G3 is a PPC machine and can only create PPC binaries. Right?

Anyway, looking forward to seeing more Mac BlitzMax productions.

The only thing stopping me going mac right now is the universal binary thing. I don't want to invest without an answer from BRL.

"Anything I need to know?"
As it's a G3 there's a good chance you only have a CD drive, if so you may have been given OSX Tiger on CD, if you only have 4 disks you dont have the developer tools (xtools) which means BlitzMax wont compile. However you can download them from Apple by registering as a developer - expect at least 1 spam mail from Apple every week.

After you install anything on a Mac always repair drive permissions (Applications\Utilities\DiskUtility).

If you get lots of strange crashes and peculiar activity and you have fixed drive permissions you may have a font problem - run Microsoft Word to confirm this as it's hyper sensitive (it reports all fonts as faulty - but at least tells you where the problem is).

On the plus side there's a lot less malware on the Mac, although there are now a few viruses. Unfortunately all the virus checking software came out long before the viruses did (what where they checking for?).

If you edit text on a Mac and you are the kind of typist who often word skips left or right, I pitty you. It can still be done but the modifyer key is Alt (I think) and usually results in a miskey.

Dashboard will interfere with your work every time you press delete unless you move the hotkey to launch it. Once dashboard has been triggered you must wait for it to load and aimless whack the hotkey until it finaly goes again. As you are on a G3, this will be painful.

On the plus side, it doesn't have very much malware. Oh we covered that... ;)

I agree, this would be nice. Not only would it give BRL a small extra income stream, it would also give them a clear idea of people's priorities. People might say they really want all kinds of things, but when it comes to reaching for their wallet, they'll think twice, and pick the things they really need most.

Congratulations!

You'll need to learn how to connect your mac to your pc in order to swap files which is pretty easy from the mac side.

I dunno how fast your G3 actually is but i suspect you'll also bring some patience with you for opening larger files in blitzmax... ;O)

If the computer works nicely for you then you'll maybe face the problem how to find (mostly free?) software for common tasks (ftp client, sound editing, irc client, ... dunno what you usually do) which also exists on the osx so that you can do some work right there instead of everytime using the pc.

Actually this teached me to only buy software which a) exists on both platforms and b) you also get the licence for both, whenever it's possible.

Overall it's a pleasure to use but the finder is crap and depending on the ram of your machine (if <=512mb) i suggest turning spotlight off.

Malware is less but this will change in the future as the awarness of the mac platform is rising fast. I think it's only a matter of time till there also will be a antivirus software market for osx. Let's hope for the best.


Regards,

taumel

If *room* is all you're concerned about: Get an Intel MacMini and an PPC MacMini, and hook 'em up to the same keyboard/monitor/mouse using a KVM.

Still a ton smaller than your average PC is. Heck, get a bigger KVM and use both macs and your PC's with the same display.

I found switching the display pretty annoying after some time. I prefer having more than one screen otherwise you're always blind on one side...

Do stuff on computer A and move files into swap area.
*switch*
Get Files and do for example compile on computer B. Wanna change something.
*switch*
:

Many of the modern KVM's allow you to switch the display between both computers simply by hitting CTRL twice... You wouldn't even need to take your hands off the keyboard.

(Granted, the downside is that you can forget about old games that use the CTRL as a fire button. ;-)

Still doesn't work for me as:

a) The monitor maybe has to switch the resolution. (By the way does anyone know if this shortens the life of your monitor?)
b) I can't compare if something looks the same on both system - for example the gammafactor...
c) ctrl is already my mac-key... :O)
d) I can't use the systems parallel (work on A while watching an up/download on B).

I've just given up on KVM, it's a neat idea if you are really limited to space, but I'm not. I decided to purchase a new TFT, keyboard and mouse for the Mac - I don't like having a blind side either. Not forgetting that more screens makes me feel more important :)

*laughing*
Yeah in times with lcds this also won't burn your hair away! ;O)

e) I can't be logged on to Skype on both machines. I make and take all phone calls via Skype.
f) I like to compile from the central server, keeps the code in one neat place.

Indie showed me his ;-) the other day via Skype webcam. It's surprisingly small. If I get one, I'll have two screens for sure.

Console based or remotesoftware? If the second which one do you use?

I'm already accounting for it being a MacMini and it being attached to the current keyboard, monitor and mouse. I still don't have room for two of 'em.

Use the version control software Luke. That's what it's there for.

What did you think about the Mac Mini?

[/quote]

innocence lost... there's a lot, lot more that you'll come to discover 'Sweets...

i've owned Macs for a long time now... i used to have an original Macintosh Plus, the classic all in one box Mac... best one they ever made (should i say, most unique machine they ever made)...

i currently have 3 old quadras (not doing anything), a iMac G3, and a Mac Mini, the last two being the only ones still running on the local net here...

so far, the only 3D 'engines' i've found to have a high degree of cross platformability between the two are Torque (the scripts can just be copied over and run, same with the content), C4 (not really much experience with it), and BlitzMax (the demo releases only)...

i'm sure there are more, but these are the only ones i've had the pleasure of being abused by...

i like OSX (with a 2 button mouse that is)... i hate the way Apple can make your machine, OS, and worst of all, your compiler 'obsolete' with their next release...

you'll find out all about this as you become more intimate with your new mac...

enjoy...

--Mike

Do you know unity ( http://www.otee.dk/ )? Watch out for 1.5 coming soon! :O)

i considered unity... as far as i know, only the player will be cross platform, you won't be able to develop on a Windows PC... just playback stuff...

... or do i have that all wrong?

--Mike

Nope you're right. At the moment the IDE is osx only and from there you can distribute to:

win (standalone and webplayer(beta))
osx (standalone for ppc, x86, usb, webplayer and widgets)