Mac/Linux port discussion

[eric_admin]

I'm beginning to entertain the possibility of a Mac port. It would be a ton of work, and I haven't decided yet, but I thought I'd open up a thread to discuss it. There is currently a project underway to create a user-written open source Mac/Linux version of the propeller IDE tool (http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=298620). If that tool gets polished enough to compile the Coyote-1 code base, then a Mac version of Workbench would start to become a viable idea. I just got my first Mac (well, first in a long long time anyway) so now I have a platform to do some investigation on.

So there first question is, how many folks out there reading this own Macs, don't own a Coyote-1, and would buy one if a Mac version of the IDE and Workbench became available?

If anyone out there is accomplished in Mac application programming and embedded design and interested in contributing to a Mac Workbench port effort, let me know.

[Steve_b]

Hi Eric,

I run a Mac G5 (not intel based)....hopefully your port would be a universal binary so I could use it (at the moment it's hard to convince the wife I need another new toy -- new mac).
I've got a Coyote and although am not a programmer, I would be open to beta testing for you (although perhaps a coder would better be able to debug for you).

Now that the winter is setting in here (southern Ontario), I hope to get a chance to pull out the guitar and play a bit more.

Cheers

[howard]

I´ve considered buying a coyote for a while and would love to see a mac port(or linux, for that matter).


Howard

[eric_admin]

Yeah, a dual Linux/Mac version of Workbench would be ideal if I can find a good GUI tool chain that will support both.
I've used GLUT/GLUI before but I've found it to be pretty kludgey. I suppose it might do the trick in a pinch. I've used it for Win/Linux cross platform development, but I've never used it on a mac.

I suppose an ideal solution would be to have a common code base that supports Win/Mac/Linux. GLUT/GLUI could do that, but I'm not sure what other options are available. There may be better paths out there.

I disliked GLUT for multiple-window applications the last time I worked with it,because when you clicked the upper right "X" to close a window it closed the whole app. Livable I suppose, but annoying. Perhaps that behavior has changed since I last did development with it?

[Steve_b]

I'm no coder....but I'm guessing Perl or Python don't cut it? Python is certainly available on multiple platforms!

[eric_admin]

The Windows version of Workbench is coded in C#. Porting to from C# to C++ would be pretty straightforward, so that would be my preferred language for a cross-platform solution.

[eric_admin]

I had written off Mono the last time I looked at it, but now that I actually have a Mac to try it out on it looks like Mono might be a workable Linux/Mac path for Workbench. I was able to get the main GUI to appear in Mono on a Mac very briefly before it crashed. The OS X version of Mono doesn't support debugging (the Linux version apparently does), so I'm going to have to give it a try in Linux to track down the bug and see how well Mono handles the real time aspects of the GUI. Hopefully I can tweak the build to be Mono friendly and support Win/Mac/Linux with the same source.

[DavidRavenMoon]

I'm not a programmer, but from what I understand Apple has the XCode development platform that also allows cross platform compiling of the code.

I believe it's based on Objective C, since that was the programing language of NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP.

Java would be another option.

[paulcpederson]

I cannot begin to stress how important a port to other OS's is. It's a great tool, and because of its open source approach, many users will be linux enthusiasts. I myself run both linux and mac, but not windows.

Thanks for a great idea, and I hope to see a port soon!
P

[eric_admin]

I've been fighting with MonoDevelop but haven't yet gotten a successful install on Linux (Fedora 10). MonoDevelop under OsX doesn't support debugging, and I need the debugger to figure out why Mono is crashing on something in the current build. I think I'm going to give up on Fedora 10 and try to get MonoDevelop installed under some other Linux distribution to which it is a litle more friendly (like openSUSE, which they actually have install packages for).

I did try the XCode path, but porting to Objective C would be a huge effort and then when done would only run on a Mac (not Linux). The XCode tools support Java development, but again porting everything to Java would be a big effort. If I can get Mono working then all I need to do is tweak the current code base a little to make it Mono friendly and I'd be able to support Mac/Linux/Win with the same source (in C#).