Mac OS X Apps on Zaurus 29
An anonymous reader writes "Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller reports progress in the mySTEP project to run Mac OS X applications on the Sharp Zaurus. Though not yet ready for production, the newest release brings more maturity and features, and Dr. Schaller invites anyone interested in integrating mobile, low-cost, handheld computers with Mac OS X-based IT applications to contact the project. In particular, Dr. Schaller would like to locate someone interested in developing and contributing a new menu system (NSMenuView, NSMenuItemCell) to the project."
cocoa apps? (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally, I'd be more intrested on being able to run OS X apps on desktop intel linux than a pda
Re:cocoa apps? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:cocoa apps? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:cocoa apps? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, Cocoa is really just a newer release of OpenStep, so the guts of it aren't anything altogether new or super secret. Actually it looks like the Zaurus thing is mostly a port of GNUstep, so it's not even entirely new stuff.
You can sort of do that already [gnustep.org]. Obviously, you would want to avoid Mac-specific things in your program, but there should still be plenty of common ground.
Re:cocoa apps? (Score:3, Informative)
However, Cocoa is only one of the APIs running in MacOS X. Another quite important one is Carbon [apple.com], very popular among commercial developers, as it is a path of least resistance leading from MacOS 9 to MacOS X (even if it's actually a nasty kludge, not a piece of art like Cocoa). So
Re:cocoa apps? (Score:1)
Re:cocoa apps? (Score:4, Interesting)
Give the nature of the Photoshop, I would suspect it calls Core Graphics directly, maybe it uses the Mach API to handle memory paging (Photoshop traditionally did its own memory management). I highly doubt we will see a cocoa version of Photoshop before some time, as Photoshop build around the classic Mac OS toolbox since version 1.
Re:cocoa apps? (Score:2, Interesting)
Further digging indicates you are probably right - no cocoa yet for PS.
Still, and off on a tangent here, it looks like I'll need to keep my PS 7 handy after I upgrade, in order to use ColorSync settings in the print driver for my HP Photosmart printer. The latest HP drivers will, at long last marginally work under MacOS 10.2.8, but only HP's inferior Colorsmart option appears in the corresponding color popup menu in the driver, when running in other than OS 9 (I can choose either under OS 9).
Re:cocoa apps? (Score:2)
Actually it looks like the Zaurus thing is mostly a port of GNUstep, so it's not even entirely new stuff.
Ah, I am glad to hear that. I've seen the myStep project before, whilst browsing ZSI and such, and wondered why the hell they would start over again from scatch. Mostly though, I doubted the project would get far if they were doing that. Even if they're porting GNUstep, it seems that they w
Re:cocoa apps? (Score:1)
How about an OS X Sync solution!? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:How about an OS X Sync solution!? (Score:1)
PortabilityKit? (Score:1)
*sigh* (Score:5, Insightful)
This guy is taking the 'OpenSTEP' API set, which was opened up and published by NeXT, of which GNUStep is a legal implementation, and porting it (via GNUStep) to a handheld.
So that one can enjoy MacOS X applications on a handheld device.
Now, I'm not sure 'enjoy' is the right word, since on my 2304 x 870 screen setup (two 21" monitors) I still feel like I could use more desktop space for MacOS X. I cringe at the thought of a handheld running it. But at worst it's a solecism, not a ripping off of Apple. They published the APIs, someone else came along and made another implementation (with NeXT's blessing, if I recall correctly), and this guy is porting it to a handheld and updating it a little to be more compatible with MacOS X.
In summary: lighten up. You're sounding like the type that gives us Mac users a bad name.
-fred
Re:Afraid not... (Score:5, Insightful)
In what way? The System Preferences panel is not really in any way different than any one of a dozen implementations of preferences for a dozen other programs. There's nothing new there. Admittedly, if it looks identical to the Apple implementation, *IDENTICAL*, then it's a bit of a rip. But nothing too exciting.
2) Menu extras are Apple technologies.
Okay. What's a Menu Extra?
3) The Finder is an Apple technology.
This specifically doesn't run the finder, it runs something vaguely similar that he's putting together himself.
Unless what you really mean is 'anything called 'The Finder' is an Apple technology.' Or 'anything that looks kind of like the Apple Finder is a rip-off,' in which case basically every OS's GUI that is even vaguely usable today is a rip-off. I explicitly include some of the better Linux GUI work.
4) Cocoa (not OpenStep, but Cocoa) is an Apple technology.
Look, here's how you create a new window in Cocoa:
NSWindow *myWindow = [[NSWindow alloc] initWithContentRect myContentRectangle
styleMask:(NSTitledWindowMask | NSClosableWindowMask)
backing:NSBackingStoreBuffered
defer:NO];
(c.f. documentation here:)
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/
And here's how you create one in OpenStep:
NSWindow *myWindow = [[NSWindow alloc] initWithContentRect myContentRectangle
styleMask:(NSTitledWindowMask | NSClosableWindowMask)
backing:NSBackingStoreBuffered
defer:NO];
(c.f. documentation here:)
http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/802-2112/6i63m
Now, may I remind you that this is a WINDOW. In MacOS X, it's got colorful lickable widgets, it's displayed in Display PDF, it's got Quartz Extreme accelerating it (and is therefore drawn totally differently in some cases than in others.) In contrast, in Solaris OpenStep, it's displayed in X, and in Display Postscript in NeXTStep, its widgets look completely different, it has three different kinds of graphics implementations, it does different things when you click and drag in it, and just in general it behaves very differently than it does on the Mac. So this isn't some kind of 'really similar' special case. This is representative of the whole language.
Now, given that, I'm leaving you to guess how different Cocoa and NeXTStep/OpenStep actually are.
-fred
Re:Again... (Score:2)
He specifically mentions recompiling MacOS X applications for use with the palmtop. Don't work unless they are recompiled. So the ONLY thing at issue is Cocoa. You can't run native MacOS X applications on the handheld; different processor, and trust me, he's not doing processor emulation.
>
> to be compatible with Cocoa (which is not).
Let's distinguish the OpenStep
Re:*sigh* (Score:3, Informative)
OpenStep Solaris was maintained by Sun. NeXT handled the other versions.
If they can do this ... (Score:1)
Re:If they can do this ... (Score:1, Informative)
Cocoa applications are in most cases GUI apps as most of Cocoa's overhead is targeted for that direction. On Mac OS X, Cocoa interfac
Re:If they can do this ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Besides which, Carbon's sort of in transition. Old APIs being phased out (thankfully!) and new ones like CoreFoundation being used in their place. CF, I believe
Re:If they can do this ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Um, no, it's not. QuickTime for Windows is, and has always been, pretty much a lightweight but complete Mac OS Toolbox implementation, and Carbon is just a modernized Mac OS Toolbox. That's why iTunes for Windows was so damn easy to port - it's Carbon, and little more.
Writing an app that utilizes QuickTime is hardly different from wri
Re:If they can do this ... (Score:2)
Re:If they can do this ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure AppleSingle resources aren't a problem, whether or not they're in QT, given that we have some relatively short pure Python code that does them cross-platform, I'm sure Apple has some longer C code to do the same.
Re:If they can do this ... (Score:1)